Virtual Enrollment Party

Mike is about to send out an email to the 15 or so CYC who had a temporary loss of sensibility and signed up that they might be interested in helping us at the State Fair. We have a plan, and it involves including lots more of our EXCELLENT county staff (I prefer "rowdy friends" but that's just me) in our little 2-week adventure. Just to pique your interest, here's an article that Lynette Cline wrote after helping me last year. (In my own defense, I do have a somewhat more deliberate training plan this year--last year's was the Famous Extension Training known as "Here Ya Go".)

From Lynette (THANK YOU!!)
Nothing was more aptly put than this year’s State Fair Theme, “You Gotta Love It!” When my co-workers asked me how I liked working at State Fair (and seemed a bit shocked that I volunteered), this theme was the obvious reply.

It’s for the love of Iowa, 4-H, and agriculture (all of which I am a veteran) that we are willing to endure some rather uncomfortable and yes, smelly days among the livestock barns. The chairs were hard, breaks were erratic, the rain wet, and pigs created an obstacle course wherever you walked.

The learning curve was, well, pretty doggone tight. Matt Wenger was the poor soul who had to indoctrinate me. “Here, click this, this, and enter that. Now go.” I was sure that on the nightly news there’d be a story of a big mushroom cloud over Des Moines because I pushed the wrong button. On my third day Becky said, “I’m going to put the two of you in the sheep barn tomorrow. No, I think I’ll split you up, you two know what you’re doing.” What? No…wait, I’m an idiot! Are you sure you want to do that?

But because I was with awesome, patient, and dedicated livestock workers (thanks, Matt), we did not have core meltdown. The benefits are great! (Wear your ISUE nametag). You will get a gate pass, free parking and meals which help defray your costs. But the biggest benefit is to facilitate the opportunity for each 4-H livestock exhibitor to experience the Iowa State Fair. I wouldn’t trade watching those beaming faces for anything! Thanks, Becky, for the opportunity. You’re a gem.

Posted by Becky at 10:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

The third in our series of State Fair questions deals with the dog entries.

In the past, as with dairy cows & goats, the dog exhibitors have had to fill out entry cards which you then send along with the paper copies. We hire someone here to enter that information into the database.

We've noticed that a lot of the information on the cards is no longer necessary--different check-in processes mean that less info is really needed on the card.

We're thinking of changing the process to be more like the horse entry process--where you type in the class number and the horse's name on the electronic entry form. In the case of the dogs, you would be typing in a class number, dog name, and dog breed. The class numbers would handled in a way that would allow you to quickly go look up a number if you needed to... if the young person did not enter a correct number on their paper entry form.

What do you think? Would that be burdensome in terms of data entry? How many dog exhibitors do you have in your county--if it's only one or two, would it be a pain to do that? It looks like no exhibitor enters more than about five classes. They seem to have at most 2 dogs, which would mean a maximum of 4 classes--obedience for each dog, then handling & rally.

More blog comments on your thoughts, particularly if you are a county that has LOTS of dog exhibitors!

Posted by Becky at 02:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Yet another question about some changes we're considering for 2009... this one deals with dairy cow and dairy goat cards.

Because at least a third of the dairy cow entry cards end up being scratches or having a substitute cow entered, we have lots of opportunities to have mistakes in the catalog. Also, we have additional opportunities for mistakes because we hire someone here to pre-enter all that data into a database, and put them on a real tight schedule.

We're thinking of asking the exhibitors to bring the completed cards to the fair (fill them out as you're loading those animals on the trailer) instead of having them sent in with the paper entries in July. The kids would still mark & pay for the number of animals they intend to bring on the entry form, but would not fill out the cards on July 1. That way, they SHOULD be filling out cards only for the animals they actually decide to load up and bring.

So what's the question? I want your opinion on whether you think it'd be better for the exhibitors to get those blank cards from you at the county office, or whether we should send them in their exhibitor letters, along with instructions about filling them out and bringing them along. We're simplifying the cards as well to eliminate unnecessary information--for example, it's really not necessary for the kids to write their complete address on six cards...

Again, comment back to the blog about whether you think it'd be better for the kids to get the blank cards from your office, or in their exhibitor letter. If they lose their cards, or need a fresh one for some reason, they could always get extras from you, even if we do send them, I imagine.

Posted by Becky at 02:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)

State Fair 2009 already???

Actually, we're working on some changes/improvements for next year's state fair while this year's issues are still fresh in our minds--some of us lose that memory quicker than others...

One thing I'd like to run past all of you is an idea that MIGHT make the database entry just a little easier. We had an awful lot of exhibitor letters returned for incorrect addresses this year, and we totally understand how easy it is to make those input errors. Maybe the input person was a summer aide, maybe you duped a record and forgot to change the town, maybe you have Becky's Flying Fingers disease... whatever.

Anyway, what do you think about having a field in the livestock entry database that would be called "4-H ID", which would be the young person's 5-digit ID from Blue Ribbon? I can set the database up on my end to include your county ID, which would make for a unique 8-digit ID for each kid, and can then set up a relationship to import the address information from the state BR database. You would be entering only the 5-digit ID and the kid's name (along with their entries). The reason I'd have you type in their name would be for error-checking. If the ID brings up Johnny Smith, and you think it was Susie Jones that entered that dairy goat, we'd have to figure out that the ID was entered in error.

The bottom line is that you would have to have a list of those ID numbers, write them at the top of the paper entry form, and enter them in the database. The benefit to you would be that you wouldn't have to type in the address, grade, gender, phone for the exhibitor. I will have to restructure my state livestock database, and double-check the names to make sure we have the right kid, but then I should have a little more accurate info about them.

Comment back to the blog--are the costs worth the benefits? You're the ones doing the database entry. Is this "do-able" from your perspective??

Posted by Becky at 02:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (14)

I got my first question about the State Fair entry databases this morning, so I know that it’s Fair Time in Iowa!!!

This is just a little reminder (it’s also in the instructions) that no matter whether you intend to enter communications, exhibits, or livestock, you ALWAYS start by double-clicking on the 2008StateFairEntry.exe icon as shown in the picture (View image). In that same folder, there are files named “comm.sf8”, “livestock.sf8”, and “exhibit.sf8” BUT if you attempt to double-click on those, your computer will not know what program should be running. You actually access those files through the opening screen of the 2008StateFairEntry.exe program.

I sent this info to a variety of lists a few minutes ago, so some of you may get two notices. Future info about the state fair will ONLY come out through the blog and the 4h-statefair mailing list, so please be sure that you are subscribed to either the blog notification list or the 4h-statefair mailing list if you need that information. If you received an email this morning with the subject line "You're subscribed to the 4h-statefair mailing list", you are. If not, you're not!!

Posted by Becky at 10:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)