Virtual Enrollment Party

The decision is done. We're switching to 4HOnline during the 2009-2010 program year. There are lots of details to be decided and communicated throughout the first year, but the important thing now is that we are switching. It's web-based, which means no software to install, and access from anywhere. It does some things better than we're used to, and some things just differently. We may find things we liked better about Blue Ribbon, but hopefully not many!

This is where I want you to chime in. Questions, suggestions, ideas... whatever. Get the discussion going!

Posted by Becky at 02:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (10) | TrackBacks (0)

Okay, it's finally down to the wire... we're really going to get a new web-based enrollment system. Really.

Last week, I asked 12 "volunteers" to take the system I've chosen for a test-drive. The system is called 4HOnline, and it's from a company in Texas. They have a test server, where my volunteers are "playing" right now. Let me give you some short details as I know them now, and then I'm going to turn the forum over to the Guinea Pig Group to talk about what they're finding, ask/answer questions, lalala.

4HOnline is compatible with ShoWorks, a fair management package. Just as Fair Management is now a separate county purchase, ShoWorks would also be a county decision/purchase. I've seen it, and I like it. But it's a county decision--I won't be the one using it, so won't make that decision for you.

My plan AT THE PRESENT TIME is to convert data for the Guinea Pig Group this fall, and they will do the bulk of the re-enrollment process in the new program. We'll learn from them about what works, what's different, etc. The rest of the counties would have data sometime around January, when the bulk of the re-enrollments would be done--then just use the program for the rest of the year.

We will use the program as "county-based" for at least the 2009-10 year... what that means is that county staff would still enter all data. Beginning in the fall of 2010, each county will have the option to allow their RETURNING families to re-enroll on-line, ALL families to enroll on-line, or to continue with county-based entry. There's lots more to know about that, but trust me for now.

4HOnline has an available Events Registration component. At some point in the not-so-distant future, we may set that up. But we all need to get comfortable with the enrollment portion first.

I had a group of folks in last week, and they were split about whether they'd like to start with empty datasets (entering all members in the new program) or starting with existing data. There are advantages to both. Once we see how well the Guinea Pig Group's data converts (is there still lots of clean-up going on?) we'll have more info to make that decision. I'm TOYING with the idea of giving you opt in/out choices for the data conversion. It's a flat fee--all or none, so I guess in the end it doesn't matter if some want one thing and some want another.

One teensy caveat--this is the system that I believe (TODAY) that we will be purchasing. There are still contracts to be signed and deals to be made. There is another system out there that is making a hard pitch to the state directors, so there is a teensy-weensy chance that I'm going to end up having to change my mind. Just truth in advertising.

Posted by Becky at 01:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | 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)

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)

It's come to my attention that this is prime time for those wonderful student interns to begin! Without them, our summer, at least here in the state office, would be crazy! (Or more accurately, crazier than it already is!!)

If you have a summer intern who will be working in your office that will need access to the X drive (for Blue Ribbon data), here's the process that you'll need to follow:

1. Make sure your intern has an "iastate.edu" email address, then contact Extension IT to get that account set up with access to your county's share drive (S:)
2. After those two things are done, then send ME an email with your intern's email address, telling me that he/she needs access to the X drive. I will set that up for you--Extension IT handles the S drive, I set permissions for X.

That should do it for you... if you have more questions about the S drive or email accounts, Extension IT can help you figure that out.

Have a great summer, enjoy all the creativity and energy that these young people bring to our programs!!

Posted by Becky at 01:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This is only necessary if you have a computer that has both Blue Ribbon and Fair Management loaded on it, and you plan to take that computer to the fair, where there is no network available. This is not a problem with the program, it's just that we have a network set up and must disable it if the computer will not be connected.

Both Blue Ribbon and Fair Management use the same configuration setting for the NET DIR—the “Locks” file path. If you leave it set as it works for Blue Ribbon (X:\Winyouth\CountyLocks, where County is your actual county name), the computer will not run Fair Management when it is off the network and X: is not available.

This is a simple fix, and you should do it before you unhook the computer to load up for the fair.

• Go to your Start menu, Programs, Youth Enrollment, BDEAdmin.
• Select the Configuration tab at the top.
• Click on the Plus signs to open Configuration – Drivers – Native – Paradox.
• Click on Paradox, and then on the right hand side, look for the top option of NET DIR
• Click in the path in the right box, then use the dot-dot-dot button at the far right to browse for a Locks file.
View image
• Use the Drives option in the lower right to choose the C: drive. In the left side box, double click on C:, then on Program Files, then Youth Enrollment, and finally Locks. Be sure that the entire path shows up—with the last portion being “\Locks”.
View image
• IMPORTANT: When you come back from the fair, you will need to reverse the process and set your NET DIR back to “X:\Winyouth\CountyData”. Blue Ribbon will still run on the computer if you don’t, but you won’t be able to use the program at the same time as someone else in your office.

