Category: computer stuff

Preparing the one-time mailing to districts

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I think I’ve come up with something to give to the District Governors (DGs), who hold the large majority of the votes for International Directors. Candidates in contested races usually prepare a packet of educational handouts, flyers, and sometimes stuff like pens or light-up pins with their name on them (same thing for each DG). I’ll generate an individualized district directory based on all the information on the TI web site for each district, pulling together the historical district, division, area, and club performance over the last four years (which is what TI provides), as well as information on club membership levels, need for a coach, dues and officer list status, club anniversaries, oh, there’s a lot.

So I’ve put this together, and I’m going to give out printed copies to every DG at the convention. It’s formatted so each area and division prints on one page (or sometimes two), and they can hand this out at their next DEC meeting, one page per person. Tonight, I’m sending an e-mail to each district’s Top Three (one e-mail per district), telling them about myself, and pointing them at my web site and the directory on-line.

New distinguished area web report

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Last year around this time, I created a report for my district as a one-off, which spelled out in plain English what each Area Governor needed to do to be distinguished. It was quite well-received, and so I’ve added it to the plethora of reports on my web site for all the districts included.

Only the latest version is kept (no old versions), and after you click on a district number, it’s reachable via the “Area to-do’s” link at the top of the list of daily reports. It only updates when the district performance reports are updated (usually Fridays). I think it’s pretty self-explanatory, but besides the distinguished area goals to work on, it also lists any clubs which would be distinguished if they only added some members (i.e., the “minimum of 20 or net growth of 5 members” qualification rule, so often overlooked).

Hopefully people have also noticed the “DCP report”, found in the same place (I did these a month or two ago). Basically, this looks at the historical data for each club over the last three years, at the same date in the past (or as close to it as possible, given that TI only reports data weekly or monthly), and compares where they stand today for membership numbers and DCP points. This is an easy way to identify clubs that are going in the right (or wrong) direction for these two critical measures. This should enable early intervention in clubs that are just beginning to decline, before they get to the point of a club coach and major trouble.

I’m finalizing packages to send to my district liaisions for the conferences I can’t get to, with things like a photograph, brochures, and handouts, for the candidates’ corner. There’s three I’ll miss, plus the one I’ll be visiting, so that’s a fair number. I’m also working on a listing of all my costs of running for International Director, which could be useful for anyone considering doing so in the future.

Porting the district reports to the web service

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Now that I have a web service, I want to port my district reports over. Up until now, they ran on an old spare laptop at home, but it was unreliable, the computer had to be on and the Internet connection up and working, and even then, sometimes the e-mail got rejected by the server. This was another reason I wanted a web hosting service. The basics ported over pretty easily, but I had to change it to post the reports on the web site, since the ID candidate rules don’t allow these to be sent out by direct e-mail to anyone outside my home district.

Creating my web site

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I found some spare time while on vacation in Atlanta to write most of my web site. I’ve done this sort of thing before, the main work is just creating the content.

I keep adding on to it (especially this blog), but the large majority of the work is done, and I’m ready to publish it. But first I need a web service! I spent some time researching several major companies, and finally settle on Blue Host.