Ready? … Set, … Go …!

Correction: from last month’s Resolutions Realized! article are corrected figures in red . . . sort of . . . see below:

Our president, Jerry Hopkins has been true to his resolution for 2015. He has entered his hours on VMN-VMS for January and so has 40.0% (replacing 28%) of the chapter. That’s pretty good for January! But we’ve done better . . . this time last year, 52.5% (replacing 55%) of the chapter had entered hours for January!

I’m thinking a monthly target might be a good incentive – so every month I’ll give you an update on what we did last year for the upcoming month and we can see if we can match or best our own record. In February 2014, 57.5% (replacing 60%) of the chapter had logged hours for that month. Can we do it again this year?

Simple enough, when comparing the first month of each year – or so I thought – but it all depends on your definition of membership. As I started working on February figures, it got very confusing trying compare 2014 figures to 2015 figures. I found myself comparing cumulative figures from one year to monthly figures from another and then on top of that was the complication of who was a trainee (member?) and who had graduated. A trainee in 2014 would be graduated in 2015. Then there is the issue of transferees that are with us now but were not with us then. I wondered whether monthly figures were appropriate or if cumulative figures as we proceed through the year would be better. Maybe both?

Keeping in mind the whole goal is to accurately represent our Chapter activity as a measure of our support of the VMN Program, I created an excel spreadsheet to help me keep it straight. Learned a lot about excel formulas and how to let the formula do the counting (always more accurate than my astigmatic eyesight). Learned a lot about comparing apples to apples when status of membership changes from year to year. So, I thought I would present hours logged in terms of percentages of membership status entering those hours in a table and you could decide . . .

So what could these figures mean?

•   In 2014, February gave us additional people logging hours over and above those logging in January.
•   In 2015, February gave us NO additional people logging hours over and above those logging in January. In fact fewer logged in for February – too busy with Valentines Day? – therefore the cumulative for 2015 repeated the January percentage.
•   Trainees in 2014 were very busy people!

Now I know there are members out there who have hours to log – I have been in committee meetings with them! But still, I don’t think it’s appropriate to “beat ourselves up” over these numbers. Maybe 2014 was an exceptional year? I think 40% entering hours is very, very good – especially in the dead of winter even though there are people with hours waiting to be logged!

But March is coming and here are the numbers we have to beat:

If anyone would care to verify these numbers you are more than welcome to do so – just give me a call and I will send you the spreadsheet and a “how to” document.