State Fair 2009 question 1
State Fair 2009 already???
Actually, we're working on some changes/improvements for next year's state fair while this year's issues are still fresh in our minds--some of us lose that memory quicker than others...
One thing I'd like to run past all of you is an idea that MIGHT make the database entry just a little easier. We had an awful lot of exhibitor letters returned for incorrect addresses this year, and we totally understand how easy it is to make those input errors. Maybe the input person was a summer aide, maybe you duped a record and forgot to change the town, maybe you have Becky's Flying Fingers disease... whatever.
Anyway, what do you think about having a field in the livestock entry database that would be called "4-H ID", which would be the young person's 5-digit ID from Blue Ribbon? I can set the database up on my end to include your county ID, which would make for a unique 8-digit ID for each kid, and can then set up a relationship to import the address information from the state BR database. You would be entering only the 5-digit ID and the kid's name (along with their entries). The reason I'd have you type in their name would be for error-checking. If the ID brings up Johnny Smith, and you think it was Susie Jones that entered that dairy goat, we'd have to figure out that the ID was entered in error.
The bottom line is that you would have to have a list of those ID numbers, write them at the top of the paper entry form, and enter them in the database. The benefit to you would be that you wouldn't have to type in the address, grade, gender, phone for the exhibitor. I will have to restructure my state livestock database, and double-check the names to make sure we have the right kid, but then I should have a little more accurate info about them.
Comment back to the blog--are the costs worth the benefits? You're the ones doing the database entry. Is this "do-able" from your perspective??




