Mark Menard, president of Enable Labs, gave a presentation on using technology in Freemasonry. He discussed how lodges currently use tools like email, websites and social media for communication and coordination, but could improve data management, preservation and mobile engagement. Menard proposed that grand lodges and lodges implement online systems and applications to better manage membership, events, documents and finances using tools like MORI and mobile apps.
Let's Do Some Upfront Design - WindyCityRails 2014Mark Menard
My talk from WindyCityRails 2014 in Chicago
Sometimes a little time spent upfront on design is worth it. Just because we’re agile doesn’t mean no design upfront. Unfortunately some people have taken “working software over comprehensive documentation” to mean no documentation and no design. In this talk, Mark will present a method for evolving an object oriented design through tests, with a strong separation between collaborator classes and process classes. The emphasis will be on quickly driving toward a tested design before committing to functioning process code to save time commonly spent in the refactoring of operational code and test code. You’ll learn how to write better designed and tested code faster with less refactoring churn.
This is my presentation from Ruby on Ales - March 2014 - Bend, OR
To paraphrase Mark Twain, "I didn't have time to write some small classes, so I wrote a BIG ONE instead." Now what do you do? Refactor! In this talk we'll refactor a large class into a series of smaller classes. We'll learn techniques to identify buried abstractions, what to extract, what to leave behind, and why delegation, composition and dependency inversion are key to writing small things that are easier to test.
Jim Weirich gave us many things. Among his last was Wyriki, a small Rails app described in his own words as an "Experimental Rails application to explore decoupling app logic from Rails." Many of us paid our final respects to Jim on his last commit to this project. Now it's time to learn from it.
In this talk we'll explore how Jim applied the principles of Object Oriented Design to achieve his goals of decoupling; look at how he used decoupling to speed up testing; how decoupling improved and simplified his tests; and look at his design style. Jim's legacy leaves a lot to learn from, let's do it.
Writing small code is hard. You know you should, but how do you actually do it? It's so much easier to write a large class. In this talk we'll build up a set of small classes starting from nothing using a set of directed refactorings applied as we build. All while keeping our classes small. We'll identify abstractions yearning to be free of their big object cages. In the process we'll also see how basic patterns such as composition, delegation and dependency injection emerge from using small objects. We'll even write some tests too.
Writing small classes is hard. You know you should, but how? It's so much easier to write a large class. In this talk we'll build up a set of small classes starting from nothing using a set of directed refactorings applied as we build, all while keeping our tests green. We'll identify abstractions yearning to be free of their big class cages. In the process we'll also see how basic patterns such as composition, delegation and dependency inversion emerge from using small objects.
Let's Do Some Upfront Design - WindyCityRails 2014Mark Menard
My talk from WindyCityRails 2014 in Chicago
Sometimes a little time spent upfront on design is worth it. Just because we’re agile doesn’t mean no design upfront. Unfortunately some people have taken “working software over comprehensive documentation” to mean no documentation and no design. In this talk, Mark will present a method for evolving an object oriented design through tests, with a strong separation between collaborator classes and process classes. The emphasis will be on quickly driving toward a tested design before committing to functioning process code to save time commonly spent in the refactoring of operational code and test code. You’ll learn how to write better designed and tested code faster with less refactoring churn.
This is my presentation from Ruby on Ales - March 2014 - Bend, OR
To paraphrase Mark Twain, "I didn't have time to write some small classes, so I wrote a BIG ONE instead." Now what do you do? Refactor! In this talk we'll refactor a large class into a series of smaller classes. We'll learn techniques to identify buried abstractions, what to extract, what to leave behind, and why delegation, composition and dependency inversion are key to writing small things that are easier to test.
Jim Weirich gave us many things. Among his last was Wyriki, a small Rails app described in his own words as an "Experimental Rails application to explore decoupling app logic from Rails." Many of us paid our final respects to Jim on his last commit to this project. Now it's time to learn from it.
In this talk we'll explore how Jim applied the principles of Object Oriented Design to achieve his goals of decoupling; look at how he used decoupling to speed up testing; how decoupling improved and simplified his tests; and look at his design style. Jim's legacy leaves a lot to learn from, let's do it.
Writing small code is hard. You know you should, but how do you actually do it? It's so much easier to write a large class. In this talk we'll build up a set of small classes starting from nothing using a set of directed refactorings applied as we build. All while keeping our classes small. We'll identify abstractions yearning to be free of their big object cages. In the process we'll also see how basic patterns such as composition, delegation and dependency injection emerge from using small objects. We'll even write some tests too.
Writing small classes is hard. You know you should, but how? It's so much easier to write a large class. In this talk we'll build up a set of small classes starting from nothing using a set of directed refactorings applied as we build, all while keeping our tests green. We'll identify abstractions yearning to be free of their big class cages. In the process we'll also see how basic patterns such as composition, delegation and dependency inversion emerge from using small objects.
Learn from the mistakes of others (me) before you do a startup. This is a high level talk about how software startups can easily go off the rails. Learn to identify the issues early and avoid them, from handling external integration to having an empowered product owner, and more.
This is a presentation I use for my introduction to the Ruby programming language training sessions. It covers the basics of the language, such as: syntax, variables, classes, instantiating objects, and much more.
