OA LodgeMaster Users,
The OA LodgeMaster team is very excited to announce the immediate release of Version 4! The system has been completely rewritten from the ground up. The LodgeMaster team has spent the last three years developing this version which has incorporated more than 100 user requested enhancements - over 1/3 of all open user enhancement requests! The enhancements include making the application faster and compatible with any modern browser including mobile phones, making managing your lodge structure easier and giving you more granular permissions over users, and allowing searching, accessing, and reporting on your data simpler in members, events, and units.
Removing the need for Silverlight has allowed us to build the new lodge client with mobile functionality in mind. This allows you to use LodgeMaster anytime, anywhere, from your smartphone or tablet. Another new feature in the next version of LodgeMaster is single sign-on with ArrowID. Users will no longer need to maintain separate user accounts for LodgeMaster, NOAERS, and other Order of the Arrow systems.
When accessing the system for the first time, users will need to link their old OALM 3 account to their ArrowID. Directions on how to do this can be found here. You will only need to do this once. If you do not have an ArrowID you can create one here.
You can access the new Lodge Client by going to https://lodgemaster.oa-bsa.org. While there is an offline client available in LodgeMaster 4, we strongly encourage users to use the online Lodge Client when possible. We have developed the offline client for use at events where you do not have internet access. If your Lodge Master account has offline access you can use your ArrowID username and password to login offline. If you currently have the old offline client installed, you must uninstall the old Lodge Client before installing the new Lodge Client. Directions for uninstalling can be found here.
A couple important notes on offline: first, all user management task must be done in the online client. This includes inviting users, editing permissions, and deactivating user account. Email management has also been moved to the online client only - composing, editing, and approval must be done in the online Lodge Client.
If you are trying to login, and are having problems, please contact your lodge administrator. The LodgeMaster team cannot create accounts or reset passwords for users. We can only create and or reset passwords for the one or two official lodge administrators. If you are unsure who your lodge administrator is, check with your lodge adviser or council Scout Executive. If you are a lodge administrator, and need help logging in, or managing lodge users accounts, please submit a ticket. And we will get back to you as soon as possible.
We know that there will be a lot of questions as you begin to use the new Lodge Client due to the large number of changes. To help address these questions, we will be scheduling a series of webinars in the next couple weeks. The webinars will guide you through using the new client and address the most common questions we receive. We will then schedule regular webinars to answer questions and help users to better understand the functionality of the Lodge Client.
Our development team has worked hard to eliminate as many bugs as possible in the next version of the Lodge Client. As you use the new system you may find bugs that were missed by our development team and beta test group. We ask that you submit this through the LodgeMaster Support Center. As bugs come in, we will work to fix them as quickly as possible. We will be pushing regular updates to the online Lodge Client fixing the bugs that have been found. Updates to the offline Lodge Client will be published less frequently and announced to the mailing list.
The Finance and Inventory modules will be available in the coming months but until then you can access them on the old platform which will be available later this week. The LodgeMaster team will continue to support any lodge who uses these modules.
As always, if you have questions or problems, please check out the new version 4.0 documentation or submit a request online (https://docs.oa-bsa.org/display/OALMLC). Our support team will work through submitted tickets as quickly as possible.
We are extremely excited for the next version of the Lodge Client! The LodgeMaster team is made up entirely of volunteers, donating their time to the project. We would like to thank everyone for their support of the project and the development of the next version of LodgeMaster.
Yours in Brotherhood,
The OA LodgeMaster Team
Chadd Blanchard, Project Lead
Michael Card, Project Adviser
Robert Anstett, Development Lead
Mike Gaffney, Support Lead
OA LodgeMaster Users,
We wanted to provide everyone with a quick status update on the LodgeMaster 4 upgrade. We have successfully migrated all lodge databases to LodgeMaster 4. We are working on fixing a few final bugs that were discovered during our testing this weekend. Once we get these final bugs fixed, we will push out the final release of LodgeMaster 4.0.0. We expect all systems to be back up and operational by tomorrow evening. We will send out a final message once everything is up and running again.
Thanks,
The LodgeMaster Team
Chadd, Mike, Rob, Mike
OA LodgeMaster Users,
This is a final reminder of the LodgeMaster 4 upgrade scheduled for Friday, April 13, 2018 – Sunday, April 15, 2018. During this time all LodgeMaster services will be unavailable while we complete the upgrade to LodgeMaster 4. Please review the release notes and FAQ below prior to Friday, April 13, 2018.
