Minnesota 4-H Management Software

Posted by Todd Mehrkens at 11:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Q - will checking the Allow Newsletters check box cause problems if the member/leader does not have an e-mail adress. Also, the check does not transfer to the Communications screen.

A - About the "allow Email newsletters" question.... I've emailed Chuck about the problem of the check box status not transferring between the Registration and Comm screens.   And yes, moving forward, everyone will "have to" allow Email newsletters - and this will not cause problems for members and leaders without email addresses.  But this can be done "for all" by clicking on [Goto] [Members-/Leaders] [Reports/Utilities] [Check all Member's AEN Box].

Q - how do I print completed web forms (the Member Information Form) filled out online?

Posted by Todd Mehrkens at 12:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As of this moment (Friday mid-day) there are 10 people on 4h4me.com.  It has been interesting to watch that number - plus if you click on the button (in the lower right corner of 4h4me) you'll see some day by day totals.  There's no doubt, thanks to all that you're doing, we have members and leaders logging on to 4h4me. 

I've been asked a number of times recently how things are going with the online stuff (including a couple of Regional Directors).  My stock answer is that we're learning lots, that there's been some painful hassle, but overall things really are working.

It does feel like things are settling in and we're at least stable - and know the areas we need to work on. I'd be very interested in hearing how you think it's going - what you're seeing, hearing, running across again and again - stuff like that!

In a previous blog I talked about some of the changes and fixes we worked on with Chuck Nash last week.  I talked with him again this morning and he is just about completed with the last of the identified changes - including the ability for leaders to go through the "annual enrollment tasks" online.  As part of this, both Members and Leaders will now be presented with a button upon login that will check their Current Year with the "system" Current Year. Once in place this should really help capture those members and leaders who were not following the proces to the utimate end where they would actually advance their Current Year (and hence, their re-enrollment) online.

The bad news about all this (and the other 4h4me fixes and updates) is that Chuck has been terribly sick since returning from MN - he (and his wife) picked up some sort of cold bug from his grandkids and he's only now getting back to the office.  But he is expecting that by Mon or Tues all these new  changes would be online.  To watch this, pay attention to the Version number on the main 4h4me screen (it's currently at 09-295).

On the My Programs reports.... we're still waiting for Extension IT staff to fix the Report Server so we can generate the county reports so you can move into that aspect of year-end reporting.

As we move through this process, please make sure to ask any questions (via the "Comments" option on this blog) - about the software, the process, whatever!

 Looking ahead, Pam Nippolt-Larson is looking to send out another "welcome first year" member email - sometime in early December. So, we'll be requesting a data update about that time - hopefully to include all the new enrollments that have been received up to that time.

Posted by Todd Mehrkens at 1:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In recent upgrades, there have been many very nice updates and changes to the Newsletter Utility - here is a new topic web page that steps through the options and tools: http://www.fourh.umn.edu/mgtsoftware/topics/4hplus/newsletters.html

Posted by Todd Mehrkens at 3:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As some of you know, MN usually has a "winter/spring" work session with Chuck Nash where we buy a block of programming time and have him work on various bugs, issues and requested enhancements. Because of all the new stuff happening around 4h4me made this year's work session a "fall" work session.  Also, Chuck happened to be in MN this week visting his daughter, which saves us from having to pay any travel expenses, and yet we still get to work in person.

We did a bit of work in FairPlus! first.  The changes included making the status of an item in the Posting screen more clear - now, posted items will be slightly shaded - non-posted items will not be shaded.  Also on the posting screen there is now an option to place an entire group with one click - this will be helpful for classes where all the exhibitors get, for example, a Participation placing. There were a number of small fixes related to State Fair (the Dorm reports now lines up the "days" - and the Registration Reports will list only the Class name, which will make those reports more helpful). 

Also on the list was a request to bring the member's e-mail address and parent/guardian data into FairPlus!, but due to prioritization and costs, this hasn't been done yet, though there's still a chance it might happen this year.

We then worked on ScoreCon a bit - changing how it handles Reasons class card and scoring. If you have a Judging Contest that you are responsible for scoring, ScoreCon is a great tool and available to any staff that would like to use it.

