New Calendar and Honorarium process

That is a broader topic than just the calendar system. If we never intend to have an rfid lock, or interlock system on the tool then the honor system is all we got. Things like the Laser will have a login at the computer as will the 3d printers so that is easy to implement, but that’s up to the committees. Those committees also need to provide names. For all the classes in the new system, we have a roster, but not sure who actually showed up and didn’t.

So for the time being if you have a sign in sheet, send the names to [email protected].

Hopefully there won’t be a need for hand holding in the future and things will be done automatically. The calendar was kind of rushed before it was fully done because one of the main things (honorarium process) was the bigger priority to get solved.

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I suggested this via PM to someone but thought it made sense to bring up here in general given this portion of discussion.

Idea: what about a spreadsheet, either on laptop as file or online at Google Docs, that lets students type in their name, email, DMS AD user ID (if known), and member status. Instructor fills in class name, date, and their name. When class is done, spreadsheet (or link to online version) is emailed to appropriate person(s)/team. No transcription errors and the cut-n-past makes job a lot quicker and less painful.

My understanding is that one requires above normal user priviledges to do so.

Thank you Alex. I can’t imagine how much time this project has sucked up.

Problem with the honor system is that if something is implemented later, then you have a situation like with the people who were never recorded as having taken the woodshop basics class.

Or if you end up having a class that has a pre-requisite. The people who took the pre-requisite under an honor system, are unable to sign up for the class on the calendar.

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Because we want to change how the system works to be more efficient, for the sake of our Finance Committee volunteers. I haven’t seen you there :slight_smile:

I disagree. You should always focus your efforts on where you want something to go. If your car starts drifting, you don’t accept defeat and let it potentially hit another car; you correct the direction and go about your day.

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You want to focus on complete use cases, which means ones that have all details thought out. This generally means the existing use cases. For those that haven’t been in place it is generally a good idea to have a working model before deployment. An example was the implementation of prerequisites before the implementation of the tools and data needed to conform to those prerquisites.

Now Alex has done a good job with managing this, but even good jobs can give us something to learn from to make them better the next time.

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The people who sign up are generally far from being a one-for-one match to the people who show up.

Until you can do something to change this, & I don’t see how, whatever you do that ignores the fact isn’t going to be very successful. There’s just no way around it.

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Lets not ignore the reality here folks. The system was under development, was functional, but not completely feature complete. The old system was a frigging mess, with meetup, eventbrite, local calendar, all cobbled together with spit. The new system, missing pieces or no, is far superior to what we had.

It will get better, and clearly Alex &Co. are listening to various comments and requests about it. But coding is slow work, arbitrating what is and isn’t a good idea always causes butthurt people, and arguments.

If you think they need to add a feature or change - make a clear and concise argument in favor of your thoughts, be respectful of the workload, and be extremely patient. That’s your best chance at inclusion.

If you are teaching classes now on tools that require training to use, or are likely to require it in the future, or just might possibly maybe could require it - use signup sheets, and keep them somewhere safe. What today’s committee wants, isn’t necessarily what tomorrows committee will want. And work is currently happening on an RFID interlock system that uses the same data the class prerequisites do to unlock a tool. This is the future. If you fail to record people taking your class, eventually you will force them to take it again, and they won’t shower you with love for failing to spend 30 seconds to lay down and collect a signup sheet.

We just learned this the hard way in Woodshop. It sucks. Hopefully the other committees will learn from our error.

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You’re being pretty negative dude. @AlexRhodes already pointed out a few times that this is a work in progress, and I’m sure it’s very clear at this point that there are a few use cases that need to be addressed.

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I seem to recall at the BoD meeting that approved the first tranche of funding had a rather lenghty list of items in the SOW of desirious features AND I thought it was clearly stated that not everything was going to happen at once but in phases.

