The Tool Belt #6: When Your Camp Tools Have Limits

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🛑 When Your Camp Tools Have Limits

Sometimes, you hit a limit with your software.

Maybe you don’t know how to do something you need to do. Or, you don’t know how to use a new feature. Or, you need a new feature, but the provider thinks it’s low-priority.

Unfortunately, that last scenario is more common than it should be. Today, I want to talk about taking the situation into your own hands.

How? Chrome extensions.

If a tool is on the web (as opposed to a mobile app) you can build add-ons or plugins for it.

(Firefox, etc. also has an extension marketplace, but I’m focusing on Chrome.)

A quick story to illustrate when you might need to do this:

Our camp nurses are used to working in clinical settings, where drug allergies are very prominent in the electronic medical record.

My camp’s management software (not naming names 😉) doesn’t highlight allergies, and our medication nurse asked me if I would put in a ticket to see if they could make allergies more obvious.

No big deal, I thought. I knew for a fact it would take just a few lines of code. I put in the request.

A year went by with no change. Even though it would mean a lot for our nurses, it wasn’t a big deal for the software company.

I got a little bit frustrated. Where was the customer service?

Then I thought, “Hold on, I’m a developer.” I decided to grab the bull by the horns and write a quick Chrome extension (really just a couple files).

And Allepop was born.

It searches a few pages in our camp database to see if there’s an allergy. If so, Allepop highlights it in red (and makes the font a bit bigger).

This is a small example, but I’m sure you can think of things that you wish your tools could do.

My point is: maybe they can.

The easiest way to write your own extension is using AI to help you generate the files. This is also a great use case for using Upwork or a similar site.

That said, I get that this could feel intimidating. Let me know if you want pointers.

And remember - don’t settle for the priorities of a big tech company. As Directors, we need our tools working for us.

Feel free to reply if you have questions, I’m not a robot. 😊

🔦 Tool Spotlight: Fast Radios

My camp relies heavily on our walkies for communication during the summer. Bill at Fast Radios has been our guy for years and always makes sure we’re taken care of. Give them a shout if you need help or want to upgrade your setup.

⛺️ Around the Campfire

This post from ACA Connect about transitioning to a new Executive Director:

🤣 The LOL Lodge

Until next time,

Peter “Bug Juice Bandit” Elbaum