d4h member manual written by danny morris, k9 alert search and rescue dogs, in

8/8/2019 D4H Member Manual written by Danny Morris, K9 Alert Search and Rescue Dogs, In

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Table of Contents

.....................................................................................................................Definitions 3

..........................................................................................................................Legend 4

....................................................................................................................General Use 5

.............................................................................................................................Menu 6

..................................................................................................................Dashboard 8

.....................................................................................Your 4 Steps To Get Started 8

..............................................................................................................Whiteboard 8

......................................................................................................Recent Activities 8

..............................................................................................................Online Now 8

..........................................................................................................Your Calendar 8

.................................................................................................................My Tasks 9

..........................................................................................Real-Time Collaboration 9

......................................................................................................Product Updates 9

.......................................................................................................On-Call Planner 9

..................................................................................................................Operations 9

......................................................................Incidents, Exercises and Events Area 10

...................................................................................................................Planning 10

...............................................................................................................Members 10

................................................................................................................Calendar 10

........................................................................................................Qualifications 11

..................................................................................................................Groups 13

...................................................................................................................Logistics 13

.........................................................................................Real Time Collaboration 13

......................................................................................................................Task 13

.............................................................................................................Equipment 14

.....................................................................................................Communication 14

...............................................................................................................Intelligence 14

...................................................................................................................Charts 14

..................................................................................................................Reports 14

............................................................................................................Techniques 14

..............................................................................................................Resources 14

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K-9 ALERT SAR MANAGEMENT SITE MANUAL

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.......................................................................................................................Extras 14

..............................................................................................................Improve It 14

........................................................................................................................Figures 16

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Definitions

Collaboration: process where two or more people or organizations work together in an

intersection of common goals

Dashboard: This is the default page a member goes to when first logged into the site. It

is laid out with information gathered from diferent sections and areas of the site.

It gives a quick snap shot of what is happening with both the member and the

group. From there the member can drill down to more specific information as

needed. See Figure 1.

Event: For the purposes of this site this refers to group meetings, fund raisers, parties,

get togethers, and demonstrations.

Exercises: For the purpose of this site this refers to group or individual trainings.

Handler: A group member teamed with a dog, can be both operational and non-

operational.

Incident: For the purposes of this site this refers to an ocial search this group has or

will respond to.

Member Classifications: Each group member is designated as one of the following (see

list). With the exception of site owner each has certain limitations. Members are

classified to allow them to access areas that are important to them.

Member: Read-only account. Private data (marked with ) is kept hidden. Good

for normal members.

Member+: Same as member, but displays private data too. Good for team ocers.

Additional Permissions: Draft Incidents Draft Exercises Draft Events Send SMS

Equipment

Editor: View, add, delete and edit all data. Add members, qualifications, etc. Good

for administrators and team leaders.Owner: Same as editor, but can configure and delete master account.

Yellow Box: Most sections in the site have a Yellow Box ofto the right of the main

content. This box has additional links, quick links, information, email and text

links. Look there for more information.

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Legend

Administrators (editors and owner) Only, no others can view this information

Not Recognized or Pending Delivery (when referenced to the email and text section)

Adobe PDF File

Send SMS

Send Email

Unable To Deliver or not attending, depending on section

Delivered or accepted, depending on section

Organization Tag (Activity Tags Section)

Team Tag (Activity Tags Section)

Organization Resource (Activity Resources Section)

Team Resource (Activity Resources Section)

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General Use

This manual is set up to mimic the website menu. See the menu on the next page and

familiarize yourself with its layout before moving on.

When you first log into this management system you will be presented with a menu

across the top. On the right hand top side you will see your username, My Settings, and

Sign Out. Clicking your username will take you to your member listing where you can

view your information. Clicking My Settings will take you to a screen where you can

update your information. Clicking Sign Out will exit you from the program and is always

the best practice for leaving a program that contains sensitive information such as

names and addresses, especially on a public computer.

