System proposal

Information Systems Analysis Team
FFiinnddiinngg yyoouu aa bbeetttteerr ssoolluuttiioonn iiss oouurr ddrreeaamm
SSyysstteemmss PPrrooppoossaall
For The Seattle Chapter of the Council on
American-Islamic Relations
Team Members: Laila Almounaier lailaa@u.washington.edu
Irene Chin kween@u.washington.edu
Graham Ford fordgj@u.washington.edu
Tina Norman tmnorman@u.washington.edu
Ryan Prins rprins@u.washington.edu
Aaron Smith pyrox@u.washington.edu
DT Tran dthtran@u.washington.edu

IInnffoorrmmaattiioonn SSyysstteemmss AAnnaallyyssiiss TTeeaamm
ISAT - Laila Almouanier – Irene Chin – Graham Ford – Tina Norman
Ryan Prins – Aaron Smith – DT Tran
CAIR-Seattle
12351 Lake City Way NE
Suite 103
Seattle, WA 98125
Ms. Corning:
We welcomed the opportunity to work with you and Seattle branch of the Council of
American-Islamic Relations. The Information Systems Analysis Team (ISAT) has
analyzed the materials you have supplied and now have a better understanding of what
steps to be taken to accomplish your goals.
Our objective is to provide CAIR-Seattle with alternatives and provide you with a
recommendation to your current information system. We feel that the main problems and
issues revolve around the data collection, information storage, and information retrieval.
We have provided a system proposal along with four alternatives that we believe will suit
your organizational needs. Also included is our system recommendation for CAIR-Seattle
based on one of the four alternatives. A brief overview of this recommendation can be
found in the Executive Summary with more detail contained in the Systems Alternative
and System Recommendation sections of the enclosed systems study.
There are a few of aspects of this proposal that we would like to draw to CAIR-Seattle's
attention.
• The proposal envisions CAIR-Seattle creating new effective relationships with
clients, managing data efficiently and tracking financial securities.
• The proposal foresees CAIR-Seattle maintaining the new system with the help of
paid staff or volunteers.
• The proposal requires that training and education will be provided for the new
data system.
Thank you for providing ISAT with the opportunity to provide CAIR-Seattle with a new
information solution recommendation. We are excited to provide this study to you for
your review and look forward to working with you in the future.
Sincerely,
Laila Almouanier
ISAT Communications Coordinator

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EExxeeccuuttiivvee SSuummmmaarryy
In this systems proposal, the Information Systems Analysis Team (ISAT) will present
some of the problems identified at the Seattle chapter of the Council on American Islamic
Relations (CAIR-Seattle), and suggest four possible solutions with descriptions of their
organizational, financial and procedural costs and benefits. ISAT will then offer a
recommendation based upon the analysis of the current system. A summary is included at
the end of the proposal, in addition to an appendix that includes data collection instruments,
interview transcripts, and other resources used in our analysis.
Based on the current information system, ISAT is recommending that CAIR-Seattle
move forward with a solution that entails a QuickBooks software upgrade, a software
application that will keep track of phone correspondence (iWYWO), and hardware upgrades
to the current system. These upgrades are estimated to cost $3,473.96 for complete
implementation of the system. This solution is referred to as the ‘QuickBooks’ solution.
The above cost will include all of the hardware and software products as well as the
necessary peripheral products needed to get the system up and running. The training for
QuickBooks is included in this cost. The training product is an ‘in-the-box’ solution and will
be owned by the organization for future use at anytime.
A more in-depth breakdown of this solution is provided within this document. However,
the main idea to extract is that this recommendation will help CAIR-Seattle (Council on
American Islamic Relations Seattle Chapter) in various areas of their organization, to not
only better utilize their staff and volunteers, but also provide more time to the staff for other
tasks, like working with the Islamic-American Community.

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Outline of Information Systems Study
► Overview
► Organization Description
► Data Collection Process

Systems Proposal ►Outline of Information Systems Study
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We were drawn to this client due to a systemic information problem that we considered
to be challenging; therefore, making it a great learning opportunity for our group. Besides
the technical challenge they presented, their mission, and nonprofit status offered a
philanthropic opportunity beneficial to both parties. To properly assess this client’s need, an
extensive analysis was done using: face-to-face interviews, questionnaires, and analysis of
secondary data. All of the interviews conducted were recorded and transcribed. The interview
questions used for the analysis and the transcriptions of each interview are included in
Appendix A.
Before we could begin our analysis, project feasibility needed to be determined. A
feasibility study was conducted (Appendix B) and the project was found to be feasible. We
then continued our analysis, which consisted of information that helped us better understand
the organization as a whole, followed up by information that was focused in the area that we
found to be the root of the problems we found. Our focus was on how software applications
were used for the information management of members and donors.
OOrrggaanniizzaattiioonn DDeessccrriippttiioonn
CAIR-Seattle (Council on American Islamic Relations Seattle Chapter) is a nonprofit
organization established to promote an accurate image of Muslims and defend their rights in
the United States. As a recently formed chapter that started about a year ago in Washington,
they currently have only one paid employee along with five board members and many
volunteers. The chapter’s annual budget is projected to be a little over $200,000 this year.
DDaattaa CCoolllleeccttiioonn PPrroocceessss
To initiate our analysis of CAIR-Seattle (Council on American Islamic Relations Seattle
Chapter), we identified the key players in this organization. The initial contact with
organization was made through a CAIR-Seattle board member, Rami Al-Kabra. He then
contacted other board members to obtain approval for the information system study and
analysis. Additionally, he e-mailed us the contact information of the person we should

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contact to begin our analytic process. The first e-mail was introductory in nature. We
explained who we were, what we intended to accomplish, and asked if they were in need of a
system analysis. After receiving a response, which stated that they would like to be
considered as our client, we sent a short follow-up email to confirm that we be continuing
with them our analysis of their system.
After receiving the required information to get in touch with our main contact in the
organization, we sent an introductory e-mail CAIR-Seattle’s Manager, Michaela Corning.
This e-mail contained information introducing ISAT, its purpose, and a brief questionnaire
that would give us a general idea of what she did, and who the other key players in
organization were along with their names and roles.
During this process, the use of secondary data assisted us in better understanding what
CAIR-Seattle’s focus was as an organization. It provided us with a better understanding on
how the organization operated on the surface. After hearing back from Michaela we decided
that it was appropriate to set up a face-to-face interview with her to get questions answered
and to look at the process of her work with CAIR.
After reviewing the information gathered from the interview with Michaela, we decided a
follow-up interview was appropriate in order to get more in-depth information. The follow-
up was targeted towards our newly focused scope: data management within the organization.
It was then decided that a CAIR-Seattle Volunteer, Mohammed Khan, needed to be
interviewed because he managed the accounting functions of CAIR-Seattle using
QuickBooks. The interview itself was later followed by a short e-mail that asked which
QuickBooks version he was using since this was not known when asked at the interview.
After focusing our attention to one part of the organization, which was on their existing
software applications, interactions between these applications, and data storage, we needed to
find out more information regarding their financial status. This information was needed in
order to accurately calculate if proposals were economically feasible. To obtain this
information we needed to speak to CAIR-Seattle’s treasurer, Rami Al-Kabra. A face-to-face
interview was arranged with him, but due to time constraints a questionnaire was sent via e-
mail. Mr. Al-Kabra then returned a completed copy of this questionnaire via e-mail.
From the interview process a vast amount of vital information was gathered through the
use of in-person interviews, e-mail, and questionnaires. We also collected secondary data

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from the CAIR-Seattle (Council on American Islamic Relations Seattle Chapter) website
(http://www.cair-seattle.org/) and the CAIR National website (http://www.cair-net.org).
Further secondary data was also drawn from CAIR-Seattle’s manager Michaela Corning.
The individuals in this analysis were studied in their behavior, their everyday roles and
contributions, as well as their states of knowledge about the organization. These individuals
are key contributors to the organization and their cooperation helped us gain what is needed
to successfully complete this analysis. Thus, the data collection process helped to pinpoint
evidence of problem areas within the organization’s information system that are described in
the next section of this report.

