Our next user group meeting will be on Wednesday, June 11 from 12:00-1:30. Please RSVP to let us know if you'll be attending. Please RSVP to seth at transcoalition dot org.

MEETING TOPIC: Hooray for user-generated topics! This month's topics are a follow up to questions raised at last month's meeting and a topic request from Jackie Pohl. (See, we weren't kidding when we asked for your feedback in last week's email.)

First, we'll look at formulas, and how they relate to donor fundraising. For example, what kind of formulas would you need to use to generate a LYBUNT report (donors who gave Last Year But Unfortunately Not This year)? We'll do a formula demo -- details to be announced soon.

Second, we'll look at workflows -- a way to help automate routine processes. For example, if every time you receive a new membership you send out an acknowledgment email, why not automate that process? We'll do a workflow demo -- more details coming soon.

As always, please come prepared for an interactive session. And if you have any questions right now about formulas or workflows, please email them to us now. We can't promise to know the answer, but it will increase the odds if we know the questions in advance.

LUNCH: A free lunch will be provided.

LOCATION: Earthjustice 8th floor conference room, 426 17th Street, in downtown Oakland. The location is two blocks from the 12th Street/City Center BART station and multiple AC Transit bus lines or one block from the 19th Street BART station.

Please RSVP to seth at transcoalition dot org.

New features in the Summer 08 release
We got a preview from Lindsey Anderson of some of the upcoming features in the Summer 08 release. These include public tagging, inline list editing, drag and drop columns in list views, multi day events, Visual Force, Salesforce.com for Google Apps (which has already been widely announced), and enhancements for mobile users. Salesforce lists these features, plus others, that are coming in Summer 08. Get more information on the Salesforce blog. Finally, Steve Andersen has a write up of the features from a nonprofit perspective.

Follow the NPSF group
The Nonprofit Salesforce group on Google is a good learning resource. If you're not an experienced Salesforce user you may want to lurk and just read the postings as many of the participants are consultants and higher-level users. Regardless, it's still a good source for following questions and answers.

Mass closing tasks
As mentioned at the meeting, here is a handy way to close a bunch of tasks at once using a list button. This code comes from Anand Sethupathy, based on previous work from Steve Andersen and Evan Callahan, courtesy of the NPSF group mentioned below. To use this button, create a view on Activity to show all relevant open tasks. Then create a Close Task list button to execute the Javascript below:

{!REQUIRESCRIPT("/soap/ajax/10.0/connection.js")}

var selected = {!GETRECORDIDS($ObjectType.Task)};

if (selected[0] == null) {
    alert("You must select at least one Task to run this function.")

} else {

   // Close all selected tasks
    for(i=0;i < selected.length;i++) {
        var t = new sforce.SObject("Task");
        t.id = selected[i];
        // Update task status to "Completed"
        t.Status = "Completed";
       // Run the Update on Tasks
       var result = sforce.connection.update([t]);

}

   // refresh the view
    window.location.reload();

Coming soon
Bryan Coddington offered to give us a reporting tip sheet. Look for it here in the near future.

 Our next user group meeting will be on Wednesday, May 14 from 12:00-1:30. Please RSVP to seth at transcoalition dot org so we'll know how much food to order.

 This is a particularly exciting meeting because we've got a special guest this month: Lindsey Anderson of the Salesforce Foundation! Our main topic this month will be reports. Are you having trouble reporting the data you want? finding it hard to update campaign data after you've done a mailing? or do you have other questions about reports in Salesforce? Lindsey can help! We're also hoping to have a preview of an exciting new feature coming in the Summer '08 release: public tagging of records; this will allow Salesforce users to search for whatever tags other users have applied -- a quick, easy, and informal way to categorize your records. Finally, Lindsey will be available to answer any Foundation-specific questions you might have, such as donations of Salesforce licenses. Please come prepared for an interactive session -- bring your tips and questions and we'll learn from each other.

 As usual, a free lunch will be provided.

LOCATION: Salesforce.com headquarters at 1 Market Street in San Francisco, near the Embarcadero BART/Muni station. Meet downstairs in the lobby in front of the Starbucks and we'll go upstairs together. Please meet promptly at 12:00 p.m., as it's easier to get in if we go together as a group.

If you arrive late and the group is no longer there, meet us upstairs in the Oahu Conference Room on the 4th Floor of the Landmark Building (there are two different towers). You will need to be escorted into the conference room.

Please RSVP to seth at transcoalition dot org so we'll know how much food to order.

Room to Read, an international non-profit with headquarters in San Francisco, is hiring a database manager to manage the development, implementation, and ongoing administration of its applications on the Salesforce.com platform. Download the job description. 

Here's a belated posting of some takeaways from our April user group meeting:

Mail Merges

• Single Document Mail Merge: To create a single mail merge document for one contact or lead, use the Mail Merge button in the Activity History section of a contact, lead, or opportunity.
• Extended Mail Merge: This is new functionality that was made available in limited release in Summer '07. You have to request that Salesforce activate it. You can use this bulk mail merge process to create form letters, bulk email, mailing labels, and other merged documents from your Salesforce data. This process assumes that Microsoft Outlook is the default email application used when performing bulk email merges. For more information, go to the Help section of your Salesforce org and search for Mail Merge Overview.
• Conga Merge: This is third-party software from AppExtremes. It is more powerful than built-in Salesforce functionality, allowing for merging data from multiple objects, such as contacts, accounts, and opportunities. AppExtremes will donate a couple of licenses to nonprofit organizations. See the AppExtremes website for more information about Conga Merge.
• Generate Mailing Labels: From an Account or Campaign, generate mailing labels, in various Avery formatted styles, for the related Contacts or Leads. The resulting Word document is saved either as an attachment or in the Document repository. Works with Standard or Non-Profit template. This is an S-Control button that is available as a private install from the AppExchange. Learn more and download it.

Some tips on user training
Attendees at the user group had a number of suggestions for effective user training:

• Do trainings in one-hour chunks. Any longer and you'll overwhelm and burn people out.
• Try separating your trainees into groups according to their tech savvy-ness.
• Ask questions of your users to see if they're understanding the material.
• Try giving them exercises to do prior to a subsequent training.
• The Salesforce online trainings can be useful -- the most relevant track for nonprofit users would be trainings for Sales Representatives.
• Bribe them with rewards: cookies!