[AccessD] OT: What are you lot doing now and then?

Jim Lawrence wrote:

>Steve:
>
>It works for me. Please, fell free to abridge all you want.
>
>Jim 
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
>[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Steve Erbach
>Sent: Monday, February 21, 2005 4:44 AM
>To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving
>Subject: Re: [AccessD] OT: What are you lot doing now and then?
>
>Roz, Gustav, John C., Gary, Jeffrey, Jim D. Doris, Debbie, Brett,
>Charlotte, Ken, Mark, John B., Stuart, William, Rocky, Jim L., Jim H.,
>Andy, Randy, and Tom,
>
>Thank you all very much for your responses. Our glorious leader, Mr.
>Bartow, has asked me to write an article for the newsletter based on
>the responses you've given. So I'm asking if any of you have any
>objections to letting me abridge your responses for that purpose? It
>would also be helpful if those of you who already gave an "abridged"
>version for the survey could flesh out your responses a bit, if you
>have the time. I would appreciate it. Everyone has an interesting
>story to tell about his or her own growth in the computer field.
>
>I'm so glad that 21 of you have responded so far. Any others?
>
>  
>
Ok,

My dive into access came when I was in the Peace Corps right out of 
collage.  I did a lot of volunteer work in school, more than I studied, 
and really liked it.  Besides I did not want to put on a suit and tie 
and do the 9 to 5 thing (I have an accounting degree and almost everyone 
else went to work for an accounting firm, not me I went to work for good 
old uncle sam).  A quick aside if anyone is thinking or knows someone 
who is thinking about the Peace Corps tell them to do it, best thing you 
can do.  You get to help people.  My helping was working with local 
savings and loan cooperative in Honduras, Central America.  The first 3 
months after 3 months of training (learning Spanish, local customs, 
etc.) I spent just observing the work in the cooperative I was assigned 
to.  They did everything by hand, posting and calculating interest by 
hand.  It was so bad that they only calculated it when a member came 
in.  They did however have a computer and a complete accounting program 
from a USAID program.  To give you an idea of how bad things where I 
sent I picture to my parents and mom saw the computer in the background 
and asked why the thing was taken apart.  After observing for the 3 
months I put together a plan and presented it to the Board of Directors 
for the cooperative.  I convinced them to spend the cooperatives money 
to buy a whole LAN (server and 6 pc plus 3 printers.)  It was more money 
than they paid in 6 months of salaries.  However the savings realized 
after fulling implementing the system was made up by the reduced 
overtime (people no longer worked 60 hours a week but 40) because I was 
able to setup little access dbs and other applications to save time.  I 
had no experience with Access before this, but knew that a database was 
needed to make the work manageable.  To top it all off, one of my 
recomendations was to purchase all of the software in Spanish, so the 
locals could actually use it, so I learned my first VBA programming in 
Spanish.  I still have hard copies of the code.  After the Peace Corps I 
stayed in Honduras because I had met my wife and we were married.  I 
operated my own consulting business for 6 months before we decided to 
move back to the States.  During this time I would work about 1 week a 
month so we could enjoy the rest of the month.  I would build custom 
apps for the cooperatives in Honduras, make recommendations on how to 
improve their networks if they had one, etc.  After we came back (wife 
was pregenat with our daughter), I spent 3 months looking for a job 
while we lived at my parents.  My daughter was born during the time of 
hurricane Mitch and my wife because of problems with the delivery would 
have died in Honduras.  Things happen for a reason and three months 
before I was finally hired by my current employer because of my work 
that I had done it the Peace Corps and especially using Access.  I have 
continued to develop my Access skills, this list is my number one 
resource, as well as starting to work with SQL Server.  But it all 
started because I used Access in Spanish to help improve someone else's 
life, but in the end I think I am the one who comes out ahead.

Jeffrey Demulling


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