Kiwanis Technology Update

KiwanisOne Status

Scott Smith — Sat, 03 May 2008 21:43:00 GMT

MIGRATION
The migration of the content to KiwanisOne from the old Kiwanis site is mostly complete. The last thing we have to do is a thorough review of the new site and figure out how we could server our members better. We are going to look at it from a different angle this time though. Instead of just categorizing the content into groups such as Growth, Marketing, Education, etc. we are going to have a section that will group the content by position. The positions into which we will be grouping content will be: President, President-Elect, Secretary, Treasurer, Membership Chair, PR Chair, Program Chair, etc. That way if you are a Membership Chair you can go right to that section to find all of the resources available. We are very excited about these changes, as it will make it easier for the members in leadership positions in their clubs to find the resources they need.

STORE
The new and improved Kiwanis Family Store will be opening this coming week barring any last minute issues.

FUTURE UPDATES
I am going to get back to a regular schedule of posting to this blog. If there are specific Kiwanis-related topics you would like to see discussed please contact me by clicking the Contact link on the right under the 'This Blog' header.

-- Scott Smith

KiwanisOne Migration

Scott Smith — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 22:49:00 GMT

I am getting some comments from users that they are having a hard time finding things on KiwanisOne and that the old website was easier to use. At this point I would probably agree with them. We are working feverishly to get all of the old content moved over from the old Kiwanis website into KiwanisOne. This process is taking longer than expected, but it is moving in the right direction. We have worked with internal staff a considerable amount to fine tune the structure of the site and downloads area to be as user friendly as possible. Over the next couple of months you will notice much change in KiwanisOne as we get content moved over. It is taking longer because we are being careful to remove content from the old site that is no longer needed, as to only move relevant information.

I want to assure all Kiwanians that we are working hard to get this migration completed. In the meantime we did leave the old site up (http://classic.kiwanis.org) so that information could still be found there.

Later this week we will post some online videos explaining some of the changes and where the more popular items can be found. We will post these videos frequently as the site content changes. They will be located on the KiwanisOne home page.

I sincerely thank you for your patience.

Scott

Distinguished Club Tracking and Monthly Report Summaries

Scott Smith — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 15:40:00 GMT

We are currently finishing up two new components that will be available to district governors, district secretaries, and lieutenant governors.

Distinguished Club Tracking: We are very excited about the change to this from last year. We will be automating the verification process for the sections that require verification (growth and Annual Club Gift campaign donations), and getting the rest of the scoring from the monthly reports. So the scoring that is tracked throughout the year is the official scoring. As soon as a club submits their last report, they (and the district) will know if they are distinguished. For those filling out the monthly reports online it will no longer be dependent on the Annual Club Report.

Monthly Report Summary: This is taking a little longer than expected, but we are almost done with it. You will be able to view and sort much of the data from the monthly reports for all of your clubs in a downloadable spreadsheet. It is going to let you choose which fields to export so you can pinpoint the data that is important to you.

As soon as these are completed I will send an email to the district secretaries, governors, and governor-elects.

Scott

Monitoring Membership

Scott Smith — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 04:20:00 GMT

In the last few weeks we have rolled out easily accessible online membership reports to district secretaries, governors, lieutant governors, and TAG Team members. The message of the availabilty of these reports may have not made it to all who need it, so please spread the word of these reports. They are available in the same location as the monthly reports in KiwanisOne. If you are a governor, governor-elect, lieutenant governor, or TAG Team member and need help getting access to the reports, send an email to kiwanisone@kiwanis.org and ask for assistance.

These reports give the starting and current membership numbers for the clubs, divisions, and districts as well as the change for the year. When the report is run all of the numbers are taken real-time from the Kiwanis database.

Last week we also released an online membership list for the club secretaries to access. It is located in the same place in KiwanisOne as the monthly reports.

My Kiwanis Story

Scott Smith — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 02:53:00 GMT

I am normally not one to start out anything like this by talking about myself, as that is not my thing. However, I think this story is a good way to kick off this blog...

In May of 2003 I was approached by the president of my wife Lynn's Kiwanis club in Keene, NH (I was not a member at that time) about creating a website for their club. I agreed to do it and we started to spec it out. After meeting with the newly formed web committee I began to see what challenges Kiwanis clubs face in administration and communication. So after specing out this site I determined it was way too much work to do for just one club and decided to start a company to create this application for all Kiwanis clubs. The company name is Club Resource, LLC and the product that is marketed to Kiwanis clubs is the KiwanisOne Club Management program.

Lynn was the secretary of the club at the time and as I was creating the site I could see all the work she had to do for the monthly report every month, so I figured there must be an easier way. So I created the online monthly reporting system and started shopping it around to districts. When I say "shopping" I mean giving them the reporting functionality for no cost as a way to help their district and the club secretaries. The first district that officially adopted it was Pennsylvania in October 2004. After they got on board nine others jumped on almost immediately. I was thrilled!

Once things were humming along I decided it was time to contact Kiwanis International. To be honest, I wasn't sure what I wanted to accomplish by contacting them, but I just knew it was time. I forget how I decided this, but I chose to contact Jeff Oatess first. He turned out to the the best person I could have contacted, as he was very receptive to the idea, was appointed Interim Executive Director shortly thereafter, and was a swell guy. Working with Jeff we were able to get 24 districts using the online reporting system for the 2006-2007 Kiwanis year and standardized the report with the districts. A task some told me was not possible.

In March of 2007 Jeff talked to me and said that he would like me to go to lunch with him and Rob Parker. Hey, who am I to turn down a free lunch. So I pulled my truck to the front of the building and Jeff got in. As we were waiting for Rob, Jeff said "Oh, by the way, this is sort of like an interview". What!!! Honestly, I was expecting something like "Scott, you have done a great job with everything you have done for Kiwanis and we would like you to come on staff and continue to do what you were doing". Instead Rob proceeded to interview me for the position of Chief Technology Officer so I could oversee all technology for the organization.

So today I am the CTO of Kiwanis and absolutely love my job and love working with and helping Kiwanians. I still own Club Resource, LLC and have an arrangement with Kiwanis International so that the development and support of the club management program is done inhouse under my direction.

Having a Ph.D. in engineering I love to try and solve problems. I never could have imagined that creating this "simple" website for a local Kiwanis club would lead to 4.5 years of helping a huge international organization try and solve fundamental challenges through the use of technology.

In Service to Kiwanians,

Scott A. Smith
Chief Technology Officer
Kiwanis International