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Results of Systems Study
► Analysis of Current System
► Problem Statement

Systems Proposal ►Results of Systems Study
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AAnnaallyyssiiss ooff CCuurrrreenntt SSyysstteemm
After our first interview enough data was collected to form the CAIR-Seattle (Council on
American Islamic Relations Seattle Chapter) organizational chart (Appendix C) and data
flow diagram (Appendix D). The organizational chart is a revised diagram of the
organizational hierarchy that the interviewee, Michaela Corning, had provided (Appendix A)
during her interviews. It represents a micro-level diagram concentrating on information flow
within the organization. The key idea emphasized on the chart is the amount of information
that goes through manager Michaela Corning and the separate storage mediums used.
When looking at the complete data flow diagram (Appendix D) one can see how data
flows around the organization on a larger scale. A breakdown of the main problems within
the organization will be discussed below using highlighted sections of the above mentioned
data flow diagram.
Origin of Data
Figure 1: Origin of data diagram

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All data that is obtained by the organization is from the members of the Washington
State Islamic Community. This information is then used to create civil rights cases, build a
member list, and to solicit donations. Without the information from the community CAIR-
Seattle would not be able to serve the community that they were designed to serve. Also,
information is received by the community. This information comes in the forms of follow-
ups to phone correspondence or as a receipt of a payment on a donation. The majority of this
information transfer is done by the one current full time staff, Michaela Corning.
Call Logging
Figure 2: Call log process
One of the problems that CAIR-Seattle currently has involves the way their phone call
logging is handled. Their current process involves all phone correspondence to be noted in a
spiral notebook. This notebook contains all the call details (caller, intended recipient, reason
for calling, need for call back) and is updated when call tasks are completed by either
highlighting the call or crossing it out. However, if a call is not intended for the person who
usually answers the organization’s phone (Michaela Corning) it will need to be passed on to
the appropriate person. An information access problem lies with passing on the needed
information contained within the notebook. Because of human resource constraints and the
amount of calls received, it may take days to pass on the needed information to the intended
recipient and thus information timeliness becomes an issue.

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Member Data Sharing
Figure 3: Membership data within Access and Excel
Figure 4: Donation data within QuickBooks
The membership data is stored in two separate locations for retrieval purposes and one
for donation purposes. This separation of data creates redundant data. Also, by having
separated data, there is no guarantee that accuracy is maintained. The problem of information
accuracy arose in our analysis of this separation of information. For example, if a member
moves, their contact information is updated in the membership data in one location but may
not be updated in the donor information within QuickBooks.
Civil Rights Cases
Figure 5: Civil rights cases data flow
Since the main purpose of CAIR-Seattle is to provide assistance for Islamic-Americans
living in Seattle, it is important for proper logging of all civil rights cases that pass through
the organization. Figure 5 depicts where the record cases are stored. The Access database that

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the records are maintained in is sent to CAIR National every year. However, due to a lack of
time by the one full time staff, this database is neglected and is not frequently updated.
Overview
From the above excerpts of the data flow diagram it should be noted that a main entity of
data input into the organization is the Islamic community, whose data is then dispersed into
many separate mediums of data storage (Access, Excel, QuickBooks, spiral notebook). This
methodology is deemed efficient as the amount of data being input into the CAIR-Seattle
entity is innumerable and the manager, Michaela Corning, is handling the vast majority of
this input as she logs the data as quickly as she is capable of. However, the separation of data
storage later leads to time spent reforming data for usage by other entities such as the CAIR
National civil rights Access database, which requires an annual report of closed or ongoing
civil rights cases. All in all, the data flow diagram verifies the problems identified from
interview data analysis, which leads to the next section outlining the specific problem areas
that were found.
PPrroobblleemm SSttaatteemmeenntt
During our analysis we conducted three interviews with two key individuals within our
client’s organization. The data collected during the interviews revealed a number of
information-related issues. Some of these issues that we have found are listed below. To
provide you with a better understanding of these problems, we are defining them here by
their terms because they will be referenced though out the systems analysis and proposals.
• Data collection
o CAIR-Seattle’s database does not have any required data fields and is lacking
unique identifiers for the records that they keep. This means that all data is
entered in original form and cataloging is inconsistent from person to person.
There might be extra, non-required fields in one data set, while another data set
might be lacking these fields.

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• Data redundancy
o Because of different computer applications and a lack of training on these
applications, there is redundant data contained on multiple computers that make
up the CAIR-Seattle information system. This redundant data is difficult and time
consuming to maintain; any such attempts to maintain information integrity are
very difficult.
• Information access
o CAIR-Seattle has multiple sources of information but access to this information is
limited by lack of software training and also by physical location. Another user
cannot access the information that is stored on a different computer, unless he/she
is in possession of that computer. Also, due to the lack of unique identifiers on
records, data inaccuracy and inconsistencies can make finding records difficult
and time-consuming.
• Information storage and archiving
o All of the current information that CAIR-Seattle uses is stored on two computers.
There is no standard archiving practice in place on either of these computers; one
user might archive on a regular basis while another might not archive at all. Also,
there is no current system in place that would automatically archive the
information.
• Information dissemination
o The current way that information is disseminated in CAIR-Seattle is at times very
troublesome for the user. Information may be difficult to access and at times the
users are not trained in how to access or create the proper listing of information
that they need.
• Information accuracy
o Because of redundant data, incompatible file types, and a physical separation of
data it is difficult to maintain information accuracy. There is no method in place
to cross check for data entry errors and to verify information accuracy.
• Lack of human resources (all but one staff member works on a volunteer basis)
o With only one full time staff member, human resources are very limited. This full
time staff member performs a large majority of the work and because of this,
some tasks are never completed as time cannot be found to complete them.
• Lack of standards in data gathering
o Information that is collected by CAIR-Seattle is not defined by a proper and
unified standard. One member of the organization might gather information in one
manner and another member might collect information using a completely
different procedure.

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• Inadequate training
o CAIR-Seattle is utilizing many pieces of software while their depth of knowledge
is not very extensive on some of them. They have limited proficiency on the
software, but they realize that the software has much greater unacknowledged
potential.
• Process inefficiencies
o Many of the processes that CAIR-Seattle currently employs could be streamlined
into fewer steps. Some processes, such as logging of phone calls, currently require
more steps than necessary to complete.
• Lack of a data recovery system
o Currently CAIR-Seattle does not have a backup system for much of their
organizational critical data. If there was a catastrophic malfunction and all data
was lost, there would be no backup system in place to recover the lost data.
Based on our data analysis activities we identified what we feel to be the root causes or
problem(s) associated with those issues.
We feel that there were many problems and issues that revolve around the data
collection, information storage, and information retrieval within CAIR-Seattle. Many of the
above listed issues stem from the direct lack of sufficient human resources (1 full-time staff),
process inefficiencies, and a lack of software training.
Of the issues that we found, the Information Systems Analysis Team will be focusing on
how CAIR’s existing software applications interact and how the information stored in those
applications relate.

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System Alternatives
► Alternative 1 Summary: Status Quo
► Alternative 2 Summary: QuickBooks Plan
► Alternative 3 Summary: Salesforce.com
► Alternative 4 Summary: NonprofitBooks
Office

Systems Proposal ►System Alternatives ►Status Quo
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AAlltteerrnnaattiivvee 11 SSuummmmaarryy:: SSttaattuuss QQuuoo
At the moment, CAIR-Seattle, as a nonprofit organization, is run by four to five people.
The organizational hierarchy consists of the board of directors, the manager, and volunteers
(see Appendix C for organizational chart). Michaela Corning, as the manager, not only
gathers information from the Muslim community in the form of phone calls or e-mails, but
also distributes the information to her peers or other volunteers. Much of the information she
receives is stored on her laptop or written in a spiral notebook. This section will describe the
benefits and costs of keeping the current system.
Organizational Benefits
When looking at CAIR-Seattle’s current system within the scope of organizational
benefits, it is evident there are benefits to the current system. The way current way business
is conducted within the organization is natural for the employee and volunteers. Below is a
list of organizational benefits as it relates to their information system:
• Procedures are concrete
o Having set procedures makes it easy for the employee and volunteers to have
their tasks better understood. They know what needs to be done and where the
information needs to be delivered. There is no guesswork.
• Minimal need to train on new hardware or software
o Since the current system is in place, there is little need for training on the
hardware and software that is being used. The only training that takes place is
when a new volunteer comes into the organization’s information system and
needs to be instructed on how things operate on the various levels within the
information system. This does not, however, include expanded training on
current application software.
• Users are comfortable with the system
o The users are familiar with the current system since they have nothing to
compare it against in another nonprofit organization. They know the
procedures that need to be accomplished and also how to accomplish them.
Those that interact with the system have their set ways of doing tasks in the
organization as they were instructed or trained to do.

