Virtual Enrollment Party

I don't see the majority of my families entering their own data, plus I have several families who do not have internet access at home.

I think that keeping the responsibility of entering information needs to stay with the county staff. 2 problems I see with families entering:
1)We have Carroll County kids that are in other counties 4-H programs and vice versa...I can see problems coming up with entering a home county vs. county of participation and records getting messed up that way.
2)If families can enter their own information I can see problems with the county staff never seeing an enrollment form. Families thinking that they have enrolled their child by entering the information and the enrollment forms never getting to our hands...
Just some thoughts that popped up immediately as I was reading...
Benefits: compatibility with any operating system

Good idea, but same problem, not all of our families have internet at home. Would it make more sense to incorporate the enrollment form and medical form into one form so they don't have to many papers to fill out for enrolling.

The advantage to family entry might be that we would get accurate information if the system would not let them skip fields of data on entering like they skip filling in data field on the written forms.

Anjanette's comment triggered my memory (that's becoming increasingly difficult to do...) that I should have added a bit more info to the disclaimers. NO ONE would become a new member without county approval and/or direct county entry. Re-enrolling members could update their info, but the county would always be informed via email of when those changes were made. Some systems don't allow for new member entry; others allow families to enter info, but it's not "approved" until the county has done that from the staff-login side. So you wouldn't have "unknowns" signing up. The thing about the same kid in two counties--that can also be handled, leaving the kid with only one record (right thing to do) but with all his participation recorded. Keep talking to me!!

I think it should stay with the county. We still have several 4-H families without internet service in our county. Yeah, I know Becky, it's hard for me to believe too--LOL!

I think that online registration is a GREAT idea! :) If we want to be more relevant to the youth that we are serving (and hope to serve) through the 4-H program, then we need to meet them where they are at.

I do understand other's concerns about the families without computer access (I have some in my county, too). To address this, would we be able to offer a hard copy of the enrollment form like we do now?
Becky's response--Yes, that would be definitely included.

I think that families would appreciate having the option of doing enrollment/re-enrollment online. So many parents and youth in our program are online everyday already. I have found that I get the best response from families (whether it be about workshop registration, upcoming events, etc.) when I communicate via email with links to websites that they can access--moreso than any other form of communication I use (snail mail, newsletters, etc). That's just me though, and I don't know how that has worked for other counties.

The only other question I have regarding online enrollment is the question of enrollment fees. Will the families understand that they will still need to send in their enrollment fee before actually being considered as "enrolled", even though they've already filled out the forms? This may be way too big of a question, but is there a way to offer online payment via debit card, credit card, etc?
Becky's response--Families WOULD know that they would (in certain counties) still need to send their fees. There WOULD NOT be on-line payment options at this time.

I definitely think this online option is worth exploring!!

Becky, I was very encouraged to hear that you were working on on-line entry by families. (heard about this on the volunteer training day in Ames, April 2nd). I'm a strong advocate that we need to be using technology more and more. I have faith that 80% of our families are ready for this improvement (probably been asking why we haven't offered it yet). From a CEED's perspective, there are many financial, marketing, customer service, and resource allocation reasons why this concept should be moved forward. If you want a pilot to flush out the details, count us in.

I think that the online registration would be an excellent idea and just like Amanda stated that this is one way that we could reach out to the families with another option as a lot of them are online all day long. However, we would still have to do the paperwork for those that do not have internet access or a computer. The online enrollment sounds like it might be a few more steps as we would need to give them the ok when they posted something new, which would mean a few more emails to go through. I would like to know how many states are doing this and how it is working for them.

Change is always a good thing!

In Boone County we ask new members to complete an enrollment form and present members to complete a re-enrollment form with projects listed. They also need to complete a health information/release form and pay the $20 program development fee. All three are needed to have a complete registration.
Could this all be done online?
We need member and parent signatures on the medical form - could this be done on line?
Would it be possible for the 4-H families to print the forms online but turn in hard copies?
Becky's response: No money on line, possibly signatures on line, but I'm pretty iffy about medical info being stored on line at the present time. I think that whichever way we go, there will have to be paper forms turned into the office. Some stuff just needs to be on paper, stored securely, etc. I think.

Hi-I am new to blue ribbon, but I do like the idea of letting families do their enrollment online. If they did not have internet access, then our leaders could enroll them. Leaders could possibly have staff like access for their club only (don't know if that would work?) I know in my county, leaders take FOREVER to turn enrollments in, and kids who filled out their forms wait a long time before receiving newsletters, etc. from 4-H. If we make sure to accomodate those without internet access, I think everything would work just fine. Getting people up on the website to enroll (for example putting the link on each county's website) helps establish our internet presence. Later, we can refer to things online, and families will know right where to go.

I like the idea of this being on-line but I am not in favor of families having access.
I want my families to feel like they can have contact with a person. So many things have become impersonal and I don't want someone to ever think that they need to use the computer instead of me.

My first thought was have it remain the way it is now with county staff entering enrollments. Partly because that's what I'm used to and I sometimes hesitate when it comes to changes. But after reading some of the other comments I think it would be good if enrollments could be done by the families or county staff. We have families on both ends of the scale--those who are very familiar with computers and those who would feel more comfortable bringing their enrollment info to me.

I am constantly hearing from my leaders and many of my families that they want more options to do things online...
like the leader's training for example. I think that enrolling or re-enrolling online would be a helpful for our families that have access. It sounds like there is still a paper option for those who don't have access. With the wide array of families we work with I don't think we can become totally paperless because that would be leaving those out who
may not even afford having a computer BUT... it allows an option for those whose busy lives rely on computer access.

