Recent News
Text Messaging Support Added!
Posted By: phillb2 on 10/24/11
Brothers,
View Thread | # of Replies: 0
After starting the ZAX Portal, there was one piece of functionality that most chapters wanted to have that would help them increase communication: chapter wide text messages.
Today, I've launched the first iteration of the ZAX Portal's text messaging system. Now, officers have the ability to send up to 5 chapter-wide text messages a day to either all actives, or all other officers. I hope to expand these options even further after we give this system some testing.
This system can be found in the Officer CP from the link labeled "Send Chapter Wide Text Message". From there, the officer can select who they would like the texts to be sent out to and the actual message. The officers will also see which of their actives have not enabled text messaging for their account yet.
By default, all accounts have text messaging disabled. This was one of my concerns in regards to security and giving brothers more control over their accounts. A brother must enable their account to receive text messages by confirming their phone number. This is easily accomplished by going to your "My Account" tab, clicking on the "Enable Text Messages" button on the right hand side, and following the instructions.
Therefore, if any chapters wish to utilize chapter-wide text messages, they first must get their brothers to enable their accounts.
If people believe this program should be opt-out instead of opt-in then I'm willing to talk it over.
Please remember, that while sending these text messages comes at no cost to the chapter, an individual user's standard text plans still apply. Sending frivolous text messages will look poorly upon the officer sending the texts out.
If you guys have any questions, please let me know either here or by sending me an email at webmaster@zaxportal.com.
Thanks and in ZAX,
BayCommunity Bulletin + Active Threads on Dashboard
Posted By: phillb2 on 09/22/11
Brothers,
View Thread | # of Replies: 0
To further increase the interaction amongst Zetas across the nation, I've implemented the first of many features to come.
I'd like to introduce the Community Bulletin Board. My hope for this particular subforum, which is automatically displayed on every chapter's Dashboard, is that it will be used by chapters who want to spread some news about what's going on with their Zeta. Did you just accept new associate members? Make a thread and introduce them. Did you select a date for initiation and would like to extend an invitation to other chapters to join? Post a new thread with people's contact information. Is your chapter running a special event that could use exposure or donations? See if other chapters would be willing to help out.
I hope to expand this functionality from just nation-wide postings to be also regionally based.
I've also implemented a most recent threads listing underneath the bulletin board. I hope to increase the amount of discussion going on between brothers, regardless of physical location from one another.
Here's a screenshot of what the Dashboard now looks like, but check it out for yourself and let me know what you think.
Thanks and in ZAX,
BayChapter Documents + Widget
Posted By: phillb2 on 08/24/11
Greetings Brothers,
View Thread | # of Replies: 3
Going off of a suggestion from brother Nate Nahmias, I've gone ahead and added a chapter document management tool. This will allow chapters to have their own private directory of files that they can easily share with everyone in their chapter.
Documents can currently only be uploaded by officers in their Officer CP tabs.
I've also enabled the ability for chapters to display their chapters most recent documents on the dashboard with links to the various categories associated with the documents. This setting is turned off by default. To enable it on your dashboard, please goto the settings section in the Admin CP.
Currently, you can upload Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, and several types of images (jpeg, png, gif).
This may still be a little rough around the edges, but we can definitely add some more customizable settings to spruce things up a bit. Please feel free to let me know what you think.
In ZAX,
Bay[New Feature] Itemized Financial Accounts
Posted By: phillb2 on 03/28/11
Brothers,
View Thread | # of Replies: 1
I'd like to announce the release of the Itemized Financial Account system for the ZAX Portal. Previously, the chapter's High Tau could only update a brother on their overall account balance; this is no longer the case.
High Tau's can now keep a brother's account completely up to date via their Officer CP. I've uploaded two videos that give you a good way to see how the system works:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFod0__fjEI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0g180KPA_s
I've also added the option to display the brother's balance and line items on their dashboard. By default, every chapter has this option enabled. If you'd like to disable it, you will find its setting in the Admin CP, under the settings link.
Here are some more features that I will implement soon:
- Emailing the individual brother a "register" of their account.
- Sending out "bills". With the click of a button, the High Tau can send out bills to all actives when money is due.
