Hello,--
I’ve part of the Minnesota group and have been working on v.2 coding in fits and starts since February because we need v.2’s greater flexibility and other upgraded components as soon as possible. The thought behind the coding has become clearer with each set of TechRocks’ documentation. Using brainstorming we did as an org and the latest ebase docs I’ve created a 2/3’s done list of source codes. I’m creating a list of questions, some of which I may post if I can’t figure them out soon, some of which were answered at our ebase Users Group meeting last Thursday!
I believe my org is a good example of the movement toward “Customer Relationship Marketing”. We were a one staff and small band of volunteers office for many years. But since the big endowment came through 5 years ago have grown to 3 FT and 3 PT staff and tripled membership. Yet our use of data had remained basically the same—newsletter list and payments. Finally we are need to and are ready to move beyond to relationship tracking. Which can be hard for staff and volunteers to understand what that all entails! I’m still working at wrapping my mind around parts of the new possibilities.
Those who aren’t interested in creation of codes may wish to wait a while to let others pave the way and pick-and-chose from the codes others post to the website (I intend to do so when the job is done). But the thinking may be fruitful in either case as it delves into the org’s real drives and issues and helps frame goals. There is always room for improvement!
Good Luck, Beth
Beth Hynes
Database Manager
Parks & Trails Council of Minnesota
275 East 4th Street #642 Saint Paul MN 55101
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
651-726-2457
Hi Gary, Liz and All,
As I am working through and reading (carefully) through the documentation, I'm finding my own concern and
fear decreasing. There is mention in the help documents of making a variety of sample code sets available. I'm hopeful that we, the user community, can come up with a few of these to contribute. Until your users feel like moving, I don't think that there is any great pressure to upgrade to v2 -- at least not yet. It's just that some of us on this list (I admit it, I'm a dreaded 'early adopter'!) just love to *tinker*.
As far as learning curves go, I think that some of this is actually not learning specific to a particular application or system -- instead, it's learning why "Customer Relationship Marketing" is such a big thing today, and how we smaller-time players (all-volunteer groups like mine, and maybe like yours), can make use of some of those ideas. Source coding in v1 seemed to me to be largely a lesson in how to gauge whether your means of contacting your people are paying off. I'd bet that (too) many small NPOs haven't been paying any attention to how cost-effective their mailings or events are. I wouldn't blame that on eBase, but on our failure to promote education of board members and others.
Best,
Linda
Bogue, Gary wrote:
Liz,
For me, the codes have been an ongoing concern. For our users, the source
codes were always the biggest stumbling block to comfort with v1. It was an
easy fix, though - source codes were simply ignored and life went on. In v2,
however, it's a different matter - codes are an essential part of the
system. This worries me, since I hope that v2 will be accepted by our users.
So far, I haven't dared show v2 to any of them out of concern that they will
be so daunted by the code scheme that they will turn against upgrading. We
have an older staff, including some reluctant computer users, whose reasons
for working here don't include technological mastery. I'm hoping that there
will be a rapid evolution to friendlier coding standards.
As I look back on the goals of v2, it appears that many were well met.
Although it is not important to us, there are now web features. The
architecture has changed dramatically, enabling
a higher level of fit to
many diverse organizations, including ours (a large historic preservation
advocacy). In the same way, upgrading should become dramatically easier.
This is a huge issue to those of us so heavily customized that we haven't
been able to move from v1.00. But the tradeoff which enabled the new
architecture, the coding scheme, imposes a challenging learning curve. One
of the v2 goals, as I recall, was to ease the learning curve. I'm not
certain that has happened. Obviously, it's too late to fully rethink the
approach. But I think that efforts now should be largely focused (excepting
bug fixes) on making the code system more friendly. I feel that improving
this will be the key to gaining user buy-in for ebase 2.
Gary
Subject: RE: Ebase v2.00 - Designing Codes, anyone?
From: "Liz Gans" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Thu, 14 Mar 2002 15:46:34 -0800
X-Message-Number: 6
Linda,
You've caught a bug in the Code Tutorial that I noticed only yesterday.
I'm
checking on the workaround and will post another response soon.
About the complexity - I'm interested in including a simpler set of sample
codes with the next version (2.01, to be released in early April). The
sample set I developed is geared to larger organizations...I'd appreciate
it
if you would give me an idea of the types of things you want to track in
your organization (send to me at [EMAIL PROTECTED]).
I'd like to hear from others who feel put-off by the complexity of the
codes...what do you want to track in your orga
nization? Your feedback will
help in this next round of sample code design.
Thanks,
Liz
----------------------------------------------
Liz Gans
Director, ebase Community Support
TechRocks
432 Last Chance Gulch, Ste K, Helena, MT 59601
406.442.0082
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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