multiple email addresses per person

[s4069b]

Is this something which others tackle as well?

As part of our 'safe ministry with children' practices - we do not initiate communication with children unless a parent has consented to emails (or sms). And when we do - we cc the parent in on our communication.

This means, working with Jethro Reports and Roster Groups... becomes more complicated. Eg when a teen is helping with Sunday School or music or...? One 'work-around' is to add a custom field to person records to include a second (parent) email.

BUT if the regular person email field could include two or more comma separated email addresses... life would be so much more simple (maybe).

Are there any other situations where it would be handy to have multiple email addresses per person?

Is this something worth considering?

[tim-pearce]

The way I organise this for our youth ministries is:-
I have a custom field for family status (Parent, Guardian etc. and child).
Then I have two groups for each ministry eg Playgroup_leaders and Playgroup_2024 (new registration form each year to make sure information is current).
Status within say Playgroup_2024 can be:-
Registered - we have received a form
Unregistered - they attend but we don't have a form (unlikely for play group be happens for older youth groups)
Inactive - was registered
Current - parent or guardian
Unofficial - parent or guardian of an Unregistered child
So to send SMS or email the parents I select say Playgroup_2024 with status Current or Unofficial

I haven't had to communicate with 'minors' by email or SMS. I would imagine that to be rare enough to just remember who they are.

[s4069b]

Thanks for those ideas. That's helpful.

[tbar0970]

I can see how allowing several comma-separated email addresses would help here. A fairly simple change.

[jefft]

Multiple emails per person sounds like a bad idea to me, especially if done as a hack (comma-separated into _person.email).

All code or SQL that assumes _person.email is one email will break, including roster_reminder.php.

What does having more than one email even mean? Should both addresses work in the members portal? Should both be emailed in the Email All roster links? If we ever implement password reset, will both addresses be emailed?

Even for the original use-case, comma-separated emails seems a poor solution. How will staff know that the second email in the list (or was it the first?) is the 'parent' email?

[tbar0970]

You're right that it could lead to problems with member login.

[tbar0970]

The logic would have been "whenever you email this person, email both these addresses". So [email protected] and [email protected] would get all emails sent to the young person.

To avoid creating problems for member login, perhaps a "always CC the following address when contacting this person" field would be better. More complex though.

[tbar0970]

From the OP:

One 'work-around' is to add a custom field to person records to include a second (parent) email.

but for the purpose of rosters, sending out run sheets etc, Jethro doesn't know to use this field. So it requires quite a lot of manual remembering.