Important Changes - Please Read

Hello compadres,

Two major issues have come up recently demanding some technical wizardry. The first issue is that on-going integration of ics files among google/calendar, hotmail, and windows live have affected more than half of you, with varying degrees of disruption to your ability to use the co-op, but also causing your blogmeister a steady stream of non-stop tinkering. Karen has been particularly hard-hit, through no fault of her own.

So I've had a bit of a re-imagination of the calendar, and I will be changing us over from Google/calendars to a simpler but more useful calendar called 30 Boxes. You will need to register with it just once. I've tested it with 5 users and it seems to work in all the email and browser configurations I can cook up, PLUS it will enable us to change our responses to a sit request from within the calendar program. In the next day or so I you will be receiving invites from 30Boxes to register; please do. If you need help with any of that process, I am happy to go around showing people how to set up their systems.

The second major change is hopefully not one that will disrupt your life at all. I've re-published the sit report form, where you log your hours, to include mixed sleeping/awake sits, and there is also an option for last-minute sit calculations. If you have recorded a sit in the last week, I have transferred that information over and you will not lose any points.

I'll be cooking up a video tutorial for the new calendar system, but I think, given that you all got it with Google/calendar and the new system is easier, that it will be unnecessary.

Thank you for your patience (again) and hopefully no more major changes will rear their ugly heads. Plus, my improvements will ultimately make all this easier for all.

Happy springtime!
Laura

Blogmeister Update: Notes for tonight's meeting

Hi all,
In an effort to consolidate my own free-floating OCD, here are the current projects I have underway:

1. Short term projects:
a. Automatize basic spreadsheet for immediate transference to the secretary. (75% finished)
b. Automate natural secretary points calculation (i.e., our monthly 2-point deductions) (25% finished)
c. Complete "Manual Override document (90%) and system (0%)
d. Complete "Monthly Non-Use" document (90%) and system (0%)
e. Add "Last minute cancellation" to the basic form.
f. Package "how to" documentation for the next secretary (video tutorial, pdfs, screen-shots, but more importantly, work-flow.)
g. Strategize about Blogmeister responsibilities moving forward - how to add and subtract new members, how to get the, oh, let's call it, meta-system sharable somehow (0%).

2. Longer term projects:
a. Completion of Beta complex spreadsheet and form (60%?)
b. Re-skin blog w/ 3-col format? Would lose my widgets!
c. Discussion Point: Ultimately, I think I will be able to get an "on-going" total of everyone's balances. This would enable us, if we like, of being able to base eligibility a bit differently than we usually do. Further down the road, it reduces yet another secretary task.
d. Need volunteers to work on documentation of all sorts. We need to figure out what would go here in our core rules section. Also if someone could put on their visionary thinking caps and think of the things we need that I'm not thinking of, that would be not only super for me, but would be safer and smarter for everyone.

3. Way Down The Yellow Brick Road:
a. Integrate all Google docs, forms and spreadsheets into a single application. Users would have accounts. Need coder/programmer, but not an expert one.
b. Auto-reminders to file sit reports and follow-ups.
c. Get really tight data validation.
d. Troubleshoot devices/phones.

Notes:
1. There's no point in having a system if no one ever wants a sit... come on, request people! I hope the technology hasn't been holding you back. I can always schedule the sit, just shoot me (or the future secretary) an email.
2. Need feedback, please.
3. How's the video library working out for you? I can see that seven people have seen the screencast about how to schedule a sit. Only a few have looked at anything else.
4. Schedule: No one's discussed a schedule, which is great, because while I'm motivated and happy to continue tinkering on this thing as long as necessary, I'm also grateful that I'm not working under a deadline. That said, I'm going to slow down work on it during summer, so I'd like to get the main bulk of my issues finished by June. Fingers crossed!