I'm learning PowerPoint and Trello simply by DOING

Jones Laundry, Great Bend, KS 1957

I learned how to do the tasks needed in my first job from my mother because she managed her father's Laundry business where I worked part-time through high school. After I was married, I quit my school teaching career and became the Bookkeeper for my husband's Electrical Contracting business. It was my father who taught me the accounting I needed to know to do that job. But I've had to teach myself at every job I've had for the last 30 years. It's been good experience. So many of us work on our computers alone. We aren't part of a Team or in a class setting. Technology changes quickly and if we want to keep up, we must explore new things by ourselves. Printed manuals seem to be a thing of the past. They've been replaced by training videos, webinars, social media groups, and blog posts, etc.
I enjoy watching genealogy webinars because they're mostly presented by experienced masters in their field. They know their subject well and present it so we can understand their message. So when a genealogy presenter offers a webinar on a technology topic, I go for it. 

Lisa Alzo

Lisa Alzo is one such presenter. She and Thomas MacEntee from 'Hack Genealogy' frequently offer "Boot Camps", as they did last year about the writer's tool Scrivener. I found Scrivener to be more complex than I needed for my occasional blog post writing, so Lisa recommended that I check out Trello, which is simply a visual list tool. The lists can help us organize projects, regardless of what they are.

Lisa Alzo came to my rescue again last month when she and Thomas offered a Trello Boot Camp! How lucky can a person get? Before the Boot Camp webinar, I watched You Tube videos on Trello, joined the Trello for Genealogy and Family History group that Lisa set up on Facebook and created my first Trello board while preparing to attend the RootsTech 2016 Conference in Salt Lake City in February. It helped me get such things as travel arrangements, lodging reservations, conference registration, class schedule and syllabus materials organized and easily visible where I could refer to them. My packing list was right in front of me on my computer screen, instead of on a piece of paper that I kept losing. 

My second cousin Kate Keller is also a genealogist who welcomes learning about tools that are helpful in our research. I told her about Trello, she opened an account and created boards for each of the ancestral families that we have in common, and has shared those Boards with me. So I have access to much of her research about our common ancestors. 

As a result of watching Lisa as she presented the most recent Trello webinar, I got more ideas for practical uses for Trello boards. I serve as a Consultant, or staff member of our local Family History Center and help train the staff.  We all have so much to learn since techniques and tools change so quickly. Web sites change, active workable links come and go, content moves around and it's often hard to find what we're looking for, or "return" to what we're looking for. This seems to be my experience with the resources provided by the LDS Church to our staff. Videos, Powerpoints, talks by the professionals, interviews, workshops, manuals, lessons, and blog posts are moved around as content is updated. I get impatient when I have to keep clicking to find what I'm looking for. 

Since I wanted to try out Trello for something other than travel plans, I decided to make a Board that our Family History Center staff could refer to that would help them quickly find the plentiful resources that are available to us. I worked a couple evenings to set up the appropriate Lists, adding attachments and comments. Then I learned how to add photos to the card covers, so I spent another evening adding photos to each card that I'd established. 

I've been waiting for the Director of our Center to schedule a Training Meeting so I could show the staff what I've prepared. But this month's activity is a social event, rather than a training meeting, so my plan of sharing Trello with our staff was put on the back burner. 

I rarely have a free day at my job, but found myself idle yesterday for a few hours. I thought of using another app that I like called Snag-It to prepare a quick video to show the staff how to use our Consultant Board. But I haven't done that before and am much too self-conscious to prepare a video to share with others! Again, I'll have to learn how to do that on my own, but am just not ready yet. 

Last year I was asked to give a presentation at a local Discovery Day, following the RootsTech conference. That was my first attempt at preparing a Power Point presentation. I had the software so I waded through it and got the job done. 

Therefore yesterday I boldly decided to prepare a Power Point presentation that I could make available to our Center staff that would illustrate what Trello is, how to read it, and what it would offer them. I still look forward to doing a personal presentation to stir up some excitement, enthusiasm, and energy. But my PowerPoint may serve to acquaint the staff sufficiently that Trello won't be a foreign word to them as they attend that meeting. I uploaded the presentation to SlideShare so the staff can view it at home. 

I'm not a Presenter. I'm not a Public Speaker. I don't even know how to hook up my laptop to a projector! And I don't really want to know. Fortunately I have a friend who knows those things. So I hope next month I can show our Center staff what new tool I've created for them.     

Take a peek at the Lists I added to the Consultant Board.

 I cover such topics as 
1. How to Use Trello
2. Self Training
3. Leaders Talks
4. Lessons
5. Blogs
6. Videos
7. Facebook
8. Guides and Handbooks
9. Power Points
10. Partners
11. Discovery Activities
12. Training Meeting Schedule
13. Roster of our Staff

Each List has numerous cards itemizing resources on that topic. When we click on a Card (each white rectangle in the List), we are taken to what I call the "Back Side" of the card, with information on that subject, such as attachments, links, comments, checklists, color-coded labels, etc. As we can see, photos can be inserted into each "Card" to illustrate that topic for easy reference. 

I've taken the step to learn about Trello and have ventured into the realm of Power Point presentations (even though I've heard from so many people who have nothing good to say about them). I feel like I'm way behind the times, but I'm learning and I'm DOING! And I'm sharing what I'm learning, hopefully for the benefit of those with whom I serve in our Family History Center and a few friends along the way. And I'm having fun!

I Went to Boot Camp, Trello Style

This morning Thomas MacEntee and Lisa Alzo 
presented a class about using the web site Trello that they called "Getting Started with Trello Mini Boot Camp". I eagerly attended the online class as I know from experience that they deliver excellent lessons that are well worth watching. This class was hosted by Thomas and presented by Lisa. 

 As soon as the class was over I got an idea for an application of all I had learned. I serve as a Consultant in our local Family History Center and help with Training of the staff. A tremendous amount of resources are available to us from the wonderful folks at FamilySearch, but it's scattered across many web sites. It's challenging for new staff members to find what they need. 

I created a Trello board for the Consultants that will be a centralized place for them to find access to training materials. I can share the Board with anyone, so I'll be inviting the other Consultants and Directors of our local and regional Family History Centers to have access to this Board.

I've created cards for such things as Blogs, Videos, Lessons, Training, staff roster, etc. Each card has information "inside" that contains such things as attachments, photos, links, email address, comments, checklists. And each "Card" has several lists on it ....as many as we want. The lists and the cards can all be moved around. I've added color-coding via "Labels", as you see the green, blue, orange bars, etc. 

A few weeks ago when I opened my Trello account, I told my second cousin Kate Keller about it. She immediately started using it to create Boards for her ancestral families and is sharing those Boards with the family names we have in common. We're able to choose the color of the Board background, so she has chosen green for the families we have in common. She's created cards with such headings as To Do, Researching, Documents, Photos, Items Needed, Contacts, etc. We can each contribute to the cards, modify them, and basically manage them. It's a good way to work together on our family history research. 

The first board I set up when I opened my account last January was for planning purposes for our trip to RootsTech, the genealogy conference we attended in Salt Lake City in February. I made cards with lists for Registration, Packing, Flights, Schedules, Syllabus, People to See, etc. It was quite handy and actually well used. Trello is available for smartphones and tablets, so I had everything with me. 

While starting my free Saturday off in "Boot Camp", I'm happy to tell you I've had a really fun and interesting adventure with Thomas, Lisa and my new Board creation. I can't wait to invite my fellow Consultants and Directors to share my new resource. This might be a good subject to offer at our April training meeting.