New ID card oddity.

[lordmonar]

"Full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."   

Maybe I'm in the minority, but I've never cared one bit what the ID cards looked like. If we have a crummy vendor, I bet the finance people or whoever handles that will react accordingly.

No you are not in the minority.....the majority just doesn't care and don't get all in a wad about it.

[FW]

It's a slow day for me, and I decided to review NB minutes from the past.  The Spring 2005 meeting shows the ID card with barcode.  This card was eventually approved as pictured.  I don't remember the NB ever approving a card without one, or don't remember any NHQ action removing the bar code. 

I do like the idea of the vendor including it as logistics tool though... :angel:

[Eclipse]

...the majority just doesn't care and don't get all in a wad about it.

Your threshold for "wad" must be pretty low, no one's in a "wad".

However it's the apathy about these decisions that get us where we are.

[a2capt]

However it's the apathy about these decisions that get us where we are.

That right there.

..and I don't care mostly, what it looks like. As long as it's of a professional nature, and not a flimsy piece of junk.

We're at the 50% level there. I've practically given up on the other 50%, though I don't have to be quiet about it.

[NIN]

I see these things pretty frequently in IT. Someone at some point came up with the idea to put the barcode on there, and in the interim, national has switched ID card vendors probably 6 times. Okay maybe not 6, but probably 2 or 3 times.

So this vendor, they do these kind of cards for all kinds of organizations not just CAP.

So they probably use some kind of barcode scan to marry up the card that they print to the membership database, and not just for us but for the Pocatello Public Library as well. Now, they probably thought that the ID card barcode get used in a different way, or maybe not at all, even though its on there.

It happens, andI agree with Ned that it's likely not some kind of Machiavellian scheme. More like the last guy who knew something about how the barcodes get used probably got RIF'd 2 years ago.

[Eclipse]

It happens, andI agree with Ned that it's likely not some kind of Machiavellian scheme.

It doesn't have to be a "scheme", it's just simply not a good business practice - so tomorrow if they decide their Cardbuner 9000
would work more efficiently without the text on the back, they can just do it and no one says anything until someone 3-clicks
downstream notices?

The proper way to do this was when the vendor identified an issue, they should have asked NHQ is the format change was an issue,
and NHQ should have sent out an "all' blast, or at least to the Wing CC level asking if anyone would be impacted, then assess the
impact, and decide if the vendor's needs somehow outweigh the member's needs.

A guys who used to work for my in the Dotbomb days had a term for this.

"Ready, Fire, Aim".

[lordmonar]

a.   How many people actually use the bar codes?

b.  Those who actually use the bar codes.....what is the mission impact of changing them?

c.  What cost has been added or subtracted to the members?

Sure.....I agree that would have been a good idea to let us in the field know that a change was being made......but some here make it sound like we took away their birthdays.

As for "asking" for input from the field........sometime you just have to say "shut up and color".   Not very nice....but really let's look at past experience about this.    Vendor needs to make change....NHQ says okay.....if we got send out for comments.....you are looking at 30 days delay or more before a decision is made.....talk about not how you do business. 

[Eclipse]

a.   How many people actually use the bar codes?

b.  Those who actually use the bar codes.....what is the mission impact of changing them?

c.  What cost has been added or subtracted to the members?

Unknown, which is the point.

[JeffDG]

a.   How many people actually use the bar codes?

b.  Those who actually use the bar codes.....what is the mission impact of changing them?

c.  What cost has been added or subtracted to the members?

Unknown, which is the point.

Because nobody bothered to do an impact analysis.

[Al Sayre]

What's done is done, but there's a pretty simple solution to this problem. If you are using an old style bar code scanner, just download the barcode font to your Windows Office Word or the Avery Design Pro free program and print what you want on it on some Avery Permanent Labels. Have the members stick it on the back of their ID card, and scan it next time they check in.

