Worklog for the week of June 18th

So busy this week prepping for SSI. Too much stuff going on. No time to write. Too tired to write. Will pick up Monday with notes on the first week of summer camp.

Worklog for June 14th & 15th

I didn’t have the chance to track closely these couple days – I spent a bunch of time on the CTV email (being sent out today), updating both websites with little things, some database work, more on the big CTV data project (transferring data from the old database to the new one), a little business track work, and all Friday afternoon was spent on network issues (we had a friend of James’ who is a professional network installer come in to help us set up our new server – unfortunately our current system is apparently set up improperly, so it’s going to be more work than he thought, and he won’t have time in his schedule to do it until August, so our upgrades are going to wait until then – the problem with many non-profits: nobody on staff that knows how to do something, no money to pay anyone, so relying on volunteer work, while good, sometimes means waiting for their schedule to open up to get work done).

Worklog for June 13th

Well, I spent the first 45 minutes of the day yesterday (the 13th) installing Windows XP to my computer. I spent the rest of the day trying to get my computer to work again. I left being unsuccessful – I couldn’t log into my profile, couldn’t log into any roaming profile, couldn’t keep the drives mapped, nothing would connect to the server, my network card went from 1000mpbs to 100mpbs and the machine was 10 times slower doing anything than it was before.

I came in this morning (Thursday the 14th), reset the domain connection, and now everything seems to be fine. I reset the domain connection 3 times yesterday and nothing. My card is still 100mpbs and should be 1000, I don’t know why it hasn’t changed back.

So, it works, but I have no idea what was wrong or what fixed it. I’m happy about the former, not so much about the latter, since I have a dozen computers to do this with and don’t really want to waste a day screwing around with them not knowing what I’m doing.

Now, I’m going to throw Office 2007 on here, and hope that doesn’t mess it up again!

Worklog for June 12th

09:00-09:45 – Updating CTV website
09:45-11:00 – CTV Newsletter editing
11:00-11:45 – SSI Staff Meeting
11:45-12:20 – Lunch (CTV web news research)
12:20-01:30 – CTV Newsletter editing
01:30-02:10 – CTV Staff Meeting
02:10-02:50 – Importing donor gift data to database
02:50-03:20 – Mtg. w/James on CTV website direction
03:20-05:00 – CTV Newsletter editing
05:00-05:35 – Updating Business website

Worklog for June 11th

08:45-08:55 – merged records in database
08:55-09:10 – updated speakers page on SSI website
09:10-10:10 – SSI webspace filled – had to go through files and delete items from remote host
10:10-11:00 – Reading email; spoke with Jeff about recording schedule/computer issues; obtaining licenses for software we purchased
11:00-11:40 – Finished Business Manual editing and sent to Sherrel
11:40-01:50 – Tech Meeting w/James & Jeff – discussed various backup options
01:50-02:20 – Lunch
02:20-05:10 – Researching Backup, filing system and email options to reduce space on our server

So, we’re wanting to move to an online backup system if possible (bandwidth allowing). Any suggestions? I’m also going to try getting all the content from my outlook profile into Gmail. I’ve heard that contacts in Gmail aren’t that great yet. If anyone knows of any addons that will take care of that, please let me know, as we can’t get rid of outlook if any functional interactivity between mail/calendar/contacts is lost.

Worklog for June 8th

09:00-09:30 – Read/responded to email
09:30-11:00 – Updated SSI website; Prepared Friday Facts email
11:00-12:00 – Sent Friday Facts
12:00-01:00 – Lunch outside the office today
01:00-03:30 – Sent Friday Facts
03:30-04:10 – Checking analytics for SSI; trying to get them installed for CTV
04:10-04:30 – Writing post for business track site
04:30-05:00 – CTV website update

You might note that it takes a few hours to send out our email list: this is because we’re still using antiquated software that only allows us to send 25 emails at a time, because AOL blocks our email if we send it out through our email provider instead of our ISP, but the ISP says AOL doesn’t block our email, and we should contact our email provider about it, except they say it’s not their fault and we should talk to AOL, except AOL says it has nothing to do with them and we should contact our ISP…so, I have to click “send” in our email management program every 40-50 seconds or so, until it has gone through the whole list.

Another week has gone by and I haven’t had time to migrate the website to the new hosting service, or get the analytics installed on CTV’s website… I need an assistant – if you’re interested in interning with us send an app and say you want to do tech and web stuff.