Posted by Becky at 03:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

All of you who are using the X drive (which is really soon to be ALL of you...) know that you don't have to do Winzip backups any more. But some of you are used to doing backups to get your data onto a fair computer, for use in importing into Fair Management.

The thing is, you can't create any new files on the X drive, so if you do the "Add to Data.zip" option, you're going to get an error message, because that auto-option wants to write to the same location as the Data folder, and it can't.

The easiest solution is going to be to copy your CountyData folder (the whole folder, not just the files) out to your C or S drive. Do be sure that you COPY, not CUT, that folder!! Once you've copied the CountyData folder to another drive, you can either use Winzip at that point, write a CD, or use a USB flash disk if you need to get the data onto a machine that is not on the network.

There is a way to create a Winzip backup and have it save in a different location "Add to zip", but for most folks, copying the folder and pasting it somewhere else is going to be easier. Winzip doesn't have a terribly user-friendly interface, kind of clunky if you haven't used it a whole lot.

Posted by Becky at 04:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Probably by now, you've seen the messages from Extension IT, telling you that beginning on April 15, all new computers WILL be loaded with Windows Vista--no exceptions allowed. Let's talk about Vista and how it interacts with Blue Ribbon first. There is a separate post about Vista and Filemaker.

In Iowa, we are using Blue Ribbon version 2.5 because 2.6 is buggy and has not been fixed yet. Eventually I'm sure there will be a version 2.7, and I'm hopeful it WON'T be buggy. But, we don't know when that will be released. Stick with me here--this is a trickle-down explanation from this point on. Version 2.5 will not install and work with Vista. There is no work-around or fix. However, there IS a separate installation package for version 2.6 and Vista. One install package for XP, a different one for Vista. This where it gets interesting.

Version 2.6 changes the data file structure, so if one person in an office updates to that version, everyone else will be forced to do that as well. So far I'm seeing two different CDs for that office--one Vista, one XP. It gets worse. Once one county updates to version 2.6, I'm also going to have to do that in order to be able to use the data. Once *I* have updated, the REST of the counties will also have to do that... now we're looking at two CDs for every county, and a forced software update across the state, never forgetting the original problem: version 2.6 is buggy. So everyone would be doing that software update to a flawed product, instead of one that works right. Hm.

What should you do about Vista, then? If you are going to order a new computer (to run BR) this year, you have a couple of choices--if the current BR computer is running well, order a Vista computer, and just leave the old computer set up and running BR until I release version 2.7, then load 2.7 on the Vista computer. If your current BR computer is NOT functional, then you'll have to think about ordering a new computer before April 15, and asking for it to be loaded with XP. I can't guarantee we'll see version 2.7 by April. Or September even. All I know is that I'm not going to release version 2.6 because the problems are significant enough to override any benefits.

If you need more information before the April 15 ordering deadline, please email me or better yet, post a comment to the blog!

Posted by Becky at 11:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Thanks to Darin Dugan, we have a unique new opportunity--to have all of our counties' Blue Ribbon data folders stored in one location. The advantages are many, the only possible disadvantage is small in comparison.

Beginning the next time you start your computer, all BR users should see a new drive listed on "My Computer": “Projects on \iastate.edu\C Ext (X:\)” That’s the new Blue Ribbon data server. When you open that X: drive, you’ll first see a folder named Winyouth, then inside that you will see two folders, CountyData and CountyLocks (only instead of the word “County”, you’ll see your own county name… like AppanooseData, for example). The CountyData folder is where your Blue Ribbon data files will reside after the change.

Let me give you a little sales pitch on moving your data out to this new server drive. In the interest of full disclosure, I will tell you the only disadvantage first--your Blue Ribbon program will take a bit longer to open, and will switch between screens a little slower than it does now with your data on the C: drive. However, over half the counties have been using the S: drive already, and in checking with them, they didn’t feel that the slowdown was really burdensome once you get used to it.

Turning this sales pitch around, let’s talk about the positives!

Your data is secure. Although this is a server, not everyone can see the X:\Winyouth directory. I control permissions not only to that folder, but also to the individual county folders. That’s why you can only see your own county, even though all 100 county folders are out there. So the only people who can see/open/use your county data folder are the ones I set permissions for, which are the Blue Ribbon users in each county.

I, however, can see and use all of the county folders. That means you will NEVER EVER have to do another backup. You will also NEVER EVER have to download and install those pesky project & lit updates that come out every fall, because I will do that for you. If you are having problems with your records not working right (kids not showing up on the right report, ES237 not balancing) you can call and I will be able to look at your data “live” and help you work through a solution.

