Bulbs
ds429 (Sun, 01 Oct 2017 13:01:27 PDT)

Thanks again, Kipp. How about a robot who could sort and package bulbs and shortlived seeds and then fill orders and prepare the parcels for shipping. Those are the real time consumers for me.

Dell
--------------------------------------------
On Sun, 10/1/17, Kipp McMichael <kimcmich@hotmail.com> wrote:

Subject: Re: [pbs] Bulbs
To: "Pacific Bulb Society" <pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net>
Date: Sunday, October 1, 2017, 3:41 PM

Greetings,

I've previously offered
to help in updating the tech side of the BX - but I think
Dell, already at the limit of his capacity for this
enormous, ongoing effort, preferred to keep things as they
are. Here are a few ideas:

1) I presume Dell keeps an
inventory document (such a spreadsheet). We could use this
document to populate an online ordering page where, rather
than sending emails to place orders, people could instead
place their orders online. That system could track inventory
and automatically remove items that were spoken-for.

2) The
online ordering system would intake shipping address info
and, with paypal support, could also process payments. In
such a system, orders would not go-out until they had been
paid. This would eliminate the need for Dell (or another) to
track outstanding balances and copy/paste shipping info from
emails. Likewise, non-PBS-members would not be able to
submit orders at all.

3) When completing an order, the ordering
website could also provide the shipping info as a printable
address label.

As outlined above, I think this system could
reduce the work of supporting the BX/SX.

*  Those who ordered would be responsible
for supplying their correct, current shipping address.
*  Payment through the ordering website
would eliminate the need to manage unpaid balances
separately.
*  Member verification at
ordering would eliminate the need to track membership
status.
*  Inventory would update
automatically as orders were made. Adding new
donations/offerings would still require manual work -but
these would then appear automatically without the need to
draft new emails.
*  Ordering through
the site could be turned on and off as needed (or we could
move to a continuous offering system)

There would still be *plenty* of work left to
do even with an ordering website. But that work would be the
unavoidable stuff like packing seeds in envelopes and, when
new donations arrive, deciding how many "lots"
of  given offering will be added to the website.

I would be happy to help
engineer a system like this.

-|<ipp

________________________________
From: pbs <pbs-bounces@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net>
on behalf of Jack and Val <vkmyrick@pacbell.net>
Sent: Sunday, October 1, 2017 11:51 AM
To: Pacific Bulb Society
Subject: Re: [pbs] Bulbs

Dell, Robin and All,

Dell does a very efficient and prompt job as
far as I can tell from the receiving end.  He lets me know
that my order has been received, for example.  That puts
my mind at ease each time.  Then the order is
received about a week later.  I figure Dell has made the
process as streamlined as possible under his current
operating conditions.
The only thing I could
guess that could be done to help is to have different
responsible parties do the seeds and bulbs.  Dell may
already be doing that.  Dell, are your helpers also
PBS members?  I think I’m the only one in my
area but am not sure.

Thanks to Dell and all of you who make the PBS
such a great organization.  You all put so much time and
dedication into this group.

Val
Sonora, CA , N. CA near
Yosemite

On Sep 30, 2017, at 1:50 PM, Hansen Nursery
<robin@hansennursery.com>
wrote:

send out 150 shares?  And SXs are bigger than that?  What
an incredible job!  And I think you do this on average once
a week year-round.  You've also been doing this for 14
years or more, if I'm correct?  You have a right to
retire or step back.  PBS Folks, I think it's time Dell
had some more and reliable help or at least allow him to
retire....

put forth a request for ideas on how to streamline this
process to make it less onerous?  I'm sure this has
been brought up for discussion before, and it's time to
get serious about this situation.  Dell has done this
without pay as an incredibly generous donation of time and
probably money, too for a very long time.  Please, folks,
step forward and offer ideas, help or whatever you can.  We
owe this to Dell in particular but to all volunteers who
keep this organization running.

Nursery

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