Answers.Body: <p>Suggest you consider using Activities since these offer greater flexibility imo.</p>
  
  <p>Cases could also be considered with each plot of land representing a Case.</p>
  
  <p>Either ways you end up with an annual Activity for "Plot Condition" etc etc </p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2020-04-10T21:37:38.837Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2020-04-10T21:37:38.837Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: petednz - fuzion
Body: <p>Civi 5.15.1, WP 5.3.2</p>
  
  <p>My organization provides low-cost farm plots to farmers. We use Civi purely back-end (no website exposure). Each farmer can have multiple plots, which we have implemented in Civi as multiple separate "Farm Plot" Memberships. Farmers usually keep the same plots year after year, so when we renew each Membership, the "Assigned Plot Number" field carries over, which is exactly what we need for that field.</p>
  
  <p>However, we also need to record whether each farmer cleaned up each of their plots at year's end ("Plot Condition"), and we need to keep that information tied to that specific period/plot/farmer. When we renew the Membership, last year's value will carry over to the new year, which is NOT what we want for this field.</p>
  
  <p>We considered switching how we handle Farm Plots from Memberships to Contributions (b/c they're already time-specific). But the plot assignments happen well before plot payments come in, which happens well before we assess Plot Condition. So we'd have to log the Contribution at the start of the year so the plot# is there (no more easy renewal carry-over from last year), set Contribution Status to Pending until we receive payment, and edit the record again at year's end to add Plot Condition. Yuck.</p>
  
  <p>Could anyone suggest any alternatives (other than using Notes)? Many thanks!</p>
  
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2020-03-22T00:34:06.957Z
Comments.Text: I would consider doing this using Activities and possibly Cases. Each plot of land is a Case. Then you have an annual Activity for "Plot Condition" etc etc
Comments.UserDisplayName: petednz - fuzion
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2020-04-09T20:55:51.653Z
Comments.Text: CiviCase is probably overbuilt for our needs, but Activities is a great idea—thanks @petednz-fuzion! More generally, though, is there a good way to handle year-specific fields that aren't tied to activities/events/contributions/memberships, for example whether a farmer is interested in selling at a particular market this year? That's another datum we need to track longitudinally, but doesn't seem to fit well in the other Civi components we have enabled. (Maybe I need to post this as a new question—I shouldn't have restricted my question with such a specific example...)
Comments.UserDisplayName: John Mark
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2020-04-10T21:38:20.647Z
Comments.Text: ok. added as an Answer since that is what SE expects.
Comments.UserDisplayName: petednz - fuzion
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2020-04-10T21:38:55.333Z
Comments.Text: not sure why 'farmer is interested in selling' could not also be an Activity
Comments.UserDisplayName: petednz - fuzion
Tags: <civimember><custom-fields>
Title: how to keep previous values of custom Membership fields upon renewal
ThreadText: # how to keep previous values of custom Membership fields upon renewal
  
  (Asked by: username_0 on 2020-03-20)
  
  Civi 5.15.1, WP 5.3.2
  
  My organization provides low-cost farm plots to farmers. We use Civi purely back-end (no website exposure). Each farmer can have multiple plots, which we have implemented in Civi as multiple separate "Farm Plot" Memberships. Farmers usually keep the same plots year after year, so when we renew each Membership, the "Assigned Plot Number" field carries over, which is exactly what we need for that field.
  
  However, we also need to record whether each farmer cleaned up each of their plots at year's end ("Plot Condition"), and we need to keep that information tied to that specific period/plot/farmer. When we renew the Membership, last year's value will carry over to the new year, which is NOT what we want for this field.
  
  We considered switching how we handle Farm Plots from Memberships to Contributions (b/c they're already time-specific). But the plot assignments happen well before plot payments come in, which happens well before we assess Plot Condition. So we'd have to log the Contribution at the start of the year so the plot# is there (no more easy renewal carry-over from last year), set Contribution Status to Pending until we receive payment, and edit the record again at year's end to add Plot Condition. Yuck.
  
  Could anyone suggest any alternatives (other than using Notes)? Many thanks!
  
  **Tags:** civimember, custom-fields
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_1**: I would consider doing this using Activities and possibly Cases. Each plot of land is a Case. Then you have an annual Activity for "Plot Condition" etc etc  
  > **username_0**: CiviCase is probably overbuilt for our needs, but Activities is a great idea—thanks @petednz-fuzion! More generally, though, is there a good way to handle year-specific fields that aren't tied to activities/events/contributions/memberships, for example whether a farmer is interested in selling at a particular market this year? That's another datum we need to track longitudinally, but doesn't seem to fit well in the other Civi components we have enabled. (Maybe I need to post this as a new question—I shouldn't have restricted my question with such a specific example...)  
  > **username_1**: ok. added as an Answer since that is what SE expects.  
  > **username_1**: not sure why 'farmer is interested in selling' could not also be an Activity  
  
  ---
  
  ## 1 answers
  
  ### Answer by username_1 on 2020-04-10. Score: 2 | Accepted answer
  
  Suggest you consider using Activities since these offer greater flexibility imo.
  
  Cases could also be considered with each plot of land representing a Case.
  
  Either ways you end up with an annual Activity for "Plot Condition" etc etc
  
  
  ---
  
  