The transition period from old to new was … less than painless (especially for Alex) but the new system is by far superior to the old one. From what I’ve seen of the system as a user scheduling classes, from Finance Committee side, room scheduling, class approval, things done under new system appear to go much more smoothly (not perfectly, like August having only 30 days, but smoother)

The new system is incorporating rules to prevent arguments over things like “What really is 12 days?” Additionally, it’s streamling allowed a reduction from 12 days to 10 days (more precisely 240 hours) it won’t let you violate the rule when scheduling. That’s plus. No need to find obscure wiki page. Also, you don’t have to wait for three approvals: system default is unless there is challenge / question about class, then after 72 hours it is automatically approved. Instructors who have waited up day class to get final approval can appreciate this.

System also incorporates other policy rules up front like W9 submissions rather than after the fact when checks are being held because we need a W9. Discussions on when W9’s are required surfaced and resolved at last last BoD and will be incorporated into Revised software when next SOW is issued and funded. TBD

The main “steam engine” has been built and is running, the bells, whistles, and some technical issues need addressing. But it was never promised or sold that it would have more than basic functionally at launch. I think this has been overlooked or minimized in discussions.

When the next revisions are defined and funded (yes, this has to occur because we are having one professional do it rather than build a camel by volunteers - not they aren’t professionals also ) it will be an even better system. I hopefully will see some of the features I would like will appear like the rest of you.

I think Alex has has taken more arrows than the hallway outside CA has nails. Alex, thank you. Now wave your magic wand it make it all things to all people.

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First, for the record, the new calendar system is a huge improvement over the old one. I’m sure there are additional features that (a) were envisioned but planned for a later date and/or (b) might not have been envisioned but might be suggested by members as future enhancements.

Is there an official place that lists future enhancements that are planned so we can stop pestering y’all about them?

Is there an official place to collect all the suggestions for future enhancements so that they can be collated and prioritized (or in some cases dismissed if not practical or desirable) for future releases of the calendar?

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A github repo would be good, can track issues and bugs there

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As someone who now teaches on a weekly basis I think the new system is great.

I understand that there are things that still need to be worked out, and that there are things on the drawing board that are going to be added, but this is one of the easier systems I’ve ever used.

Just wanted to add some positive points here for @AlexRhodes and the others to combat some of the negativity.

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Newest Updates added last night.

1.) If there is a conflict for your room, you will now see the class that it conflicts with and a link to the event.

2.) If your class is rejected there will now be a place for “Rejector” to inform the “Rejectee” as to why it was rejected.

3.) Admin privileges on the back-end have been modified. -Wont affect most people.

4.) Contact clean up on the DB. -Wont affect most people.

There will be more updates coming, but wanted to let people know of the few things updated last night.

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Big Update.

You can now see your previously taught and attended events in your “Hosting Events” and “Attending Events” section of your account. If your class was rejected you will see it Highlighted in red.

Now that you can see your past events you can now copy previously taught events. If you have taught a class before you can find your event and click on the

Now in the top right you should see a “Copy Event” button.

When you do this it will copy everything except for the date. This includes previous files and Honorarium settings. Always review your class before submitting to make sure everything still applies.

Another minor things is that we added to the message after you create event that it cant take 48 - 72 hours to show on the calendar.

More updates will be coming in the near future.

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Awesome! From a casual user perspective this thing is great. I’m sure it’s even better to the people on the back who fling paper to make everything work around here.

I do have a couple of questions/niggles though…
Regarding the login, it has been taking 10s of seconds to get to the login page, and then to process the login. I just checked (from DMS) and that isn’t the case at the moment, so maybe that’s been fixed.

Also, it seems to be pretty aggressive about logging me out. Is that only tied to an open window session? Is the cookie being set for a very short (like 10 minute) time frame? Personally I would prefer it to just leave me logged in!

Thanks again, this is all quite an improvement!

I apologize if this has been answered already. So I had a fun little tie dye class. One person registered by the end of the night I had four people participating.
I do realize they need to register to be in the class. But, if this happens in the future can one apply for the honorarium after the fact?

Ooooo. Copy event. Sweet!

The other thing about this situation is I would have signed-up/attended and brought a friend with their kid if I had a way of knowing it wasn’t going to be mobbed/packed (which I really would have bet it was going to be). Would really like to be able to see a list of sign-up-ees for a class or event; wouldn’t need to include personal contact details, but would be great to be able to understand who and how many are attending.

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