Jeff Mahl, DC-Id

History was made when the District Communication Services Staff Officers (DSO-CS) met in St. Louis for their very first NTRAIN! Not only for the 13 DSO's in attendance, but for the three DSOs who could not attend.

While intensive training went on in St. Louis, DSOs as far away as Alaska were participating in the 3 day training as well, via “CENTRA” technology. The remote DSOs viewed PowerPoint presentations, heard the discussions and were even able to ask and answer questions from thousands of miles away. Remote instructors in Philadelphia, Buffalo, and New York City also contributed to this groundbreaking event.

The training included the rollout of the all new AUX-04 "C" School http://www.cgaux.info/g_ocx/training/c-training.html (both resident and online offerings), as well as a sneak “preview” of the all new online National CS Manual.

New workshop modules were also made available, and CS Officers were able to meet Information Services (IS)/Communication Services (CS) Department Staff and resolve many concerns.

When stranded by an unexpected ice and snow storm, the DSOs even elected to continue training and discussions into Sunday afternoon (well past the scheduled end). It was a remarkable experience for everyone involved!

The CS training agenda was chock full of new programs, general information and some great surprises for the DSOs-CS in attendance. The following presentations were made at NTRAIN:

Friday evening:

A description of the make-up of the I-CS Department that featured introductions of Marilyn McBain, the Department Chief “I” Department); Jeff Mahl, Deputy Chief; Bob Fritz, Division Chief, Research & Development; Hob Bonnet, Branch Chief, Technical; Jerry Turley, Branch Chief, Website Administrator; Herb Theisz, Branch Chief, Projects; Chris Ware, Forms Design.

The following three presentations were made using the “Centra” Internet Communications Systems. Each of these presentations was made direct from the presenter’s homes.

“CENTRA Demonstration,” was presented by Bob Williams, DVC-TM, “live” from Hicksville, NY.

“The Web Services Division and AIRS,” was presented by Randy Bogdan, (DVC-IW), “live” from Buffalo, NY.

“The Communications Services Division,” was presented by Jan Munroe, DVC-IC, “live” from Wayne, PA.

Jerry Turley, BC-IWA, described “Web Site Guidelines” and Bob Fritz, (DVC-IR), discussed the Research and Development Division.

Saturday:

Hob Bonnett, BC-ICT, led a discussion on the new CS Manual, followed by a question and answer session.

Training programs AUX-04 and AUX-08 were presented by Todd Thuma, DSO-CS D7. This included a presentation of AUX-04 “PowerPoint” components by Bob Fritz. Todd finished up the afternoon with presentations on web site development tools and web site security.

Sunday:

Jeff Mahl, DC-Id, discussed the e-Auxiliary and how to process travel orders.

Marilyn McBain, DC-I, led a discussion on “AUXINFO and AUXDATA for the CS Officer.”