ARES Connect

 

FAQ's Area

 

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Hints and Kinks about ARES Connect that might help you understand it better

 

Q:  Out of all the reports that can be generated from ARES Connect, which one is the most important one that I should be using?

 

A:  The most useful report is that of the "Categories."  This report gives the viewer a close look at the hours turned in by everyone, including those hours turned in as "anonymous" hours. It shows the viewer just how many events, persons participating and most importantly, how many hours were logged for that particular category. 

 

         Note... Not sure how to run this report. You can download detailed instructions from the ARES Connect Document area, or

                                                                                            >> Click Here << 

    

                    >>   Need more help?  Let the "Guru" know. He can even run the report for you!   >> Click  Here <<

 

 

 

Q:  I was told by my Admin that I needed to get signed up in ARES Connect and to use the correct Landing Page. I've looked all over and don't know what a Landing Page is. Can you help?

 

A:  Yes. Within ARES Connect each of the 71 ARRL Sections have been assigned a Landing Page for volunteers to use inside ARES Connect. You first need to know which one of the 71 Sections you are in. If you don't know, ask the Admin that has told you that you need to sign up.

 

Once you know what section you are in you can simply click on this link...     Landing Pages     Read down the list to find your section and click on it.  It will take you to the correct landing page.

 

 

 

Q:  Can sub-User Groups be added to ARES Connect?

 

A:  Yes, sub-User Groups can be created, but they must be a sub-group of an already established county or district user grouping.

                  Example...     Richland 139OH - Volunteers 

                                                 |--> Richland 139OH - ARES

                                                 |--> Richland 139OH - CERT

                                                

 

 

 

Q:  Can users add themselves to recurring events?

 

A:  Yes, if the user has the Events Monitor feature turned on their account. Otherwise this is something that an Admin would have to do for the volunteer

 

 

Q:  Is there a way to keep notes about an Event within the Event itself?

 

A:  Yes, there is now. As of 09 September 2020 a text area was added to all new established events. It is only editable by full Admins, but anyone with Events Monitor turned on can see the notes.

 

Updated:  09/10/2020

 

 

Q:  How can I change a "One Time Event" into a Recurring Event?

 

A:  You can't. Once created there is no way to go back into the Event Setup and change it to a recurring event. This is the one feature that you must determine ahead of time if it's going to be recurring or not.

 

Q:  Why can't I add my documents to my profile record?

 

A:  At this time directly inputting documents takes the SuperUser Admin ability. However, there is an alternative to directly inputting the documents. Simply open up a Google Docs or similar program, create a File Folder for each of your volunteers and insert their documents into their own folders. Once this is done you the system will generate a URL (web address) for each folder and you can insert this URL into each individuals account. Thus having the documents linked directly to each individual's ARES Connect account

 

Q:  I already have a database of all my volunteers, can I upload that database directly into ARES Connect?

 

A:  The answer is No. The reason is stated in the above Answer.

 

 

Q:  Our group uses NetLogger. Can we input the data gathered from it into ARES Connect?

 

A:  The answer is no. The reason is stated in the above Answer.

 

 

Q:  I know that Admins can add volunteers to a recurring event so they only have to be added once for the life of the recurrence. Can they also add a "User Group" this same way?

 

A:  The answer is No and Yes. The system does have a very complex way of being able to do such a thing within the recurrence master, but for now, we don't have that option turned on. You can however, go in to each of the individual events that the recurrence master has setup and add a User Group(s) to those recurring events. You just have to do it one event at a time instead of being able to just do it once for the entire recurrence.

 

 

Q:  As an Admin can I monitor who has inputted time into events?

 

A:  The answer is yes. You can easily query the "Event Participation by Events (v2)" report for any time frame and "Event Group" and with the "Show Users" marked you can quickly see the events, users and if they have entered any time in for that event.

 

  

 

updated:  11/12/2019

 

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Q:  How can I automatically remind folks to report their hours after an event?

 

A:  ARES Connect can and is defaulted to automatically send out a "Thank You" message after the event has happened. You do have the ability to write a personal message within that "Thank You" email. You can add the following to help remind everyone... "Please don't forget to go into ARES Connect under your account and report your time for this event." 

***  A new feature just recently added by VolunteerHub on the Thank You message is:  If the event was setup for self-reporting (it's defaulted that way) and the user has registered for the event prior to the event happening, and he/she hasn't reported their hours within 24 hours after the event has ended, the Thank You message will also contain a link to take them directly to that particular event so that they now can easily report their hours.

Updated: 10/23/2019

 

 

Q:  How many levels of Adminstration (Admins) are there in ARES Connect?

 

A:  There are just 3 layers of Admin privileges within this entire system. They are:  County, Section, Nationwide

  1. 1.  The first layer is the County Level. This gives the local Assistant Emergency Coordinator (AEC) and/or Emergency

  2.      Coordinator (EC) the ability to setup of folks and events only within his assigned county, nothing else.

  3. 2.  The second layer is the Section Level. This is the level that all Section Managers (SM) and Section Emergency

  4.      Coordinators (SEC). This level gives access to setup folks and events throughout the entire Section.     

3.  The Nationwide level is exclusive to Headquarters in Connecticut only. This level gives access to every Section in the

     country.

