Bio Update
Before you even think about opening registration (say, a year+ out) you may want to get up-to-date contact info for your constituents so you can effectively market to them in the many months leading up to a milestone reunion.
Bio updates makes this easier on you.
Features
tokenized link to access a prefilled form (OPTIONAL) to avoid forcing a login
On/off capture of submissions
On/off solicitation of volunteers
On/off planning to attend capture
On/off student activity capture (rarely employed)
On/off sending a confirmation email after submission
Custom blurb for the form itself (which should be self-explanatory, but some prefer to write it out)
locked to each master event so each submission is locked to a given master event
Configuration
Config is entirely under the Master Event.
If/when capture is activated: a link appears on the (public) event landing screen.
Recommendations
CLOSE bio updates before registration opens (don't want to create confusion)
Prerequisites
communicate with AlumnIQ that you intend to use this well ahead of time for your first go-round, as we'll need to activate a separate web service to provide prefill data
Personalization
Access to the form can be done up to four different ways:
anonymously - no prefill, no xid on the record
via tokenized link in email - ?token=THE_XID_FOR_THE_INDIVIDUAL will prefill the form (and xid) on the submission
via input of XID and last name - will accomplish the same as the tokenized link, but with more typing (recommend putting XID in the email, though!)
via login - if customer environment is configured for SSO, we'll prefill the form (and xid) on the submission
Most customers use the first two approaches as they're the most convenient. Really important to understand that by not putting this behind a login, you do put contact information a little close to the public sphere. While xids are typically sequential (and thus guessable), unless a corresponding last or maiden name is provided no access will be granted. Consult advancement services to determine their comfort level with this.
What is captured?
xid
xidLastModifiedDateTime
firstname
nickname
lastname
maidenname
prefclassyear
prefschool
majors
gender
pronouns
addressUnchanged (1/0)
street1
street2
street3
city
state
zip
foreigncityzip
nation
previousemailaddress
emailaddress
preferredphonenumber
preferredphonetype (home/mobile)
homephonenumber
mobilephonenumber
maritalstatus (single character)
spousedisplayname
spouseprefclassyear
spouseprefschool
spouseemailaddress
employer
title
occupation
activities
volunteer (1/0, I am willing to volunteer to fundraise/invite)
pta (1/0, I am planning to attend)
showPTA (1/0, I want my name published on the PTA list)
The process
alum is directed to the bio update form via email or from the event landing page
identity check is performed, and form is either presented blank or prefilled
alum fills out/corrects form contents and submits it
if the conf email is active, we send them a confirmation email
And then:
you review the bio updates report (Reports > Bio Updates) to complete any matching for those who submit unmatched
you download the list of updates and send to your bio team (slow) or your advancement services team hits the bio updates API resource daily to fetch the latest and greatest (fast) and hands it off to your bio team (or better yet, automates the import of the data into your system of record)
Reporting
Reports > Bio Updates
From there you can:
export the whole shebang to Excel
match submissions to XIDs
API resource: GET /api/bioupdates?mastereventid=XXX
Not currently filtered by date, as matching may not happen concurrent with submission.
Interaction with the Planning to Attend process
The bio form includes a planning to attend checkbox (optional). AlumnIQ merges this data with the PTA submissions to yield a single, unique PTA list -- hence the requirement for all that XID matching work. This makes it so that the alum doesn't have to fill out both forms to get their name in lights as likely to attend your reunion/homecoming event.
Synchronization with the AlumnIQ Platform
If you use the AlumnIQ Platform and our profile/directory services, you can enjoy the convenience of principal data movement from bio updates into the main platform profile updates feeds!
Home Contact Info
A detected difference in any of these fields between what is submitted and what's in the data warehouse:
address1
city
emailaddress
homephonenumber
mobilephonenumber
will result in these fields being updated in the platform's home address feed (available via /sync/address-change/home
):
xid
homestreet1
homestreet2
homestreet3
homestate
homestateiso
homecountry
homecountryiso
homephonenumber
mobilephonenumber
mobilephoneconsent
homeemailaddress
source - bioupdate
note: updating the email address via bio update will not alter the prefemailaddress used to log in to profile. Imagine the confusion that would cause! Also updating prefemailaddress via profile initiates the double confirm process to ensure continuity of control to the new email address. Because profiles expose personal contact information an abundance of care about access control is the minimum allowable standard.
Work Contact Info
A detected difference in any of these fields between what is submitted and what's in the data warehouse:
employer
job title
will result in these fields being updated in the platform's work address feed (available via /sync/address-change/work
):
xid
employer
jobTitle
source - bioupdate
Name Updates
Names are not currently compared and pushed. This is because altering a name requires certainty as to source. Because bio update is not exclusively behind a username/password that would vet authenticity of identity we do not want you to treat it as authoritative. Name updates can be performed via a normal platform profile update which is always accessed exclusively behind a login providing both certainty of identity and certainty of intent.
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