Once all of our group information has been entered including searches, trainings

schedules, member and K9 information, qualifications, task, and equipment we will be

able to track search information including distances to searches, outcomes, types,

quantity, locations, members present as well as track member involvement in trainings

and events, member qualifications and expiration dates. Doing all of this will be a group

efort and should not be left to one person. The more input we have in this the more

accurate the information we will end up with.

There are several diferent member classifications that each member can be assigned to;

Member, Member+, Editor and Owner. Each classification is explained in the definitions

section of this manual. Depending on your classification you may be limited in what you

can see and/or change. If you notice a mistake with any of your information and you

cannot update it, contact a group ocer with the corrected information. Of specific

importance are your qualifications and their expiration dates.

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Menu

At initial login you will arrive at the main screen, Dashboard. See figure 1. Below is what

options are available to you on the menu across the top, in this order. When your cursor

hovers over the word you will have a drop down menu you can select from. You then can

go down and click on each item in the drop down menu to go to that page:

Dashboard

Operations

o Incidents

o Exercises

o Events

o On Call Planner

Planning

o Members

o Calendar

o Qualifications

o Groups

Logistics

o Real-Time Collaboration

o Task

o Equipment

o Communication

Intelligence

o Charts

o Reports

o Techniques

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o Resources

Extras

o Improve-It

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Dashboard

When you first log into the program you will arrive at the Dashboard screen, see figure

1. This is a general overview of everything going on that pertains to you in themanagement program at the time.

Your 4 Steps To Get Started

At the top left you will have a selection of items that should be done to get you started

using the program. Doing these things will not only help in updating your content but it

will also make you more comfortable using and maneuvering around in it. As you

complete the items a green check mark will take the place of the red X . You also

have the option of removing this section by clicking Hide these Tips in the bottom

right corner of this section but is not advised until you have all green check marks.

WhiteboardBelow the Getting Started section you will find the whiteboard. This section allows you to

add notes, comments or general questions for your fellow group members. You can do

this by clicking Add Note which will take you to a page labeled Add Whiteboard Note.

Here you can write your comment, and select text color as well as select how many days

this note will be available on the whiteboard. After the selected amount of time, in days,

it will erase itself.

Recent Activities

This section deals with Incidents, Exercises, and Events that have recently taken place

pertaining to the entire group. Clicking on each of the menu items mentioned will take

you to the general respective page dealing with that. Clicking on each of the specific

highlighted items will take you to that specific Incident, Exercise or Event.

NOTE: See Operations section in this manual for additional

information of each of these subjects.

Online Now

This section shows you who, of our members, is online and logged into this system at

this time. This might help if you have a question for a member by letting you know they

are right there to help.

Your Calendar

In the center column you will see the first item link called Your Calendar, see figure 3.

Its called Your Calendar because it is just that, a calendar showing subjects that

pertain to you as opposed to a general group calendar.

The selections under it are This Week and Later to give you an idea of what is coming

up. When someone puts in an Event or Training and invites you to it (See section on

adding events and training) then under that listed event or training will be a question for

you, Are you Attending? with the options of Yes or No. When you make your selection

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those options will go away and your answer will appear on the respective page for the

listed questions (i.e. A list of who is going, who is not going and who has not responded

will be shown on a listed training event.)

To the left of each listed calendar entry you will see 2 icons. The first icon could be,

depending on the status: A question mark indicating you have a question to answer; An

X indicating you answered No to a question; A check mark indicating you answered Yes

to a question; A circle with a line through it indicating you were not invited to this event.

The other icon will have a number in it. This indicates how many people have responded

to this event.

My Tasks

This section will list any task that have been assigned to you. You can also add a task

and assign it to a member by clicking Add Task to the right. See the Task section later

in this manual

Real-Time Collaboration

This section will list any unread messages that have been sent between members

allowing you to respond or read as you wish. At the bottom of this section there is a

suggested line. This may give you a suggested response item for recent events.

Product Updates

Here you will find product updates entered by the site provider.

On-Call Planner

In the third column you will find the on-call planner links. Of specific importance in thissection is the Of-Call link in the top right hand corner. Clicking this allows you to

quickly add your ofcall time frame to the planner so others can see at a glance when

members will not be available for call-outs.

