Follow Up Training

New clients who request follow up training 6 to 8 months after the initial installation of Theatre Manager or existing clients who wish onsite training on specific Training Topics, the onsite training curriculum will depend on your specific requests and the number of onsite training days that you asked for.

Using the following Day 1 through Day 4 outline:

  • If 1 day was purchased, then use Day 1
  • If 2 days were purchased, then use Day 1 and Day 4
  • If 3 days were purchased, then use Day 1, Day 2, and Day 4
  • If 4 days were purchased, then use Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, and Day 4
  • If 5 or more days were purchased, then use Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, repeat Day 3 again until the last day, then end on Day 4

Preparation

Preparation for our onsite arrival will ensure a more successful implementation of Theatre Manager's Follow-Up training.

Training Topics

Making the most of the training will depend on a clear list of specific topics your organization wishes to cover during the training time.

Please prioritize the list of topics you wish to cover. Your trainer will indicate if there is sufficient time to cover all the topics in the training time you have booked, or if topics will need to be limited to time constraints in order to touch base on each topic.

If it is deemed that there are too many topics for the training time, it will be your organization's choice if they wish to:

  1. Remove topics from the Training Topics list
  2. Allocate time limitations to certain topics, in order to touch base on all the topics in the list
  3. A combination of the above

Within each topic that you wish to have covered, have each person who will be attending the session write down (yes write them down) a list of questions, comments, concerns, or areas that they wish to have reviewed. In some cases, these questions will serve as the starting point for the training of that topic. Please prepare a copy of all questions from all the staff members to provide to the Onsite Trainer either in advance of their onsite arrival, or the morning of their arrival on Day 1.

Why do we suggest that everyone write down their questions? Simple answer is to make sure that nothing gets missed or forgotten to be asked while the trainer is onsite. There will be a lot of information about Theatre Manager occurring while the trainer is onsite and we have found that when it comes to the specific topic of training, questions that were really important to be asked, were not covered as the question was not asked.

2 Weeks Prior

New Hardware Setup

  • Have any new computer workstations or servers setup, configured, and tested for network connections.
  • Installation of all Operating System Updates and Patches on:
    • Theatre Manager's Database Server (if it is new)
    • Apache Web Listener (if it is new)
    • Theatre Manager Web Listener workstation(s) (if it is new)
    • All new workstations that you intend to have Theatre Manager installed on.
  • At minimum, configuration of software based firewalls to allow the required TCP/IP Ports (5432, 6181) for the Workstation Ports

Upgrade Theatre Manager

  • When providing training, we find it best to be training on the most recent version of Theatre Manager. Please visit our Upgrading Theatre Manager help page to review the steps involved.
  • With an onsite upgrade by the trainer, in most cases it is best to have it completed prior to the Training Topics being covered. Depending on your current version of Theatre Manager, it may take 4+ hours (or longer) to complete the upgrade. These 4+ hours would result in a loss of time allocated for actual training.
  • If you decide to have Theatre Manager upgraded while the trainer is onsite, inform Arts Management immediately. This will allow us to determine the best time allocation within the training schedule to complete the process. Depending on your current version of Theatre Manager, Arts Management will need to schedule resources to complete the task before the Onsite Trainer arrives.
  • It is our recommendation to have Theatre Manager Upgraded to the most recent version of Theatre Manager before the Onsite Trainer arrives.

1 Week Prior

Information to Prepare for Day 1 of Training

  • The "Local" Administrator password for the database server. This may be a different password then the "Domain" Administrator account. This account is required for the database server only.
  • If you have a Network Domain setup, the "Domain" Administrator user ID and password for the server and workstation(s)
  • If you are not using a Network Domain setup, the "Local" Administrator user ID and password for workstation(s)
  • If you are using a Wireless Network that will be used by the Onsite Trainer, the Wireless Network password
  • Actual examples of items/events/schedules in your upcoming (or existing) calendar
  • Depending on the specific training topics you have requested for, a projector and backdrop screen may be required. The projector is best for a computer hookup with a fairly high degree of resolution
  • Within each topic that you wish to have covered, have each person who will be attending the session write down (yes write them down) a list of questions, comments, concerns, or areas that they wish to have reviewed. In some cases, these questions will serve as the starting point for the training of that topic. Please prepare a copy of all questions from all the staff members to provide to the onsite trainer either in advance of their onsite arrival, or the morning of their arrival on Day 1.

Upgrade Theatre Manager

  • When providing training, we find it best to be training on the most recent version of Theatre Manager. Please visit our Upgrading Theatre Manager help page to review the steps involved.
  • With an onsite upgrade by the trainer, in most cases it is best to have it completed prior to the Training Topics being covered. Depending on your current version of Theatre Manager, it may take 4+ hours (or longer) to complete the upgrade. These 4+ hours would result in a loss of time allocated for actual training.
  • If you have decided (from the 2 Weeks Prior preparation tasks) to have Theatre Manager upgraded while the trainer is onsite and have not indicated this to Arts Management, please inform Arts Management immediately. This will allow us to determine the best time allocation within the training schedule to complete the process. Depending on your current version of Theatre Manager, Arts Management will need to schedule resources to complete the task before the Onsite Trainer arrives.
  • It is our recommendation to have Theatre Manager Upgraded to the most recent version of Theatre Manager before the Onsite Trainer arrives.

