newbie looking for advice

[jrich4411]

Good evening people.  As the title states, I am a complete newbie to FileMaker Pro.  I've done some fairly extensive work with Excel, but this is my first experience with databases.

For now, I'm looking for advice and suggestions.  I promise I will have plenty of "how do I... " questions later, but for now I need to pick a direction to go in with my new project.  I've spent a bunch of hours viewing Intro to FileMaker tutorials on YouTube and I've experimented with creating a couple test databases.  If this is not the correct forum for this question, please let me know.

So, my wife and daughter are heavily involved with riding horses.  I've been drafted into being on the Board of Directors for our state Quarter Horse Association (Quarter Horse is a breed like Thoroughbred or Clydesdale).   The first thing I discovered is that they have NO association membership database of any sort.   What they do have is simply a file folder of applications for members, one folder for each year.  Me being an I.T. geek by trade, I know there is a better way.  I've at least entered the info into a spreadsheet (my specialty) so we have the info electronically to be able to reference current membership status during our shows.

I wish to create a database for the membership, which I've done so far.  It has basic info - name, address, etc.  I have an ID field that automatically increments with each record - seems to be a strong recommendation in the tutorials I watched.  I have a field that combines the first & last name fields which I plan on using for looking up membership info, sending renewals, etc later.  I also have a membership year field and here comes my first question.  When I renew a member for the new year, I want to keep the previous year's record in the database - should I ever want to print a report for 2016 membership in 2019 for instance, I can.  So I figure I need a static member ID field that is separate from the record ID field I already have that can be linked to another database which will hold that member's horse information.   Is it possible to have a field that will increment serially when I add a new member but will copy from the previous year's info when I renew a member for a new year?  

I'm looking for any and all suggestions - links to videos that might help - suggestions for a better way of accomplishing my goal, anything at all.   I'm not a programmer so I don't have that background FYI.

Thanks!

 

Jon

[comment]

53 minutes ago, jrich4411 said:

When I renew a member for the new year, I want to keep the previous year's record in the database

I would suggest you use a separate table to record the renewals (including the original year). There is no need to copy anything. Use the Members table for the data that remains constant (name, address, etc.) and the Memberships table (for lack of better name) for data that is specific to the year. Relate the two tables by MemberID field.

 

[Lee Smith]

There are a lot of sites that you can find resources that will help in your learning curve.

1 hour ago, jrich4411 said:

I'm looking for any and all suggestions - links to videos that might help

Here is a parcel list of sites.

https://www.youtube.com

Youtube has a lot of how to videos, once there, enter FileMaker in the search box, and you will see a list.

https://community.filemaker.com/docs/DOC-5439

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=FileMaker+Training+Videos

Database Pros

FileMaker Magazine

Seed Code

or

Lynda.com

Skeleton Key

 

[jrich4411]

Thank you for the suggestion to keep the membership years in a separate table - I will start experimenting with that.

Lee - great resources!

[ggt667]

There are also some videos on Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/search?q=filemaker

Edited June 7, 2017 by ggt667