As part of the Autry National Center's web-site project, we decided to incorporate an intranet to be used for employees: job postings, activities, and the like. We were also desperately in need of a master calendar due to many scheduling conflicts. People were keeping their personal calendars in Palm Desktop and Lotus Organizer but there was no master. Our Education Department was and still is using Vista, and our P.R. Department was using an Excel Spreadsheet. We asked the company that designed our web site if it would be possible to put a master calendar on the intranet portion, and they said yes. So we spent several months with them designing what turned out to be a wonderful master calendar. We created color-codes for each category: Operations, Museum Events, Meetings, Outside Events and Exhibits. Our calendar has monthly, weekly and daily views with descriptions for each event. We assign certain employees admin rights so they can enter the events and book the areas using drop-down boxes. It works really well. We decided to stay with Vista for the School and Docent tours, and there is even a way in Vista that the Coordinator can export a calendar into a Word document. Then we created a space on the master calendar where she can upload the tour schedules. It says: "Click here for School Tours". By doing it this way, we avoided cluttering up the main calendar. We also did this with our P.R. department and have their Excel tours viewable in a separate space. Everyone is extremely happy with this solution. Regards,
George "Jake" Crossland I.T. Manager Autry National Center 4700 Western Heritage Way Los Angeles, CA 90027 323-667-2000 ext. 247 >>> zen...@healthspacecleveland.org 08/05/05 07:37AM >>> I am really enjoying the discussion on this topic. We have also run into this problem and had chosen to build our own system from scratch. This was quite the learning experience, and one I would recommend that people approach with caution. Our final result has been very pleasing, but with any custom built system, there's always more that you want. Luckily with this type of system, you can always make it happen as funds become available. Part of the reason we wanted to build our own system was so that we could offer it to other institutions to customize for their own needs. Our system tracks all modes of our Education programming (In House, Outreach, Distance Learning) as well as our Camps, Facility Rentals, Staff reservations, and everything else that requires space, time and people. My vision was not to offer a turn-key solution, but one that is 90% complete, where the purchasing institution would work with their own FileMaker developer to make the necessary changes for their needs. This would provide a solid custom-built solution for a fraction of the cost. Our system was built in FileMaker Pro 6 (completed just over a year ago). Now we are already looking at transitioning it to FileMaker 8 when it is released (soon). It currently does not track donors or members at this time (we have another application that does that) though we are looking at the potential of integrating it. If anyone has any questions or would be interested in getting more information on this system, just let me know. Attached is a screen capture to give you an idea of what our main dashboard looks like (sorry for the quality, posts have to be less that 100K). I will be presenting this system at the NAHEC conference later this month, discussing the choice between building or buying a system like this, and the positive and negative aspects of both. If anyone has any thoughts to add on this process, I'd love to include them. Thanks, Roger Roger Zender Director, Information & Learning Technology zen...@healthspacecleveland.org 216-231-6828 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- HealthSpace Cleveland http://www.healthspacecleveland.org http://www.healthdl.org > From: Lori Anderson <webmas...@museumca.org> > Reply-To: <mcn-l@mcn.edu> > Date: Thu, 04 Aug 2005 14:56:18 -0700 > To: <mcn-l@mcn.edu> > Subject: Re: Scheduling software > Resent-From: <mcn-l@mcn.edu> > Resent-To: <mcn_mc...@listserver.americaneagle.com> > Resent-Date: Thu, 4 Aug 2005 16:56:19 -0500 > > Hi, > We are also looking at streamlining our events workflow and scheduling. Have > any of you used or heard of Net Simplicity? We did a couple of demos and > also downloaded it for a trial and I think that although it isn't the most > sophisticated software, it still allows for scheduling, hardware and > staffing allocation, reporting in an easy to use format. We are poised to > buy it - does anyone have any experience using this product? > > Thanks! > > --------------- > Lori Anderson > Senior Web Manager > Oakland Museum of California > 1000 Oak Street > Oakland, CA 94607 > 510/637-0176 > webmas...@museumca.org > http://www.museumca.org > > > > On 8/4/05 2:48 PM, "Matthew P. Stevens" <mstev...@adventuresci.com> wrote: > >> Janice, >> >> We have been using TMVista for over 10 years. Overall, it has been a good >> product for us. Basic ticketing and scheduling of events works well. We >> sell >> tickets for general admission, timed tickets for our flight simulator and >> planetarium, and manage camp attendance through the front desk and back >> office >> modules. The stock reports are very limited. Room booking and resource >> tracking are not strong points. >> >> We have evaluated and plan to move to Blackbaud Patron's Edge over the next >> two years. By year three, we hope to add the full online functionality which >> provides real time ticketing, donation, and membership management. We have >> used Blackbaud Raiser's Edge for nearly 10 years. I highly recommend >> Blackbaud. They are pricey but worth it. Their software is solid, but also >> well supported. >> >> Regards, >> >> >> - >> Matthew Stevens, Technology Officer >> Adventure Science Center >> 800 Fort Negley Blvd >> Nashville TN 37203 >> Direct: 615-401-5064 >> Main: 615-862-5160 >> Fax: 615-862-5178 >> http://www.adventuresci.com <http://www.adventuresci.com/> >> >> -----Original Message----- >> From: Janice [mailto:janice.cradd...@cartermuseum.org] >> Sent: Tuesday, August 02, 2005 4:32 PM >> To: mcn-l@mcn.edu >> Subject: Scheduling software >> >> >> >> Has anyone found scheduling software that is uncomplicated and incorporates >> scheduling all aspects within a Museum? We mainly have tours, special >> events, >> and daily staff meetings that we want to track on one calendar (instead of 10 >> different public calendars in Outlook!) It would be nice if it could produce >> daily and weekly activity reports; monthly and annual statistics, like >> numbers >> of attendants to different types of tours and functions; track docent hours >> based on which tours they were scheduled to do, track resource usage, etc; >> and >> give everything to you in one calendar view screen! And don't forget >> unlimited users because we want everyone on staff to be able to view the >> calendar and may be even book staff meeting rooms. We looked at Vista, >> Blackbaud Raiser's Edge Events module, and ABC Event Manager. There are >> things I like about each one of them. They all seem to focus on different >> aspects of event planning. Some on room allocation, some on tracking >> resources, some on finance, some on ticketing... but, we just haven't quite >> found what we need. >> >> >> >> So, what software are you using and what do you like/dislike about it? >> >> >> >> Janice Craddock >> >> Information Technology Manager >> >> 817.738.1933 >> >> jan...@cartermuseum.org >> >> >> >> >> >> --- >> You are currently subscribed to mcn_mcn-l as: mstev...@adventuresci.com >> To unsubscribe send a blank email to >> leave-mcn_mcn-l-12800...@listserver.americaneagle.com >> >> >> >> --- >> You are currently subscribed to mcn_mcn-l as: webmas...@museumca.org >> To unsubscribe send a blank email to >> leave-mcn_mcn-l-12800...@listserver.americaneagle.com >> > > > > > > --- > You are currently subscribed to mcn_mcn-l as: zen...@healthspacecleveland.org > To unsubscribe send a blank email to > leave-mcn_mcn-l-12800...@listserver.americaneagle.com > --- You are currently subscribed to mcn_mcn-l as: rlancefi...@mail.wesleyan.edu To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-mcn_mcn-l-12800...@listserver.americaneagle.com