Below in this section you will see the Of-Call Now and On-Call now listing for all

group members. Clicking on the members name will take you to their information

section. When you hover over their name icons will appear to the right side, 1 for email

and 1 for text. Clicking the respective icon will let you either email or send a text to that

member.

OperationsThere are diferent levels of membership to this site. As a Member Only subscriber the

items listed below are viewable only and cannot be altered.

Once you have entered the Operations page you will be presented with a map with 3

tabs along the top listed as Incidents (searches), Exercises (training), and Events

(meetings, fund raisers, get togethers etc). Clicking these tabs takes you to the

respective area.

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Incidents, Exercises and Events Area

When you first go to the operations section of the site by clicking on Incidents under

Operations on the menu, this is the page you will come to, See figure 2. For our purpose

an incident is an ocial call-out or search; an exercise is a training, see figure 4; andevent can be defined as a meeting, fund raiser or get together. Clicking on a tab along

the top of the map will take you to the respective area and list specific area information

below the map depending on the date range selected. To change that range enter the

desired dates and click Go on the right side. Incidents, Exercises or Events within this

date range will be listed below the map with a circle on the map showing the location of

those incidents.

You may also download the selected incidents to Google Earth by clicking the hyperlink

on the right. Doing so will download a file for use in this application.

PlanningYou can enter the planning area by clicking any of the menu items under the planning

lick on the top menu bar. Once you have entered this section you will be present with 4

tabs to choose from. These tabs are named Members, On-Call, Qualifications, and

Groups

Members

Listed in this section will be Operation members in the top section and Non-Operational

Members in the bottom. Clicking their names will take you to the information section for

that member. The only information available to members other than those subscribed as

Editor will be that which did not have an icon of a lock beside it or information the

member chose to list as available to general members through the My Settings section

via the check boxes.

Yellow Box: Notice on the right hand side there will be a

yellow box named Profiles. Clicking Members in the this box

will simply take you back to the Members area but clicking

Animals will take to an area where you can enter you K9s

information. To be listed as a handler you must not only have

your K9s information but also have your K9 linked to you.

This must be done by an editor and should have already beenset up for you. If you find that it was not please notify an

editor to have it done. When you contact the editor be sure to

provide them with your K9s birthday, when they joined the

group, their breed and any notes you would like to include.

Calendar

The calendar is used to help members schedule on and ofcalls times. It also allows for

a quick snap shot of upcoming trainings and events. See figure 3.

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Yellow Box: Clicking on the On-Call link will take you to the

on-call planner section to show you who is on call and who

is not and will also allow you to enter dates that you know

you will not be on-call (referred to as of-call). Along thetop of this section will be a graphical representation of how

many members are on-call at any given time, by moving

your cursor along the graph. You will notice a dotted line

along the graph. This represents the minimum amount of

members we would like to see on-call for that time. At this

time it is set for 2. Under the graph will be a calendar list of

of-call members and/or notes. There will also be warnings

about meeting minimum requirements.

Yellow Box within the on-call planner: As with other

sections there is a yellow box on the right hand side. This is

where you will go to add a date for being of-call. Simply

click that link, choose your dates, add a note if you would

like to, and click Save Changes on the bottom right side.

Also of importance in this box is the On-Call Calendar.

Clicking this link will take you to an actual calendar to give

you an idea of who is of-call (highlighted in Red with their

name), what events are coming up (highlighted in yellow) and

what searches have taking place (highlighted in blue). Each

will be hyperlinked to that specific section, be it an event,

exercise or search. Tabs are provided along the top of the

calendar to navigate by day, month, year or to list upcoming

events.

Qualifications

This section list both members and handler qualifications. Remember, a member cannot

be a handler unless their K9 is listed and they are linked together. In the list of

qualifications you will see the number of members listed for that qualification on the left

and the percentage of the group that has met that qualification on the right. Clicking on

a specific qualification will take you to a list showing who is qualified in that area at the

bottom and at the top will be a list of who is unqualified. Only those members who areexpected to be qualified or are working towards qualification in a specific area will be

listed under unqualified for that specific qualification. Clicking on a members name will

give more information about when that member met these qualifications.

