Tutorial III - Using a Database for the St. Paul's Carnival

Candler

Tutorial III - Using a Database for the St. Paul's Carnival

Candler

Up until this evening, I wasn't exactly sure what I was going to do this tutorial on.  I was leaning more towards the history of the World Wide Web or even the history of Mozilla Firefox browser system, but then it hit me tonight on the way home.  My wife has been working tirelessly building a volunteer list of over 400 parents for the annual St. Paul's Carnival.  The volunteers coordinate everything from games, rides, food, raffle, rummage sale, all the way to build up and break down.  Her list was hand-made and was extremely labor intensive.  After completing the Access project, using a database will be an extremely effective way to to coordinate all aspects of this project, from tables, to forms, and finally reports.

Candler

Coordinating 400 volunteers can be extremely cumbersome.  Her process begins by distributing forms to be completed and returned, so that she can begin building her volunteer board.  With Access database, she could immediately create the From template, print a blank for submission, including name, contact info, time availability, and choice of volunteer work.

Candler

Once the forms are filled out and completed, she could input the information straight into the database to create a usable table.  Currently she was placing phone calls for verification, making individual notes, and then trying to tabulate from there.  By entering the information straight into the form, everything is available on her new table that she can create.

Once all of information has been entered, tables set up, then she can go back, manipulate the data and create the reports that she needs, for example, who is working the Friday night second shift for the games.  The reports would be essay to create, and last minute volunteer adjustments could be made without having to use white-out.

Candler

In conclusion, using Database can highly streamline any major project such as the St. Paul's carnival.  The data would be extremely accessible and adjustable, making one's productivity much higher, therefore allowing for more time for the little one's that would truly enjoy the carnival in the first place.

Candler - Meez

Access - Database Project

Candler

I have used Word and Excel to an ad nauseum degree, but was not very familiar with Access and using databases.  After going through the course material, I was able to import external data, build tables, create queries, forms, and finally reports.  I can absolutely see the value in using databases to manipulate huge sums of data into quick reports highlighting areas of one's business or endeavour.

Candler

The one area that I feel increases the functionality of using the database is the Criteria area, used in sorting Queries.  You can take data from a table, sort it endless variety of ways to create the end-result that you are looking for.  Being able to use tables, queries, forms, and reports can give a business extreme power to coordinate information in a very short period of time.

ISM-3004 - Presentation - Florida Mom Magazine to VCs

Candler

Please find for review a link to my YouTube video,

Florida Mom Magazines presentation to Venture Capitalists.



I created and ran a magazine and website for over a year in 2008, the Florida Mom Magazine, www.florida-mom.com.  It was a labor of love, but was a tough venture heading into the economic headwinds at the time.  I think in retrospect, if I had looked for Venture Capital funding, that I might have had more success with the project.

Candler - Florida Mom Magazine

I basically assembled a VC downloadable 5 min video presentation that could be hosted on the www.florida-mom.com website.  After coming up with a storyboard, I posed the question, would the Florida Mom Magazine make for a good investment?  I introduced who we aimed the magazine at, what the magazine was about, who our target advertiser base was and opportunities, our Media Kit, and finally bringing everything together with our business plan.  The final slide basically said for answers to questions, check out our website or contact me, Robert Candler.

Candler - Florida Mom Magazine

Going through the presentation rubric, I tried to anticipate the vc's questions, as well as make it attention grabbing, informative, but too intensive.  The VC viewer should have a great overview of the idea of the magazine, as well as places to look for more in-depth information.

As far attention grabbing goes, I posed the questions about what a Florida-Mom was, and then tried to answer it with a 30 second video that I had assembled for our website.  It basically shows an active, outgoing, energetic, passionate lady that continues to live life to the fullest, even with having kids.  It has high energy music, pictures, and bullet points to highlight what a Florida Mom is. 

Candler - Florida Mom Magazine

I don't feel that there was any inconsistencies nor errors, due to the fact that all of the information had already been published and pulled straight from the website. 



Working on this project has reinvigorated my passion for magazine publishing.  I thoroughly enjoyed my time coordinating and working all aspects of this publication, as well as working with a talented staff.