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• Infrastructure is small
o With the current size of the organization being relatively small it is easy to
have a small information system infrastructure. This makes it easy to manage
and maintain for the current staff of the organization, who understand many of
the various aspects of the information system.
Organizational Costs
With the current information system in place there are some costs that are attributed to a
few of the problems. These costs can hinder organizational performance and their ability to
serve the Islamic-American community in Seattle. The organizational costs that ISAT found
are listed below:
• Minimal information sharing
o Because of the nature of the organization, one full time staff and volunteers,
the way that information is shared is very poor. If a piece of information was
needed and had to be shared within the organization, then multiple people
may need to be contacted so that one piece of information could be retrieved.
This process can take days and after the information is received, thought
needs to be made if it is even useful anymore.
• Difficult to find information
o There are multiple databases, spreadsheets, and other files that contain all of
the organizational information. If the user does not know where the file is or if
they need to cross reference the information, they have to look in multiple
sources within many applications to find the information and all comparisons
would need to be made by hand. This is also troublesome since data-entry is
not standardized. There are no current required fields for information and
therefore all information can be entered in as the user sees fit.
• Inability to report information back to CAIR National
o Due to a lack of training on some of the software packages that are currently
being used, the client is unable to report information back to CAIR National at
the end of the year.

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Financial Benefits
The following financial benefits would arise from the continual use of their current
system.
• No necessary new hardware purchases
o Since the organization would already have their current infrastructure in place,
it would not be necessary to purchase additional hardware. This is because all
of the current hardware that is owned and operated for the use of the
organization would continue to be used for their current purposes and
replacement hardware would not be needed.
• Finances can be allocated elsewhere
o As stated above, the finances would not necessarily need to be used for the
purchasing of new hardware. So, the money saved on proposed upgrades can
then be allocated elsewhere within the organization. This could be beneficial
to the expansion of the organization.
Financial Costs
The financial costs are based on the fact that maintenance will be needed as well as other
preventative costs that will need to be employed to maintain the current information system
architecture. The financial costs of maintaining the current system are listed below:
• Preventative hardware maintenance costs
o Since all of the current hardware will continue to be used, there will be costs
incurred that will help in maintaining their current infrastructure. These costs
can include:
Basic computer maintenance
Hardware replacement for faulty parts
These costs will be incurred over time if the current system is kept in place.
Newer hardware would not require the amount of upkeep that aging hardware
would. These costs could be as small a purchase of a new mouse or as large as
a memory or disk space upgrade and will be proportional to the growth of the
organization.

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• Application upgrade costs
o The QuickBooks software that CAIR-Seattle currently uses to track all of their
finances has the option to purchase updated forms annually. These forms
include updated figures and changes that have been made to the forms over
the past year. These forms would need to be purchased every year when CAIR
has to report what their finances are to the government and to the
organization’s paid staff workers.
Procedural Benefits
In its current state, CAIR-Seattle has four to five people running the services it provides.
Michaela Corning is the manager and is the central point for information flow as she is
usually the main contact for the Washington state Muslim community. This information is
often disseminated to a few others in the organization. Financial information, such as
donations, is passed to Rami Al-Kabra the Treasurer or Mohammad Khan the volunteer
QuickBooks user. The main benefits of retaining the current system from a procedural
perspective are as follows:
• No retraining of employees or volunteers
o Employees and volunteers will not need to be trained at the cost of the
organization to learn new software applications or to follow new procedures
in data storage methodology and data input approaches.
• No reassignment of tasks
o In maintaining the same system, current employee assigned tasks will remain
consistent with the current workload.

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Procedural Costs
The main costs to the organization from a procedural standing in maintaining the status
quo are as listed below:
• Time spent reorganizing data inputs
o Since data is being stored in separate formats, the data needs to be
combined at a later phase which uses up time to convert the various
formats into one Access database to be sent to CAIR National.
• Time spent resolving data redundancies and inconsistencies
o From our analysis, we have determined that the current data storage and
input approaches used by CAIR-Seattle have lead to client data being re-
entered in separate databases, or some data storage formats having more
updated information than others. Continuing with the current system will
allow these problems to persist at the cost of organizational time to fix
them.

Systems Proposal ►System Alternatives ►QuickBooks Plan
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AAlltteerrnnaattiivvee 22 SSuummmmaarryy:: QQuuiicckkBBooookkss PPllaann
This alternative recommends the purchase of new hardware and software to provide
remote access to data for CAIR-Seattle employees. On the next few pages the alternative will
be described and the benefits and costs of purchasing and implementation will be provided.
This alternative involves central storage of data, data accessibility, and group
coordination with a concentration on product value and medium term expandability. The
concept is to move most data processes into QuickBooks, provide training to users, allow
multiple methods of accessing data, and provide a more efficient way to log phone
correspondence by using While You Were Out Software (iWYWO). Our recommendations
are that CAIR Seattle:
• Import all contact information into QuickBooks and use it as their primary data-
tracking program
• Audit information to remove current duplicate/invalid entries
• Train all permanent staff/volunteers in basic/intermediate QuickBooks use and
one member in advanced QuickBooks use
• Train at least one member of the staff in using CAIR National’s civil rights
Access database
• Adopt a standardized set of data entry methods
• Purchase and install a server for accessing and hosting the main QuickBooks file
• Purchase and install a workstation for additional access to the QuickBooks file
• Purchase and install an all-in-one printer/scanner/fax machine to be shared from
the server for all onsite and offsite users
• Purchase licenses for and install iWYWO for all permanent staff to track
incoming calls and take notes on the calls
• Set up software Virtual Private Network (VPN) connections for offsite workers to
access QuickBooks and iWYWO
• Configure QuickBooks to make automatic record backups on CDR/CD-RWs
• Assure that pertinent data in QuickBooks is secured with a password
• Arrange to receive returned check information in QuickBooks format

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By implementing this alternative CAIR-Seattle will gain the benefits listed below:
• Better fit for current organization size
o Currently CAIR–Seattle has close to 400 members. This calls for an
organized collection of data to be stored in one place to eliminate the
redundancy and inconsistency of systems currently in use. Tracking
member and donor information in QuickBooks will minimize problems
while providing a fast and easy method to retrieve information.
• Room for future growth in both donor and volunteer base
o By implementing this alternative the organization will be able to scale to a
larger donor and volunteer base without dramatically increasing their
costs.
• Overall increased productivity using the tools through training
o Each user will be provided training on the applications, which will
increase productivity and accuracy when performing tasks.
• Increases donor confidence
o Centralized donor information entered into QuickBooks in a standardized
method will eliminate duplicate records for the same donor and eliminate
errors that might result in incorrect information being sent to the donor.
With this alternative there are few organizational costs. We feel the following points will
not hurt the organization’s performance. However, awareness of these costs will allow
recognition of the possibility of them occurring. The organizational costs are as follows:
• Less interpersonal communication
o By using this alternative, less communication may result by eliminating the
necessity to physically contact other board members or staff to perform
specific tasks.

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• Increased tension
o Changes in procedures will be made and it is often difficult for individuals to
deviate away from old work habits, leaving them feeling tense and uneasy
about adopting new methods and procedures.
Financial Benefits
The following financial benefits would arise from the use of this alternative:
• Increased hours dedicated to fundraising
o By using the proposed system there will be less time spent processing
member/donor information which may allow that time to be allocated to other
important areas such as fundraising.
• Increased commitment to pledge as CAIR grows
o As members see donations used in a manner that is helpful to the organization
and community, there is a greater likelihood that contributions will increase.
• Cost of upkeep lowered
o Because fewer applications are necessary for this alternative, maintenance and
update costs are decreased in the immediate short term.
Financial Costs
There are many financial costs associated with this proposed system that are necessary
for this alternative. New equipment will be needed, as well as new software, and training.
These costs will need to be taken into account in order to solve the selected problems that
were outlined in this systems proposal. The financial costs are listed below:
Software:
QuickBooks:
$1359.16 5 user license upgrade with Ultimate Support Package
Telephone Messaging Software:
$50.00 iWYWO 2 user initial purchase

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$30.00 2 additional iWYWO licenses
Computer Equipment:
(See Appendix E for full system details and model numbers)
$88.00 D-Link 8-Port Broadband Router
$130.00 Lexmark Multi-function printer, 19 PPM, 4800 x 1200 DPI
$14.85 3 x 25 Ft, Cat. 6 Patch Cable, With Snag-Free Caps
$852.30 OptiPlex 170L (server configuration) w/ 3 yr. warranty
$749.70 OptiPlex 170L (workstation configuration) w/ 3 yr. Warranty
$30.88 Verbatim Datalife CD-R 50 pack (annual)
Training:
$199.95 Level 2 QuickBooks Seminar-in-a-box Training (Advanced)
Total: $3473.96
Procedural Benefits
There are many procedural benefits in implementing this alternative. They are split into
the following categories for easier understanding: data management, communication, and
task management. The benefits are listed below and explained in detail.
Data Management
• Streamlined data entry and retrieval
• Prevents most data errors from duplicate entries
• Negates the need to search through multiple sources for contact data
• Allows for remote data access to QuickBooks and iWYWO programs
• Ability to import/export into Microsoft Excel for easy conversion
• Multiple users will be able to view or access lists, reports, member information,
and donor information
• Removes the need to deal with paper checks for account balancing

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Communication
• Fast and efficient phone log/note taking
• Eliminates paper backlog from incoming calls
• All users can print/scan/fax/copy from the same device
Task Management
• Notes can be sent instantly to their intended recipient
• Notes can be shared to prevent task queues from building up
• Backlog of notes for users can be tracked to keep from swamping any one user
• Diminishes the need for members requesting contact data from each other
• Enables and allows scheduling of automatic back-ups of QuickBooks data
• Rights management, more volunteers can be used to enter lower security data
• 24/7 tech support available for QuickBooks and on site repair from Dell
Procedural Costs
The main costs to the organization from a procedural standing are as listed below:
• Teaching new standardized procedures
o All staff members and volunteers entering data must be taught the
standardized methods for data entry, requiring time from both the trainee
and the trainer.
• Installation and configuration of system
o It will take a fair amount of time to get the new system into place,
detracting from work on fund raising and lobbying.
• Records auditing
o As data is moved to the new QuickBooks based system, duplicate entries
and invalid data need to be filtered out, consuming time verifying details
of questionable entries.

