PRODUCT REVIEW

PROGRAM: PRO DEV Member

FORMAT: PC Compatible

COST: Shareware

This is a membership program to make the job of keeping the church records easier. It requires a PC compatible with 512k RAM, hard disk and printer. It can be used without the printer but that does limit it's application. Also, it can be run on the Archimedes under the PC Emulator, as that is the system on which I reviewed it.

Membership details can range from the barest minimum of names and addresses, to details of which aspects of church life the members are involved in, the area in which they live, covenanted giving records etc., details of which can be seen from the accompanying screenshot of the new member entry form. The zone is an arbitary area around the church or could be used to indicate which fellowship they belong to if you cover more that one church. Although that county fiels appears to have only 2 characters, it does scroll on this screen and print out in full. The 2 character restriction arises due to the fact that it is an American program and therefore designed around the state abbreviations.

However, the data held is only the smallest part of what this program is capable of. It is possible to print lables based on membership of certain groups and can therefore be used for mail shots. It is also possible to print rotary file cards, if you keep a copy of your information in such a format. information is also able to be kept and reported on on attendance and on the covenanted giving, which does have to be accurately recorded for the benefit of the Inland Revenue. The giving data is protected by password, as is the deletion of files.

Another couple of useful features are the pop up calender and calculator. In fact, the calculator can directly import information from data fields for calculation.

In all, I feel that this is a very comprehensive program, which I have only been able to touch on in this review and that if it sounds as though it would meet your needs, it would be worth considering. If you are going to use it, you may need to register under the Data Protection Act, if you are not already registered, due to the nature of the data held and the processing that can be done on it.

Oh yes, finally, it costs $25 to register the program, plus $10 postage etc from outside the USA, but you can use credit cards which saves paying large amounts of commission to the banks for an International Money Order.

Screenshots (9k approx)