Peekaboo, bonny, I see you!

Ginger, that is the worse. I hope your guts are back to behaving soon.

I was up at 7:30 on a day off, which doesn't sound that early but it is for me. I guess that's "sleeping in" when you have to be at work at 7 am usually.

Lots to do today: Cook All The Food, laundry, work, errands, Halloween costume prep. Anyone else want to play the productivity game with me? Ready set go!

I tried this question in 'Business' but no one but me has been there for the last 10 weeks.

I need some advice concerning contact management. I'm working to build my lists in preparation for both expanding my social world...I've been isolated too long...and to announce a new business thing I'm doing.

I have an old list of maybe 300 and a stack of new contacts (mostly pieces of paper) and want to combine everything into a usable form.

Up until now, I've used an excel spreadsheet and my Constant Contact account. The bad news is, when one is updated,the other is not. I've also got the big 3 social media accounts.

I don't currently use Outlook. Rather, Thunderbird on Mac.

Does anyone feel in control of their data?

Bonny - we use Constant Contact for the search and rescue team and it works great. Why do also keep an excel spreadsheet? Is that maintaining data you can't keep in Constant Contact?

Sorry, bonny, nothing to share on that front.

I heard this morning - I did not get the job. They said they liked me a lot and think I'd be a good fit with the company, just not this particular role. They are passing my resume to another group they feel would be a better fit. I'm not sure what they are looking for as I think I'm a perfect fit for their job description (hence their recruiter contacting me). I'm starting to understand why this position hasn't been filled after a year of being open...

Ah well. We'll see.

They are passing my resume to another group they feel would be a better fit.

Yay, maybe? But BOO to that team. Maybe they need to rewrite the job description.

Ginger, are you feeling any better?

Bonny, can you update Constant Contact, then export or save as a csv document?

(Not familiar with the software. Just putting out an idea)

Thanks for asking, WindSparrow. I should be doing better in a few days.

Suzi and oa, that may be what I need to do.

o-a, I can export into a csv or txt file fairly easily, but importing TO Constant Contact can be tedious.

It's just so frustrating and unwieldy.

Suzi, yes, I have more information about each contact on my excel spreadsheet, including address and phone.

Despite the fact that I have been with Constant Contact since before they even were Constant Contact, (Roving Communications, circa 1998) without incident, I just don't want to put people's personal details 'out there.'

One thing I don't like about CC is that the 'do not mail' list doesn't just go away. If people opt out, or I delete them, I'd rather they just disappear from the database. Instead, they stay captured as 'inactive'. It adds clutter to the system.

Anyway, I was hoping to find a way to integrate the various communication types so that I could have one list to rule them all.

I have a custom built Filemaker database that we did in house. It handles contacts, invoicing, inventory, rental booking, creating estimates, etc. Beyond that I keep my contacts in the Apple Addressbook which syncs across all of my iOS and Mac devices and is accessible by most of the aps on those devices. When I need to get at the contacts from another OS or a device that isn't mine I can do it through the iCloud website.

My email accounts are all on my own domains, but the backend is handled by Google Apps. Everything goes through IMAP using Apple Mail for the most part. I have a machine on my desktop that keeps mail open all the time and has a long list of automated filters that move mail into the appropriate folders most of the time. If needed I can get at all of those email accounts and folder directly through Gmail as well.

I use DYN.com to deal with rerouting a subdomain so that it tracks with my dynamic IP so that I can get to the Filemaker Database from offsite, and I use the Filemaker software on my iPads and iPhones. Certain sections of the database are also built so that they can be accessed from a standard web browser as well. This is being done so that in the long term my part time employees will be able to clock in and clock out through a website. Timecards are also handled through the database.

So yes, I do feel that I have a decent handle on the contact management, but there was a very large investment in time and organization to get it there, and it takes diligence to keep on top of it.