Worklog for June 6th

09:00-09:30 – Reading/Responding to Email; updating SSI website
09:30-10:30 – Prepping SSI curriculum file to send to printer (combining/editing PDF files)
10:30-12:00 – Updating email list; create Promo email; edit Promo email
12:00-02:30 – Sending Promotional email for SSI
02:30-04:00 – Researching CTV website news; editing/posting news to website
04:00-04:20 – Spoke with our host facility about technical needs for SSI
04:20-04:40 – Discussion with Jeff about technical needs for SSI
04:40-05:10 – SSI website updates (Speaker Bios)

Worklog for June 5th & Corporate Inefficiency

09:00-09:30 – Fixing email problems
09:30-11:00 – Working on website – added Google analytics to SSI, updated speakers page and a few other things
11:00-12:15 – Weekly SSI staff meeting
12:15-12:45 – Lunch Break
12:45-01:40 – Editing Business Track manual
01:40-02:00 – Tech Grant Meeting
02:00-05:45 – Ordered tech equipment

Tech Grant Meeting: We received a grant late last year to purchase a number of technology items for our office, including computers, software and other electronic items. So far we have a new video camera (for the Media Track students to use), a new server and software upgrades for all our machines (just received them in the office a week ago, we’re getting some help installing everything next week or the week after), some new computers on their way, and today I ordered a wireless mic and CD recorder, as well as a laserjet B&W printer. The reason there is almost 4 hours on my worklog today for ordering tech equipment is that nearly 3 of those hours were spent on the phone with HP ordering the printer.

We have an account with HP, so we should be able to log in to their website and place an order. I tried to do this today, and the password didn’t work. So, I clicked “retrieve my password”. But, that didn’t work either, it said my email address didn’t match an account in their database. So, I call them. I explain to person A what my problem is, and that I want a new password so I can log in and place my order, since my account has our tax exempt status already on record, and it’s a pain to take care of that for a new account. They tell me they can’t help me, I get transferred. Now repeat that for 2.5 hours! Finally, the last person said that if I will just place the order over the phone, I will get an instant rebate on the printer instead of a mail-in rebate, and then the person he transfers me to will help me with the password issue. I say ok. The person he transfers me to will 1) not give me an instant rebate and 2) not fix my password issue. So, I just ordered it from their website. And now I have to deal with taking care of our tax exempt status again.

Nearly three hours. I wasted nearly three hours because HP’s call center can’t tell me right off the bat that they can’t fix my password issue. Plus, they tell you things that then aren’t true. If they fixed those problems with their company, thereby saving 3 hours of time for every person with a problem, they could cut their costs and prices in half. And the funniest part is, they’re paid to handle problems, but they kept trying to get me to spend my time and their time by ordering the printer over the phone instead of online, thereby increasing the waiting time of everyone else with a problem that may have actually been fixed. (Although, at this point I’m not sure if they fix problems or just put you on round-robin transfer until you hang up and buy your printer somewhere else.)

Corporate inefficiency at its finest.

If you work for an inefficient company or organization, fight against this kind of stuff – it’s such a waste of time and money and resources for all concerned, it drive up prices, it drives up costs, and gives everyone a headache. If you run a company, don’t let it come to this. It’s such a terrible experience I will look elsewhere for printers from now on, and if I buy HP printers it will be through a reseller, not through them directly.

Unfortunately, many days in small offices like ours where there are only 10 people and 20 people’s worth of work to do this kind of stuff happens, and so my list of 15 items I wanted to get done today only went down by 2. I would guess many non-profits are like that – low number of employees and more work to get done than can be accomplished. Does anyone work for a company where you actually have enough time to do what you need to do and you rarely fall behind?

Worklog for June 4th

08:40-09:00 – Went through webmail
09:00-09:30 – Trained Nate on CTV data project
09:30-11:15 – Prepping Banquet data for use this fall
11:15-11:45 – Pricing research on equipment we’re buying
11:45-05:00 – Prepping Banquet data for use this fall; spent a few minutes doing a couple quick updates to websites

Webmail: I have spam filters on my webmail that prevent most spam from getting through and downloading to Outlook. However, it sometimes stops legitimate email, so I log into it once a week and go through the spam filter looking for anything that is real email, and I unfilter it.

Worklog for June 1st

09:00-09:30 – Minor database work; Email reading/reply
09:30-10:45 – CTV web updates and compiled/created email newsletter
10:45-12:30 – SSI website work
12:30-01:00 – CTV Email Edits; sent to email list
01:00-01:30 – Lunch Break
01:30-02:00 – Business Track materials editing
02:00-03:15 – Setting up Business Track simulation software
03:15-04:30 – Met w/James & Jeff; discussed Business Track issues and moving SSI website hosting from iServ to LiquidWeb
04:30-05:00 – Business Track materials editing