traveling demonstrators

[john lucas]

Last night in our chatroom we discussed how to book and or find demonstrators who are traveling. Many clubs would like to be able to get in touch with a demonstrator who might be traveling through and book a day or weekend. The AAW directory helps a little but I know there are many missed opportunities for demonstrators to make a little extra money and clubs to have the opportunity to see these people.
Is there a way to make some sort of active demonstrator travel itinerary on this site. Lets say for example Nick Cook was traveling to Colorado he could post this and the dates. Other clubs on the route could contact him and find out if he was available to do a demo for them as part of his trip.
I thought I would post this here and see if there is any interest.

 

[Phil Brennion]

John,
The AAW provided a demonstrator connection service on the website for quite a few years.It included demonstrator profiles and "travel plans". There were 2 problems with it. It was not used and it wasn't updated regularly. There has been requests to give it another try, but it will require monitering the info to keep it updated - add and delete data.
on a regular basis. or a software that allows the BB to be edited by the demonstrators. We are looking into rejuvinate this service on the new site. and trying it again!-

 

[Duane Hill]

John, I think this is an excellent idea. Our club was able toget David Ellsworth just that way. One member saw he was going to be in Minniapolis one weekend and Madison the next. Needless to say we ended getting him in the middle of the week. Had a lot of fun and a good turn out also.

 

[Chris Wright]

I agree that this would be valuable if it could be programmed/managed correctly. Dick Veitch and Terry Scott (from New Zealand) contacted me to set something up with my club on their way through the West Coast after the Provo Symposium. My club couldn't do it, but I knew it would be a demo worth seeing, so I hosted it myself at my shop and invited as many people as I thought I could fit. A potluck helped with the cost and it was a great demo. More clubs could benefit from knowing when a demonstrator is coming through their area in advance of the trip.

 

[Jeff Jilg]

The link to the outdated AAW Demonstrator Connector service is below. The data on the page is totally out of date. However it is a fully functioning webpage.

If folks want this feature then it will probably take 2 volunteers to keep it up to date. The initial work will require going thru the existing names and determining which demonstrators are still doing demonstrations. The maintenance work will be maintaining it every week with updated travel plans.

In fact, we did have 2 volunteers start working on it in April of this year but didn't make very much progress, then they basically just stopped doing anything.

Any volunteers???

Demonstrator Connector Database

 

[Angelo]

Demonstrator Connector

Jeff,

Have you had anyone volunteer what is involved with gettingthis thing back on track?

I think it is an important feature that we can provide to the clubs without a lot of effort.

Maybe if you post a description of what's involved there may be a little more interest?

peace, out

Angelo

 

[Jeff Jilg]

Paul Vonk, the co-webmaster is currently working on a subset of this. The feature he is working on will dynamically refresh the demonstrator list and their specialties and contact info. I'm not sure who has signed up to keep that info updated. For example, if a demonstrator sends in an email with new contact info, I don't know who will be doing the update. If folks want to volunteer to help keep the list updated that would be great. The work would probably be 0.5-2.0 hours a month.

I don't know when Paul is scheduled to get that work accomplished. If anyone is interested please email me or Paul directly. Paul is a pvonk@alltel.net

 

[-e-]

but what are the requirements?

Gee, I was thinking the application would be more of a Scheduler program rather than a just list of people and their specialty.

Perhaps a calendar with itinerary, area, etc.

Then the clubs can look up who is coming & where and then make an offer to the demonstrator.

and perhaps the input would come from demonstrators ... maybe allowing them to update their own schedule.

just a thought

 

[Ken Grunke]

something like this?

this is an online calendar I installed for our chapter website, which might be just the thing:
CRW Calendar

A demonstrator can easily enter their location in the appropriate day(s), and it would just need approval by the site admin to show up in the calendar--to keep out the riff-raff.

 

[-e-]

yes - something like that

there seem to be at least two search criteria:

1) who's going to be in a club's geographic area?

2) for a particular month, who's available?

a possible third is 'when is a specific demonstrator touring?'

 

[Jeff Jilg]

We already have a built-in calendar that came with this forum. All the capabilities are there. Joe Donohue is currently keeping it maintained.

It's at the top of your screen (in the forum) and is the "calendar" button. Currently I have it locked down to only allow Joe to have access. It's very similar to the calendar which Ken sent a link to. Comments?