With this new automated system, who is going to be checking in with it to make sure meets are being approved? Members are well aware that Susan already has too much on her plate, especially with her medical conditions. To me, it sounds like the one check and balance in place, Temple, has been removed and meets might just sit there. Temple was good about following up with DD's if meets weren't approved but even then, with her reminders, at least one meet slipped through the cracks.
We gain several things with any automated process: less errors because things don't have to typed, re-typed, and then re-typed again for several different purposes (notification to the DD, notification to the Show Secretary, posting on the forum or website) - if it's entered right the first time, it's entered right all the time. Time savings: with an automated workflow process, things follow through in seconds. Once the meet request has been entered and the requester presses "Send", it is automatically forwarded to the correct District Director for their review and approval. The DD, at that time, may just click "Approve" and let it move forward, or they may have some questions and contact the requester personally - that is their option. Once they click "Approve", then the next step is automatic - it is then forwarded to the Show Secretary for acceptance of the meet request at their show. Once again, they may choose to contact that DD personally for clarification or more information or they may just click "Accept" and move forward.
Once the DD has clicked "Approve" and the Show Secretary has clicked "Accept", then the next step is automatically list it on our website - that will not be done if both of those check boxes aren't marked "yes" in the file.
Just as with the automated new member application, I get an email each time a request is submitted to the database, and I will then upload that request to the database (that part already exists, but is manually entered now). If it has not moved forward within, oh probably a week - those parameters have not yet been set - then I will research it.
It is a more efficient process, with significant time savings - at each of those steps currently, the information has to be re-typed, formatted specifically for each purpose, and re-sent, then manually followed up on.
We've had the automated new member processing in place for nearly 4 years now, without a hitch. The only delay is that I will usually wait until there are 4-5 members to process them all together and mail them out together. The one extreme exception to that was earlier this year, when there were a couple of months worth of overdue New Member packets due to a miscommunication (emails going into spam folders), then a faulty printer, then work and family demands, so there were about 30 New Member packets going out at one time. That was the only time that has happened since the process began, and it wasn't the fault of the system.
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