Location : Troop 1501 wiki »
HomePage
1. What were you trying to find;
2. Where were you looking.
3. How he can contact you when the change is finished.
The site is for you. If you don't use it, the Webmaster has failed. If you only tell someone in the troop, your message will not get to the Webmaster with the details he needs. Never has yet.
Please help make the site a success.
Discussed status at the Troop meeting. SHOULD have checked e-mail, because Steve P. had tons of good ideas (and my comments in italics):
(2011-11-06)
Members of Troop 1501 are considering SOAR, Scouting On-line, Affordable, Reliable to host the next generation website. Many favorable comments, so your webmaster looked them up and wrote a discussion of several of these in an article: Click here to read it.
(2011-11-01) Members of Troop 1501 met tonight to discuss the next evolution of website.
Attendees were:
Submitted for comment by Tony Waisanen
(2011-10-28) I feel it necessary to apologize in advance to those who use the on-line registration for an account, but did not send me an e-mail telling me who they were, and why they needed access to the site. Unless I get an e-mail by Tuesday, I'll delete the following accounts:
Thanks in advance.
(2011-10-19) First, thanks to all those who've checked in with the Webmaster. This round of surgery went well. I was fortunate that a visiting specialist in the type of periodontal surgery I needed was at Bethesda for a lecture and he consulted on the most complex of the several operations I will undergo. I apologize for lack of details. I'm currently under the influence of Oxycodone (pain is gone, as is ability for critical thinking).
Second, my reason for writing is to discuss the several requests for registered accounts I've been getting. The request system does not tell me who you are or why you want/need an account. I hope those of you who want an account, will send an e-mail to me (or phone me) so I'll know you are not a hacker trying to establish a phishing account or use this site for other, illegal activities. I don't want to go through that canto of Hades again.
If you haven't gotten an e-mail, please call or send me a message. If you don't know who I am, the Scoutmaster knows, the Committee Chairman knows, the Treasurer knows, etc. Just ask them.
YIS...
HomePage
Welcome to the wiki for Troop 1501, Springfield, VA.
If you cannot find what you're looking for, please contact the webmaster at Troop1501.org and tell him three things:1. What were you trying to find;
2. Where were you looking.
3. How he can contact you when the change is finished.
The site is for you. If you don't use it, the Webmaster has failed. If you only tell someone in the troop, your message will not get to the Webmaster with the details he needs. Never has yet.
Please help make the site a success.
Troop 1501 Information:
- Our calendar
- Rosters and Camperships (login required)
- Newsletters
- Photo gallery
Links to other sites:
- National Capital Area Council
- Old Dominion District
- Our chartering organization, Messiah United Methodist, Springfield, VA
- Venture Crew 1501
What's new:
(2011-11-15)Discussed status at the Troop meeting. SHOULD have checked e-mail, because Steve P. had tons of good ideas (and my comments in italics):
Troop 1501 FaceBook:
I sent a note to Peter Owen, but never received a response. If there is anyone with good contact information for him, could we ask him to provide us with the admin acct and password for this site so it can be updated with links to both Messiah and our new web-site.- A problem with so-called free accounts; often very difficult to control.
Troop 1501 Link from Messiah Methodist Web Site:
- Update information on the meeting time and add link to our new web-site.
- Who is webmaster for Messiah?
"New" Troop 1501 Web-Site Content:
PRIVATELY ACCESSIBLE
- Includes all of the Publicly accessible information listed below, but requires a UserID/Password to get access to the following privately accessible information...recommend one for each Scout/Parent, so that we know who modified what on the private site)
- List of both Scout and Adult Leadership Positions, with incumbent contact information and photo
- List of required training for each adult and scout leadership position, with links to take the classes and report completion.
- Best source is on-line for adults. Similar link for Scouts. Registered adults should be using MyScouting.org.
- Best source is on-line
- Scout Roster with Contact Information - Tied to TroopMaster (only modifiable by System Admin Acct)
- Need to discuss impact. SOAR may have ability to allow multiple people to manage data, thus reducing demand on the part of a single person.
