Parent-child with multiple parents + lookup table update

Hi all,

we are currently developing an application which should register savings
group members to their respective savings groups; where the savings group
is the parent and the member the child. we are interested to add data from
both sides and link cases with one another. in the process of that we are
experiencing 2 issues:

  1. Some of our members are participating in more than one savings group.
    However, as far as we can tell we can only define a singular relationship
    using parent_id. Is there a way to add another parent to that?

  2. Usually when we register groups and members this takes place at the same
    time. To avoid mistakes in having the members to write the name or
    parent_id (misspelling it would be fatal) we are using lookup tables to
    select from. the problem is that we have to update those manually. In turn
    we have the problem that if a new group is registered it won't show up
    until it has been updated and all members registered in the same session
    will not be able to select it from the list. So, is there a way to
    automatically include newly registered groups instantly into the list
    without having to update it manually? ideally, a way which would work even
    in offline.

Puh, I know this is a lot to ask but we are still very thankful for any
help.

warm regards,

robert