The server is automatically backed up every night. If something dreadful happens and you somehow lose data, we can recover your Data folder from the previous day. Additionally, we’ll be making a copy of the data folders every month, so that if you want to be able to go back to a previous set of data (like at the beginning of the new year), that can happen as well.

I have posted instructions for you on how to make this change on the BR helpsheets web page at http://www.extension.iastate.edu/4H/blueribbon/helpsheets.htm. You can choose to print out the Word document, or view the videos. The information is the same, just presented differently for those who would rather read, and those who would rather watch & listen!

An email is going out now to all the the people who are listed as Blue Ribbon users in counties with their data on the C: drive, and there is a bit more information in that. Additionally, an email will go out to all county directors, so that they are aware of what is happening, and also know that when a new Blue Ribbon user is hired, they will have to notify me so that I can add permissions for them.

If you have questions or concerns that you need to have addressed before you make this change, please feel free to email me and I’ll be happy to work with you on those!

Posted by Becky at 02:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I've had several questions in the past couple of weeks, all related to project codes, and most related to this year's winner of the "We Should Have Thought About that Twice" Award--Horseless Horse.

Horseless Horse has been project 1214. REAL Horse Level 1 was project 1211. The problem was that although that was Level 1, the project literature we use for the project has "Level 2" in its title, & Level 1 of that curriculum is Horseless Horse. That seemed to be too confusing, so a decision was made (and nobody asked me) to re-number and re-name all the horse projects, assigning current numbers to different projects. That's where the problem came in.

How does this affect your enrollment process? Well, it's giving us a great opportunity to know who has installed the project and lit file updates. If you are trying to enter a project enrollment for 1210 (Horseless Horse) and it's telling you it's an invalid code, it's because you haven't done those updates. They are available on the BR Updates webpage, along with instructions for downloading/installing.

A few key facts: Installing now will NOT affect any enrollments you already have done. There were many price changes in the literature, so if you DON'T install them, not only will you have the Horseless Horse Issue, but also your lit orders will not add up the same in BR as they do on the web order form. You only have to do this installation ONCE, regardless of how many computers are loaded with Blue Ribbon. And, finally, you should not log in as Administrator when you do this.

Posted by Becky at 09:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As you're entering new young people into the Blue Ribbon program, you may find that your drop-down menu with the schools listed either isn't complete, or is TOO complete!! You can't type directly into that list from the member screen, but you can edit it. Enrollment time is the best time to do this, because you're going to be looking at each member's record anyway, so if you delete a school (spelling, probably) that was assigned to a kid, you can just assign a new one when you re-enroll him/her.

Under your File menu, you SHOULD find an option for School Codes. When you choose that, you'll see the screen shown below. You can type in the fields, add new records, and delete duplicate records (caused by spelling the same school name two different ways).

Posted by Becky at 02:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I got a great question today about adding the LT1R activity code to leader records after they attend a training session. In Adair county, they recorded those training sessions last year as well, so Donna's question was whether she should use LT3 this year, since the leaders already had LT1R from LAST year.

You're going to use LT1R and LT2R every year for the first two training sessions that your leaders attend--and it's based on the first one that the individual attends, not the first one you offer. So one person may have LT1R for a September event, and another might have LT1R for a November event. The only thing that changes on the activity tab is that you'd record a different year... for instance, the trainings that occur this fall would have an activity year of 2008 (which is how we name the 4-H year, by the year in which the stat report will be submitted).

The person in question would have LT1R and LT2R linked to the 2007 activity year (last year) and now would have an additional LT1R linked to this year (2008), for a total of 3 activities listed on that tab.

Don't forget that you also must complete a Training Log entry (under the ES237 menu) for each of those leader trainings that you hold in your county. For more information about the process for recording Leader Training, go to the BR HelpSheets page and you'll find one under the "Working with Records" section entitled "Recording Volunteer Leader Training".

Posted by Becky at 02:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I got another great question, from Brenda Welch this time: They're having a volunteer training event this week, and she wanted to know how/if to record that in Blue Ribbon so that it shows up in NEXT year's data, not this year's.

Since we're still in the first half of September, technically whatever goes on now would be on this year's 4-H enrollment year. That wouldn't really be an appropriate way to record the training, though, because it affects the upcoming 2007-08 year.

My suggestion to her (and to everyone else) is that you wait to enter the data into BR until after you've finished this year's stats, have done year-end processing, and are working on the new year. At that time, enter the data into the Training Log, but "fudge" a bit on the date--make it AFTER Sept. 15, 2007. Also, remember to edit each attendee's record with the Activity Code "LTR1", with the Activity Year=2008 (the year is named by the end of the 4-H program year).

Keep those great questions coming in! Remember the "Becky's Job Security" rule...

PS--here's a little reward for those of you who actually do read my blog--Mike A. just called and they're on the way to the hospital... baby's on the way!

Posted by Becky at 02:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)