Most of the time of course was spent on 4HPlus! and 4h4me - primarily stuff that relates to the online capabilities. Alot of time was spent cleaning up a bunch of problems related to Inactivating or Deleting Clubs. Another big area of work was focused on how the [Archive] [Init Data Set] commands interact with 4h4me. This year, to date, you had to first do the Data Intialization steps, then do a Full County Upload. With the new version of 4HPlus!, if you make a change on the Init Data screen you will generate a simple 4h4me "command" (part of the WXDU (data upload) data. 4h4me then executes the particular command you requested (ie Remove all Projects, Increase Grade, etc., etc.). 

Another big area of focus was the followup to a member who enrolls online, (and then the Parental Authorization Form arrives in your office.) First, in the previous version the "Application Date" was added to the Authorization form so that you could easily see when the form was submitted. However, this "broke" the approval process - but that's now fixed in the new version. Also (this is not yet done) but beginning next week, when you do a data upload to 4h4me, which includes a new member, 4h4me will send an e-mail (you get to write that e-mail message to say what you want) to the new member indicating that they need to log on to 4h4me and complete the "Annual Enrollment" tasks (select a club, Projects, submit Communications and Parent data, etc.).  Staff (as per the County Info page) will get a cc' of this e-mail (this will help with members who don't have an e-mail address, or the e-mail doesn't get delivered).

As you know, we've also been struggling with how to deal with Members (or Leaders) who log in and update their info and "think" that they've re-enrolled, but they did not follow all the way through and click on the button to update their Current Year. We talked about having 4h4me function like 4HPlus! where if you simply add/remove a Project, update an address, etc. the Current Year gets updated.  But, online, we can't be sure that just because a member updates their address, that they also looked at their Communications screen (the online re-enrollment process ensure that they do this) - or their Projects screen, etc. etc.. 

The suggested solution, which should be in place next week is that if a member or leader logs in to 4h4me, and their Current Year does not match the actual Current Year, they will get a popup message/warning that they need to complete ALL of the steps on the re-enrollment screen.  I suspect that once this is in place, and a "clean sweep" check for re-enrolling members and leaders should happen - you can use 4HPlus! to send an e-mail to all members and leaders with a Current Year of 09, asking them to verify their re-enrollment, etc.  We'll also have the Member Information Form to track re-enrollments by.

(At this point in time, there is no re-enrollment screen for Leaders, but that should also appear next week.)

Also, another problem we had was if a member went to look at their Member Information  Sheet, but did not fill it out or submit the form, they could still return to the re-enrollment screen and get "credit" for having done their Member Information Form. Now, they have to click the [Submit]  button to get "credit".  There is also a new button on the member's Registration screen that functions in much the same way.

So - all in all, we continue to strive to make the process tighter and tighter, so that we get more and more reliability and integrity into the online process and data managed there.

Some of you have asked for instructions for counties not offering the online process. You have been waiting too long for those - I will get to them next. 

Related to this year's instruction to NOT remove Projects.  As it turns out, this good idea is causing some difficulties when combined with the other aspects of moving online. A few of you have asked if you can still remove all projects and proceed that way.  That's possible and certainly a decision only you can make - it will largely depend on where you are at in the process and how much work this will create and/or save.  I do apologize - in retrospect it would have been better to hold off at least until next year before implementing this decision. Let me know how things are working out, and any suggestions for when we get to considering this for next year.

Finally - a word about this blog.... PLEASE DO make comments - I look foward to them! However, note that the UThink blog does not automatically publish comments, even though I have set the parameters to make that happen. I did learn (thanks to Judy!) how to locate the held-up comments and publish them.

Thanks for hanging in there!!

Todd

Posted by Todd Mehrkens at 11:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Among the problems we're seeing - see this other blog post: http://blog.lib.umn.edu/toddmehr/mn4hsoftware/2009/10/who_has_re-enrolled_-_how_to_t.html

......one new change as of this morning is that 4h4me will no longer give re-enrollment "credit" for simply viewing the Member Information Form. In other words, they must actually click on [Submit] for that form - including filling in the required fields - before the check box for that form will be checked (see image 1 below)- and they can continue to click on the [Process My Enrollment Tasks] and get their [Current Year] updated. Also, they must now click on a button on the enrollment screen in order to the check box for Registration Information to be checked - (see image 2 below)

What other ideas do you have to help make sure members complete the process completely and correctly?