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• QuickBooks training
o The advanced training course in QuickBooks is a two day long seminar on
CD that will take 20+ hours to complete. Additionally, relating basic and
intermediate functionality from the advanced QuickBooks user to all staff
will require more time.
• Exporting CAIR National database
o A disadvantage to this alternative is that QuickBooks offers no direct
method of exporting data into a Microsoft Access format that would later
be integrated into the CAIR National Database.
• No improvements to paper pledge system
o All pledges must still be read from paper slips and entered by hand into
QuickBooks.

Systems Proposal ►System Alternatives ►Salesforce.com
Page 25 of 118
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A third alternative would be to consider Salesforce.com. They deliver integrated,
completely customizable enterprise applications. Their platform offers developers complete
Web services-based customization, integration and extension for customer relationship
management services (CRM).
The discussion below will provide examples of Salesforce.com’s capabilities. The client
needs to understand the costs and benefits of adopting Salesforce.com through three aspects:
operational, financial, and procedural. Problems that Salesforce.com might address are
limited human and financial resources, lack of clear organizational structure, redundant and
inaccurate data.
Choosing to use this application, CAIR-Seattle will be able to review and analyze current
sales, marketing and customer service processes, import existing data into Salesforce.com,
and receive free online training through the Internet as well as ongoing customer support.
It’s important to consider how Salesforce.com will solve our client’s information
problems given the organizational structure and lack of human resource. From an operational
point of view, Salesforce.com would be successful if it is easier to learn, manage, update,
maintain, and to train others its uses. Organizational benefits of choosing this alternative are
outlined below:
Tangible benefits
• Increased productivity
o Salesforce.com is promising because it can increase the productivity of
CAIR-Seattle’s staff members. If they are able to get more work done
in less time, the new system can free up more time for the employees
to focus on fundraising events and networking with potential sponsors.
Paid employees will get more work done for dollars in salary spent.

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• Increased sharing of information
o In the current system, information is scattered, redundant, and isolated.
Salesforce.com allows multiple groups of users in different parts of
operations to share information, even remotely. For instance, the
Treasurer or the Accountant can view CAIR-Seattle’s members’
donation information from the same system as a civil rights
coordinator who’s viewing members’ cases. Salesforce.com provides
“integrated, online service to help you manage and share your
customer information for your Sales, Support, and Marketing teams.”
This system satisfies our user’s needs to view all the available
information about a member. One of CAIR-Seattle’s most important
goals is to be able to upload civil rights cases to the national database.
Salesforce.com will enable them to do this because it can customize
data fields, import data from the local branch and export data to CAIR
National.
• Additional staff less likely to be required
o Given that productivity is increased, CAIR-Seattle may not need to
acquire an additional permanent staff member or volunteer to maintain
or update the spreadsheets, meeting minute logs, or phone call records.
Salesforce.com supports such a wide range of functions that one user
is able to manage information efficiently.
• Assign ownership of tasks
o “Using Salesforce.com's built-in workflow engine, you can
automatically route cases to the right person or team and escalate cases
that are not promptly resolved, allowing you to deliver better service,
faster.” (Salesforce.com)
Intangible Benefits
• Increased confidence and staff morale
o Currently, the heavy workload and overall poor information collection
and management makes it stressful and overwhelming for one
employee. Salesforce.com does data accuracy checking so that our
employee can feel more confident, productive, and satisfied with the
amount of work to meet deadlines.

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• Increased trust
o Salesforce.com will help CAIR-Seattle define its organizational
structure. Successful adoption of Salesforce.com will strengthen trust
from CAIR National for the Seattle chapter. Because of the intuitive
and customizable interface of Salesforce.com, volunteers can be
trained quickly to use the systems. Board members will also be able to
delegate and entrust their staff member(s) with important tasks.
Tangible Costs
• Training Required in use of the new system
o CAIR-Seattle will have to pay for employee training to use
Salesforce.com. Salesforce.com cannot replace their staff. They still
need to pay their current employee to train, manage, update, maintain,
and administer Salesforce.com. Although the need for additional staff
to enter and manage information is lowered, the need for a technical
support admin might arise. There are public training classes that
Salesforce.com provides to users, however, those are only accessible
to Professional and Team Edition customers. Nevertheless,
Salesforce.com provides “multi-channel support”, which has a variety
of other methods of support services: “No matter how many different
touch points your support team relies on — phone, e-mail, Web, or in-
person — Salesforce.com delivers. With online case capture, auto-e-
mail response, customer self-service, and CTI integration,
Salesforce.com provides a truly multi-channel solution.”
(Salesforce.com)
• Limited resources
o Salesforce.com is a very big product and it may be difficult for a small
group with little resources to train and use. In order to narrow the
scope of Salesforce.com, it will take time to train and adopt.
Intangible Costs
• Possible resistance
o Adoption of any new technology or method will potentially create
resistance from current system’s users or stake holders. Current users
might be familiar and attached to current methods and have difficulty

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changing their conceptualization of how the organization should
function.
• Estrangement of CAIR-Seattle
o Resistance can lead to estrangement between members of the
organization who prefer the new methods and those who reject them.
The adoption of Salesforce.com might also be unique to the Seattle
chapter. That uniqueness can create a gap between this chapter and
national as well as other chapters.
Financial Benefits
Important decisions are often made based on financial resources. Because CAIR-Seattle
is a nonprofit organization, funding is limited and varies depending on the amount of
donations and budget spending. Evaluation is necessary to determine if Salesforce.com can
solve their information problem while meeting their financial limitation.
Tangible Benefits
• Free service
o Salesforce.com is a free online service. “As an on demand service,
there is no software or hardware to buy, install, maintain, or upgrade
with Salesforce.com. This equates to savings of as much as 90%
compared to similar client/server solutions…” (Salesforce.com) A
nonprofit version is also available given certain tax information
verification.
• Reduce costs of hardware set up
o Because Salesforce.com is web-based, it can be accessed from
multiple places, at anytime from anywhere. This eliminates the need to
purchase hardware for a network that would allow storage and
management of databases and offsite accessibility.
• Increase fundraising opportunities
o Increased productivity allows our employee to have more time to focus
on fundraising events. Salesforce.com allows user customized views,
and the ability to add and manage prospective leads and opportunities.

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• Prevention of expensive loss of data
o The current system does not provide methods for data back-up and
recovery. With the ability of backups stored online and their
availability for download this expensive risk is massively reduced.
Intangible benefits
• Increased confidence from sponsors
o The successful adoption of Salesforce.com will increase confidence
from their sponsors because the adaptation of the new technology may
show how their donations are being used wisely in the best interests of
the organization.
Financial Costs
Tangible costs
• Switching cost
o It will cost money to pay employee(s) for the time that they train to use
the new system. Again, because the scope of Salesforce.com is large, it
will take around three work days for users to become familiar with this
service, and narrow the scope of the product to what CAIR-Seattle
needs. Once CAIR-Seattle’s employees are familiar with this service,
these individuals can train other individuals. Estimated switching cost
is as follows:
$15/hr x 8hr/day x 3 days = $360 per employee
• Potential misdirection of financial resource
o If Salesforce.com’s adoption is unsuccessful, money that went to the
training of its adoption is lost.
• Costs of package type
o The cost of the service is something the needs to be weighed when
compared to other vital aspects within the organization.

