Virtual Enrollment Party

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)

This posting was inspired by a combination of questions--from Sue in Howard Co. and by Joy in Warren. Although it's too late for those of you who have done your year-end processing, it involves getting some summaries from your group enrollments. These reports would be the kind of thing that you would print and save along with the complete group enrollment file report. They can be used for stakeholders reports or annual review documents, and for a Civil Rights Audit.

The ES237 report is, in truth, not very meaningful. (But VERY necessary!!) Youth are counted and grouped in ways that do not yield the kinds of information that we'd like at a local level. There are no numbers for specific programs (Sue's question), and no ethnic numbers by delivery mode (Joy's concern).

However, under the Reports menu, Statistical Reports option, the third choice (Volunteer/Youth Group Statisticals) will give you some nice summaries of the short-term programs that happened in your county. Below is a screen print of the parameters window.

Printing this report would give you the total numbers for each program that you presented, which is certainly more valuable information than you'll find looking at your ES237!

Some stat reports are appropriate to be done at the state level, but others, like these, are only possible to be done at the county level. Be sure that you don't overlook the the Statistical Reports option when you're printing summaries of both your member enrollment AND your group enrollments at the end of the year!

Posted by Becky at 02:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As I'm working through all the stat reports, I've just recently looked at the Under Six Hours forms that have come in--known in State 4-H Language as the S-7 forms. It's apparent that I have NOT done a good job of explaining exactly what kinds of things should (and should NOT) be documented on those, so here goes.

What SHOULD be listed? Events that are attended by non-4h member youth, involve under six hours of contact, AND (this is key) are educational. That's a really short definition. Let's move on to a longer list of what SHOULD NOT be listed!

Recreational events (Family Fun Night)
Promotional events (Join 4-H displays at the local schools)
Project workshops (all those kids are already 4-H members, and we've already counted them once)
Performances (communications contest, style show... besides, again, they're already 4-H members)
Leader training for adult leaders (there's a place in BR to record that)
Beef weigh-in (ever. Even if your CEED says it's educational, it's not. Ever.)

So when you're filling that out, ask yourself a couple of questions. Was it educational? (If no, stop...) Were the attendees 4-H members? (If yes, stop...) That should help you figure out whether a given event should be listed or not. The events that don't make it to BR or to the Under Six Hours form can certainly be recorded in other reports--your county stakeholders' report, your annual review document, success stories, whatever.

Of course, I can always continue red-lining the Under Six Hours reports that are sent in, but it'll save us both some ink (and time) if you just leave them out in the first place!

Posted by Becky at 09:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Another excellent question, this time from Verna in CG county. She originally posted it as a comment on another blog entry, but I wanted to separate it out so that you'd all find it easier. She asks "When you pack tables can you select all files at once?"

If you're not familiar with what "packing tables" means, it's a process that you should do maybe once a year (right after year-end processing is a good time) to compress all your data files. Data files are like elastic waistbands, in that they grow as large as they need to in order to hold all the records within them. Unfortunately, though, they don't shrink back up when all that space is not needed (kind of like waists...). So, periodically, it's a good idea to pack the tables, which is basically like burping them--forces all the unused space out, makes them as small as they can be again. It cleans up many potential problems, and also can speed up access times a bit.

The answer? You can indeed pack tables all at one time. There is no danger to that, because Blue Ribbon does them one at a time anyway. It's going to pack Youth2a.db before it goes on to Youth2b.db. For more information about packing tables, see the Helpsheet.

Posted by Becky at 01:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This entry is a result of a phone call I got from a CEED this week. He does his own ES237, and was itchin' to get done so he could start picking corn. As a result, he may have sort of skimmed over the "successful stat" packet...

He had entered all his group enrollments, previewed his ES237, and then kind of leaped over a few pages to the last page, which is "year-end tasks". He was busily checking off all his accomplishments, which included year-end processing. You can see where this is going, can't you?

When he reached me (and he was an unhappy camper), he had discovered that he couldn't print his ES237 (or any other report, for that matter). Ooopsie doopsie. When you do year-end processing, all members and leaders are changed to Inactive, and all group enrollments are deleted, to get ready for the new year.

