There’s nothing better than a bag of treats, a book on “tape”, and being the designated passenger since my husband loves to drive. Being the passenger on a road trip doesn’t bother me. While sometimes it can get a little boring, (especially when you’re driving extra long distances) for the most part being it’s easy-breezy.

Being a passenger is important. The passenger plays a key role in supplying the driver with anything they may need. They ensure safety for all passengers by handing the driver a snack, keeping him awake, and allowing him to focus on the road instead of on unimportant distractions – like changing the radio station, or locating the nearest gas station. The most important role a passenger possesses it that this person knows how to drive and can take over if/when the driver needs a break.

Like on a road trip, a passenger-style driver in the software environment is also important. It isn’t that passenger’s are incapable. They aren’t. Passengers possess the skills needed to complete software administration tasks, but sometimes choose to let other “drivers” take the lead to build a better, more efficient system. Passenger’s relate to all types of drivers. They help the other driver’s accomplish difficult tasks all while working to create a better, more effective work environment.

Passenger’s rely on each person to fulfill their responsibilities in order to work together as a team. Just like on a road trip.

What type of software driver are you? Take our quiz to find out!

In addition to our quiz, our new e-book, From 0 to 60: Finding the software support to match your driving style will be released tomorrow! Reserve your copy!

Cautious people have a tendency to do their homework before making any decisions—taking the steps necessary to make the best choice. So how does this apply to software? As a cautious person, when it comes to interacting with new case management software, you are likely a “cautious driver”, too. Cautious software drivers want the best solution—but only if it’s right for their court or agency. In addition, cautious drivers require software support that is ongoing and always available to them.

Check out our quiz, What’s your software driving style? By completing the quiz, you will identify just what type of software user you are. In addition, you have the chance to request a copy of our soon to be released e-book, From 0 to 60: Finding the software support to match your driving style.

How do you know how much support you really need? That depends on your software driving style! Your driving style is your unique way of interacting with technology and determines the type of software and support models that are best for you.

Don’t know your style? Don’t worry, we’ve developed a quiz to help you figure it out!

Ideally, we wanted something that involved the community. Something like during half-time of the Junior Varsity basketball game. There was one problem. The gym was closed.

With our donation, the boosters were able to work their small town magic to have the many of the major issues in the gym repaired over the holiday break. Soon after the students returned in 2012, the gym was reopened for use!

THE PRESENTATION

On February 3rd, Alex Ipson and I were lucky enough to go present the check during the junior varsity homecoming basketball game at Maries R-1 School gymnasium in Vienna. It was one of the most amazing experiences I’ve ever had. Imagine a little high school gym, packed with people, and as loud as a college basketball game.
Because only a few people in the community knew who we were and why we were there when the Booster President gave a community update on their fundraising efforts and then introduced me – everyone was confused. “

As I introduced New Dawn Technologies and our grant, most of the audience was still a little confused – but when I presented the $10,000 check to the booster club – we received a standing ovation and there were even a few tears from community members. I’ll admit – seeing every student, parent, old folk, and even the opposing team on their feet was the most amazing sight. It was hard not to get emotional as well.

Following my presentation, the Booster club announced that because of our donation a few community groups had also come forward to match our donation “because if a Utah company can make such a generous donation to our community – then so can we”.

That night, Vienna was featured on a couple different news stations and the story is running in a few different newspapers this week.

After the donation update during the game, the Booster Club was only $7,100 away from their goal.

SATURDAY NIGHT

The Booster Club held its annual “Steak Night” at the local Eagles Club. Neither Alex or I have ever been to anything like it – there were a couple hundred people there, crammed into this warehouse-type building and as happy as can be. This event is a competition between the boy and girl athletes to see who can raise the most money from their auction items. There were more than 120 items up for auction – most of which were baked goods. They had a couple professional auctioneers and the items went fast! The big ticket item was a pan of cinnamon rolls that sold for $120 (there were a few different cinnamon roll entries, they all went for more than $75).

At the end of the night, they had rose just over $5,400 and had an anonymous resident mention that whatever they didn’t raise he would cover to get them to their $7,100 goal!

FUTURE IMPROVEMENTS

The rest of the funding will be used to repair and repaint the walls, fix the bleachers, secure exposed wiring, and purchase new ceiling panels.

THE WRAP-UP

I think I’ve said some variation of “amazing” about 30 times in this post – but it’s the only word that really describes our experience. As part of the weekend, we received a tour of Vienna from local celebrity (and song writer) Mick Byrd, walked away avid Vienna fans (with the apparel to prove it), and were able to learn all about the struggles, and triumphs of this community. We had zero internet access and my T-mobile only worked half of the time. It felt good to be “unplugged” and focused solely on being a part of this community.