- Individual Scout Advancement Status - Tied to TroopMaster (only modifiable by System Admin Acct, and potentially only accessible by the individual scout and his parents...this would require individual UserIDs/Passwords)
- Possibly???: Copies of current Medical Forms - only accessible by parents, Scoutmaster and Asst Scoutmaster
- Privacy info, so need to take care, but GREAT idea. Might be a good job for an ASM for Health & Safety. Also, an example of a service provided by the Troop; Secure storage.
- Meal Menu Suggestions for weekend camps and weeklong camps - with recipes, grocery list and Scout Scores for (Taste: ****, Travel (refrigerate?): **, Prep: ***, Clean-up: **)
- Source of this content? Will also need a process for managing the content.
- Sign-up for Camps/Events, with tracking for payment information and medical forms
- E-vite?
- Camping Gear Checkout Sheets - for each patrol
- Perhaps a Quartermaster Log, based on manual checkout log. When, during event prep process would data get entered? What is the expected / desired result? What is the Return on the Investment? What problem does this address? Who is customer?
- Photo Gallery - accessible for posting and viewing by Scouts and Parents from each event
- Highly recommend captions. Need process that all photographers can follow, and a limit on number of photos.
PUBLICLY ACCESSIBLE (no UserID or password required)
- Overview of the Troop: We are a Scout Led Troop, with active Scoutmaster and Assistant Scoutmaster support to ensure each Scout has every opportunity to both have fun and achieve the requirements for Eagle. Although there are lots of great troops in our area, what separates Troop 1501 from the others is our "mid-size" ... not so big that they get lost, but big enough to be able to do 2-3 high adventure camps every summer, in addition to the local Boy Scout Summer Camp. Because of that "just right size" of Scouts and Asst Scout Masters, I have also noticed a lot more excitement and support for activities among the Scouts. During the year, we are not so regimented and do mostly car camping...which puts us in the middle of the Troops with trailers for carting all of the dutch oven stuff and Troops that focus exclusively on backpacking. We have fun on our campouts...even in the rain...and we always eat well!
- Note: Could dig out the menus developed for the Troop in 1998-2004.
- Photos: A few approved recent photos from annual events, each summer camp, high adventure camp and camporee! With awards won for cooking, ...
- Same comments as above.
- Leader Contact Information:
- Meeting Location/Time: Messiah Methodist Youth Center, Tuesdays at 7:30-8:30
(2011-11-06)
Members of Troop 1501 are considering SOAR, Scouting On-line, Affordable, Reliable to host the next generation website. Many favorable comments, so your webmaster looked them up and wrote a discussion of several of these in an article: Click here to read it.
(2011-11-01) Members of Troop 1501 met tonight to discuss the next evolution of website.
Attendees were:
- Alison Thimblin
- Cathy Hamilton
- Dave Umberger
- Elissa Zadrozny
- Jim Collins
- Steve Pitcher
- Tony Waisanen
- Objectives
- Grab attention, provide information to prospective Scouts and Scout parents;
- Easy to use: requires minimal instruction (Scout could make updates);
- Minimal content (if any) as static HTML;
- Secure: resists "hacking", supports monitoring access;
- Support collaborative content development (version control, secure and controlled access);
- Public facing (for anonymous browsing and for indexing of content).
- Desired website content
- "About us": reflects the Troop philosophy (best when written by the Scoutmaster, Committee Chair, etc.);
- Calendar: Ideally, easily ported to smartphones and integrated with calendaring applications (e.g., Outlook);
- Event blogs: After-action, bulletized reports of outings like the reports from when Frank Knickerbocker was Scoutmaster (Click here to view the public versions). Alternately, photojournals (pages with captioned photos) have been appreciated, like Crew 1501 memberstaking CPR class, becoming COPE instructors, and attending the 2009 Klondike derby;
- Forms: generic (public) and specific (private, such as event permission forms that contain sensitive details such as location and time of destination).