Design Pro can print EAN 8, 13, 128; Code 128 types A, B, & C; Code 39; 2/5 Standard & 2/5 interleaved; Codabar; UPC-A & E; and Postnet. The program is free from Avery-Dennison here: http://www.avery.com/avery/en_us/Templates-%26-Software/Software/?Ns=Rank

[Eclipse]

^ That's actually both a good and hilarious idea, however I'm not sure how excited a gate guard is
going to be seeing a sticker over the barcode.

Brother labels would look better, but still not great.

[Eclipse]

Another way to look at it is that the functionality would never have been there in the first place without the vendor.

There was never a requirement from CAP to make the ID card machine-readable.  If there had been, it is almost certain that a process would have prevented what just happened.  Basically the vendor thought the bar-code was only for their internal processes, and had no way to know that hard-working members were using it for other purposes.

Interestingly, NHQ has no internal need for a a machine readable code.  It makes sense that such a need would be identified and acted upon in the field.

Then why do 101 cards have bar codes?

[Spaceman3750]

^ That's actually both a good and hilarious idea, however I'm not sure how excited a gate guard is
going to be seeing a sticker over the barcode.

Brother labels would look better, but still not great.

Fun fact - Camp Atterbury gate security scanned my barcode into their handheld when I entered the base last year at NESA. Not sure what they were doing with it, since a random six-digit number doesn't really have any significance unless they had some kind of special CAP procedure (which is possible, considering we're there quite a bit).

[68w20]

^ That's actually both a good and hilarious idea, however I'm not sure how excited a gate guard is
going to be seeing a sticker over the barcode.

Brother labels would look better, but still not great.

Fun fact - Camp Atterbury gate security scanned my barcode into their handheld when I entered the base last year at NESA. Not sure what they were doing with it, since a random six-digit number doesn't really have any significance unless they had some kind of special CAP procedure (which is possible, considering we're there quite a bit).

The gate guard at Davis-Monthan took mine, tried to scan it, said "I've never seen a card like this before," and then waved me through.

[Майор Хаткевич]

That will work great with cadets at encampments.

[NIN]

Another way to look at it is that the functionality would never have been there in the first place without the vendor.

There was never a requirement from CAP to make the ID card machine-readable.  If there had been, it is almost certain that a process would have prevented what just happened.  Basically the vendor thought the bar-code was only for their internal processes, and had no way to know that hard-working members were using it for other purposes.

Interestingly, NHQ has no internal need for a a machine readable code.  It makes sense that such a need would be identified and acted upon in the field.

Then why do 101 cards have bar codes?

When did NHQ ever scan someone's 101 card?

[SarDragon]

^ That's actually both a good and hilarious idea, however I'm not sure how excited a gate guard is
going to be seeing a sticker over the barcode.

Brother labels would look better, but still not great.

Ummm... put the sticker on the back? Where it won't cover anything important? CA DMV allows the use of a sticker on the back of a drivers license for address changes, so the practice isn't totally out of line.

[a2capt]

Yeah, great- that works fine for the people in your own area of operation, but when you have unknown who coming in, what are you going to do, have a barcode label printer on hand to just print a piece of paper to stick on the card for the next time you're going to scan it?

..paper, that's going to peel. On a flimsy card. Yeah.

Should have left it alone.

[Al Sayre]

You miss the point, you can do it on any printer using mailing lables...  How many people do you have that just show up.  If you know they are coming, you can print the labels ahead of time.

[Eclipse]

There's any number of ways to "fix" this, all will make the ID card look even less professional.

However any "fix" probably negates using it in the first place.  I suppose if the wing or activity
has a complex system of station check ins, etc., where the barcode is used a bunch of times
a day, that's one thing, but otherwise, it's a 6-digit number, usually only used maybe walking in
and walking out.

If you have to "fix" the card, you can just enter the CAPID and move on.  A minor annoyance at best,
breaks some "nice to have features" of some homegrown check-in systems and just goes on the
pile with all the other "small stuff".