President’s Turn 25-11 Ongoing Updates: Web, Membership, and a New Home for our Lathes
NMWT members,
This month sees progress on the club’s website migration, membership database development, and lathe storage arrangement with JCH. Oh, and we are holding officer elections at the November 1st meeting.
Work continues on migrating data from the current website to the new one. I still need to configure the financial ties to our bank and configure the payment processor. The marketplace section is also currently missing as we need to discuss some aspects of this at the board meeting on October 22nd. Additionally, we need to discuss and hopefully approve configuring Google Workspace to host the club’s files (e.g., board meeting minutes, treasurer’s reports, etc.).
New sections that have been added include officer and club news blogs, a mentors page (content updates will be needed), charitable programs area, and a blank WIT page (Shana said she already has this text written). As mentioned above, I have yet to implement the “store” for selling the club’s attire and implementing the payment portion of the membership page. Much remains to be done, so if you can help, please contact me.
I have also pulled all of the membership list spreadsheets and consolidated them into a single sheet containing all of the distinct records so that we can retain records of former members, recreate the payment history for each member, etc. The resulting data has been restructured so that the data is properly structured for import into a database. The initial import into a SQL Server database is complete, and the process of data normalization is underway. Once this is complete, applications will need to be written for creating new member records, editing/updating current records, etc. I propose that we leverage Access for the applications as there is a runtime available that would not cost the club anything to use. An Access license is only needed for development.
The move of the club’s lathes, tools, and accessories to JCH was finally completed on November 9th. I met with Tom McLarty and Mike Hill (the JCH site manager) to ensure that everyone is on the same page regarding storage and use of the lathes. We still have some items in the club’s storage facility, but these items would clearly fit in the storage container that JCH is allowing us to use. Therefore, if all goes well with JCH for a couple of months, we can move the remaining items from our storage unit to the JCH container. This should save the club “$2,580.00 annually.
And finally, Larry Evans is still looking for additional people to help with the equipment and logistics committee activities. Please reach out to me or Larry at the next club meeting if you have any questions or concerns that are preventing you from helping out.
See you at the November meeting,
Mark