Every Section in the country has Districts that divide the Section into more manageable areas, and a District Emergency Coordinator (DEC) is assigned to that area. This area can be as small as just a couple of counties, or as large as an entire island. How the Districts are formed and maintained are the responsibility of the Section Manager and the Section Emergency Coordinator.

 

To help distribute the workload better, some Districts have Assistant District Emergency Coordinators (ADEC's) to help them with the workload, but not all Districts have ADEC's.

 

In the interest of giving a helping hand to those areas where official appointees do not exist, or are overloaded, (ie..  Section, District or County) other volunteers (not appointees) can also become Admins. There is no longer a limit on how many Admins a Section can have. This additional help in these areas can add many new and previously unreported events for the Section, as well as giving additional help with reporting of hours as well.

 

Since the issue of needing additional help is not limited to just the County level, each area (Section, District, County) will want to evaluate for themselves what additional help is needed and where.   

** A new Admin Level has been added - This additional layer now gives all our volunteers the ability to utilize a feature that is exclusive to Admins only. This feature is the ability to go back in time and add themselves to past events and record their time. At this time, the Ohio Section is being utilized as a Beta group in testing this new feature. This special Admin level is a sub-level administrator and only has the ability to select events in the past, add themselves to that event, and record their time for that event. There are no other permissions set for this particular Admin level. This gives all of our volunteers the ability to go back and pickup those events that they either forgot about or just didn't get registered for before the event ended.

 

Updated:  10-24-2019

 

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Q:  Why do I have to look though all of those events to find the event I want to sign up to?

 

A:  You can use the “Search” feature to look up any event by its event name. The “Search” feature is the magnifying glass icon just to the right of your name at the top of the page.

 

·         If you want to see all the nets in a particular county, simply type in the county name in the “Search” box. It will bring up all the nets under that county.

 

Q:  Can I search for an event by its name only?

 

A:  Yes. Just type in the name of the event in the “Search” box and it will bring up everything with that name. Please be careful when typing in the search box. It will search for whatever you type, so if you don’t type the exact spelling, it most likely will not find the event. Spelling is critical for a proper search.

 

Q:  Why does my County Name have some numbers followed by the letters OH?  (ie..  Richland - 139OH)

 

A:  The numbers follow the FIPS Code for the County. Now some of you might recognize the acronym FIPS from your Weather Radios. The newer ones rely on this code to narrow down the NOAA Weather Reports during severe weather. Here’s the actual definition for it.

·         Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS), now known as Federal Information Processing Series, are numeric codes assigned by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Typically, FIPS codes deal with US states and counties. US states are identified by a 2-digit number, while US counties are identified by a 3-digit number.In the case of Richland County Ohio, the FIPS Code is actually 39 139. The 39 indicates Ohio and the 139 is the actual county designator. All counties in the United States have a unique FIPS Code assigned to them.  

·         The reason ARES Connect doesn’t just use the FIPS Code alone is that many states have multiple ARRL Sections in them (ie.. North, South & West Texas), so to better identify what ARRL Section it is, it was determined to use the letter abbreviation instead of just the FIPS state designation. This allows for multiple Section Admins within the same state, yet being different Sections within the state.

 

 

Q:  How do I edit an Event Name in a recurring event? (ie..  change SKYWARN to County SKYWARN)

 

A:  First log in as the Admin. Then find the event in the “List” or “Calendar” view and click on that event to open it up.

 

Next - click on “Masters” at the top of the page it will be along the right side near the top.

 

Now, scroll down through the list of master recurring events until you find yours (they are listed alphabetical, so you may have to scroll a long way to get to your particular event). Once you find it, click on it to open it up.

 

Next click on Edit. This will allow you to change the event name.  Once you have the name changed, scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on Save Event.

 

·         This will then open up a drop-down window that will inform you that you are creating a large number of recurrences.

·         Click OK and it will then change the name on the events.

·         Once it has completed the changes it will show a message in green at the bottom of the page that it has successfully saved the changes to the events.

 

That’s it, they have all been changed and you can exit out of the program.

 

Updated 08-08-19

 

 

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Q:  Why can’t we have a “one click registration” for reoccurring events?

 

A:  The way ARES Connect is designed for reoccurring events is that when the admin sets up the event as reoccurring, it actually establishes individual events for each occurrence (whether it is setup for 2 or 200). This does have its pluses.

 

·         Setting up individual events allows the event admin to modify a single event without changing all of them.

o   For example…  If you have an event that reoccurs once each week and one of those weeks happens to fall when you do not have a need for the event, you can simply edit that particular event so that it reflects this. This allows the admin to quickly and easily change or add new updates that could occur for that one and only event.

