I have a very simple website I’ve setup for use with my Cub Scout Pack. It’s for the parents and I’m able to accomplish things like news items and, most importantly, sign-up forms for various Pack activities. It’s a huge help this time of year because each Fall we have a big popcorn fund raiser.
One of the big activities we do to help boost sales for the boys and the Pack generally is hold “Show-n-Sells.” Various businesses allow Scouts to hang out in front of their store all day and try to sell popcorn to their customers. The generosity of people towards the boys never ceases to amaze me.
The main piece to any Show-n-Sell, aside from the popcorn to sell, is a couple of Scouts each hour to work their magic, as well as a parent to make sure they do work their magic. I’ve found that an online sign-up sheet is the most effective way to get participation. I create a simple page listing the hours and positions available along with a simple form so a parent can choose what slot they want to fill and by the time the day arrives, all the slots are filled and we’re good to go.
With our final Show-n-Sell coming up next week on Election Day, I made the necessary modifications to the online sign-up page this morning and then sent out an email to let everyone know it was good to go and they could begin signing up. I, confident that all was well with the world, headed out to golf my martial arts class.
A couple hours later, after the class, I was cooling down and on a whim decided to check my mail with my phone.
PANIC! I had 6 emails from various parents telling me they could not sign-up, that they’d tried but nothing was working.
So first, I told them it was clearly a heavy traffic issue…
Alright, I didn’t. What I did do was utilize a slick SSH program on my phone called JuiceSSH to get access to the website and figure out what the problem was. It took me about 15 minutes of debugging on the somewhat limited user interface, but I was able to fix the site and have it working again without first having to get home. Once I’d verified it was up, I then used the email app on my phone to notify everyone that things were good to go, just like a good site administrator should.
It’s likely that the fix would have waited just fine until I’d gotten home. But it was pretty cool that when I needed a way, my phone was able to provide a means for me fix a problem. Chalk one up for the smartphone.