Important Release Notes:
- The entire OA LodgeMaster system will be unavailable Friday, April 13, 2018 – Sunday, April 15, 2018 while the LodgeMaster team performs the system upgrades.
- All offline data MUST be synchronized with the OA LodgeMaster server by Thursday, April 12, 2018 at 11:59pm eastern. Any data not synchronized by the 12th will not be available after the OA LodgeMaster release. Your old offline database WILL NOT be compatible with the new version of OA LodgeMaster. Any changes after the 12th at 11:59pm eastern that are made in the old program will need to be manually re-done in the new system.
- OA LodgeMaster 4 will be available on Monday, April 16, 2018. OA LodgeMaster should be considered offline and unavailable until Monday morning.
- Users with the offline client will need to uninstall the OA LodgeMaster Lodge Client 3.3.11 before installing the 4.0.0 Lodge Client.
- During the upgrade window, status updates will be posted to the OA Status Page. The status page is located at status.oa-bsa.org.
FAQ:
Q: Will all our data still be in LodgeMaster after the update?
A: Yes, all your lodge data will be in LodgeMaster after the upgrade.
Q: What if we have a lodge event on the weekend of the upgrade?
A: We recommend that prior to Thursday, April 12, 2018 you export your current membership into an Excel sheet. Work from the Excel during your event. And then upload any dues payments or event registrations after the update. Please contact us other with questions if you have an event during next weekend.
Q: I don’t have an ArrowID. Where can I create one?
A: Go to id.oa-bsa.org and click Create an account.
Q: I don’t remember my LodgeMaster 3 account information. What should I do?
A: Contact your LodgeMaster Lodge Administrator and ask them to reset your LodgeMaster account password.
Q: Will there be an offline client in the next version of LodgeMaster?
A: Yes, there will be an offline client in LodgeMaster. You will be able to download the offline client from within the online lodge client.
Important References
- LodgeMaster Web Site - https://lodgemaster.oa-bsa.org/
- LodgeMaster Status Page - https://status.oa-bsa.org/
- LodgeMaster Support Center - https://docs.oa-bsa.org/display/OALMLC
- Previous Release Email – 1. https://docs.oa-bsa.org/x/B4MwBg 2. https://docs.oa-bsa.org/x/QoMwBg
We are less than three days from the next major release of the Order of the Arrow LodgeMaster system. The LodgeMaster is excited for the first release of LodgeMaster 4! Years of development and months of beta testing are coming to close. And it’s almost time for all that work to be showed off.
While this is our last update reminder email, expect several more emails from us during and after the release highlighting the over 100 user requested enhancements and bug fixes. We’ll also be announcing several new tools coming to the LodgeMaster support center, including a new email announcement platform and brand-new feature request system. If you have any questions, please feel free to reply to this email.
Yours in Brotherhood,
The OA LodgeMaster Team
Chadd Blanchard, Project Lead
Michael Card, Project Adviser
Robert Anstett, Development Lead
Mike Gaffney, Support Lead
OA LodgeMaster Users,
This is a reminder of the LodgeMaster 4 upgrade scheduled for Friday, April 13, 2018 – Sunday, April 15, 2018. During this time all LodgeMaster services will be unavailable while we complete the upgrade to LodgeMaster 4. Please review the release notes below prior to Friday, April 13, 2018.
We have received many questions regarding the update weekend. We have done our best to respond to each email. But due to the volume of email, we may have missed your email. To better answer your questions, we have answered the most common questions below. If you still have questions about the upgrade, please reply to this email.
Important Release Notes:
- The entire OA LodgeMaster system will be unavailable Friday, April 13, 2018 – Sunday, April 15, 2018 while the LodgeMaster team performs the system upgrades.
- All offline data MUST be synchronized with the OA LodgeMaster server by Thursday, April 12, 2018 at 11:59pm eastern. Any data not synchronized by the 12th will not be available after the OA LodgeMaster release. Your old offline database WILL NOT be compatible with the new version of OA LodgeMaster. Any changes after the 12th at 11:59pm eastern that are made in the old program will need to be manually re-done in the new system.
- OA LodgeMaster 4 will be available on Monday, April 16, 2018. OA LodgeMaster should be considered offline and unavailable until Monday morning.
- Users with the offline client will need to uninstall the OA LodgeMaster Lodge Client 3.3.11 before installing the 4.0.0 Lodge Client.
- During the upgrade window, status updates will be posted to the OA Status Page. The status page is located at status.oa-bsa.org.
FAQ:
Q: Will all our data still be in LodgeMaster after the update?
