designing for "contacts"

[AB]

For those with design experience:

I am creating a "contacts" db and I'm having trouble
deciding whether to do separate tables for each kind of
contact (volunteers, teachers, donors, pastors, city
council, etc.) -- or to set things up this way:

tblContacts
ContactID FirstName etc.

tblContactType
ContactTypeID ContactType

tblRelationship
ContactID ContactTypeID
(Primary Key: Contact ID, Contact Type ID)

The reason for this set-up is that far too many of
the "contacts" fall into more than one category. So I
assumed that a many-to-many relationship was needed.
However, I'm having a hard time making this work on sub-
forms, etc.

Can anyone offer advice?

thanks

 

[John Vinson]

The reason for this set-up is that far too many of
the "contacts" fall into more than one category. So I
assumed that a many-to-many relationship was needed.

Excellent assumption, and by much the better way to do it.

However, I'm having a hard time making this work on sub-
forms, etc.

These problems are readily solved... if you'ld care to describe the
nature of the problem!