When I'm advising clients on data conversion (moving data from one system to another) my advice is always the same: "Convert as little data as possible."

There is one big exception to this rule: volunteer and award history. Almost all volunteer history (and certainly all award history) should be kept, essentially forever.

I've written extensively about how important volunteers are to associations and non-profits. So it's critically important to be sure we keep a history of volunteer activity because we should be treating all of our volunteers (current and past) like the gold they are. And I shouldn't have to explain why it's important to keep a record of awardees!

So when you're converting to a new system (or even cleaning up your existing system) make sure you're keeping that volunteer and award history!