I think that we need a way to be notified if someone has completed their enrollment. We need to be able to print reports, labels, make changes, etc.. as staff like we do now. However... I wouldn't mind help entering all of the information. It would also help eliminate blame when a family forgets to sign up for something... responsibility would fall back on them now.

Would it be possible for them to print out a copy of what they entered on their own?
Becky's response: that's a non-negotiable, would have to happen.

Is there a possibility that their publications could be automatically ordered and sent directly to them? However... the billing comes to the county (we pay for the publications here).
Not at this time

Can we resolve the issue of a kids home county vs participation county? We all have at least one or more families that live on the edge of a county. Can we still keep our other member lists on this system ... like fair boards, youth committees, etc...?
A statewide system will do that, but there will be some new repercussions to think about as it does.

Are there any solutions to the medical release form? I think that most of the people who do the online work would probably rather do all or none?
I'm having issues with having information that could potentially be that sensitive actually entered/stored on the web.

Is there a possibility that down the road members would be able to pay their membership fees online? I think that would be very beneficial.
Never say never, but definitely not soon. There are too many variances--some counties do not collect from the members individually, some counties charge more... and then there are ISU rules about who/what/when money can be collected via the web.

I find editing our web pages a little complicated at times... is this system easy and user friendly?
I wouldn't be interested in any system that is not user-friendly. We're still looking at several options.

I am interested in seeing how this option may come together. Thanks Becky!

I think a pretty small percentage of our families would actually follow through and complete the information - which then, would require me to follow up with them, either by email, phone or mail and create MORE work than less work. It may be a good idea to offer web entry as an option - with an automatic notice being sent to the local county CYC to let them know WHO has entered the data online. That way we don't have to check, follow up, etc. I do think we need to move towards a better use of the Internet in everything we do in 4-H.

At this point, it doesn't seem realistic to expect OUR 4-H families to make their own re-enrollment entries (other counties might). Many don't have internet access at home (including leaders). I think we would spend more time "mopping up" than we currently spend making entries.

Since internet access is not required to be a 4-H leader, here are a few questions I have.
How would leaders know who was/wasn't enrolled & who had/hadn't paid? How would they be given a chance to double check pubs "needed" BEFORE they're ordered?
I can answer the pubs thing--that would still be a county office function.

We pay for return postage on 4-H Newsletters sent bulk, & that's how we get 99% of address changes. If they can't remember to get these changes to their leader or to us, I'm not real hopeful that they will make them in a 4-H database.

My bottom-line feeling is the same as Jill: "I want my families to feel like they can have contact with a person. So many things have become impersonal and I don't want someone to think they need to use the computer instead of me."

While I think the concept is interesting and potentially in the future, we have too many families that do not have access to the internet. The county would also lose the connection as to which 4-H'ers are still not enrolled, fees, medical forms, etc. Does a 4-H'er re-enrolling online only have access to their data?
ABSOLUTELY. Glad you asked the question!

We also have duplicate names of 4-H'ers in different towns. Does this present a problem? I think this process needs to stay with the county doing the input.
The duplicate name thing can be handled.

I think we should explore the options of on-line enrollment. However, I believe we would have to offer both to allow for families who do not have access to the internet or wish to do the paper form method.

Our county also has many 4-H families without access to the internet. I personally believe it would be difficult to implement (actually making more work for me in the long run)

We have 4-H'ers from several counties so 4-H county rather than home county would need to be addressed. We also have very few families with high speed internet and some with no internet at all. The ones with slow speed really complain about doing anything on line.
We are still missing some enrollments here and I doubt that on line would speed up that problem.

I think that a large percentage of our 4-H families would not remember to fill in the information. We also have some families that do not have internet yet, or have dial up and have a problem with information downloading. I think that
it would make more sense to incorporate the enrollment form and medical form into one form so they don't have to many papers to fill out for enrolling process, like on the enrollment forms for the photo release.

Enrollment in our county is kind of a package deal, enrollment, medical form and fee are all needed to complete the process. I like the idea of the member completing the enrollment form and being able to see what they enrolled in. I wonder if new members might find it a bit impersonal. New member are already overwhelmed and I wouldn't want to add to it. Many of the families don't have internet or have dial up connections.

Just got back to this, but here are my thoughts/comments: We also have many families with no internet access or the other problem we face is that dial-up is the only option in many areas of our county and it is S-L-O-W and unreliable. Some of our organizational leaders don't have internet access and some who do don't bother to access it very often. Several of our staff members don't have home internet access. Some of the youth have email accounts, but parents don't. We've had trouble with our email 4-H newsletter because families have trouble getting the links to open in a reasonable amount of time. I can't get people to remember to call or send us change of addresses---I don't know how many would remember to enroll on-line. We, too have several families that are not residents of Harrison County, but belong to 4-H in Harrison County. I have found that problematic in the FSQA database. One thing we did this year was to make our enrollment/re-enrollments forms an 11"x17" form that included the enrollment form with project numbers on the back and the medical information sheet all in one. We then folded it and stapled the Youth Code of Ethics to it. When the form comes back in we tear it in two (so the enrollment is one sheet front and back and the medical form is one sheet front to back and can go in a different notebook and the YCOE goes in another notebook). We had much better return on forms when everything was handed out at one time. Leaders were appreciative of fewer pieces of paper arriving at different times. Wish I'd thought of it sooner! We do still have to get some signatures on the medical forms after they arrive at the office, but overall it's been much less hassle. It takes somewhat longer to get the forms ready, but we all agreed that it's better in the end.