Tightened up our process quickly

The driving force behind the decision to use Airtable began with two pieces. First, the course outlines. Managing the outlines, related faculty, assuring no duplication of assigned times or locations, getting the information up on the website, then transferred over to final compensation schedules was a multiple spreadsheet and document process. But then if there was one minor change - "the" change to "that" for instance - it had to be changed in up to five different places! Obviously, this required updating and re-proofing with each and every modification. AirTable is making all of that so much simpler. One base maintains all of the information about the faculty, the courses, the course outlines, and the resources, along with the compensation amounts allowed per session. Once the detailed course outlines are entered, with days, times, and faculty assigned, a simple grouping by course provides a quick proof for the course coordinator. A re-grouping by faculty/instructor provides a quick review of potential conflicts and overlap, not to mention an immediate summary of their potential earnings. In that same location, I'm able to track when things are submitted, whether instructors are eligible for bonus payment for timely submissions.....I need not go on. Hours of work consolidated into one place. A coordinator submitted a minor change in their schedule and life was as simple as reassigning them in one place; that simple change flows through to all views and all required reports. Wow!

The second driving force behind creating this system was all of the outreach efforts made by multiple people - each with their own set of responsibilities in the organization. Now we have a base that tracks all of the organizations and societies, conferences, and other places that require some kind of contact, when they were contacted, and what the results were. Another base tracks social media campaigns, blog posts, costs, and analytic results.

Last - at least so far since I'm just getting my feet wet and having a blast doing so - is that all of my contact information is now centralized in one place. From suppliers to sponsors to instructors and committee. The date of contact, date a contract was sent, copy of signed contract, photo, bio, etc. all uploaded and tracked in one place. I can invite other volunteers to use this space - which they can do from a browser or the desktop app - and it syncs immediately with their updates as well. Again, no more looking. No more long to do lists - just check the box when done; check the next one. Upload the document. etc. etc.