Just found an interesting post by Eric Lee suggesting that union organisers use the CRM (customer relationship management) tool Highrise:

Highrise is what one user calls a “Rolodex on steroids”. At its core is a contact manager. But it is also a task manager too, and an events calendar.

It’s also completely free of charge, if you choose the simplest option. Otherwise, you pay a small monthly fee.

Because it’s web-based, you don’t need to be on your own computer to use it. Any Internet-connected device will do. Groups of individuals can share the same Highrise account, each one maintaining the information and updating it.

Highrise has a tremendous number of useful features, including the ability to add notes and entire documents to each of your contacts. Because of this, when you phone someone, you can have their details, notes about them, a record of what you previously discussed and much more in front of you on a single screen.

You can tag your contacts in an infinite number of ways, and sort and display them as you wish. You can export your data, or any part of it, to a spreadsheet.

The possibilities for trade union organisers should be obvious.

I have had quite a lot of experience with the often haphazard record keeping for unions. It sometimes seems that I often disagree with Eric Lee, but this is an instance that I completely agree.

If there are any unions using Highrise or a CRM, I’d be interested in hearing about it.