Image 1

Image 2

Posted by Todd Mehrkens at 10:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Some of you have noticed random appearances of 1's and 0's in some member's Local and State Fields. Thanks to Jeannie's clues this has been determined to be a but that occurs when a member changes something of their registration data and it gets downloaded and processed into 4HPlus!. I have called Chuck and that will be his afternoon project to fix this - and we'll have a new upgrade as a result. (This next upgrade will contain other fixes that will also be important to get).

It will be easy enough to clear out those fields with the [Init Data] tool - but for now, maybe leave those numbers there - they might be a clue to help sort out who has re-enrolled online.

The bad news is that if you've used Local Fields 6 - 10, any data in there (for these members who have changed data online) will be overwritten. In those cases, the only option wil be to go back to last year's archived data.

Posted by Todd Mehrkens at 12:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Some of you have faithfully been following the instructions - but in some cases they've been wrong. One example has been if you've tried to set the Member Registration Card Visibility setting. The instructions have you un-clicking a number of fields. In reality, the only visibility setting that works is for the Social Security Number. To date, nobody has asked or needed to change the visibility on any other fields. With time, we'll get that fully funcitonal - but for now, you can ignore the instructions about field visibility.

Posted by Todd Mehrkens at 12:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

One of the issues that is surfacing with the online re-enrollment process has been "how can I tell if a member is indeed re-enrolled?".

In the past, as you know, 4HPlus! would keep track of whether or not you changed anything about a member's address, phone, etc., or added projects. There is an automatic mechanism in 4HPlus! that would update the [Current Year] field to, in this case, [10].

It was the "add a project" trigger that was most commonly relied on - that is, when we removed all the projects at the end of the year, then you'd of course have to add their current projects, and that would trigger the update of the Current Year.

Now, we decided this year to keep all project enrollments intact - the idea is that members' enrollment persists - that is unless they drop a project, they are continuously enrolled in that project. Secondly, we had hoped to save Support Staff time by not having to just turn around and re-enroll members in projects that were just previously deleted - most kids have most of the same projects from year to year.

In 4HPlus!, this means that if a member has no project changes or contact info changes, you'll need to manually change the [Current Year] field on the Member's Registration screen.

In the online interaction - this gets tougher. Ideally, the member would have followed all the instructions and clicked on the correct button - which will update the [Current Year] field online, which then gets downloaded into 4HPlus! and all is good. But we know that not all members are completing the last step of re-enrollment and the [Current Year] field is not getting updated.

So - how do we tell? With the online stuff, we'll know who has filled out the Member Information Form - those will be obviously need to be updated to a [Current Year] of [10] if they are not already.

The toughest situations will be where the member goes online, reviews all their info and makes no changes to anything, does not complete the Member Information Form, but "intends" to re-enroll.

I've not fully thought this through - and your comments and ideas are very welcome - but here's a few thoughts.

1. In hindsight, it maybe was not the wisest choice to leave all projects in place - I suspect this may be reconsidered for next year.
2. An important indicator will be that Member Information Form. And really, if that's not filled out online, (nor a hard copy submitted) then has the member really re-enrolled?
3. We will need to add some more "controls" to 4h4me to more tightly direct a member who is online re-enrolling. An easy hole right now is that they can view the Member Information Form - enter no data - then hit [Prior Screen] and get "credit" for having completed that task.
4. I do think there will be ways to sort this all out - there are time stamps, logs and other clues (like for example, anyone with a cell phone carrier entered will clearly be a re-enrollee). This is one of those "messy" areas - but not unsolvable.

Posted by Todd Mehrkens at 11:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

This will be a place to raise issues, ask questions and submit comments about the 4-H Software, most currently about the online implementation

Posted by Todd Mehrkens at 11:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)