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Intangible costs
• Loss of image
o Donation money will be used to invest in the adoption of
Salesforce.com (e.g. training employee). After the adoption of
Salesforce.com, if old problems remain and perhaps new problems
arise, CAIR-Seattle is at risk of a degradation of their image to the
community that they respectively serve.
Procedural Benefits
For the implementation of Salesforce.com to be successful, it must support the current
and near future tasks and procedures that CAIR-Seattle performs. Salesforce.com would be
worthwhile to adopt if it can implement, possibly reduce the workload, and fulfill the
majority of the goals and objectives of the organization.
Tangible benefits
• Reduces tasks and procedures
o At the moment, CAIR-Seattle is overwhelmed with data collection and
data management. For tasks such as phone call loggings and
communication with civil rights claimants, the current system requires
our user to record the same data multiple times on paper and re-
entering it to the computer when time permits. Because of inaccurate
data entry, difficulty to find information, redundant data, and so on,
this creates extra tasks and procedures that CAIR-Seattle will benefit
to forego. Salesforce.com will allow them to perform necessary tasks
more efficiently so that extra steps are not necessary.
• Allows remote activities
o CAIR-Seattle depends on the various commitment levels of their
volunteers. Most volunteers have full time positions outside of CAIR.
Salesforce.com will allow more tasks to be done remotely anytime
which benefits the volunteers the most as their time is limited to
serving the organization.

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• Enhances goals and objectives
o Table 1 below explains how adopting Salesforce.com will enable
CAIR-Seattle to not only improve their current tasks, but also enhance
other services to the community. It is also important to emphasize
what tasks Salesforce.com will enable them to do while moving
towards achieving the ultimate goal of providing important services to
the community.
Table 1. Comparison of Tasks and Available Features of Saliesforce.com
Current
Tasks/Procedures
Tasks/Procedures
our user envisions
Salesforce.com
Keep track of civil rights
violations cases
YES
Watch media YES
Contact community
members
YES
Contact claimants/victims YES
Fundraising YES
Membership drive YES
Contacts categorization YES
Biweekly press releases YES
Phone call logs on paper Phone call logs on
computer
YES
Meeting minutes logs YES
Submit database to national YES
Contact ACLU, EEOC,
Hate Free Zone
YES
Accounting related YES
Categorize donors/ donor
profiling
YES
Categorize members YES
Data entry of donations YES
Civics education YES
Voter registration record
keeping and assisting
YES
Manage time YES
View, post, remove
meetings and events
calendar using the web
YES
Assurance of data accuracy
and currency (donation,
address changes, etc)
YES
Link documents from
database

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Derive reports of how
quickly response to cases
YES
Track what and when cases
close, open, pending
duration
YES
Generate and send out
donation receipts for tax-
exemption form.
MAYBE
Create clear owner of tasks
and projects
YES
upload to National’s
database
MAYBE
ACH, PayPal MAYBE
Keep track of multiple
contacts information
spreadsheets
CAN
Media relation MAYBE
Conference calls with board
members
MAYBE
Complete information of a
person on one spreadsheet
YES
Something that interface
with Outlook
YES
Track e-mails, letters, faxes YES
Intangible benefits
• Data consistency and concurrency
o Increased consistency and concurrency of data accessed for certain
procedures like viewing calendars and accounts. Tasks made simpler
by the help of Salesforce.com’s wizards.
Procedural Costs
Tangible costs
• Addition of more procedures
o If CAIR-Seattle adopts Salesforce.com, they will need to also adopt
management and support procedures for this technology.
Salesforce.com has support and training resources available to help
this process of creating these procedures

Page 33 of 118
Intangible costs
• Increase task complexity
o Tasks can be made more complicated for the user because of the
technicality of the system. Although Salesforce.com strives to
accommodate its users by integrating different technologies and
providing a customizable interface, adopting the technology will
change the way the user performs their tasks. If not careful, task
requirements, and assignments will become undefined.

Systems Proposal ►System Alternatives ►NonprofitBooks Office
Page 34 of 118
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Summary
The basis of this proposed solution is the utilization of the NonprofitBooks Office (NBO)
accounting, donor management, and impact measurement software suite. The package itself
is built upon QuickBooks and provides tools and an interface specific to the management of a
nonprofit organization such as CAIR-Seattle. The tight integration between the accounting,
donor management, and impact metrics components is what makes this package special. In
addition to the NBO package, a network infrastructure must be created to secure the data and
support remote access by users at home. This is done using a VPN/Firewall network
appliance.
Software and Hardware Purchasing
There are three primary needs in the area of purchasing: network infrastructure,
workstations, and software. The chart below (Figure 1) contains a list of the needed items,
quantities necessary, and the estimated prices before tax and shipping.
The D-Link VPN/Router is the actual firewall hardware that is placed between the
local area network (LAN) at the CAIR office and the Internet. This device allows remote
users to use the Point to Point Transport Protocol (PPTP) VPN client that is built-in to most
versions of Microsoft Windows. Two network cables are purchased to connect the new
hardware together. The existing computer workstations would also connect to this firewall
device. Additionally, writable compact disks are needed for data back-up.
While a version of QuickBooks is already owned by the organization, it is not
officially supported by NBO. To ensure reliability, QuickBooks Pro 2004 must be
purchased.
A new computer is needed to act as a server for donor and accounting data. This will
both act as a server and workstation for volunteers and managers using the software package.
The recommended system is a mid-range workstation and should include CD writing
capabilities for backing up data.
The current Internet access at the office may not be sufficient. Because remote users
will need access to data stored at the office, up-stream speed is important (the speed at which

Page 35 of 118
data uploads from the site). Normal consumer Internet connections have capped upload
speeds in favor of faster download speeds.
The third section lists the necessary components to the NonprofitBooks Office
application. These components are comprised of the software, 5 user licenses (total), a suite
of training CD’s, and a year of technical support with free software upgrades.
Vendor Description Unit Qty Total*
Newegg.com D-Link VPN/Router DI-808HV $88.00 1 $88.00
Insight.com Verbatim DataLifePlus CD-R 50 pack $30.88 1 $30.88
Insight.com 10 ft Cat 5 E ethernet patch cable $3.35 2 $6.70
Intuit QuickBooks Pro 2004 Upgrade $199.00 1 $199.00
Dell Dell Optiplex 170L (Appendix G, Server
configuration)
$852.30 1 $852.30
Qwest Qwest DSL Pro 640 Kbps DSL Setup** $99.00 1 $99.00
NonprofitBooks NonprofitBooks Office v3.0 3 User $1,299.00 1 $1,299.00
NonprofitBooks NonprofitBooks Office Additional User
License
$199.00 2 $398.00
NonprofitBooks NonprofitBooks Office Training CD's $699.00 1 $699.00
NonprofitBooks 1 Year Premiere Support for
NonprofitBooks Office
$299.00 1 $299.00
* Prices do not include taxes or shipping. $3,970.88
** Need for DSL depends on current service
Total:
Installation Steps
1. Purchase VPN/Firewall appliance and VPN user licenses
2. Purchase NBO and user licenses
3. Purchase new computers
4. Purchase network interface cards and wiring
5. Install VPN/Firewall appliance and VPN user licenses
Figure 1: Table of system costs

Page 36 of 118
6. Install and configure local area network
7. Install NBO on primary host computer
8. Configure NBO with CAIR specific settings.
9. Create shared folder on primary host.
10. Migrate data from current files and QuickBooks
11. Install NBO on other office computers and configure to use primary host
12. Train users use of NBO software
13. Install remote VPN clients
14. Establish mapped drive to primary host
15. Install NBO on remote clients
System Layout
The following diagram shows how a final system would look. Copies of NBO should be
installed on all workstations that need access to the NBO donor database. QuickBooks is
needed on any computer that will perform accounting tasks.

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Future Growth and
Expansion
The Watchguard Firewall can be expanded in two manners: by purchasing new VPN user
licenses and adding a network switch. New user licenses, if necessary, would allow more
users to connect to the system remotely. A network switch allows more computers to be
connected to the LAN and therefore given access to the Internet.
Additionally, user licenses for NonprofitBooks Office may be purchased to install more
copies of the application on additional computers. Furthermore, the premiere support should

Page 38 of 118
be maintained year-over-year to take advantage of free upgrades. The cost of maintaining
the support contract is less than purchasing an entirely new copy of the software when new
versions are introduced.
Operational
General Information
• Donor information and accounting information can be secured separately,
allowing volunteers to enter donor information without access to financial data
• System uses a primary host to store data and other networked computers remotely
access the same data.
• VPN/Firewall keeps local area network secure while allowing CAIR
representatives to work remotely.
• Installation of QuickBooks is only necessary on clients processing accounting
information.
• Examples of information exports and reporting may be found on the web at
http://www.nonprofitbooks.com/
Donor Management
• Donor membership includes the management of all donor, member, business
contact, and media contact information.
• The NBO donor management allows various categories of contacts to be
specified. In the original configuration, categories should be designated for media
contact, business prospects, local members, and members.
• Additionally, custom fields should be designated for mosque and CAIR National
membership status.
• The following actions that volunteers and managers will perform with this
component of the software package include, but are not limited to the following:
Enter donations and pledges
Record call logs
Record important dates associated with donor records
Add new members, contacts, and business targets
Generate fundraising, donation, and membership reports
Generate mailing lists and mail merges

