We really need to change the choices for Ethnicity that volunteers can choose when they respond to a "Request Info" activity. I have done this for Employment status by changing the fields in the Administration page (Volunteer Custom Fields).
But when I looked at doing the same for Ethnicity I notice that the options are locked.
First question - why is this? Is it because Ethnicity is a field in the volunteer profile in Do-it? But I did a test and the Do-it Ethnicity is not passed to the VBC Ethnicity field, so I can't see a reason why they must be the same.
We want to reduce this option list because it really is too long with several ambiguous entries (ie people could say they were in more than one category)
I think the solution is as follows...
- Create a new field - eg Ethnic origin (Administration > Volunteer Custom Fields)
- Add options to the new field
- Add the new field into the Volunteer information form (Administration > Volunteer Information Form > Fields)
- Make the old Ethnicity field inactive (Administration > Volunteer Custom Fields)
- Remove the old Ethnicity field from the Volunteer information form (Administration > Volunteer Information Form > Fields)
Can anyone see any problems with this please?
On the Volunteer Information Form Fields all the existing fields have a record attached in brackets in the name (eg Ethnicity (Volunteer)). Is this required for some internal reason?
Anyone have any input in this? I would like to hear from anyone who has done this. Also VEDA if I have made any wrong assumptions.
Richard
I now realise that this is a non-starter. The reason being that if you add a new custom field it doesn't get exposed to the report writer, so you cannot select it for inclusion in statistics.
VEDA - is this correct?
Also VEDA - I notice now that once defined it is not possible to delete custom fields (only make them disabled) This is irritating. Is it possible for you to go in and delete for me please (Fields Ethnic origin and Test)
I am a bit frustrated by this because we really want to cut out some of the unnecessary fields in the Ethnicity table.
Hi Rich
If you make the custom field searchable then it should appear as a filter in the reports as well as column to select from.
Hi Parvez
Thanks for that - didn't spot it. I still have one issue. I created the field "Ethnic Origin" but made it a text field rather than Select field. It won't let me change that. Neither can I delete the field and start again.
What is the solution to that please?
Richard
Hi ParvezI had an idea and went in and changed the name of the new fields Ethnic Origin to test. Then created my new field, but although it was no longer listed under Volunteer Additional Details - Custom Fields it wouldn't let me create because it said Ethnic Origin already existed. Anyway I went on and changed the new field name to Ethnic background and created it fine.
However, I still now have a couple of fields in the list that I cannot delete (test and test1). Should I be able to delete them?