Thank you Vienna for making us apart of your community and for reminding us that size doesn’t matter – it’s all about the heart of your community. We are honored to have played a small part in the rebuilding of the gym!!

Click to see more pictures on our Facebook Page

As applications began pouring in from around the world, we were amazed at the need and importance of so many projects out there. Projects ranged from after-school programs to clean water initiatives, from community gardens to literacy groups, and from young mother classes to homeless education outreach. Without a doubt, each one of the projects was deserving and in dire need of funding.

When the application closed, we had more than 350 applicants. Unfortunately, we could only pick one.

Selecting a winner was difficult. Each application was reviewed by a number of employee committees. We narrowed the 350 down to 100. Then to 50. then to the top 10. The top 10 were reviewed by different employee committees until we had a clear winner.

And a clear winner it was.

We are so happy to announce that the winner of the $10,000 New Dawn Grant is Lisa Jones, from Vienna, Missouri. Ms. Jones’ project was the repair of their school gymnasium.

“Maries R-1, the local public school, houses a single gymnasium that is used for all school sports and events, and is regularly used by the community for fundraisers, music programs, etc. as it is one of two larger facilities in the community. Unfortunately, the gymnasium is in extremely poor shape. It has no functional heating and air, making conditions dangerous for the school’s athletes who practice there and making conditions uncomfortable (or unusuable) during large school or community events. The roof leaks in many places, and large areas of ceiling panels have fallen onto the gymnasium floor. Lights work randomly dependent upon how wet and/or dangerous they are. Many events have had to be cancelled during inclement weather for this very reason. The gymnasium’s bleachers are wooden pull out board-style bleachers, and some are not functional and cannot be used, limiting capacity in the gym. Despite efforts to keep the gym painted, paint falls off in large pieces due to the humidity caused by the leaking ceilings.”

The school board and booster club had a $55,000 goal that would allow them to make repairs and give them a little money for improvements. Their efforts had raised approximately $3,500. This fall, after submitting her application, the gym was closed due to a partial roof collapse during a rain storm which then caused more damage to gym floors, walls, and wiring.  The closure was in effect until summer 2012 meaning that all community programs and school athletic events scheduled in the gym were cancelled.

It was soon after the closure that I called to tell Lisa that she had won. A conversation I won’t soon forget. Lisa was ecstatic and hardly believed me. There were a couple minutes of “Oh My God” and then I mentioned how we hoped to help in giving the project a boost, but that we hoped the community would take this opportunity and run with it.

They didn’t just run. They sprinted. The story of the Vienna Eagles Athletic Booster Club and this little town (pop. 610) is one that has inspired many, including myself.

Click to read how we presented the New Dawn Grant

So what goals does your agency have? No doubt, you’re choosing your software to help you manage your daily tasks, your schedule, your data, in general—to make your life easier and help you better administer justice. The vendor you partner with should be able to meet your needs now and also help you meet your needs as you go forward in the future.

Some of the things we would suggest looking for in a partner include:

One that provides an excellent solution upfront: Naturally, you want a partner who provides an excellent solution upfront. Otherwise, why would you pick them? Evaluate your agency’s needs and figure out what problems you are experiencing with your current software (or your current lack of software) and what you need to fix those. Among other things, a quality solution will let you track any person, business, or entity you want. It will eliminate the need for duplicate data entry, give you detailed historical information for any person or case, let you automate redundant tasks, share data, report on key information, and much more.

One that helps you configure the software to your needs: Pick a partner who gives you an awesome solution up front, and then helps you make it even more awesome by tailoring it specifically to your needs. For example, if you like the reports the solution provides, but want a couple other pieces of information on that report, can they add that in? If you like the basic data entry screens, but won’t use certain fields, can they hide them? Or can they change some of the fields to track something else?

One you can rely on for support: When you have problems, you need a partner who will quickly respond.  You want a live person to answer the phone, without having to go through a long, overdrawn automated process first. You also want one who will help you work through whatever issues you’re experiencing without making you feel dumb, or worse, frustrated because of their inability to properly communicate with you.

One that continually improves their software: You don’t want a partner that contributes value one time and then never again. Pick a vendor that continually improves their software package, in the form of regular upgrades, and who provides those to you without additional charge. Ideally, your partner will be one who listens to your input regarding what improvements to make to the software, and makes those changes when possible and helpful to a large portion of their customer base.

At New Dawn, we pride ourselves in being an excellent partner, and we’re pretty sure that our excellence as a partner is one reason why we have such a high (98%) customer retention rate, not to mention still having our very first customers with us.

For more information about what things your partner should provide, check out our video, “Beware of Hidden Costs.”

