+ my $parser = new DateTime::Format::Strptime( pattern => "%m/%d/%Y",
+ time_zone => 'floating',
+ );
+ my $dt = $parser->parse_datetime( $hash->{'effdate'} );
+ return "Can't parse effdate ". $hash->{'effdate'}. ': '. $parser->errstr
+ unless $dt;
+ $hash->{'effdate'} = $dt->epoch;
+