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( Bluefield)—For 75 years, the Bluefield Union Mission has been a pillar of community service—a lighthouse for area residents in need. While the Mission’s uses state-of-the-art accounting software for its financial bookkeeping, the pen & paper record keeping system employed by the Mission for its daily log and client files in the 1930s is still in use today. That’s why a team of Bluefield State College students has designed a computer software program that will streamline the Mission’s client record keeping system while concurrently increasing its capacity for service.
The BSC team of Dwayne Kimbleton, Keith Solademi, Tabatha Pack, and Glen Ciborowski, students in Dr. Lynn Adams’ senior-year Software Engineering course, spent five months analyzing the Mission’s operation to identify challenges that could be addressed through a customized software program, then design, refine, and implement the program.
“The Bluefield Union Mission’s current record keeping system to track services rendered consisted of a large number of filing cabinets filled with paper records. It made quick data entry/retrieval an impossibility,” noted Dwayne Kimbleton, the student team’s project manager. “Downstairs, there was no modern system in place, just a great number of donated goods that are only tracked by a clipboard, sight and memory.”
“From the outset, the most apparent opportunity for improvement was in the way clients were organized within the physical database,” added Keith Solademi. “Moving the database from a paper to an electronic medium is the first step in making retrieval of data more efficient.”
The current system tracks clients by the county in which they live at the time they receive aid. “This system was cumbersome to use and to update,” observed Tabatha Pack. “The clients move often and there are hundreds of files that had to be checked to find the most recent information the Mission had for any one client.” The existing system also didn’t provide the capability to prevent clients who regularly reported new addresses of residence from being given more assistance than the amount for which they were qualified to receive. “A new client tracking system will make searching for clients more efficient for the user, helping to minimize instances where a client received aid more often than appropriate.”
Glen Ciborowski, meanwhile, considered software solutions for the wide array of items found downstairs at the Mission. “It took some time to analyze the situation and develop an inventory system,” he said. “We decided to track the main items, appliances, electronics, and furniture, assigning tag numbers to each. The system we developed provides space for further description, condition, and date of receipt of these items.” The program also offered search capabilities through the tag number, specific type, and/or condition of item(s) needed by a client.
Another application for the software program involved recording, compiling, and retrieving information about the in-kind donations given to the Mission, while concurrently maintaining information about in-kind donations and donors.
Pack also refreshed and enlivened the Bluefield Union Mission’s logo. “The new logo reflects the original logo (a sundial with the slogan “Helping all the time”), but is enhanced by a clearer, more detailed image of the sundial, appropriately resized and reformatted font, and a bold border framing the logo. The overall effect is more eye catching and sends a clearer message of the Mission’s image,” she said.
The student team demonstrated its system to Bluefield Union Mission director Craig Hammond and Melissa Dotson in mid-October, obtaining feedback for further customization. Their timeline calls for completion of the system and delivery to the Bluefield Union Mission by November 17.
“The challenges and demands facing the people served in 1931 are very different today. We are meeting the social and physical emergencies people experience today, but thanks to the BSC team we can join the 21 st century as it concerns inventory and case file management. The old hand written files work but are very time consuming” Hammond said.
“By selecting real organizations with real needs, training students to work in teams, and designing and implementing complete software programs, we accomplish at least two clear purposes,” Dr. Adams said. “First, the students are better trained to enter the workforce. Second, the community benefits by obtaining real working computer programs that help them improve their efficiency and productivity. This approach also produces a more interesting and motivational learning environment.”
October 17, 2006
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