A: Yes, all of your lodge data will be in LodgeMaster after the upgrade.
Q: What if we have a lodge event on the weekend of the upgrade?
A: We recommend that prior to Thursday, April 12, 2018 you export your current membership into an Excel sheet. Work from the Excel during your event. And then upload any dues payments or event registrations after the update. Please contact us other with questions if you have an event during next weekend.
Q: I don’t have an ArrowID. Where can I create one?
A: Go to id.oa-bsa.org and click Create an account.
Q: I don’t remember my LodgeMaster 3 account information. What should I do?
A: Contact your LodgeMaster Lodge Administrator and ask them to reset your LodgeMaster account password.
Q: Will there be an offline client in the next version of LodgeMaster?
A: Yes, there will be an offline client in LodgeMaster. You will be able to download the offline client from within the online lodge client.
We are just under a week away from the next major release of LodgeMaster. We can’t wait to show you the future of LodgeMaster. Over the next week, expect several update reminder emails from the LodgeMaster team.
Yours in Brotherhood,
The OA LodgeMaster Team
Chadd Blanchard, Project Lead
Michael Card, Project Adviser
Robert Anstett, Development Lead
Mike Gaffney, Support Lead
Dear OA LodgeMaster Users,
It’s finally the time we all have been waiting for - the next version of OA LodgeMaster is nearly ready for general release! Thank you to everyone who has waited patiently as we’ve developed the next great version of OA LodgeMaster and thanks to the users who have helped us test the new system over the past two months.
After nearly three years in development, and nearly two months in beta testing, we are almost ready to release the next version of the Order of the Arrow LodgeMaster system. We have worked hard to ensure the new version is built to provide a robust and easy to use platform. We also took the time to incorporate more than 100 user requested enhancements to make the platform easier to use.
The new LodgeMaster client has been completely rewritten from the ground up. It completely removes the need for Silverlight - instead the new version is completely web-based and runs in any modern web browser, including mobile phones and tablets. While the functionality is like the current version, the look of the OA LodgeMaster client has been modernized - content dynamically scales to fit any size screen. The new Lodge Client will be new yet familiar to all users.
OA LodgeMaster also now leverages the new ArrowID single sign-on system - you will be able to sign into LodgeMaster with you existing ArrowID account. Users will connect their ArrowID to their old account by signing in with the old username and password once, from then on you’ll just need your ArrowID. New users will be invited by email instead of creating a username and password for them.
We’ll have many more details on the enhancements we’ve made to the client with the final release and starting at the beginning of May we’ll begin hosting a series of webinars on the new version. We’ll also be hosting a series of trainings at NOAC this summer.
Important Release Notes:
- The entire OA LodgeMaster system will be unavailable Friday, April 13, 2018 – Sunday, April 15, 2018 while the LodgeMaster team performs the system upgrades.
- All offline data MUST be synchronized with the OA LodgeMaster server by Thursday, April 12, 2018 at 11:59pm eastern. Any data not synchronized by the 12th will not be available after the OA LodgeMaster release. Your old offline database WILL NOT be compatible with the new version of OA LodgeMaster. Any changes after the 12th at 11:59pm eastern that are made in the old program will need to be manually re-done in the new system.
- OA LodgeMaster 4 will be available on Monday, April 16, 2018. OA LodgeMaster should be considered offline and unavailable until Monday morning.
- Users with the offline client will need to uninstall the OA LodgeMaster Lodge Client 3.3.11 before installing the 4.0.0 Lodge Client.
- During the upgrade window, status updates will be posted to the OA Status Page. The status page is located at status.oa-bsa.org.
Due to the size of the project, a few of the modules have not be moved into the new OA LodgeMaster Client. The finance and inventory modules will remain on the Silverlight platform for a short time more. We expect to release the inventory module along with the 2018 charter and JTE forms around a month after the initial release. We will continue to support any Lodge that uses the finance or inventory modules until we move them over to the LodgeMaster 4 platform.
We are excited for this major release of OA LodgeMaster. We have spent the past 3 years building and creating a new platform for the Order of the Arrow’s membership and event management. We are thrilled to be able to offer this program, free of charge, to Lodge’s across the country. Over the next two weeks, expect more email reminders and look for updates to be posted to status.oa-bsa.org.
Yours in Brotherhood,
The OA LodgeMaster Team
Chadd Blanchard, Project Lead
Michael Card, Project Adviser
Robert Anstett, Development Lead
Mike Gaffney, Support Lead