Virtual Enrollment Party

Mike is about to send out an email to the 15 or so CYC who had a temporary loss of sensibility and signed up that they might be interested in helping us at the State Fair. We have a plan, and it involves including lots more of our EXCELLENT county staff (I prefer "rowdy friends" but that's just me) in our little 2-week adventure. Just to pique your interest, here's an article that Lynette Cline wrote after helping me last year. (In my own defense, I do have a somewhat more deliberate training plan this year--last year's was the Famous Extension Training known as "Here Ya Go".)

From Lynette (THANK YOU!!)
Nothing was more aptly put than this year’s State Fair Theme, “You Gotta Love It!” When my co-workers asked me how I liked working at State Fair (and seemed a bit shocked that I volunteered), this theme was the obvious reply.

It’s for the love of Iowa, 4-H, and agriculture (all of which I am a veteran) that we are willing to endure some rather uncomfortable and yes, smelly days among the livestock barns. The chairs were hard, breaks were erratic, the rain wet, and pigs created an obstacle course wherever you walked.

The learning curve was, well, pretty doggone tight. Matt Wenger was the poor soul who had to indoctrinate me. “Here, click this, this, and enter that. Now go.” I was sure that on the nightly news there’d be a story of a big mushroom cloud over Des Moines because I pushed the wrong button. On my third day Becky said, “I’m going to put the two of you in the sheep barn tomorrow. No, I think I’ll split you up, you two know what you’re doing.” What? No…wait, I’m an idiot! Are you sure you want to do that?

But because I was with awesome, patient, and dedicated livestock workers (thanks, Matt), we did not have core meltdown. The benefits are great! (Wear your ISUE nametag). You will get a gate pass, free parking and meals which help defray your costs. But the biggest benefit is to facilitate the opportunity for each 4-H livestock exhibitor to experience the Iowa State Fair. I wouldn’t trade watching those beaming faces for anything! Thanks, Becky, for the opportunity. You’re a gem.

Posted by Becky at 10:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Andrea Traeger posted a comment, dreaming about what a web-based system could do... expanding the horizons of just data entry. It's pretty interesting, and I decided it deserved a public response, because some of you may be thinking some of the same things. My response is going to sound like I'm raining on a parade, but that's not true. In part because of the reorganization, we're taking a closer look at our processes, looking for places to streamline and automate. We're certainly looking at how technology can help us with our work. However, although much of the technology exists for accomplishing many of these tasks, it's not cheap. And presently, there's nothing that would accomplish ALL of our data management needs, although some come pretty close. So, here are some of my thoughts from when I did the research on web-based enrolllment. Bear in mind that most of the things in Andrea's email will happen someday, and we'll probably not even remember when it wasn't that way!!

Most everything in the list can happen at some point in the future -- FOR A COST. There's no free lunch with these web-based products--for example, moving to an on-line entry system costs a sizable upfront investment, then an on-going fee of $2 per registration (for fairs, for conferences, for anything). We either have to add that to a participant fee (we're going to charge kids to apply for scholarships & awards???) or find a way to cough it up ourselves. For state conference, that's $2000. For State Fair, it's going to be over $10,000, which is not chump change!!

The fee payment thing is tough, because some counties pay 4-H fees, some counties have kids pay it, some have donors or clubs, some charge more than $20, and some split fees. And those are just the ones I know about! Add into that the fact that ISU doesn't let us all collect money over the internet--the 4-H Foundation can because they're not really ISU. Even if we overcome that hurdle, credit cards are also not free. The recipient of the money pays a fee for the "convenience" of using credit cards--usually in the range of 1-2% of the sale. Somebody has to come up with that money as well...

Another concern for us is preserving the link between counties and youth/parents/volunteers. Even when young people can enroll on-line, it's going to require a county person to go in and "approve" that enrollment before it becomes active. As far as volunteer background checks, the DCIA requires us to have a "real" signature on forms that give us permission to perform those, not a digital signature. Our feeling is that with new volunteers, we'd certainly like them to have been to the county office to visit about opportunities, and then fill out those forms, etc.

FSQA will continue to plague us, not because we're so in love with the database, but because of some of our commodity group partners. The "age" thing will always be an issue!! I'd like to find a way to integrate that into the enrollment process, however. It won't be right away, but it'll be a goal.

