Knowledgebase

StarChapter's Import Manager provides a way for bulk member and non-member data to be pulled into the system. This may be a regular process for chapters that receive member rosters from a parent organization or an occasional task for chapters that need to import a list of non-member contacts. Regardless of the frequency and need, formatting the spreadsheet correctly will result in a more successful import. The following recommendations provide general information about commonly used data types and fields. If you are uncertain about other fields, please reach out to our Support Team for more targeted guidance.

Data Provided by a National Organization

• When member data is provided by a National organization, the spreadsheet should be modified as little as possible before import. The more consistent the spreadsheet and data formatting are, the more efficient the imports will be. The import map saves a list of matches between the spreadsheet headers and the fields within the member profile. If those headers are consistent between imports, no changes will be needed to the import map.

• Exceptions to the previous advice may include the items listed below.

Member IDs

• Member IDs should be inherited from a parent organization, when possible. This ensure consistency over the course of the membership term.

• Member IDs are only required for Member imports. 

• If leading zeros are included, be certain that they are used within StarChapter before the import is completed. If the presence of leading zeros isn't consistent, this will cause an issue with the integrity of member profiles. They will be deleted and readded anytime the ID is different. Typically, formatting the ID field as a "text" field within your Spreadsheet will keep the zeros while using a number field will omit them. 

Addresses

• Address fields must be separated prior to import. StarChapter has built-in fields for Address, Address line 2, City, State/Province, and Zip Code/Postal Code.

States and Provinces

• States and Canadian Provinces should be formatted to their 2-character abbreviation.

Dates

• All dates should be configured to MM/DD/YYYY (US Style).

• The import will work with MM/DD/YY as well, but switching the month and date to use European formatting will result in errors.

Groups/Subgroups

• Each group must have a dedicated column on the spreadsheet.

• Within each group column, note the exact name of the subgroup the individual should be assigned to. Leaving a cell blank in that column will result in no group assignment for that person.

• If a subgroup doesn't exist to match an incoming subgroup assignment, that subgroup will be automatically created.

• More specific guidance for group imports can be found in this article.