Fortunately, this particular CEED is smarter than your average bear, as Yogi says, and he had actually done all the things on the list, including the optional "make a copy of your Data folder". We were able to get him up and running again by just changing his Data path to be the copy he created right before he did year-end processing. He had all his records as they were at the end of the year. When he gets done with the things he needs to do, we'll change the data path back again to the original folder and he can start the new year. If he had NOT made that data folder copy, there would have been no way for me to help him out, because I didn't have a backup from him.

Five minutes into the phone call, we were both happy, and he was on his way out the door, to jump in the combine he had parked at the curb. If you have not done year-end processing yet, think about making a copy of your data folder before you do that. If nothing else, be sure you do not do year-end until you hear from me that I have received your stat backup!!

Posted by Becky at 10:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

This job is all about lifelong learning--and I learn most from all of you!

It was brought up at one of my recent BR workshops that although the "fee paid" checkbox is emptied out during year-end processing, the other checkboxes are not. If they were checked this year, they would remain checked even as you begin the new year.

That's not a good thing, given that we're using them mostly for forms that have to be submitted every year. Here's a really quick way to fix that. Immediately after you do year-end processing, go to File>>Member Query. Choose the Select menu, Select All. Then, on the Actions menu, choose "Set Behavior checkbox to False". Same thing with the other two checkboxes, assuming you're using the fourth (user-defined) box. Then everyone will start out with all those boxes empty!

If you have more questions about the year-end process or how to change a group of records quickly, let me know and we'll see if it makes the blog list!

Posted by Becky at 01:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I've had several questions in the past week about line 1a on the ES237 being higher than the number of 4-H members (the ones that pay the program fee).

The ES237 is a federal report, and somehow they want things counted differently than what might make sense to us. Line 1a is a good example. On the report, that line counts all members-clovers-special (categories), new-return-terminate (status), once per membership. So if a young person belongs to two clubs, on line 1a, he/she would be counted twice.

The program development fee applies only to members, new & return, (once per kid) so you can see that there is plenty of opportunity for line 1a to be higher than that number.

We always tell counties not to pay the program fee from the ES237, but if you REALLY want to do it, please make the check out to "cash" and send it directly to me. I'll see to it that your program fees are paid in full, and you can be sure I'll use the overpayment to a good purpose!!

Posted by Becky at 02:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Another excellent question, by Rosemary in Buchanan Co. The MOST excellent part of the question is that she READS my stuff!!

"In your email of Aug. 30th, you talk about what we need to do if we want to empty out our projects file (start the new year with each kid having no projects listed). I don't want mine to be currupted, but don't understand if I need to do this just BEFORE I do year-end processing, or if I do it right AFTER."

This goes back to the "don't corrupt your Youth2d file" issue, when I told you all that if you're going to empty out your projects, you can't do it by using the "Delete Member Projects" option under Utilities, you instead have to highlight Youth2d, then choose "Empty File".

Oh, yeah... the answer to Rosemary's question is that it doesn't make a bit of difference when you empty the file--just as long as you've already done your stats, have sent in your backup & ES237, and got a confirmation back from me. If you're ready to do year-end, you can empty the file either immediately before or after you do that process.

I'm only in for a bit today, trying to organize the stacks and piles. I'll be back next Tuesday, with some wedding memories and pics to share!

Posted by Becky at 11:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I got the same question twice today (from Joanie D. and Deb Christiansen): What delivery mode should Clover Kids be?

There's more than one correct answer to that question, which should be good, but isn't always. You have to think about the group--when and how often do they meet, how consistent is the membership, what's the primary purpose of the group?

Here's what I wrote to Joanie when I got the FIRST question:
Under the federal guidelines, a Clover Kids group could be correctly recorded as one of the following delivery modes:

4-H After School Club
4-H Special Interest/Short Term Program
School Aged Child Care Education Program

During my Tour De State last year, we discussed those different delivery modes specifically as they related to Clover Kids groups, and what type of group would best fit in each one of the different categories.

For instance, a group that meets every Tuesday after school, basically the same group of kids, consistently throughout the school year, same club starts up again next year with same & different kids = After School Club

A group that meets every Tuesday & Thursday for 3 months in the winter with primarily the same group of kids, but maybe some in-and-out attendees as well = Special Interest (especially if there is a specific content focus, like Nutrition and Health).