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Accounting
Accounting, handled by the treasurer and any other persons responsible for
accounting will be entered and derived directly from QuickBooks and the NBO accounting
software. The NBO accounting software closely integrates with QuickBooks, allowing the
organization to leverage the powerful donor management capabilities of the Office package
and the financial capabilities of QuickBooks.
Actions performed by accounting staff in QuickBooks and NBO:
• Generate financial reports
• Post donation and pledges to accounting ledger (single-click transfer from donor
database)
• Donation receipt printing
• Generate FASB-compliant, IRS Form 990 and Unified Chart of Accounts reports
Impact Measurement
This application allows for detailed analysis of donations and pledges. It is a tool that will be
used by managers to better target fundraising efforts and therefore increase funding.
Actions performed by management:
• Generate performance reporting charts
Advantages
• Nonprofit specific design of software suite requires little initial customization
beyond CAIR specific requirements.
• Unified, central donor databases which would reduce the propagation of errors
and the maintenance labor by unifying data into one repository.
• Multiple persons may input donation and pledge information at the same time,
dramatically speeding data entry.
o For example, a team of volunteers could enter donations after a fundraiser
rather than burdening a single person.
• Self-explanatory, task-specific interface lets new volunteers use the system with
little training.

Page 40 of 118
• Training CD’s covering all components provide a hands-on resource for training
new users without paying for classes or requiring excessive amounts of one-on-
one training by staff.
• Accounting features offer the ability to handle any nonprofit specific funding
management requirement as new sources are acquired and accounting needs
evolve.
• Out-of-box reporting features designed specifically for nonprofits
o Donation summaries
o Fundraising reports
Disadvantages
• NBO does not include specialized electronic forms for civil rights complaints
reporting.
• NBO does not provide automated system for task management.
• Requires installation of NBO on client computers.
• Requires installation of VPN client on remote systems.
• Requires regular maintenance in the form of data back-ups.
Procedural
Contact Management
All contacts should be entered directly into the NBO database using the record categories
initially specified.
When lists of members are received from CAIR National the database should be searched for
the national member:
• If the person exists in the database, this status change should be made to the
existing record.
• If the person does not exist in the database, the record should be created.
Call Logs
Each contact record has a notes feature as part of the software package. Anytime a call is
received from the contact, a record should be entered into NBO with all pertinent
information.

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Civil Rights Reporting
Civil rights cases should be entered directly into the database provided by CAIR National. If
it is inconvenient or inoperable, a form should be filled out. As part of regular scheduled
maintenance, forms should be recorded entered into the database.
Donation Accounting
• Donations should be entered weekly into the database by managers and
volunteers.
• Posting of donations to the accounting system shall be done regularly by the
volunteer secretary.
System Maintenance
• Weekly Tasks
o QuickBooks and NBO database back-ups
o Task spreadsheet back-ups and clean-up
o Donation entry
o CAIR National database downloads
o Civil rights case reporting data entry
• Annual
o Premiere support purchase
o Back-up media purchase
Task Management
The task management requirements of the organization are limited. Tracking tasks an Excel
spreadsheet may be used since such a spreadsheet would be created with the following
columns:
• Creator
• Assigned To
• Donor or Contact Name
• Status

Page 42 of 118
This spreadsheet should be stored on the host computer and protected for sharing between
multiple computers. Whenever a task is created, the task should be added to this spreadsheet
and a notification e-mail should be sent to the person the task is assigned to.
The status of tasks should be updated as progress is made and when the task is completed the
record should be archived in a separate, identically formatted spreadsheet.
All notes and actions taken regarding tasks should be entered into the NBO database.
Accounting
• It should be requested that all checks from donors include a phone number written
on the check. This facilitates finding donor records in the database and thus faster
entry of checks into the database.
• Paypal contributions should be tied to the same e-mail address entered into the
NBO database.
• Electronic funds transfers will be recorded as pledges in donor management.
• Training CD’s should be used to ensure correct configuration and use of
accounting package.
Disadvantages
• Task management not integrated with contacts and notes.
• Does not provide electronic means for archiving
• Requires regular maintenance; time requirements may fluctuate depending on
quantities of donations and other data entry necessary.
Financial
Benefits
• Faster and more efficient handling of donation and pledge payments.
• Increased fundraising due to better communication with potential donors.
• Increased efficiency and increased ability to utilize volunteer participation
reduces the need for increased paid labor.

Page 43 of 118
Costs
• As previously seen, the initial cost of installation of this alternative is estimated to
be $3970.88.
• Recurring costs are estimated in the following table:
Description M onthly Cost Annualized
DSL Internet Connection $50.00 $600.00
CD-R 50 pack* $2.91 $34.88
640 Kbps DSL $66.00 $792.00
1 Year NonprofitBooks
Office Prem iere Support*
$24.92 $299.00
$143.82 $1,725.88
*First year accounted for in initial costs
Figure 3

of 118
System Recommendation
► Final Recommendation
► Outline of Benefits
► Summary of Costs and Benefits

Systems Proposal ►System Recommendation
Page 45 of 118
FFiinnaall RReeccoommmmeennddaattiioonn
From our analysis of the current system and alternatives available, the Information
System Analysis Team has concluded that the benefits from pursuing alternative number two
(QuickBooks plan) would be the most beneficial and cost effective method for addressing the
information problems and needs of the Seattle Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic
Relations (CAIR-Seattle). CAIR-Seattle’s current knowledge and use of the existing software
will ease the transition process necessary to adapt to this recommended solution. Phone
messaging software (iWhileYouWereOut) is also included in this alternative and provides an
easy way to track phone correspondence. The suggested methodology for implementing this
system is included in Appendix F.
OOuuttlliinnee ooff BBeenneeffiittss
This recommendation addresses how software applications interact and how the
information stored in those applications relate as was outlined in the problem statement
earlier in this system proposal. We intended to focus on a QuickBooks centered design, with
the adaptation of iWYWO for phone call logging, remote access for users, providing training,
and adopting a set of standards for data entry.
With a design centered on QuickBooks many of the addressed problems will be fixed.
Since all information is now stored in a central location access to this information is made
readily available to all users with the proper permissions. This gives the users the opportunity
to create reports, add and edit data, or view the data at any time they please from any location
they choose. Another added benefit of a QuickBooks centered design is the availability of a
central server to store all of necessary information. This will ease backup and archiving,
which can be setup to start automatically, as well as data redundancy since all data is stored
in the central QuickBooks database.
By adopting iWYWO (While You Were Out) phone logging and tracking software
problems associated with the current phone call logging system outlined in the analysis of
this proposal will be resolved. All calls that come into the organization can now be received

Page 46 of 118
by any user that is connected to the software. All correspondence is then stored on the
software and can be reviewed by any member at their convenience. Also, by implementing
this software the past inefficient way of logging phone calls with a notebook will be
removed. The notes from phone calls will move from the spiral notebook that was viewed by
one member of the organization to a central server that can be viewed by any member or
volunteer that has access.
Moving from a two computer system to an infrastructure that contains one central server
the possibility for remote access is now available. Remote access will allow users to connect
to the system from any place at any time. This will benefit the volunteers since they help the
organization on a very limited time basis. This access will help them utilize their time that
they allocate to the organization better since the availability of access has increased. Also, by
allowing the users to connect remotely all of the data that they use for organizational
purposes can be stored on the central server for security and safe harbor. But, the main
benefit of remote access is how the users can use the data. It will no longer be necessary for a
user to contact another member of the organization to receive a report. All the user needs to
do now is log into the server and they can generate the report in real time in the manner that
they see fit.
In our analysis it was noted the users knew that their software applications were
powerful, but that they were unable to completely harness the power that each application
contained. By providing training to the users, their proficiency in these applications will
increase as will their comfort level in using them. By increasing the comfort level of the user,
processes that were not completed before will be seen as less daunting and will be completed.
An example of this is the updating and submission of the CAIR National civil rights Access
database. In addition to efficiency and comfort with the software, data collection practices
will be implemented that will unify the way that data is input. This will reduce data
redundancy while increasing the accuracy of the information that is contained in the data
sources.
As was previously mentioned, adopting a set of standard data entry procedures will
reduce data redundancy while increasing data accuracy. This also addresses the lack of
standards that are in place currently. By implementing basic data entry standards across the
organization a guide can be set for how data is input into the data sources. Users will now be