- Integrating the line items with budget items.
- Import in previous financial data from Quicken
- More?
I'd love to have any feedback on this. Please tell your chapter's High Tau's about this, and see if they'd be interested in utilizing this system.
In ZAX,
Bay[New Feature] House Meeting Attendance
Posted By: phillb2 on 02/17/11
Back on the 14th, I had asked on Facebook if anyone would be interested in Chapter (House) Meeting attendance functionality for the chapter's High Gamma.
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Today I found that I had some extra time, and was able to implement a pretty straight forward system.
Here you can view the High Gamma's page that has a new link labeled "House Meeting Attendance". Starting a new meeting to take attendance for is simply done by clicking on its respective button. The Gamma is also presented with a listing of previous meetings, statistics on the total numbers who were absent or excused, and the ability to click on its date to go in and edit any of the attendance.
After entering into the meeting attendance, the Gamma will see a pretty straight forward table that lists all of the current active brothers in the chapter, with their Zeta number and a field next to their name.
As the High Gamma is reading off the names for attendance, he can either input 'a' for absent, 'e' for exused, or leave it black for present. By simply pressing tab, the Gamma will move on to the next brother in the list. Everything is automatically updated!
This is similiar to the way we currently take attendance at Epsilon-Eta; however, if your chapter takes attendance differently, please let me know and we could probably create multiple methods and allow you to choose.
Please let me know what you think! There's a lot that we can add to this to flush it out even further.
In ZAX,
Bay[New Feature] Fines & Pluses Implemented
Posted By: Bay Phillips on 01/31/11
One of the main goals of the ZAX Portal is to help a chapter's High Zeta officers increase the transparency of the chapter's operations. Today I've implemented what I hope will be a feature that will help people to be informed.
View Thread | # of Replies: 2
The Fines & Pluses system is managed by the Tau and is displayed on the brother's Dashboard on the top. The brother is presented with each fine/plus that they have their account, and the total monetary amount from everything. It's a pretty simple display; however, we can flush it out further if anyone has any good ideas.
The backend for all of this is pretty straightforward too. The Tau puts a label to a fine/plus, the officer that it relates to and the "weighting" for that specific fine/plus. If someone is fined $10 for each fine, one would put in -10. If it's a plus, a reward, you'd put in a positive number in.
Once the fine is added, the Tau can then increase/decrease the number of the fine/plus for each brother.
What do you guys think?[New Feature] Calendar Email Reminders
Posted By: phillb2 on 01/28/11
Hi everyone,
View Thread | # of Replies: 1
One of the most useful features of the ZAX Portal is the ability to have your calendars readily available to all of your brothers. The current limitation was that once an event was posted, it was up to the individual brother to view the calendar.
Here at RPI, I had implemented an email reminder system that would email our lists at 5AM and 5PM with the upcoming events for that day. It's been extremely helpful in keeping our brothers up to date automatically. Up until just now, it was hardcoded into the system and only available to use at EH. I'd like to announce the introduction of the Event Reminder system which now expands that functionality to everyone.
All you have to do is log in to your ZAX Portal account, click on the Admin CP, and click on the "Event Reminder" link. You will then be taken to the page that will list any current reminders you have set, and the ability to add a new reminder. A reminder can be broken down into three parts:
1. Type in the email addresses you'd like to send the emails to with a new line after each
2. Select at what hour to send the email out. Currently, you only send out emails at the top of every hour.
3. Select which of your calendars that you've specified to email out.
Give the system a try and let me know what you think!Event Posting Permissions Added
Posted By: Bay Phillips on 01/26/11
Greetings everyone.
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One of the main concerns that has come up in the past was the ability for every brother to post events onto calendars which are potentially public. I've therefore gone ahead and added a little extra functionality into the calendar system that allows each chapter to manage whether or not every brother can add events for a specific calendar, or if it should be limited to officers only.
By default, all preexisting calendars are set so that anyone can add an event. If you would like to change that setting for a specific calendar, simply go to the Admin CP tab after logging in, clicking on the Calendars/Google Accounts link, and changing the setting labeled "Who can post?". It will look something like this.
Please let me know if you have any feedback or if we can expand upon this even further.
In ZAX,
Bay