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Unit participation tracking

Started by LeoBurke, April 14, 2010, 02:38:18 AM

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LeoBurke


How are units tracking their member attendance at monthly Safety briefs?  anyone automate this yet?
Leo Burke, Michigan

/\/\/\   The Spaatz award is over-rated.  Get yours and prove it.  It's Half the
\/\/\/   Mitchell, Half the Earhart, write a paragraph and run around the block!


Eclipse

Simms is a great way to track attendance.

I have a Group-level Google form that tracks the when/where/what of the actual meetings that my units CC (or designate) fill out each week, which becomes the record of safety meetings and their subject (among many other things).

"That Others May Zoom"

RADIOMAN015

Quote from: LeoBurke on April 14, 2010, 02:38:18 AM

How are units tracking their member attendance at monthly Safety briefs?  anyone automate this yet?
Take the sign in roster for both cadets & seniors and make a copy, write safety briefing on the top of it & than add a copy of your outline presentation.  There's your documentation.

We don't need to be spending more time entering attendance into another computer system.    CAP needs to really be thinking about how they value volunteers' time.  Most volunteers aren't interested in spending hours at a computer entering data (many of them have to stare at a computer all day at work).
RM   

Eclipse

Excellent! More paper crammed in a drawer that no one can access or report against!  No sense in tracking who is doing what, or having usable data for baseline.

Seriously, a few days ago you were saying we should track member donations of postage, but now its too much work to enter a
few pieces of text for information we actually need for all sorts of annual reporting?

If you don't know the who/what and where of your members and activities, how will you know whether you are meeting the mission?
Not to mention that my response to an SUI question about safety meetings, or my annual reporting is one click away.  Good luck with your drawer.

"That Others May Zoom"

Pylon

SIMS is how we track all meeting attendance, as well as safety briefing attendance.  There's an option in SIMS to designate at which meetings there was a safety briefing.  If a print out is ever needed, you can print out an attendance roster for that night.

We also have locally-required quarterly safety reports to higher headquarters, which require cadet & senior attendance numbers and topics of safety briefings, signature of the safety officer and commander, and some other related info.  The local requirement must be submitted in their special form, so it unfortunately can't be generated out of SIMS unless someone were to build a template.   But people outside of NYWG don't need to worry about that.
Michael F. Kieloch, Maj, CAP

davidsinn

We use the awful WMU. That's the only use for it in our wing too. It's far past time that monstrosity died.
Former CAP Captain
David Sinn

sarflyer

Radioman,

SIMS actually makes life easier.  My cadets sign in each meeting by just typing in their CAP ID and hitting the enter button twice.  When the meeting is created I just check a box that says safety and they get credit automatically because they signed into the meeting.  No paper needed.  When the monthly report is due I print the attendance sheet and attach the necessary docs and send it to wing.    The program gives each member credit for attendance.   It works the same way for activities and moral leadership also which are required for progression.  And the regulations allow us to keep our records this way.  The only caution I would put out there is to make sure you back up the records after each week.   The programs great but computers can crash!

My personal feeling is everyone should be using this program.  It works and is open so that improvements can be made.  If we could get National and the membership to embrace it things would run a lot more smoothly. 

If this has made anyone curious please check out www.squadroncommand.com.

There are also threads about SIMS here, just do a search.



Lt. Col. Paul F. Rowen, CAP
MAWG Director of Information Technology
NESA Webmaster
paul.rowen@mawg.cap.gov

davidsinn

Quote from: sarflyer on April 14, 2010, 12:00:00 PM
Radioman,

SIMS actually makes life easier.  My cadets sign in each meeting by just typing in their CAP ID and hitting the enter button twice.  When the meeting is created I just check a box that says safety and they get credit automatically because they signed into the meeting.  No paper needed.  When the monthly report is due I print the attendance sheet and attach the necessary docs and send it to wing.    The program gives each member credit for attendance.   It works the same way for activities and moral leadership also which are required for progression.  And the regulations allow us to keep our records this way.  The only caution I would put out there is to make sure you back up the records after each week.   The programs great but computers can crash!

My personal feeling is everyone should be using this program.  It works and is open so that improvements can be made.  If we could get National and the membership to embrace it things would run a lot more smoothly. 

If this has made anyone curious please check out www.squadroncommand.com.

There are also threads about SIMS here, just do a search.

I rather NHQ rolled out a web interface program so we are not dependent on a certain computer being there. Something like WMU but actually run from Maxwell under NHQ control.
Former CAP Captain
David Sinn

Phil Hirons, Jr.

Quote from: davidsinn on April 14, 2010, 01:39:21 PM
Quote from: sarflyer on April 14, 2010, 12:00:00 PM
Radioman,

SIMS actually makes life easier.  My cadets sign in each meeting by just typing in their CAP ID and hitting the enter button twice.  When the meeting is created I just check a box that says safety and they get credit automatically because they signed into the meeting.  No paper needed.  When the monthly report is due I print the attendance sheet and attach the necessary docs and send it to wing.    The program gives each member credit for attendance.   It works the same way for activities and moral leadership also which are required for progression.  And the regulations allow us to keep our records this way.  The only caution I would put out there is to make sure you back up the records after each week.   The programs great but computers can crash!