In the office, we’re doing a Walk Around the World challenge. We’re split up into teams, and we log our miles for running, walking, biking, rowing, etc. Right now, my team is in first place!! We’ve also starting doing a plank challenge every single day. Even our CEO and CFO have joined in for the plank challenge! It takes less than 10 minutes and gets us up and moving for a few minutes every morning.

Last month, I told you about redesigning the Community. It turns out there are lots and lots of choices, options, decisions, etc. We want to make sure we get it right, so I don’t have much of an update on that front. I also told you about the pending release of 5.7. If you want to install the release candidate, you should contact Technical Support and they can get you pointed in the right direction.

What are your resolutions? Have you stuck to them?

Defining the tools you’ll need and then finding out how to successfully implement those tools are some pretty big tasks and ones that, again, come with a lot of leg work before the actual project even hits the ground.

So let’s say you’ve done lots of online searching, you’ve attended too many online demos, and you’ve got your top vendors selected. Before concluding your research, have you read or talked to the current customers of these vendors?

This is a step you don’t want to skip.

Testimonials break through the jargon and “fluff” that vendors often portray and let you hear from real. live. people about their experiences (good and bad), what they did right, and even possible tips for things not to do during your implementation.

Here at New Dawn, we take our customer relationships seriously – see what a few of our featured customers have to say about us by following the links below —

Court Customers
Municipal Court Customers
Probation & Parole Customers
Defender Customers
Prosecutor Customers
Pretrial Customers
Tribal Government Customers
Other Government Customers

Several of you have been asking about our annual training conference – and I promise, the website is coming soon. Mark your calendars for Tuesday, June 12 through Friday, June 15 and make plans to visit us here in beautiful Logan, Utah for the JustWare Training Conference. We are returning to a four-day conference schedule based on feedback we received from last year, and there will also be more lab time for those of you wanting to work on business intelligence. As soon as the website is up and running, you’ll receive an email with links and registration instructions.

I’ve already spoken with a few of you about possibly teaching a class at the conference. If that is something you’d be willing to do, I’d love to have your services and expertise. In return, your conference registration will be waived.

One other date to make note of: Wednesday, February 8. Ben Stocks presents a “What’s New in 5.7″ webinar on that day at Noon Mountain time (11 a.m. Pacific, 1 p.m. Central, 2 p.m. Eastern, 8 a.m. Hawaii, 10 a.m. Alaska). Can’t attend that day? That’s ok…it will be recorded and available for viewing on the ND Community. Meet our account management team, including Ben, Jeremy Gledhill, Jonathan Anderson and of course…me.

Ben will highlight the following items:

1. Case Payments
2. Deposits
3. Non Monetary Payment Types
4. Default Event Start Time
5. ZIP Code Autofill
6. Docket Conflict Checking
7. Case Title Configuration

Additionally, we’ll show you how to create a discovery packet, and how to set default case types. Registration for the webinar is not necessary. We will send out an invite in early February with connection details. Save the date: Wednesday, February 8, 12 p.m. Mountain.

As we continue to improve our communication with you, we are rolling my traditional grant newsletter into a community newsletter that gives you access to trending technology articles, changes in the justice and public safety communities, and (of course) grant news. I hope you continue to access grant information through this highly-expanded and information-rich newsletter. If you would like to keep receiving this new newsletter, please register here.

Keep following for all the information on which you have come to depend on and much, much more!

Regards,

Marlene Martineau

Preview This Month’s inTouch »

Current Open Grants

BJA FY 12 Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Training and Technical Assistance Program

State Justice Statistics Program for Statistical Analysis Centers

Jail Resource Management: Review and Revision

BJA FY 12 Public Safety Officers’ Benefits (PSOB) National Law Enforcement Survivor Support

OVC FY 12 State Victim Assistance Academy (New)

Second Chance Act Demonstration Field Experiment: Fostering Desistance through Effective Supervision

BJA FY 12 Wrongful Conviction Review Program

BJA FY 12 Second Chance Act Technology Careers Training Demonstration Projects for Incarcerated Adults and Juveniles

BJA FY 12 Protecting Public Health, Safety and the Economy from Counterfeit Goods and Product Piracy: The Intellectual Property Theft Enforcement Program

BJA FY 12 Capital Case Litigation Initiative

BJA FY 12 Justice and Mental Health Collaboration State-Based Capacity Building Program

BJA FY 12 Adult Drug Court Discretionary Grant Program

Strategic Essentials for the Advancement of Women Executives in Corrections

PREA Demonstration Projects to Establish “Zero Tolerance” Cultures For Sexual Assault in Local Adult and Juvenile Correctional Facilities