My Projects: Checkout Procedure

My most recent project has been working with Kas Williams on the Checkout Procedure/Forms. I really enjoyed working on this project. I enjoyed all my projects but this one really brought me back to my roots, which was following policies and procedures at the Bailey Hall Information Desk at Minnesota. They had a few forms doing similar things and based on the process I was familiar with, we redesigned some checkout forms. It collects their information, tracks their changes, and keeps the administrative process. I also made a flowchart to help explain the process a bit better with the new form. We also added a Room Change Request Form but I'm not going to post that because I did not design it. So here they are!

Form Editing Wrap-up and Recycling

Yesterday I wasn't quite able to finish editing the new form the way we wanted it. I had some formatting issues and Publisher was not cooperating. I got that squared away and then worked on editing the flow chart. Once I finished updating it, I decided it didn't flow aesthetically. So I redesigned that. I think it makes more sense and looks better. I then switched gears, as they probably say at the School of Transportation here at Penn College, and moved on to Recycling. Jenn has had some GoogleWave issues and I have no clue as to how to fix it before our meeting. Tough break. We, the Recycling Group, met with Jenn and had a solid discussion. We caught her up on what we have come up with and she determined the first thing we need to do is to design a logo. Again another thing I probably won't see the results of but it has been a project that definitely evolved into something bigger.

Check Out Process Presentation

Today was all about the check out process. After our work last week, Kas and I met to see if we needed to tweak the forms any more and then how to present it. There were some forms I hadn't seen or considered yet. Much of it probably pertained to Barb and Marion's work with the forms so I edited the forms to reflect what they would do. I think it was a solid addition and now I see that we aren't creating more of a mess and have tightened up the process. When we met with Tim, it seemed to make sense to him as well. He had some questions but we covered all of our bases. He had some edits which really won't be too difficult. I wish I was going to be around for the feedback, presentation to Brian, and hopefully the training of this process. This was a fun project for me and brought me back to my roots of working with this process as a Bailey Hall Office Assistant at UofM.

Check Out Process

This morning Kas and I worked through putting forms and processes together to pitch our Room Change/Check Out process. I made a flow chart representing the process. Kas had put together a rough draft of a form and I took the information and made it into a grid. The more I piece together the process I more I discover how many other forms they have for different things. I have definitely come into a different system than I am used to. I'm also still wondering if we've now added two more forms to the grouping without eliminating any. Time/Monday will tell (since that's when we present).

The weekend. I'm going to attempt the battlefield tour this weekend, although it will be abbreviated. The weather is supposed to be not good tomorrow but Sunday will be great for Gettysburg!

Directors Meeting and a New Project!!

This morning we had a meeting with the student development directors. I worked on a little fire safety research before that. They discussed some reorganization of the "Awareness" weeks and talked about having one group take care of those instead of trying to recruit a whole new group. They also talked about Penn College Promotion and really keying in on the Blue Crew, which apparently started out as a tshirt fundraiser. They're also thinking about using that with the alumni. Elliott Strickland, who was leading the meeting, went on a weird email tangent but it was really about using Penn College signature lines properly. It was kind of one of those "just kidding" moments.


After working on some more campus fire safety research, I met with Kas to discuss check out procedures. I had asked Tim if he had any information and he provided a diagram, which was kind of confusing:

Kas and I really looking to improve this process. I was very involved in the University of Minnesota's process and believe I know it pretty well. Kas and I had a great conversation about this and I think we're going to solve the issue.