You are working for the Arizona Association of Educators, a professional association that has 1792 members and is preparing for a major membership drive in 6 months. The mission of the association is to support teachers in Arizona. This mission is supported by three goals:
- Advocate for members in the state legislature.
- Provide continuing education for members.
- Support both members and the community by matching requests for tutoring with teachers who are expert in those areas.
The association has only existed for 2 years, and, until now, has kept all of its records using Word and Excel. They have two full-time staff members who maintain the membership information, including any changes to membership status (professional, provisional, and student), changes in contact information, participation in association educational events, and participation on various boards and committees, in addition to creating various reports that are required. The association also maintains a tutoring referral service for its members, tracking the areas of expertise, age level, and charges.
Errors are common, and some are embarrassing. The association is expecting to more than double its membership during the membership drive, and realizes its current systems are not capable of meeting the needs of a larger organization. Therefore, the association has hired you, a Java/web development expert, to manage the update/redesign to its systems prior to the kickoff of the membership drive.
You immediately recognize the need for a database to store the membership, event, and volunteer data so that entering, updating, and reporting the data can be quick, accurate, and flexible. The board of the association has specified that any proposed solution must meet certain criteria and have assigned weights to those criteria.