For the short term, the enrollment system would do everything that Blue Ribbon does, which is considerable, truthfully. It will do some things better, a few maybe not so quite well, some differently, and will do some new things as well. The one I'm looking at is more "customizable"--meaning that I can set it up to record those vol. trainings in a more logical way, and counties can also customize what they want to record (beyond the four checkboxes in BR). Features will be integrated as they become available and affordable.

I guess my main deal is going to be getting a replacement system on the ground and running... then we'll play with new stuff!! Job security is a valuable commodity in these economic times...

Posted by Becky at 01:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Good thing I mentioned that there is lots more that I think, or think I know, than what I really KNOW. But, thanks to you, now I KNOW something new.

I did not know that Cougar Mountain was totally web-based. When I got the tidbit about the internet changing, I was reassured that since Cougar Mountain has to continue to exist, so that's the same as Blue Ribbon. Not necessarily.

HOWEVER, with a dandy little program named VPN, available thru ISU, you CAN access any of the ISUE servers from any computer. That's how I do it at home. I can see/access the S drive, the X drive, and the web server. Speed is dependent on your internet provider speed. That will be one option for continuing Blue Ribbon on the X drive, unless there's something else in the works that I'm not privy to.

Sue reminded me that the counties were also offered the option of having a "local server", meaning a shared drive located in your office, presumably not connected to ISU. That would be another option for relocating your own Blue Ribbon data, but it still means you have to send backups. Should speed up the access time, will allow multiple users, but doesn't give me access like I have now.

The big deal will be switching to a new program, which will be totally web-based, meaning that you can use it from anywhere. That access is even more important now than it was in the beginning of the search.

Jill was the first one to volunteer to try whatever new system we get, which I think is admirable, but cause for concern about her mental stability... nonetheless, it's in ink, Jill. No backing out now. I still just have to find the money!!

Keep responding. Some comments I'll post, and others, like this one, I'll just answer as a batch with a new posting.

Posted by Becky at 11:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

I have a bunch of things I've been MEANING to blog about, and haven't necessarily got "a round tuit" but now's a good time. This entry is going to combine info about what happened to the servers last week, and what MIGHT be happening in the reorganization that will affect Blue Ribbon. Hot topics, eh?

First, the easier one--last week. Apparently a router in Durham that controls off-campus access to Extension servers (like the X drive) went down, and it was probably brief, because Darin hadn't gotten any notice about it when I sent him a message saying that I had three--no, four--no, wait, seven--counties with the same issue, which seemed to indicate that it wasn't a coincidence. Anyway, the short version is that anyone who was working in Blue Ribbon when that happened had problems. If Blue Ribbon was not running, no problems. So, if you're having issues with Blue Ribbon that include "search table not active", just back out of the program, send me an email and I'll fix it for you. Takes less than 5 minutes, and is easier/faster to do than to send instructions to you!!

Well, time to talk about the Elephant in the Room. What's going to happen with Blue Ribbon when/if county offices contract for internet service with a local provider instead of using the T-1 we currently have? I'll tell you what I know (not much), what I think (some of it) and what I think I know (subject to change). My understanding right now is that you will still have access to the Cougar Mountain server, which SHOULD mean that you could also still access the X (Blue Ribbon) drive. This all falls under the category of "what I think I know".

What I KNOW is that T-1 service is darn fast, and easy to get used to. There may not be a local provider in your community who can give you service at that same level. Some may be at DSL speed, hopefully not dial-up. Don't ask me to expand a lot on that. I'm stretching my technical limits just typing those words. I have DSL at home, and I can use Blue Ribbon with server data. I'm spoiled because I think we have faster than T-1 speed on campus, so it seems slow for me at home. It's pretty acceptable once the program is up and running, but I do notice a speed difference. I'm not sure how different it will be than your current office speed, but it could be.

So, let's play "What if". What if you contract with a local internet company and it's INCREDIBLY slow--so much that running Blue Ribbon is a burdensome task? We'll fix it. We'll have to move the Data folder back to your C: drive and you'll have to go back to sending me backups, probably on a monthly schedule. What if I'm wrong about the Cougar Mountain & Blue Ribbon servers, and they're not accessible to county offices any more? Same answer, on a larger and faster scale.