 

*** We now have the ability to setup our volunteers for a one time registration for recurring events. This ability is available to county and section Admins as well as anyone that has the (XX Events Monitor) turned on.  At this time this ability is set to allow 50 recurrences at a time. But, you can repeat the measure as many times as needed...  ie.. events that occur weekly or daily

Updated  10/23/2019

 

 

Q:  Why can’t I as a Section Admin go in change those volunteers that have initially registered using the wrong landing page. These folks appear in my reports, but their accounts are not visible to me.

 

A:  In order to properly answer this question, you need to understand the layers of Admin privileges first. The system was designed to have just 3 layers of Admin privileges. They are as follows:

 

·         County – this is the lowest level of Admin. The county admin can create events and approve new volunteers that are within his/her county. They can also download the database and create reports as needed

 

·         Section – the Section Admin can create events and approve new volunteers that are within the entire Section. They can also download the database and create reports as needed.

 

o   It has recently been recognized that once Districts have been established within the Section the persons responsible for the District (principally the DEC and/or his assistants) will need to have Section Admin privileges in order to properly perform their Admin duties at the District level.

 

·         Corporate – This level is only functional at ARRL Headquarters. It gives complete Admin ability for the entire country.  This is the only level at which users that have signed up using the wrong landing page can been seen as well as modified.

 

Q:  I want to be able to be able to find and correctly sort out my Level 1 members from Level 2 and 3’s, how do I do this?

 

A:  First you must make sure each of your volunteer’s profiles have been edited to reflect only the highest level of training that they have acquired. This means that only 1 box for Level of training can be marked. This will allow you the ability to properly sort Level 1’s – Level 2’s and Level 3’s.

 

 

Q:  I am setting up reoccurring events, but the defaulted “Reoccurrence End Date” will not allow me to setup more than 30 events at a time. How can I setup more than the 30 events?  

 

A:  Instead of filling in the “End After” XX occurrences, move down and select the next selection “End By.” You can click anywhere inside the that text box and simply enter a date XX/XX/XXXX - or you can advance the calendar to a date that you want. Either way, this will allow you to setup more than 30 events.

 

Q:  Why is “Self-Reporting” not reporting my hours automatically?

 

A:  “Self-Reporting” is designed so that the volunteer who signs up for an event can report him/her hours after an event. It does not automatically record the time for you.

 

·         The volunteer signs in to his/her account and using the drop-down beside his name clicks on it and selects “View Hours.”

 

o   Once the screen changes he/she is presented with the options of “Report Hours” or “View Hour History.” The volunteer selects “Report Hours” and is again presented with a new screen.

 

o   This screen allows the volunteer to select each event that he/she had previously signed up for. The volunteer then selects the event he/she wants to record time for and fills in the appropriate time for that particular event and clicks on the “Submit” button.

 

o   At this point the event has been recorded and awaiting approval from the Event Admin. The volunteer’s hours will not be credited or visible to the volunteer until the Event Admin approves them. So the Admins must remember to go back after the event and approve the volunteer hours for them to be recorded.

 

o   The volunteer then repeats these steps until all of the events have been reported and his screen is clear of events.

**The system will hold events in the Report Hours log for the user for only 29 days. After that, it is no longer listed

 

Q:  How can I sign up for an event that happened several days ago, and I didn’t pre-register for it?   

 

A:  You cannot go back and register for an event that has already occurred unless your section has turned on the XX Events Monitor selection, but the Event Admin can register you if you let him/her know that you didn’t get pre-registered for the event.

 

·         Once the Admin has manually entered you into the event, you can simply go in and record your time under the “Report Hours” selection as you would do for any event that you have pre-registered for.

 

 

 

Q:  Why do some events have more “Points” than others?

 

A:  At this time “Points” do not have any value. This is a feature that may be utilized by Headquarters at a later time.

 

Q:  Can I sign up for events months in advance?

 

A:  Yes, you can, and it is advised that you do sign up for events well in advance. Sign up for events even if you think you won’t attend. That way you will be pre-registered in case you change your mind.

 

Q:  If I sign up for an event and don’t go to it, will this mean that those hours would be falsely reported?

 

A:  No, hours are only credited by a 2-step method. The system does not automatically record hours just because you’ve signed up for an event.

 

·         You or the Event Admin have to manually enter the hours volunteered, and then the Event Admin has to approve those hours before any credit is given.

 

Q:  If I sign up for an event and then can’t go, can I cancel? If I cancel will the Admin know I’ve cancelled out?

 

A:  Yes, you can cancel at any time up to the end of the event. The Admin will be notified that you have cancelled. 

 

Q:  I didn’t pre-register for an event and later changed my mind and went anyway, will my hours still count?

 

A:  Yes, as long as you notify the Event Admin that you didn’t get pre-registered.  He can manually add you and your time himself after the event, or he can just add you to the event and allow you to record your own time. Either way, you can be included even though you didn’t pre-register for the event.

 

Q:  I don’t mind if the Emergency Coordinator records my volunteer time, but I don’t want my name to appear in ARES Connect. Can my hours be counted?

 

A:  Yes, your hours can be recorded as “Anonymous” and your identity will not be shown.