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able to know what types of information is needed since required fields will be defined before
the data is collected. A byproduct of applying data entry standards is that will know what
specific practices to follow when a situation arises when inputting data (e.g. entering Ave or
AVE as an abbreviation for Avenue).
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Financial Costs
Software $1,439.16
Hardware $1,834.85
Training $199.85
Total: $3,473.86
Monthly Annual
Backup Media $2.57 $30.88
Total: $2.57 $30.88
Initial Costs
Recurring Costs
Figure 1: The financial costs of implementing the recommendation
The costs outlined above are split into two categories: initial costs and recurring costs.
The initial costs include the software purchases, hardware purchases, and the in-the-box
training for the system. The total for these initial costs is $3,473.86. The recurring costs only
contain the backup media that will be used to maintain the data archives from QuickBooks.
These can be purchased monthly, or can be purchased for an entire year. The annual cost of
the backup media is $30.88. For a more detailed breakdown of the costs see Appendix E.
Financial Benefits
With centralized data storage and access, more time will become free to spend on
tasks that are vital to the organization’s success. One such task, the soliciting of donations,
can be put back to the forefront of the organization. Also, when members see how the system
is benefiting the organization, the likelihood of increased donations from current members
and the addition of new donating members is probable. Along with the increased time to

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focus on donations, the costs of maintaining the system are lowered due to the central storage
and access of data. Only QuickBooks needs to be kept up to date every year and this will
reduce the costs of having to update multiple copies of the same application on multiple
computers.
Because central data storage and access is the focus of this recommendation there is
the probability of less interpersonal communication between board members and staff. All
the information that the staff and board members need will now be accessible at any time
without having to use a middle man. This will massively reduce the communication between
staff on a regular basis. Because of the change from a well-known piece of software to a
foreign one tensions might arise. The rising tensions can be associated with difficulty using
the new system down to personal preference for the old system.
With the organization being relatively small in size this solution better suits their
needs. This solution has the ability to grow with the organization and was one of the main
reasons for its recommendation. The organization can purchase additional licenses and
computers as necessary. This also benefits the organization as they are now able to store
large donor and volunteer databases on their server. The volunteers and members that serve
the organization will now have increased productivity from the training that is included in
this solution. This training can be provided to one person and then the trained
volunteer/member can train others who require similar training. But, the overall
encompassing idea is that donor confidence will rise. The donors will see how their
donations are helping the organization and their confidence in the organization and what it
does will increase.
Procedural Costs
Because the system is new to the organization costs will be incurred so that the
system can be put into place properly. Teaching the new standardized procedures to all users

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will take time away from their current tasks as staff and volunteers. However, this step is
crucial to the successful implementation of the entire system. Also, time spent to install and
configure the system will be a cost that cannot be avoided.
Once the system is in place all of the current records will need to be audited. This task
is not only tedious, but also time consuming and vital since the current data set contains
redundant and inaccurate data. After the auditing process is complete, the training on
QuickBooks will take time away from procedures that would otherwise be completed during
the time taken for training.
Possibly the largest cost is that there is no direct method to export the data into the
CAIR National civil rights Access database. This process would need to be completed as it is
preformed now. There would be no improvement on the input of data into this database.
Lastly, there is no improvement on the pledging system. All pledges are still taken on paper
and processed by hand. No automation or electronic aspect was proposed to move towards a
paperless pledging system.
Procedural Benefits
Data Management
With a central server in place, data entry and retrieval is streamlined into one
location. By having this central location and by also implementing data entry standards,
fewer errors will be entered and redundant data will decrease. Also, having all of the contact
data stored in one location will allow the users to know exactly where the information is that
they are looking for. They will forego having to look through multiple databases and
information sources to find the needed data.
Having a server located in the main office with access to the internet it is now
possible to obtain remote access to the QuickBooks and iWYWO programs while offsite.
This offers a great advantage to the user as they can now access reports, member data, and
donor information whenever it is needed.
Since the organization has maintained Excel spreadsheets in their current system the
availability of this as an option was important. With QuickBooks the ability to import and
export Excel data is seamless and provides for easy conversion.

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Communication
After implementing iWYWO the process of phone correspondence logging and note
taking will be expedited. This will eliminate the need for the spiral notebook that is currently
being used to maintain phone correspondence. Since this software is stored on the central
server all users are able to use the software to check if incoming calls have be passed along to
them for further review.
With the purchase of a new print/scan/fax/copy device users will be able to send
transmissions to the office via fax, they can print a report at the office for others to review,
and copies can be made of needed materials. This will increase the flow of data transfer and
communication between all staff and volunteers that work for the organization.
Task Management
One of the main advantages of iWYWO is its ability to handle task management.
Notes are instantly associated to the intended recipient and if that recipient is backlogged
with prior tasks another user can be delegated the task. This prevents building up a backlog
on one user when other users may have few tasks assigned to them.
With the implementation of QuickBooks, automatic backups can be maintained. This
allows for seamless backups and archiving of critical data. There is also the ability to allow
and access to volunteers to input less sensitive data into QuickBooks via the account
privileges that are built in. This is important because the scope of possible help can be
expanded since more sensitive data can be blocked off to specific users.
Lastly, if there is a problem with the software or hardware support is a phone call
away. QuickBooks comes with a 24/7 live tech support for their software package and online
support is also available. Also, from Dell, there is onsite repair for the computer systems that
are recommended. This will place the support burden on the manufacturer and not the end
user.

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Proposal Summary
► Study Overview
► Outline of Results
► Alternatives
► Recommendation

Systems Proposal ►Proposal Summary
Page 52 of 118
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This study involves learning CAIR-Seattle’s information problems through users’
interviews, survey and other secondary sources in order to propose several alternatives, and
to recommend the best solution to solve their information problems.
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The data collected provides evidence that there are problems with information
collection, management, and accessibility issues at CAIR-Seattle. The lack of manpower and
inadequate training on current software systems also prevent our users from completing tasks
effectively. ISAT will provide a solution for these problems by addressing how application
software and its information collaborate with other software applications, how this
information is stored, and lastly how this information will be archived for emergency
recovery purposes.
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Based on the users’ information problems, ISAT proposed four possible alternatives:
Status Quo, QuickBooks, Salesforce.com, and NonprofitBooks Office. Each alternative was
evaluated through organizational, financial, and procedural costs/benefits analysis of how
well it addresses the information problems at CAIR-Seattle.
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We chose to recommend a solution that allows the users to expand their expertise and
productivity using QuickBooks. Since our users are already using this software, our solution
allows the users to make an easy transition to the new system. The implementation phases
that we propose include a one time cost of approximately $3,500 for the initial purchases of
new hardware and software; however the cost of switching is much lower compare to other
alternatives. As an outcome, we hope to help the Seattle chapter meet the goals and
objectives of CAIR and enhance the overall quality of services to its community.

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Appendices
► Appendix A: Data Collection Instruments and
Interview Transcriptions
► Appendix B: Feasibility Study
► Appendix C: Organizational Chart
► Appendix D: Data Flow Diagram
► Appendix E: Additional Information About
Systems Alternatives
► Appendix F: Suggested Methodology

Systems Proposal ►Appendix A ►1st
Interview with Michaela Corning
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First Interview of the Council of American-Islamic
Relations Manager
Interviewee: Michaela Corning (Manager)
Interviewers: Laila Almounaier, Tina Norman, D.T. Tran
Miscellaneous: Interview was record with permission of interviewee under the premise that
it would be used for academic and note taking purposes only. This will be the first interview
of Michaela. The interview was preformed in a coffee shop. This is the third revision of this
data collection instrument. The questions below are presented as they were asked during the
interview. A copy of the transcript follows the question outline. Open ended questions were
asked during this interview since this was the first person to person contact with a member of
this organization.
Goals
o Find out what exactly Michaela’s role is within the organization.
o Get a picture of their information system, from Michaela's perspective.
o Get a picture of the organization’s structure from Michaela’s perspective.
o Ask what Michaela what she would like to see as her information system in the
future.
o Figure out what tools are used and for each specific task she performs.
o Find out how information is gathered, stored, and accessed.
o Find out what symptoms Michaela perceives as cropping up.
o Find out information regarding financial resources, human resources, and current
equipment.
o Get a sampling of the current data they keep.
o Find out what some of their current information related problems are.
o Find out how much time is spent on daily tasks.
o Ask how she communicates with others within the organization.
Questions
Introductory Questions
1. What is the title of your position with CAIR?
2. How long have you been in this position?

