2016 is just around the corner and Ryan, the interns, and I are thinking about things we want to do next year. I'm going to highlight a few of those items real quickly.

 

1) Android version of TroopTrack Mobile. We've had lots of requests for this. These requests ranged from polite requests to heated demands. We heard you. It's on our list.

 

2) More features on TroopTrack mobile. We haven't decided exactly what's next, but RSVP'ing for a family member is on the list. We will probably run a poll at some point to help us narrow the list.

 

3) Subdomains, subdomains, subdomains. We currently support subdomains (ie. troop9.trooptrack.com), but using them is optional and logins are limited to subomains. This creates all sorts of problems, such as links in emails not working for people in multiple troops.

 

We're going to make this simple. In the future subdomains will be used at all times and for everything. If you are in Troop 5 and you log in to TroopTrack.com, it will redirect you to troop5.trooptrack.com. If you are a multi-troop user and you switch to Pack 5, you will be redirected to pack5.trooptrack.com.

 

4) Emoji, why do you hate us!?!?!

 

The number one cause of crashes and failed email deliveries is... emoji characters that aren't supported by our database configuration. People love emoji, and they try to use them everywhere. Unfortunately this crashes in TroopTrack right now because of MySQL's implementation of UTF (if you're not a nerd you probably just totally zoned out). We are going to fix this in 2016.

 

5) Context sensitive help. We've already started this, but we want to expand this dramatically throughout 2016. We want you to be able to get help directly related to the task you are performing without searching the user guide.

 

6) Calendaring shouldn't be so complicated. We want to make it simpler, especially recurring events. We want to add the ability to RSVP to events from emails without logging in. Also, we need to add support for manual event payments (this one is critical).

 

7) Usability improvements, especially in fundraising, money accounts, checklists, and sign up sheets. We want these features to be intuitive and more effective.

 

8) Public events. Want to sell tickets to a pancake breakfast or organize a regional camp? We want to make it easy for you to do this.

 

9) Intern level up! We have great interns, and they've been a lifesaver with customer support. We've also been teaching them to program (2 of the changes released this morning were Zach's first contributions to the TroopTrack code). In 2016 we want to help them continue down this path so that we can move even faster, tackle more feature requests, and make TroopTrack a little bit better every single day.

 

2016 is going to be a great year.

 

Important note: Many of you will want to know when we will ship these features, so I'm going to say this: We don't publish release schedules in advance.

 

Also this: This is what we want to do in 2016 as of this moment. Other things will come up. We may change our minds. We do the best we can and we try to be open about everything, but we can't predict the future reliably. Plans will change, and that's a good thing.

 

Have a great day!

 

~ Dave