1 Day Prior

Creating a Training Area

  • Prepare the training area for ample room for workstations
  • Prepare the training area for and required Ethernet Hubs, Wireless network access
  • Have in place additional powerbars and/or extension cords
  • If required, setup the projector and backdrop screen

Information to Prepare for Day 1 of Training

  • Within each topic that you wish to have covered, have each person who will be attending the session write down (yes write them down) a list of questions, comments, concerns, or areas that they wish to have reviewed. In some cases, these questions will serve as the starting point for the training of that topic. Please prepare a copy of all questions from all the staff members to provide to the onsite trainer either in advance of their onsite arrival, or the morning of their arrival on Day 1.

Day 1 Morning

Please have Ready for Trainer's Arrival

  • The "Local" Administrator password for the database server. This may be a different password then the "Domain" Administrator account. This account is required for the database server only.
  • If you have a Network Domain setup, the "Domain" Administrator user ID and password for the server and workstation(s)
  • If you are not using a Network Domain setup, the "Local" Administrator user ID and password for workstation(s)
  • If you are using a Wireless Network that will be used by the Onsite Trainer, the Wireless Network password
  • The itemized list of questions by topic that each of the staff members wants to cover for each Training Topic

Onsite Trainer Arrives

As this is most likely the first time to your facility for our training, providing the trainer a sense of your organization is important as then they can get a better sense of how to customize the training they will provide to your organization. Some ideas to give them a sense of your organization are:
  • Location and setup of the box office
  • Location and walk through of the venue seating location(s)
  • Locations for other administration staff's offices
Some other helpful locations to know about are:
  • Location of the training location
  • Location of a coffee/lunch room area
  • Location of the water closet

Meet & Greet

  • All staff members should attend this important meeting (usually 30 minutes)
  • You may not be using all 100% of Theatre Manager by the end of training
  • Bring forward any changes in the training agenda based on your specific goals

Review the Training Topics

  • Review the Training Topics that were provided prior to the trainers arrival
  • Agree on the sequence that the topics will be covered in and the time allocation for each topic

Proceed with Training

  • Start with the first topic

Day 1 Afternoon

Continue with Training

  • Continue with the Training Topics

Day 1 Homework

Software Installation (IT Department)

If your organization requires Theatre Manager to be installed on additional workstations for any new users that require access, the Theatre Manager installation files will be provided.
  • Installation and configuration of Theatre Manager on each of the workstations
  • Connectivity testing from workstations to server

Day 2 Morning

Continue with Training

  • Continue with the Training Topics

Day 2 Afternoon

Continue with Training

  • Continue with the Training Topics

Meeting with Executive Director - Review of Onsite Training

  • Status update of where we are in the training process
  • Outstanding tasks that need to be completed
  • Missed topics that were part of the agenda and reasons why they were missed
  • Possible options (cancel future topics, shortened time allocation to future topics, postpone a future topic for another onsite training session in the future) to catch up on any missed topics

Day 3 Morning

Continue with Training

  • Continue with the Training Topics

Day 3 Afternoon

Continue with Training

  • Continue with the Training Topics

Day 4 Morning

Continue with Training

  • Continue with the Training Topics

Support for Theatre Manager

  • Use Theatre Manager's online help site to first search for your answer
  • Subscribe to Arts Management's RSS Feed
  • Contacting Arts Management for Technical Support
  • Discussion about the difference of Support versus Training
  • Process for checking for new updates to Theatre Manager
  • Process for installing Theatre Manager on a New Workstation
  • Updating Theatre Manager on Existing Workstations (Push Out versus Walk Around)

Bringing New Staff Members Onboard

  • Existing users should be crossing training new users
  • Departing employees should be cross training new employees
  • Use Theatre Manager's screen casts from our online help site to train on each section
  • Use Theatre Manager's online help site to first search for your answer
  • Subscribe to Arts Management's RSS Feed
  • Create a Training Database and let the new staff member learn without effecting "live" data
  • Optional onsite followup training
  • Optional telephone training

Day 4 Afternoon

Continue with Training

  • Continue with the Training Topics

Meeting with Executive Director - Review of Onsite Training

  • On how training went
  • Outstanding tasks that need to be completed
  • Missed topics that were part of the base curriculum and reasons why they were missed
  • Possible options (future onsite training session, telephone training sessions) to catch up on any missed topics

Break Time


Open Floor Questions/Review of Prior Topics

  • Previously covered topics
  • Available time for revisiting a missed session
  • Any new topics that were not part of the original agenda

Onsite Trainer Departs

  • All the best to all who participated during this training process! The optimum training process and experience is directly related to the effort that each one of the participants put into it on a daily basis.