보낸사람: Bill & Diane Ristom
받는사람: BMTA Maintainers
제목 : New BMTA Online Trail Work System


Hello Jayhee,

As one of the sixty dedicated section maintainers and trail workers on the BMT, you are
among the privileged few to receive this advance notice of the new system that has been
set up on the BMTA website for reporting and collaborating on trail work. Please test it,
use it and give us some feedback so that any last improvements can be made. (see link
below)


How did this come to be? Two years ago and only a few months after the launch of the
new (current) BMTA website, before any trail club (known) had an online trail work
system, Mike Pullen suggested creating such a thing using server-side technology he
was already working with. Since that time, we have worked together to develop what has
become the BMTA Trail Work Management System (TWMS).

Several trail clubs now have these online trail work systems, which shows that Mike
was ahead of the curve in envisioning ours. High praise really goes to him, along with
much appreciation for the innovation, for putting in the vast majority of the work, and
for doing all the programming. (My part has been the lesser; formatting, testing and
advising.) Here near the end of the development cycle, we've also received valuable
inputs from the maintenance directors, Tom Keene and Bill Lundin, for which we're
grateful.

Now it's your turn. Before we release this system to the public (later this month), please
take a look and let us know what you think. All comments and suggestions are welcome.


So what is this thing? The TWMS provides a single location where all maintainers --
and anyone -- can go to report and see all trail work (past, present and future), at www.
bmta.org/BMTAwork.php. It makes the maintenance directors' jobs easier by sending
out email notices and reminders automatically, by providing a place where everyone can
report problems directly (saving transcribing time), and by retaining work records which
can later be referenced. For maintainers, it's a central information source for all trail work.

To get started, simply go to the page: www.bmta.org/BMTAwork.php.
The two primary screens are for Trail Work Needed and Trail Work Completed. Each
can be sorted in a variety of ways by clicking the up or down arrows at the head of a
column, as with many Windows applications. The bright orange arrow shows the
primary sort column and direction.

When work has been done, it will be posted on the Completed side, where there is an
elaborate set of filters at the top to help find and select any past work records you'd like
to see.

For help (or more information), click the Help button.

To log in, key in your name and password:
Name is your email address: jayhpark@p.fdn.com and Password is the text to the left
of the "@": jayhpark (Please change your password once logged in.)

To view and sort all the data anytime, whether logged in or not, whether for Work Needed
or Work Completed, just navigate to the work page.

When anyone submits a work report (such as for a blowdown), an email notice is sent
out automatically to the section maintainer(s) and to the appropriate maintenance
director. The item then appears immediately in the Work Needed table, but with a green
background under Date Reported. This is to flag that item as "pending," which means it
hasn't been verified.

Those registered with the site can log in and edit the data by clicking on the field they
want to change. For example, to change the status of a "pending" item to "open" (which
lets everyone know that the work item is legitimate, not a mistake or a prank), click on
a green-highlighted field and enter an "o" after the date. (Note that maintainers can only
change their own sections -- please send an email to your Maintenance Director to
change sections other than your own.)

To volunteer for a work item, just click on it in the "Volunteer for it Now" column. Your
name and the date will appear. (Be sure to click it again and erase your name, unless
you'd like to stay signed up to work on that item.) Note: You have to be logged in to
claim any work. (When logged in, your name will appear at the top of the Needed page.)

After a work item is complete: If on your own section, click the "On" date field, type in the
date the work was done, then add a "c" to mark it as complete. That item will then be
moved to the Trail Work Completed page.


Please feel welcome to try out the system by entering a sample work report on your own section. Within a few minutes, there should be an email notice in your inbox. (Please
keep in mind that if there are multiple maintainers on a section, they will each receive
these messages in their inboxes too!) When done with the test item, click its trash can
(on the left) to erase it.

Once everyone gets used to this system, you'll be able to check the Work Needed page
to find who's planning to work on what, and perhaps contact that person to see if they'd
like any help. And it can go the same way turned around, when you might want some
help.

To assist workers in making connections, we're firing up the Maintainers07@BMTA.org
email list. (If you're reading this, you're already on it.) This list is limited to those who
actively work on trail. So if you have any work you'd like a little help with, send a
message to your fellow maintainers at Maintainers07@BMTA.org. [Note: The list should
be running within a few days; watch for the first message.]


One last note, if your email system requires incoming email addresses to be pre-
approved, please add BMTAmaintenance@BMTA.org to your safe list.

Thank you for helping us make the TWMS into a top-level tool for managing trail work
on the BMT. Any comments you send in will be shared among the development team,
including Mike Pullen, Tom Keene, and Bill Lundin. We all labor together to have a good
trail.

Bill Ristom