- Alternatives discussed
- Free hosing service: Scoutlander.com was specifically mentioned
- Suggest readers go to Scoutlander directory of sites, open several in tabs. Recommend comparing the recommended sites (the "best" sites supported by Scoutlander) with sites for Virginia troops. Is there much difference? Which sites have the layout and types of content desired for Troop 1501?
- Notice that Wysitech Inc. owns the copyright for each page. Though you may have posted the content, Wysitech owns that content and can use it without consulting you. This may, or may not be a personal issue.
- Suggest readers go to Scoutlander directory of sites
- Hosted application (using server to run HTML rendering application such as Wordpress, Drupal, Joomla, Moogla, etc.);
- The current Troop11501.org website is based on TikiWiki (easy to use, but not as popular relative to Wordpress or Drupal);
- Elissa has experience with Wordpress (intuitive use, supports copy/paste of images and formatted text, when configured properly anyone with basic skills in Microsoft desktop applications can create and update content);
- A hosted application requires an overall administrator and assistant administrators willing to be trained;
- The current Troop11501.org website is based on TikiWiki
- Website as a Service: SOAR is an example.
- Check out article on integration of SOAR with TroopMaster. Cool stuff!
- FWIW, SOAR is hosted using a highly-tailored implementation of Drupal. The Webmaster regrets not making the time to finish the Drupal experiments (Click here for examples).
- Check out article on integration of SOAR with TroopMaster
- Free hosing service: Scoutlander.com
- Lessons learned (mentioned, but worth re-mentioning)
- A website can only be as good as the availability of content. If the members of the troop who have the content cannot or won't share it, the website will never meet the Troop's needs. For example, if no one ever writes after-action reports, clearly it will be pointless to have a link on the website for after-action reports. Likewise, if photographers cannot or will not share their photos, the photo gallery will get stale. If only one person has the official calendar or will only maintain a personal copy of the calendar, the calendar on the website (if any) should be disabled and removed.
- An unsecure Scout website with a lot of browsing traffic will get attacked, and in ways a casual viewer will likely not notice (hackers who are trying to steal identities are generally not so stupid as to announce their attacks to the readers and certainly don't want to alert the webmaster) NB/The greatest number of cyber threats is coming from the US. Phishing attacks that are easy to detect because of typos or poor grammar are becoming rare.;
- Should have been discussed;
- Form a committee to:
- Document requirements;
- Review options;
- Follow-on meeting (time/location TBD)
- Review and document requirements.
- Identify the content and the official source of the content. Then identify who has responsibility to migrate the content to the website.
- Form a committee to:
- Update calendar (Tony got Brian to promise to provide an Outlook .pst file of Troop events. Tony to publish the calendar (so everyone, remind Brian of his promise).
- If anyone needs ideas on what to discuss next time, please check out the presentation I gave at University of Scouting on issues related to creating and sustaining a web presence Click here.
Submitted for comment by Tony Waisanen
(2011-10-28) I feel it necessary to apologize in advance to those who use the on-line registration for an account, but did not send me an e-mail telling me who they were, and why they needed access to the site. Unless I get an e-mail by Tuesday, I'll delete the following accounts:
- jtillman
- jblewis007
- tjlewis
- tjhercules
Thanks in advance.
(2011-10-19) First, thanks to all those who've checked in with the Webmaster. This round of surgery went well. I was fortunate that a visiting specialist in the type of periodontal surgery I needed was at Bethesda for a lecture and he consulted on the most complex of the several operations I will undergo. I apologize for lack of details. I'm currently under the influence of Oxycodone (pain is gone, as is ability for critical thinking).
Second, my reason for writing is to discuss the several requests for registered accounts I've been getting. The request system does not tell me who you are or why you want/need an account. I hope those of you who want an account, will send an e-mail to me (or phone me) so I'll know you are not a hacker trying to establish a phishing account or use this site for other, illegal activities. I don't want to go through that canto of Hades again.
If you haven't gotten an e-mail, please call or send me a message. If you don't know who I am, the Scoutmaster knows, the Committee Chairman knows, the Treasurer knows, etc. Just ask them.
YIS...