Once you have become qualified in certain areas of training an editor will check you of

on the site as Qualified. If there is an expiration date associated with this area then it

will be updated at that time. When your expiration date nears an email will go out to you

and the designated ocer warning you of this.

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Yellow Box: Note under the yellow box several options

available to you. For instance, here you could email everyone

qualified under the section you are viewing by simply clicking

the Send Email box. You could also bring up discussions ontopics by clicking the box under collaboration. Or assign a

task to a member by clicking Assign Task. This task will then

show up on that members Dashboard the next time they log

in as well as send them an email as notification. This task

could asking them to set up a training to help you in certain

areas or to check on recertifications for you.

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Groups

The last tab is used to group members together under their specialty; this can be usednot only to organize members but also for communications. Clicking on a group will

show you who is in that group and again will give you the options listed above. For

instance you could click on the group for Wilderness then select Send Email and email

everyone in the group at once. Or you could assign a task for that group, or start a

conversation about issues relating to that specific group. This area is mainly for

communications amongst the group.

Logistics

Real Time Collaboration

Collaboration

Join a live discussion to plan and collaborate with your team. To start a real-time

discussion, visit an entity such as an incident, exercise, or member group, and click

[Real-Time] on the right side-bar.

Email

Using the drop down list you can email individual members, groups, members by

operation status, or qualifications. It is a useful tool to email members all at the same

time with minimal input. Replying to those emails goes back to your personal email

account rather than back to this site.

SMS

The SMS section is not yet set up for us but being worked on as you read this. Once it is

up and running the plan is to be able to send SMS text messages to each member either

individually or by the group they are in.

Whiteboard

The whiteboard is another good collaboration tool allowing you to add notes that will

show up on everybodys Dashboard. You can adjust text color and how long the item

will remain up on the whiteboard. Current items listed on the whiteboard are shown on

the right.

Yellow Box: Quick links are provided in the box to help you

navigate around to items such email, text and the

whiteboard.

Task

In this section you are presented with 3 self explanatory tabs, My Task, All Task and By

Item. The task section is used to keep track of upcoming or completed task that you

have been assigned. Not only will your task be assigned under the My Task section but

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all assigned task will be list under All Task. Add task using the Add Task link in the

Yellow Box.

Adding Task: When you click Add Task a new window will appear for details. Most of thetext boxes are self explanatory and 2 will self complete as you type, Link to and Assign

to. Link to links the task to an event or exercise. Assign to assigns the task to another

member. Click Save Changes when all the pertinent information has been entered.

Equipment

This area is still in process and at the beta stage as of this manuals writing. Once

completed it will allow the group to keep a running inventory of all equipment owned by

the group.

Communication

Reference Real Time Collaboration above, as they are the same.

Intelligence

Charts

Over 40 automatically generated charts and maps for response optimization.

Reports

There is no access to this section at this level of membership.

Techniques

Tags allow activities to be grouped together by techniques or categories used e.g.Communications, Water safety, Navigation etc. Create a tag for every technique or skill

your team wants to track. Tags can be grouped into bundles. e.g. A bundled Dinwiddie

may include 'general SAR, Communications, Water Rescue', etc. Percentages are shown

to the right and are calculated across that activity type e.g. 12% of all 'incidents' has this

tag, while 3% of all exercises.

Resources

Resources are other external teams and agencies you coordinate with e.g. CAP, Va State

Police, Local Police. Resources can be grouped into types. e.g. Air Support, Ground

Teams, K9 Teams. Create a tag for every resource your team will call on or train with.

Percentages are calculated across that activity type e.g. 12% of all 'incidents' called thisresource, while 3% of all training exercises were with them.

Extras

Improve It

Submit and discuss improvements to this application with all teams. This is a blog

provided by this site and allows us to collaborate with other teams throughout the

world. It is a very useful tool for learning the site as well as improving it.

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Figures

Figure 1 Dashboard

Figure 2 Incidents

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Figure 3 Calendar

Figure 4 Exercises

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d4h member manual written by danny morris, k9 alert search and rescue dogs, in

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