The larger question is what are we going to do over the long-term, not patching this up to get by? I need to rustle up some more money and get serious about moving to a web-based platform, faster than I thought I had to. Given the new sense of urgency, I probably only have one option, since it's "done" and more importantly, "I could sell that in Iowa". Whenever I saw one of these potentials, I had to consider if there were deal-breakers, and I did it with the words, "I can't sell that in Iowa... it would have to be fixed." One company listened closely and fixed everything I found, so I'm going to have to visit more seriously with them!!

There are lots of budget issues still working themselves out, but Chuck and I have visited briefly about moving this up the priority list. We have SOME of the money we need (from your Blue Ribbon support fees), but have to find some more. That's why I can't give you a definite date or even more details. There are negotiations waiting to happen. As things start to shake out, however, I'll update you on progress through this blog. I'll be looking for victims, but we won't be the first state to transition, so it might not be as painful as it could be!!

I'm being as open with you as I can be at this point. If you have questions I've not addressed, post them to the blog. I'm hesitant to do too much "guessing" but if I KNOW something, I'll share that. You can also email me if you have concerns that you don't want to share on the blog. Basically, the short version of the story is that we'll make it work. I'm not quite sure HOW yet, but I AM sure we'll come up with something. And I'm also sure that YOU are the most important consideration in that plan. What works best for me is never as important as what works best for you. There's only one of me, and I can make ...whatever... work.

Posted by Becky at 10:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Well, here's your opportunity to help decide what we should do about Blue Ribbon... should we update to version 2.6 so that it's compatible with Vista, or stay a bit longer on version 2.5 (which isn't)?

There are counties out there that have upgraded their office computers to Vista, and have left a "Blue Ribbon computer" set up somewhere, just so they can use it for that... and there are more and more counties who may be upgrading their machines. Is that a workable solution, or should we bite the bullet and change?

With the current economic challenges, I can't guarantee that we'll be changing to anything next fall, so that means this discussion has to be re-opened. I was pretty comfortable when I thought that in a year everyone would be transitioned to a new platform, one that was compatible with all computers. But now that there's a question about whether we can make that happen in that time frame, we need to revisit the plan.

There are still issues with version 2.6, although some things have been fixed. Keep the following things in mind as you respond to the blog:

• If we DO upgrade to 2.6, it's every county, every computer during the same time frame. There's no opt-outs.


• There is a possibility of corrupted data during the upgrade (we'll have backups of your original data, so should be able to mitigate that, although it'll be annoying and messy)


• The grade & years in 4-H do not increment on the re-enrollment forms


• Older printers don't work very well, and the mailing labels are sometimes unpredictable


• There were serious problems with the export process, though I have not figured out whether those were corrected or not.


• Print Data files (Lit By Project) is not working right at all


• ES237 duplicates may not be calculating correctly, and the ES237 report may be terminally unbalanced whether you have the data correct or not.


• We have terminated our Martech support contract, so will not be receiving further updates and/or support from the company. We're on our own with this.

I don't mean to sound totally negative, but wanted to be brutally honest with you about what we're trading for what. Let's hear some input from counties that have left a Blue Ribbon computer, as well as the rest of you. What do you see as a sustainable solution for the next 18-24 months? At some point, we will change systems--we just have to be careful stewards of our financial resources at this point, and that likely means postponing this purchase.

THANKS for responding to the blog!!

Posted by Becky at 03:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (23) | TrackBacks (0)

Well, once again we have new postal regulations in terms of bulk mailings. You're not going to be able to use the standard Blue Ribbon mailing labels if you want to use bulk mail rates.

THANKS to Mary Kay Litzel, Steph Erpelding, and Anjanette Treadway, there's now a new document on the Blue Ribbon Helpsheets webpage that will help you get information OUT of Blue Ribbon, INTO Excel, and then ONTO labels, either using Microsoft Word 2003 or 2007, or Filemaker Pro. The directions for Word are noticeably more complete than Filemaker, but my latest "beginner" Filemaker manual has complete instructions for creating a labels layout within that program if you need more info.

The short version of the story is that when using bulk mail, you now either have to include "Return Service Requested" under your RETURN address (and pay for those returns) or include "Or Current Resident" in the address. It's that second option that won't work with the Blue Ribbon mailing labels setup.

Again, thanks to Mary Kay, Steph, and Anjanette for their help with this project. The resulting document is a whopper for a HelpSheet--6 pages--and much of its content (and helpfulness) comes from those 3 people. I'm definitely not a mail OR mail-merge guru, and I really appreciate them sharing their time and knowledge!!

