Recording Leader Training
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!