Learn from the mistakes of others (me) before you do a startup. This is a high level talk about how software startups can easily go off the rails. Learn to identify the issues early and avoid them, from handling external integration to having an empowered product owner, and more.
This is a presentation I use for my introduction to the Ruby programming language training sessions. It covers the basics of the language, such as: syntax, variables, classes, instantiating objects, and much more.
1. Technology in
Freemasonry
Conference of Grand Masters 2013
Mark Menard
President, Enable Labs
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2. Who is Mark Menard?
Past Master of VanRensselaer Lodge #87, East
Greenbush, NY
Past Secretary of VanRensselaer Lodge #87, East
Greenbush, NY
Member Grand Lodge of New York Technology
Committee 2002 to present
Creator of MORI the Masonic Online Registry
System in 2004
Engaged with Grand Lodges for 9 years on IT
issues
Responsible for the management of over 300,000
active Masonic member records as President of
Enable Labs the providers of MORI
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3. Themes
Communication
Coordination
Data Management
Data Preservation
Social Engagement
Mobile
E-Commerce
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4. Lodge Issues
Improve Communication
Increase and Simplify Coordination
Preserve Lodge Records
Manage Membership Data
Socially Engage the Membership
Collect Dues Quicker and Easier
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5. What are lodges using?
Communication and Coordination
Email
Websites
Facebook
Twitter
Blogs
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6. What are lodges using?
Data Preservation
Nothing at worse, generally ad-hoc, the very
few are using offsite such as Carbonite
Data Management
Home grown member management systems
(Paper, Excel and Access)
Third party stand-alone member management
systems
Grand Lodge provided online web-based
member management systems
Document Preservation
Ad-hoc document storage (some of it not so
good)
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7. What are lodges using?
Social Engagement
Email
Facebook
Private Forums on Websites
Twitter
Collecting Dues
PayPal
Other third party payment processors
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8. The Generational Change
New members coming into Freemasonry are
conversant with:
Email
Facebook
Twitter
Web Applications
Smartphones
The average age of secretaries in the jurisdictions
that use MORI has been dropping steadily since
the introduction of the system.
Younger secretaries are tech savvy.
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9. Future Lodge Technologies
Improve communication and social engagement
by adding new avenues:
Managed email such as Constant Contact or
Contactology
Facebook
SMS text messaging
Private online communities
Move beyond email for coordination
Basecamp - Online project management
Eventbrite - Online event management
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10. Future Lodge Technologies
Preserve documents by scanning them.
SnapScan - Cheap and Easy
Improve dues collection by using online options
such as:
PayPal
Square
MORI (4th Quarter 2013)
... and other payment processors
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11. Grand Lodge Communications
Blind CC emails aren’t sufficient anymore.
A printed magazine doesn’t work like it used to.
How do we improve?
Managed email lists
Find out bounce rates
Use professional templates
Easy and regular communication
Electronic Magazine
We can’t abandon our older members, but we can
repurpose.
California Mason available for iPhone, iPad, Android and
Kindle Fire
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12. Grand Lodge Coordination
The Challenge
Your team is all over your state.
Some of those states are BIG.
You as a Grand Line Officer have to keep tabs
on a LOT of stuff.
Some Ideas:
Basecamp
Support To Do Lists, Discussions, Document Storage and
more
Used by the Ritual Renaissance Committee in NY very
successfully.
Pivotal Tracker
Good for projects that are highly task oriented.
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13. Coordinating Member Management
How old is your member management system?
Is it web-based?
Are you running your own server?
Can lodge secretaries and officers; and Grand
Lodge staff see the same data?
Does it integrate with the US Postal Service?
Do you still require the submission of forms by
either postal or email?
Do you accept submissions from lodges in any
form that then need to be processed in some
way?
Options: MORI and Bell Systems
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14. Grand Lodge Data Preservation
Do you have a formal backup process?
If you have an older membership management
system can you even open the files in a more
modern program?
Do you have some form of off-site backup?
File formats are not forever?
Word and Excel are not archival formats.
Does your staff have a file saving convention?
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15. Grand Lodge Document Preservation
Paper doesn’t last forever.
Everything decays over time, not just physically
but organizationally.
It gets harder to find documents over time.
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16. Grand Lodge Social Engagement
Can you be found on Facebook?
Do you have a formal team managing your
Grand Lodge page on Facebook?
If you don’t create the page someone will!
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17. Grand Lodge E-Commerce
Are you extending credit to lodges for goods?
Why?
There are simple online solutions you can use to
sell goods.
Shopify
If you have MORI you can sell online securely
using our built in store.
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19. Mobile
http://www.wirefresh.com/making-calls-is-one-of-the-last-things-we-use-smartphones-for-study/
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20. Mobile and Freemasonry
The majority of our members under 55 have a
smartphone.
The vast majority of our members under 64 are
getting a smartphone when they get a new
phone.
We need to engage our members on their mobile
devices.
Find a Lodge Based on Location
Find Meetings Based on Location
View Lodge, District and Regional Calendars
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21. Shameless Self Promotion
Over 340,000 active member records
under management.
Cloud based
All you need is a web browser
Complete Grand Lodge, Lodge, and
Fundraising Support
On and Off Site Backup
Full service phone support for Lodge
info@enablelabs.com secretaries, Grand Lodge, Grand Line,
Everyone
518-272-4455 Complete turn key solution
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