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I thought you might like to see a couple of "baby" pictures--one is MY new "baby"--kinda has an uncanny family resemblance, but some unique characteristics all her own! Look quick if you want to see me as I whiz by. No tickets yet, but she's new, so I don't expect that to last long!
Although I'm not anywhere NEAR an expert, I do find it interesting to keep current on what research is telling us about how people interact with webpages--how can we write and design content to fit their browsing behavior. One thing that constantly pops out is the need to be more concise than you would be in other (print) media. Web users typically do not take the time to read volumes of information. Personally, I find it harder to read text on a computer screen than on paper, but maybe that's a function of age and bifocals!!
Think about how YOU use the web--when you're looking for information, browsing sites about topics you're interested in, shopping, or whatever. What components of a web page are important? Which ones are annoying? What makes a web site easy to navigate?
Anne Adrian from Auburn University has a couple of excellent posts (with GREAT additional information links) in her blog at http://blog.aafromaa.com/2007/08/writing-for-web.html
Check it out and let me know your thoughts--how is this important as you maintain and expand your county website?
I got an absolutely EXCELLENT question from Tonya in Audubon Co. today, and I want to share both what makes it such a good question, and (of course) the answer!
Tonya asked, "When I print a copy of the of the combined final report line 1a. says I have a total of 165. That’s not true. When I print a copy of the test-members/leaders I have a total of 157 which I should have. So what is causing it to add more numbers to the organized 4-H clubs?"
The answer is that somewhere in the group enrollments, there's one with 8 kids (unduplicated) that has its delivery mode set to "4-H Community Club" instead of school enrichment or special interest or whatever.
The more interesting part of this post, though, is what made that the best question of the day. Tonya explained for me exactly what report she was looking at, and what line on that report. She ALSO reported what she had tried so far to troubleshoot the problem (the test-member/leaders report). That was all the info I needed to realize that the problem did not exist in the member/leader file (the name/address screen) but instead was in the group enrollments. The party bonus for me is that Tonya was actually READING the ES237 report and trying to make sure that it was accurate and had the numbers she expected to see on it!! (As opposed to signing it quick before it cools off out of the printer, and getting it into an envelope before it contaminates somebody's desk... but I know NOBODY ever does THAT!!!)
I'll post more interesting tidbits as they arise. I have received the first ES237 backup, from Nancy in Van Buren, but don't feel any pressure, because as I told her, I guarantee that I am not looking at any of those reports before September 30. Another wedding, remember???
I got a question today about re-enrollment forms, and decided that some info was in order--both for those of you ending/starting for the first time, and as a reminder for anybody who's as memory-challenged as I am! (I'll tell you more about those sad stories after I heal up a bit from the fair, and am fairly confident that I've patched all my self-created problems!)
Anyway, the question was about printing re-enrollment forms before doing the ES237 or doing year-end processing. Re-enrollment forms MUST be printed BEFORE you do your year-end processing, because once you do that processing, all members in the file have been changed to "inactive", so no one's file would print at that time. Whether you print them before or after doing your ES237 is totally unimportant, because those two tasks really don't have anything to do with each other. You can print them at any time that's convenient, given your fall leader meetings or whatever.
There are some HelpSheet documents on the Blue Ribbon website that will help you through the end-of-the-year processes, and all of them contain checklists to help you complete the right tasks in the right order. Be sure that if you have questions, you check with me... it's job security for me, and it's always easier to spend a little time figuring out how to do things RIGHT than it is to fix things after you do them WRONG. That's a life lesson I probably should have learned better before I landed down here and the animals started loading onto the trucks, but again, I'm going to need to heal up a bit before I see the humor in the stories (note plural) and can share them without getting sick.
It's all over but the shouting (well, actually the dairy goats, dogs, and meat goats). The GC market steer is about to be named, so we're on a downhill now!
As I have time, I'll be posting some quick reminders to help you as you're ending your 4-H year in Blue Ribbon. The first one today is for those of you who empty your projects file at the end of the year, and start all over adding projects with re-enrollments.
There is still ONE bug in BR 2.5 and it's a really annoying one--if you choose to empty your projects file by using the Utility menu, File Utilities, Utilities, Delete Member Projects, that command will corrupt your Youth2d (kids/projects link) file and you will not be able to print lit reports later this fall. The only fix for it is to send the file to Martech for repair.
INSTEAD, what you want to do to empty the projects file is to use the Utility menu, File Utilities, but then scroll down and highlight Youth2d.db and choose the File menu, Empty table command. Be sure you have Youth2d.db highlighted, not something else, or you'll have some pretty unexpected results!!