Posted by Becky at 01:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

I know that not all of you use scripts that import data from another file, so if you don’t, this is going to be useless info. But if you DO, keep reading in the spirit of “It’s less painful to learn from someone ELSE’S mistake.”

When you set up an import script, you match up the fields in the order in which they should match up for the import. The annoying part for me has always been that I couldn’t “re-order” the fields on the left side of the import screen—the ones from the “sending” database. They always seemed to be in some sort of random order, not alpha.

Today I learned that the order is not at all random. It’s specifically in the order in which the fields were originally created.

So, what happens when you DELETE a field (most painfully an early-created one) from that source database? Well, sports fans, all your import scripts that depend on that database have their import order changed. The left side of the import screen changes order, shifting up to remove the space taken by the deleted field. The RIGHT side (receiving database) fields DO NOT change, meaning that they no longer match up where they used to. An “imaginary” example would have the HorseTotal going into the Grade field. Badbadbad.

And even worseworseworse, once that original field was deleted, it doesn’t do any good to go back and put it back in. Since it’s now been the LAST created field, it’s just going to plop itself at the bottom of the import list. So the only solution is to go through every script that includes an import step and manually reorder the import order.

The better solution would have been to RENAME the no-longer-necessary field, rather than deleting it. I did not learn this by reading a book or thinking logically through this, but through bitter experience (probably the best way to remember at my age). If I had it to do over, all my unnecessary fields would have been renamed to ZZoldWhateverTheyWere so that they could be easily identified as no longer necessary, but they’d have stayed within the file. I seriously hope I remember that next time!!

Posted by Becky at 09:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I had an excellent question from Alison in Cerro Gordo last week, and decided to post it for the rest of you as well. Sometimes it's good to remember that there are always people doing this for the first time, and some stuff may not look as logical as it could!!

"We had leader training last night and I went in today to put in my leaders who attended. But, the leader training from last year was still on there? Does it stay on from year to year? Also both fall and spring were on as 2008? Do I code both trainings from this year as 2009?"

The answer is that everything is working the way that it should. We decided to make the leader training into an activity code specifically so it would not disappear with year-end processing. And, by using a different year with the code, you can use the same codes (LT1R and LT2R) year after year--saving creating new codes every year. Using this system gives us a historical record (well, it will someday) of the leader's annual training.

And, yes Alison has it right about the year. Even though the fall training is technically held during 2008, it's a training for the 2009 4-H program year, so both fall and spring will be entered as 2009.

If everybody out there does this the same way, then I can get some meaningful lists and reports of leaders who have attended training, which is very important to our Volunteer Development POW committee. If some of you get creative, then I'm going to have big problems getting at the data that we need... so it's important that we're all on the same page!!

Will this be handled the same way in a new enrollment program? Probably not. I have the opportunity to influence how the new program will handle this information, and I want it to be pretty darn simple and fool-proof. BUT I want it to return not only lists of leaders who HAVE attended training, but also those who HAVE NOT. That's the tricky part!!

As always, keep those questions coming, and please feel free to comment back on the blog!

Posted by Becky at 08:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I got an excellent question from a newcomer today, Janel in Webster County. She had (intelligently) duplicated a new member's record for their mom, who's a new leader. Saved herself typing in a whole bunch of info a second time. However, it also brought the member's school code into the record, and it's virtually impossible to delete a school code once it's in there. What to do?

Here's a quick fix that will serve you well as you enroll kids and leaders. Go to your File menu, and choose School Codes. Add a new record, and leave both fields blank, then Save. What will happen is that the next time you use the pull-down school menu on a record, there will be a blank link at the top, enabling you to have that field empty.
View image of School Codes screen

THANKS, Janel, for the GREAT question--and inspiring a new blog post! For the rest of you, even though you've noticed I've been a big lax on this blog, it's about to get busy again. I want to finish up with my series of State Fair questions, and then start on some new conversations...

Thanks for "listening"!

Posted by Becky at 10:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I got this question today from Sheri Postma in Marion County. Both of us would appreciate having you respond back in the comments section with your ideas and thoughts. I don't see a reason it wouldn't work, but maybe some of you have found different things when using the Comments field.

"We REALLY want to keep Premise ID numbers with 4-H members and Blue Ribbon is the logical place to do this. Can anyone see a reason why it wouldn't work to enter this in the "comment" box on the parent screen? This is blank in all of our files."

Posted by Becky at 04:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)