My personal feeling is everyone should be using this program.  It works and is open so that improvements can be made.  If we could get National and the membership to embrace it things would run a lot more smoothly. 

If this has made anyone curious please check out www.squadroncommand.com.

There are also threads about SIMS here, just do a search.

I rather NHQ rolled out a web interface program so we are not dependent on a certain computer being there. Something like WMU but actually run from Maxwell under NHQ control.

Of course that makes you dependent on an internet connection and the IT infrastructure at NHQ  >:D >:D

NIN

My old unit does it like this:

On Safety briefing night, everybody is in the safety briefing. EVERYBODY.  The unit checks the check box in SIMS so that everybody who signed in gets credited in SIMS (we also use a barcode scanner for checkin. Very handy).

Our *awesome* safety officer also circulates a roster at the briefing and that night when he goes home he enters the participation into WMU as demanded by the wing safety guy based on that roster..

There may be some disparities between the rosters, but its pretty limited and provides two factors of information.

Darin Ninness, Col, CAP
I have no responsibilities whatsoever
I like to have Difficult Adult Conversations™
The contents of this post are Copyright © 2007-2024 by NIN. All rights are reserved. Specific permission is given to quote this post here on CAP-Talk only.

davidsinn

Quote from: phirons on April 14, 2010, 02:11:40 PM
Quote from: davidsinn on April 14, 2010, 01:39:21 PM
Quote from: sarflyer on April 14, 2010, 12:00:00 PM
Radioman,

SIMS actually makes life easier.  My cadets sign in each meeting by just typing in their CAP ID and hitting the enter button twice.  When the meeting is created I just check a box that says safety and they get credit automatically because they signed into the meeting.  No paper needed.  When the monthly report is due I print the attendance sheet and attach the necessary docs and send it to wing.    The program gives each member credit for attendance.   It works the same way for activities and moral leadership also which are required for progression.  And the regulations allow us to keep our records this way.  The only caution I would put out there is to make sure you back up the records after each week.   The programs great but computers can crash!

My personal feeling is everyone should be using this program.  It works and is open so that improvements can be made.  If we could get National and the membership to embrace it things would run a lot more smoothly. 

If this has made anyone curious please check out www.squadroncommand.com.

There are also threads about SIMS here, just do a search.

I rather NHQ rolled out a web interface program so we are not dependent on a certain computer being there. Something like WMU but actually run from Maxwell under NHQ control.

Of course that makes you dependent on an internet connection and the IT infrastructure at NHQ  >:D >:D

Better that then a flaky third party app. At least with that I can use my smart phone if necessary to do the job.
Former CAP Captain
David Sinn

Eclipse

Quote from: phirons on April 14, 2010, 02:11:40 PM
Of course that makes you dependent on an internet connection and the IT infrastructure at NHQ  >:D >:D

Something like this should be hosted at a professional data center with a .gov-level SLA. 

"That Others May Zoom"

vento

We use the WMU along with some painkillers to track member's attendance to safety briefings.

heliodoc

^^^^^^^^^^
:clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap:

Now, that IS good!!

LeoBurke


Great - Thank you all for the ideas.  We've been trying to get the units in our groups more comfortable with SIMS.  I think we'll try that as our 'standard'. 

I'm the former Wing Chief of Safety, so I struggled with this problem before.  It's always good to hear other opinions. 

Leo
Leo Burke, Michigan

/\/\/\   The Spaatz award is over-rated.  Get yours and prove it.  It's Half the
\/\/\/   Mitchell, Half the Earhart, write a paragraph and run around the block!


sarflyer

Leo,

Glad to help.  The squadron command site also has a great forum on SIMS.  The download section has a powerpoint presentation to show off SIMS along with an actual manual for the program.  It's a couple of versions older than the current version but it covers the basics plus how to network the program.  I used it to set up my server based SIMS at the unit.

Good luck!

Paul

"The only stupid question is the one never asked!"
Lt. Col. Paul F. Rowen, CAP
MAWG Director of Information Technology
NESA Webmaster
paul.rowen@mawg.cap.gov

a2capt

Is the "CAP Safety Briefing" in eServices tied to duty assignment?

I swear, I can't find it at all. Not even listed in WSA to give access to it. I've typically been entering our unit stuff into WMU during the meeting, and I know it says "use eServices", and then rumor of that coming, but I still don't see it.

I am not the Safety Officer, even though "we all are".

vento

If you are a safety officer, it shows up in the right of the screen under restricted applications within eServices.

ßτε

Quote from: a2capt on May 28, 2010, 02:01:52 AM
Is the "CAP Safety Briefing" in eServices tied to duty assignment?

I swear, I can't find it at all. Not even listed in WSA to give access to it. I've typically been entering our unit stuff into WMU during the meeting, and I know it says "use eServices", and then rumor of that coming, but I still don't see it.

I am not the Safety Officer, even though "we all are".
It is available to Commanders, Deputy Commanders, Vice Commanders, Safety Officers, and their assistants. It cannot be assigned by the WSA.

a2capt

Okay, no worries, I'll get put on as assistant then- since thats the "assisting" portion.


How are members outside your scope handled, entry wise? Same as WMU?


(When a guest is at your meeting, so they may get credit)