[Katrina-IT-Volunteers] Important: take good notes

[Gemar, Edward]

Last night there were small pre-printed slips of paper around the
computer area that had spaces for people to right in their email and
FEMA info including Id's and passwords.  Hopefully they will continue to
be there and easy to find.  I believe there were help addresses printed
on the reverse side.  Please use these if you see them.  If these are
filled out, it gives the evacuee something to give to the next person
that helps them later on.  If someone you are helping doesn't have one
and doesn't have their info written down all in one place, I'd recommend
transferring it to one of these.  Also, when possible I was having
people use numbers (their phone number of SSN) for Id and Password
information when signing up for FEMA etc. because there is no risk of
problems with mixing up lower/upper case letters when doing this.  I
worked with a person last night who did have all of their info written
down, but they had gotten the case wrong so we had to try many
combinations of upper/lower case, but it finally worked.  

-----Original Message-----
From: katrina-it-volunteers-bounces at soaustin.net
[mailto:katrina-it-volunteers-bounces at soaustin.net] On Behalf Of Ray
Shea
Sent: Friday, September 09, 2005 12:16 PM
To: katrina-it-volunteers at soaustin.net
Subject: [Katrina-IT-Volunteers] Important: take good notes

When you write down information from the computer for
evacuees, please take detailed verbose notes. 
Remember, a lot of these people don't even know what
an email address looks like, even if you write down
their address and tell them "this is your email
address".  Don't expect them to remember anything at
all, and write like you are writing instructions to
the next volunteer that will help them (since you
are).

I had a case last night where a man said that a
volunteer told him a loved one had been found, but all
he knew was that "somebody wrote this down off the
computer and told me I could look it up".  The card
said:

www.yahoo.com

Carlota Winfield

Find Carlota goto
Locate person - 12238

This card is useless to him and to me.  We think maybe
12238 is an entry number on some database, but he's
frantic thinking that Carlota's whereabouts are known
and nobody can tell him where she is.  I can't find
her anywhere.

If you remember finding Carlota, please let me know.

Thanks,

ray



	
		
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