Barry, I think you've hit on an important issue. I've made an attempt, modest so far due to limited time, to initiate an ebase user group here in the Rochester, NY area. So far, I've found four groups using ebase here. I'm the volunteer administrator for two of the groups. I'm hoping eventually that others from areas nearby (Ithaca, Buffalo, Corning, Geneva, etc.) will be interested in joining us. I suspect many others in our region use ebase, but have no way of knowing unless they contact me. I think it would be useful for others in areas where ebase is used to band together in this way. It allows for casually sharing information face-to-face, which is better than online support for many. It also allows for the critical mass necessary to bring an experienced trainer or consultant to your area. Unfortunately, Alice never came here. I made an unsuccessful attempt a year ago to receive trainer training. It was on the West coast and I was advised to wait until a class was held on the East coast, which didn't happen. While I understand the package fairly well, I'm hesitant to call myself a qualified trainer without formal study. However, I have done some ebase consulting and customization. Since I also work full-time as an in-house FileMaker developer, my time for this is limited. There's a conflict between the desire for privacy (ebase only publishes the names of groups that give permission) and the ability to easily contact other users in our areas. We can't rely on TechRocks to set up a user network, even they're in the best position to facilitate it, since their attention is largely on development and documentation of future versions of the software. Do you have specific ideas? Gary Bogue, database administrator Historic Valentown and Landmark Society of Western NY Home: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Re: honest opinion about ebase? > From: Barry Madore <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Date: Tue, 10 Apr 2001 11:57:13 -0500 > X-Message-Number: 9 > > Hello all, > > I'd like to chime in on the support issue thread as well. I work as a > technology consultant with an organization that provides technology > support > solely to nonprofit organizations in Minnesota (Twin Cities metro mostly). > The number one, hands down, need for our clients is a functional, > multi-purpose, relational database (with websites a close second). We > have > more and more groups looking at and using ebase. Since we are really the > main game in town, people are looking to us for support. As the Mac and > Filemaker user here I have been stepping in to provide support to those > using or evaluating ebase. But I am, by no means, the end-all expert I > would > like to be. I have tried to interest for-profit FM Pro consultants in > learning and consulting on ebase but have met relative indifference > outside > of an informal FM user-group. > > I guess I'd like to find out if it might be possible for an ebase training > institute of sorts to train trainers. I'm an intermediate FM Pro > user/developer learning more and more primarily due to the availability > and > affordability of ebase. I took Alice Aguilar's one-day "ebase 101" user > course when she came to town. It was very helpful but I want all the > clients I now see to be able to take this class. It would be great if we > could have someone locally who could teach this. I suppose I might be > willing to do this if I could get more intensive backend training on ebase > myself. It sounds like there may be interest in other areas for the same > thing. > > Can we pool our interest and our knowledge and our resources to become a > better trained and more geographically diverse network of support people? > Can we set up materials and a network to create local area user groups > where > people can face-to-face with other users and consultants to work out > problems and share customization solutions and insight? > > I am now convinced that ebase is worth the time and effort we as support > people can put into it. The organizations I work with are infinitely > better > off with ebase than they were without it (am I right Beth?). Giftmaker > and > Blackbaud are often not perceived as options (for many reasons including > financial) and organizations are more likely to go to the > ED's-nephew's-database-class-project or scattered spreadsheets as an > alternative. > > If there's significant interest, let's take initiative and see what we can > work out with TechRocks. > > -- > Barry Madore > Technology Circuit Rider > MAP for Nonprofits > St. Paul, Minnesota > Direct: 651/632-7235 > MAP: 651/647-1216 > email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] / [EMAIL PROTECTED] > MAP web: http://www.mapnp.org > ------------------ Reminder to each recipient: To change your list account preferences, go to http://email.sparklist.com/scripts/lyris.pl?enter=support and enter the email address you used to subscribe to the ebase support list:: [email protected] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] --------------------------------------------------------------------- ebase - Relationship Management for Nonprofits, http://www.ebase.org ---------------------------------------------------------------------
