[Qcwa] RE: Update for W6BOB Plamondon, Bob 30178 - and suggestions

[Bob Plamondon]

Thanks for the fast response, Jim.

"Chewin'" on this stuff is better than some of the other chewin' we've
had - but it's all pretty healthy in the end.  I only regret the lack of
civility that rears it's ugly head from time to time.

I appreciate the improvement to one year for the paper directory - but
that's kind of the tail wagging the dog these days - and still a pretty
darn slow dog at that.  Whatever the "REAL" database says day-to-day,
ALWAYS ought to be reflected online first - where one would expect to
see the latest, most up-to-date record/status.  The Backend system -
dBaseIV - should be exactly that - the backend - being fed FROM the
online/frontend images.  For now, the backend/dBaseIV seems to be the
obstacle here because it NOW is the most current but also the LEAST
ACCESSABLE.

There are VERY FEW folks who still have that database package on their
systems - but Excel (or Excel compatible/importable) products are highly
prevalent.   It should be a relatively simple matter to translate the
dBaseIV structures (ALL of them) into a New Master Excel version for
your updating, mailings, whatever - and then make a copy of the new
Excel Master daily (or even just once or twice a week - it would only
take a minute or two) for frontend/online viewing by the membership.
They would also have the option to download the entire spreadsheet -
should they choose to acquire/manipulate it for their our purposes
(which THEY can then decide.)  Giving them paper copies is expensive and
a waste of printing, postage, handling, your time, their time, and then
painful transcribing into their computers for their end purposes.
Downloading is a far better method - and near instantaneous to the
clubs/members.  I know this all takes work - and maybe some money - but
it's really not that hard to do - and maybe some of us can help.

As for font sizes, we can very successfully manage our own screens to
whatever we need if we have the "live" data as in the case of a
spreadsheet like Excel's.  PDF files are highly restrictive "dead" data
element views to the vast majority of us (there are a few that have the
expensive Adobe products to drive our "live" data from the PDFs - but
not nearly enough of us could - or would want to - afford that)   And
you would have to make them much more available to be comparable to the
spreadsheet master/copy online scheme I propose above.   The conversion
of your backend processes shouldn't be that big a problem either - but
you could, of course, export your Excel Master spreadsheets back to
dBaseIV if the reprogramming for "batch-type" backend activities was too
painful or expensive.

With disk space going for as little as $1 per gigabyte these days, space
would surely not be a problem. (Many discount online computer shops have
some good (IBM, Western Digital) 60-80GB drives for $60-$80 - and just
one of either would be far more than we require)  And since this kind of
work is driven mostly by the speed of the disks involved, no
processor/memory updates to your system should be required.

The net effect should also be a considerable savings after a short
payback period.  Of course, some reasonably small amount of printing of
directories et al will always be requested - but that should be provided
on a true cost basis to the requestor - along with an offer of help to
teach them how to save their money and get it online - and much faster.
Ultimately, it would likely prove wise to move some Journal content to
the Internet as well - for all the same reasons - but such house organs
are rarely ever converted completely - however, they do get cheaper to
mail !  (Have you noticed what's going on at ARRL?)

It's a rapidly changing world out there, Jim - and our membership is
growing more "hip" to it than you might think.   So long as there are a
few technologically aware OMs in most/each chapter, they're going to
expect that we deliver services with Internet speed and currency as
above - and, given the modest cost/efforts (and savings) to do so, that
is not at all an unreasonable expectation.

Thanks again for listening.

73,  w6BOB

-----Original Message-----
From: Jim Walsh [mailto:jwalsh@teleport.com]
Sent: Friday, September 06, 2002 9:55 AM
To: Bob Plamondon
Subject: Re: Update for W6BOB Plamondon, Bob 30178 - and suggestions


At 08:57 AM 9/6/02 -0700, you wrote:
>
>Hi, Jim.  (I'm also copying the listserver - since suggestions are a
>current topic there)

Oh well, something else they can 'chew' on.
>
>I know I sent this in before (6-7 months ago) - but it's not being
>reflected in the ONLINE Membership Directory (which I assume is updated
>very regularly.)  It's possible that I inadvertently notified the
>Journal only.  My apologies, if so (but you'd think the databases would
>be shared/integrated rather than tolerating duplicate update tasks).
>Anyway, here's what my directory listing should look like.

You address has been changed in the data base. What appears on the home
page is a once a year Directory, each year, of the members as of June 30
of
that year. It used to be that we did a Directory every three years. I
shortened it to every year on June 30, and published it on the home
page.
It is not possible with the present configuration to have current info
in
the home site, every day or so.
>W6BOB  Plamondon, Bob   30178  75  91
>       5200 Irvine Blvd. # 463
>       Irvine, CA  92620-2005
>
>Since it's online (no paper and disk is dirt cheap), it would be very
>nice if you could add phone numbers and email addresses too (in just a
>few short years, most every QCWAer I've spoken with has acquired an
>email address.)   My phone/email details are.
>
>       (714) 505-3140
>       bobp@att.net
>
>Please advise your online directory update frequency/times.  (I know -
>we're all volunteers but we try to operate with some degree of
>predictability)
>
>And since it is online, shouldn't we make the characters MUCH MUCH
>bigger for the great many of us that have poor sight, even with
>glasses/lenses ?

Welll, the size of the font is good,  just remember it is reduced by the
size of your monitor and so it gets smaller in your view.
>
>Also, please consider an downloadable ZIP Excel version too - so that
we
>can manipulate the directory to a much greater degree than now.  That
>can be just a single/total file - because of the manipulation of it
>possible at our end as an Excel file - and it might even prove to be a
>preferred "master format" for you and the Journal.

We did not contemplate, nor has the past experience shown any changes,
that
our members would want to download or manipulate the files in any
manner.
In fact, the interest in having the Directory is very minimal. However,
the
files can be printed if someone wants to do that. Ou master data file is
in
dBaseIV and from that the mailing are generated, membership records are
maintained, and all the other goodies that are involved with a
membership
organization. We do ZIP searches for gorups that want to try and start a
Chapter, and once a year we do a Chapter mailing where we send to each
chapter a list of those members we have recorded for that chapter.
>Thanks for your help - and for listening.

Hope the answers help you.
73,

>
>73,   w6BOB
>
>