A group that meets every MWF after school, providing a safe place for kids to be during the after-school hours, with an inconsistent membership, no real content focus = SACC

These are probably extreme examples, but they give you an idea of how these different delivery modes could "fit" the many different faces of Clover Kids programming.

Posted by Becky at 11:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

When you've finished your ES237, sent me the backup and paper copies, received confirmation of that, and have done year-end processing, you will need to download and install the newest updates to the project and literature files before you can start entering new enrollments.

There were several project changes this year, and many literature changes (including prices). If you don't download and install those updates, you won't be able to sign kids up for the appropriate projects, nor will you be ordering the right literature for the right price.

Anyway, the updated files have been posted as Winzip files on the Blue Ribbon updates page and are ready for you to use AFTER you do year-end processing. There are (what I think are) pretty good instructions there.

(In response to a question from Lisa N.) Additionally, I re-posted the Activity Codes file from last year, although there haven't been any changes to that for this year. If you try to add the LT1R code to a leader's record, and that code is not there, you need to download and install that file.

Since all of these are data updates (go into your Data folder), they only need to be done once per county, not once per computer.

Posted by Becky at 11:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

There are also a couple of built-in reports that may help uncover the source of the unbalance, and I forgot to list them in the last entry.

Both are located under the Reports menu, Special Reports. The first one is "Members with Invalid Club Links" and it doesn't have any parameters, just pops up a preview. If there aren't any, there's a zero on the preview. The second one is "Invalid Primary Club Code Report" and on the parameters, you will need to select Members-Clovers-Special, New-Return-Terminate. If you get an error message "no data with those parameters", you don't have any records with problems. If you do get a list on the report, those will be the records you need to change. Check each one's Clubs/Units tab with the 3-digit clubID at the top of the screen and you will find a discrepancy to be fixed.

I'll keep posting these tidbits as they arise in the counties!

Posted by Becky at 03:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I've had several questions about a common unbalance issue on the printed ES237 reports--The total on Chart 13.2 line 13 is a bit higher than the totals on page one. It takes a bit of sleuthing, but can usually be solved with some good detective work.

Normally what’s happened is you have some folks marked as members, clovers, or special who have one club membership, and that club is marked as “not a youth group unit”. Many times I find that these are “special” category, and they’re people who should be marked as “other”.

When I go through county files looking for that error, the first thing I do is note which club numbers are “not a youth group unit” from the club codes screen. Then I go to Member query and do a filter on category=S and look to see if any of them belong to one of those clubs. That finds the problem about 75% of the time.

If that doesn’t do it, then I do a filter in Member query on clubID= (each of the “not a youth group unit” numbers) and look for people who are members of those clubs and are marked as members, clovers, and specials. That catches most of the rest of them.

The other thing I do is to go to the ES237 report, and instead of doing the complete/combined, I do Test Member/Leader by Club, previewing each club report. At least that way I can narrow down which club(s) are causing the unbalance issue, and can look at their members to find the problem.

If you find that you have this unbalance issue, try these suggestions to find the culprit. If you absolutely cannot find the problem, send me a brand new backup and tell me what's happening, and then I can find it for you!!

Posted by Becky at 05:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I had an interesting question today from Linn County, as they were working on re-enrollment forms. Seems their re-enrollment forms were printing with the words "yes/no" under the "Yrs in Project" and "Club" columns instead of just blank lines like should have been there for additional projects.

At my age, memory is failing, but I kind of thought I might have remembered that there was a report formatting problem like that once and it possibly could have been solved by an update or something. Like I said, memory is failing. Anyway, Mary Dlouhy and I sleuthed out the fact that their program files had not been updated to fix that issue. I posted the update file on the web on the Blue Ribbon updates webpage in case there are others of you finding this error. The instructions are pretty complete, I think, and you do NOT have to be logged in as Administrator to do this update.

You only need to do this update (on every BR computer in the office) IF you are seeing the same problem with the re-enrollment forms. If not, you can just forget I wrote this... easier for me to forget than you, I'll bet!!

I'll probably be posting the BR lit, project, and activity file updates within the next few days. Remember that you cannot download and install those until after your ES237 is all done, signed, sealed, backed up & delivered (and you get a response from me saying it's a good backup!)

Posted by Becky at 03:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

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???

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

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!

Posted by Becky at 02:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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!!

Posted by Becky at 09:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)