A digital application
I can see two versions. An editable PDf where the volunteers downloads, fills out and either emails the application back or uploads it via a wufoo form or something like that. No printing or scanning.

A digital background check
We can already do this, although we don’t do it very much. Fellowship One provides a volunteer pipeline where individuals can log in and submit their own background check. We don’t use it very much because everything else is paper-based, so it seems less confusing to keep the background check process analog as well. I included what a volunteer fills out to get a background check though Fellowship One below.

A digital ministry agreement
There are a few significant bits of information that I want every volunteer to know and understand before they begin volunteering. I actually even want them to sign off that they know and understand… even agree to comply with. This may include our expectations as well as core policies such as appropriate touch, suspected child abuse and other key issues.

All of these “physical” documents we already keep in their file with Fellowship One which is secure and private, but almost all of these documents are scanned from a paper copy.

The Big Question
What does a digital signature look like in these cases? Could I simply add a disclaimer at the end of each document saying that filling out the following fields gives us consent that the information submitted was true, accurate and from you. The fields would request their full name, date of birth and maybe even the last four digits of their social security number… making that harder for someone to randomly fake. I know that Fellowship One does a background check completely digitally (I included the screenshot below) and no one has to “sign” anything. You have to give your social (which is required to run a check) which maybe helps validate that the person filling out the form is who they say they are.

So, what can we do? What legal issues do we need to consider? What issues might we run into if someone did something inappropriate and claimed that they didn’t know and that they didn’t sign the document that we have digitally signed by them. Also, if we use a Wufoo form to transmit files electronically, the form is a secure page (signified by the https at the front of the URL). Does that then provide a safe transport of files with documents of a more sensitive nature (although we’ll not ask for people’s full social security number on these forms)?

Let me know. I’m really curious as to what our options might be.

We use Fellowhship One and so we scan applications and attach them to a volunteers profile via requirements. Since we also run our background checks through F1, that report shows up in F1 as well. It’s nice an convenient to have it all right there in F1. However, we’re still keeping a physical copy of the actual application. My question is this: do I still need a physical copy anymore? I mean, I’m already relying of F1 to store the only copy of my background check and I know that my data is backed up, so if F1 crashed, my data is still going to be there. I probably have a better chance of losing my original files by fire than I do losing them to complete and total data failure.

So, what do you think? What do you do?

First of all, you don’t have to have gmail to use Google Docs. That’s a misnomer. Literally you can go to docs.google.com and set up an account using any of your email addresses to create an account. From this account you’ll have access to spreadsheets, documents and presentations which all come with Google Docs. If you already have a gmail account, you won’t need to register for Docs, you can simply log in with your gmail credentials and have full access to docs. If at some point you decide that you want to make the move toward a gmail address, you can convert your account to gmail. That means you can log in at yourname@gmail.com instead of yourname@otheremail.com. This way you can access all Google services from one account. Brilliant.

I know some people really don’t like Google Docs. You say, “why would I use Google Docs when I’ve got Microsoft Office?” Or you say, “Google Docs doesn’t have all the features I have in word or excel.” Those are really good points. At this point, I wouldn’t be satisfied with Google Docs as an office replacement. It’s not as feature rich as Microsoft. There are things that I do in excel and word that I can’t do in Google. So, I still use excel and word. However, every time I’m working on a project, spreadsheet or document that multiple people will have input with, I use Google Docs and share it. It may have started off as a word or excel document or it may end up as a word or excel document, but while it’s in the collaborative stage, it lives in Google Docs. Edits happen in real time, revision history is kept and it saves so much TIME!

I’d say that Google’s openness is what makes this work. I can easily import my word or excel files into Google Docs. When I’m done with the collaborative part, I can export very easily as well. If Google tried to lock everything down into a Google proprietary format, this wouldn’t have worked.

So, if you haven’t really played much with Google Docs, log in and play around with it. Unlike gmail, you can actually put things in folders.  Organize away and know that every word in every document is easy accessible through a Google search (don’t worry, others can’t search and find our documents). The applications are endless. I use them with my staff and volutneer teams all the time, especially since my volunteer teams don’t have access to files that may reside on the server. I have a spreadsheet that tracks my weight loss (it even has all the formulas to calculate percentages), I have a word doc for my bucket list, Sara and I have a simple budget in a Google spreadsheet and I sometimes draft blog posts or articles in google docs so they’re always accessible.

This week I’m going to share a few tricks with Google Docs that have made my life better. If your not already using them, perhaps you will after this week.

• VSO image resizer – I right-click on an image on my desktop and it opens VSO and with one click it will create a copy of the image in any size I specify. Very handy for adding images to the blog. I use it all the time!
• Hoversnap – It runs in my task tray. I hit print screen and it creates a jpeg of my desktop. I hit alt-print screen and it creates a jpeg of my active window. I hit control-print screen and it creates a marque drawing tool that I can highlight any space on my desktop and it makes that into a jpeg. Again, it’s handy for blogging and I use it all the time.
• Windows Live Writer – I use it to blog and I love it. It’s better than using a web application. What is good for the Mac?
• DVDFab Decrypter – I use this to rip a DVD to my computer. I then use handbrake (which was originally Mac) to export video tracks to MOV, MP4 or whatever other file I need. I know handbrake can rip the DVD, but it won’t rip some copy protected DVDs. DVDFab always does. Anyone have any ideas on what I can use to rip DVDs without the copy protection getting in the way.

Well, those are a few. Here’s the real deal. I’ve got XP running on the machine and I could easily install all of this on the XP OS… but that isn’t the point of having a MacBook Pro, is it?

Thanks for your help. Oh and please do make suggestions of things I don’t know about that you absolutely love. I do have Adobe Creative Suite 3 as well as all the Office Suite, so I’m good with all of that… but I need more!