Systems Proposal ►Appendix A ►1st Interview with Michaela Corning
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3. What are your roles and duties for this position?
4. Can you explain to me what your tasks or activities are on a given day?
Questions about Tools Used and Tasks
5. Are there forms, systems, or tools you use to perform your daily tasks?
6. Are there tasks that you perform on a scheduled basis? (For example weekly,
biweekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly?)
7. If yes, what are those tasks?
8. If yes, what are the tools, systems, or forms you use to perform those tasks?
9. Can we see how some of these tasks are preformed?
Questions about Information Gathering, Storing, and Access
10. How is the information collected/gathered?
11. How is this information stored?
Questions about Time Allocation, Communication, and Improvements
12. How is your time allocated on a weekly basis?
13. What are the most challenging aspects of your job? Why?
14. If you would like to change or improve one thing about your job what would it be?
15. How do you communicate with the volunteers?
16. How do you communicate with other employees or board members?
17. Where is this contact information stored?
Questions about Organizational Structure
18. How are decisions made in the organization?
19. What relationship do you have with the national organization?
Questions about Information Related Problems
20. What kind of information-related problems do you run into?
21. What kind of information needs to be kept?
22. How and where is information currently stored?
23. Of this information that you are currently tracking, is there other information that you
would like to track, but are not doing so at the moment?

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24. Of the information that you collect, how do you use it?
25. If I was a client on the phone, what types of information would you need from me?
26. What are some common data collection errors made?
27. Of those errors which is the single most troublesome?
28. How many times a week/day is the database updated?
Question about Information System Future
29. What would like your information system to do?
Transcript of First Interview with Michaela
ISAT: What is the title of your position with CAIR?
Michaela: Manager
ISAT: How long have you been in this position?
Michaela: 6 months
What are your roles and duties for this position?
Michaela: Driving, sometimes coordinating certain activities. It completely depends on the
level of commitment from the other board members. The activities specifically are
administration, operation, membership drive, initiatives that CAIR as a whole perform: voter
registration, civil rights activism, advocacy in term of civic education. And those are just a
few.
Task Oriented Questions
ISAT: Can you explain to me what your tasks or activities are on a given day?
Michaela: It really depends on what’s coming on the horizon. (Cell phone interrupted the
conversation.) For example, right now it’s the fundraiser. So everything that’s driving my
activities right now is to meet the deadline on May 8. But as always, there are interruptions
like people calling or people calling to complain about civil rights violations. That’s pretty
much my daily activities: whatever’s driving the activity and then interruptions of people
calling.
ISAT: So do you handle all calls?
Michaela: Yup!
ISAT: And you take care of their requests and needs?
Michaela: Yeah, or pass it on. It really depends on what it is.

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ISAT: Who do you pass them off to?
Michaela: It depends if somebody is calling for a specific person. Like if people are calling
for Samia, I can probably take it. But because I’m so overwhelmed with the stuff that I’m
dealing with that I pass it on. It really depends on my workload too. I mean if I get something
that I can hammer out right then and take care of it, then I will. If it’s going to take
investigation, I’m going to see if it’s worth it for me to shelf it for awhile or I’ll say ‘You
know what, somebody else needs to take care of it’.
ISAT: Who’s Samia?
Michaela: Samia is our Vice Chair. I brought her up because she’s also our media chairman,
or chairwoman, whatever you want to say. A lot of the press releases that go out have her
name on them specifically. She has all of these legal experiences, and she’s also poise and an
articulate speaker. So I’d like to hand it off to her because I’d hate to say something, even
though I feel like I’m pretty good, you just never know. They say things to trick you, to get
you stuck. It’s almost like getting stuck is worse than saying things that aren’t entirely
accurate. So you know what Samia’s phone number is (xyz), or Samia is not in town right
now, here’s her e-mail address, please send her an e-mail
ISAT: Is she an employee?
Michaela: She’s a volunteer. Everything that’s working with CAIR right now is either
volunteers or members, and I’ll have them do little projects here and there, or on the board of
directors. So people that I work with daily are usually the board members; like Rami is a
board member and Samia is. I actually report directly to the chairman, who’s Ibrahim, and
sort of secondary to the other board members; it kind of depends on what’s going on.
ISAT: Do you delegate tasks to the volunteers?
Michaela: (Laugh) Yeah, I’m sure the board members do. We’re just sort of like… in these
weird positions.
ISAT: So do you run the show?
Michaela: Kind of, yeah, daily. But in term of approvals and things like that, the board
members get involve, like when it comes to milestone things, they approve things. But yeah,
if you want to say that I run the show, I guess so. Because I’m the one working 24/7…so...
Phone Correspondence Questions
ISAT: You said something about people calling in, for media responses for example, how is
that handled? Do you enter their information, or do you jot it down on a piece of paper?
Michaela: I’m jotting it down on a piece of paper. And that’s actually something that’s on
my list, of what I’ll have to do, is that I want to create a message log. Something that I can
easily go into; nothing that has to get up and running like Access database (they usually take
a few seconds) and that’s not really time appropriate if you’re talking to somebody on the
phone and ask them to hold on. And I don’t really want to transfer things to my computer.
But I’d like to have message logs to track phone calls of…
ISAT: Call time and stuff like that?

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Michaela: I don’t know about as much as call time, but I’d like to keep track of who’s
calling and what day, and what they’re calling about. I think that that would be a really good
thing to have archived, because you can go back and say…well, I can keep track of these
calls…For example there’re tons of people in the community who called to ask questions. So
I call and call, and the phone is busy… Or they don’t call me back…may be it’s because they
don’t know who I am. I don’t know… whatever it is, may be they expect that someone else
was going to call? I don’t know what the deal is, but I don’t have time to continually calling
them. So I figure if it’s important, they’ll call back. Or they’ll give me an alternate phone
numbers or something. But I’d like something that tracks who’s calling instead of me writing
that down in my notebook, but I fill up these suckers really quickly. I’ll go back and I’ll
highlight things that are important that I need to take care of it. Or I’ll put a check if I have
taken care of it. But I’d like to create something… I don’t want it to be a spreadsheet, that’s
just too archaic, and …
ISAT: It sounds like it would be nice if you can also create something that…if it’s for
someone else, you can write it up at the same time and pass it off to the right person.
Michaela: Yeah, exactly, so there would be a loop and I can follow up on it. The core of our
organization is providing a service to a specific community and that’s the Muslim
community. And if you’re not keeping track of those kinds of calls, then it’s a disservice.
So…I did some technical support stuff when I worked at TelCom when I very first starting
out from college. We had a database and it was very horrible, but we had to keep track of
tons of calls everyday…I don’t want to get that detail like doc every phone call, but at least
I’d like to see… And it’s good to generate reports too so I can tell the board well I get so
many calls a day and why I’m justifying that we need an admin assistant because I can’t be
that person...Anyway…
Tools to Assist Daily Tasks Questions
ISAT: Are there forms/system, tools you use to perform your daily tasks? Other than jotting
things down on a piece of paper (Wait for response, Can we take a look?)
Michaela: Well that was just in term of messages. We have right now the “Civil Rights
database” and I believe it’s Access. I have actually…since I started, I got this from our
national office…and…umm (chuckle)…it’s something where I don’t want to say that a
database that’s tracking technical support and civil rights violations is similar. You don’t just
go in there and start working at it. You need to really know what you’re doing. Because you
don’t want to mess up the system, the accuracy is important but even if there’s something
changed, you always want to keep the old record. For example, if there’s a change of address,
we keep the old address so that we know that they have a change of address. I have not have
time to sit down and read and figure out what other stuff that we’re supposed to do.
ISAT: Can you give us an example of why you’d use this database?
Michaela: Because when you’re tracking civil rights cases, it’s very very important, from
one, a legal stand point, because when you’re providing a service to a community and if
you’re making a mistake, you don’t want them to hold you liable. Or if they think that you
made a mistake you don’t want them to hold you liable for some reason. And also because
every case is different, some just requires very little follow up (like writing a letter to the

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employer to inform them of Islamic duties or religious practices. Some takes the involvement
of the ACLU, EEOC (which is a government employment/government agency that tracks
discrimination and things like that). When it involves some organization, then it becomes
more complex: who has to do this, and we have a deadline that we’d have to complete and
things like that. Or I would need to talk to this person, etc…There’re so many things to track
so a database is really important to us. If it’s the “rights” database, you can put in documents
that you’ve sent, you can link word documents, excel spreadsheets, you can link e-mails,
instead of having them in your Outlook, you can put it in the database. So it creates like a
really good way of tracking of what’s happening in the progress. From that, you can derive
reports so you can get an idea of how quickly you’re responding to cases and how quickly
they’re closing, how many opens...CAIR National now, our research directory (I forgot his
name but he’s always on TV) he puts together every two year a report that shows, for
example after September 11, national is getting 300/200 cases a month or something like that
and then they were getting a thousand cases of discrimination cases. It just shots up. So it’s
important to be able to tell those changes, not only for the organization, but also if somebody
want to apply for grant or something, they can say that ‘See this is why we need money to
hire this many civil rights advocates because we’re getting this many more cases So it will
have a trickle down effect.
ISAT: So are you using the database?
Michaela: I’m not using the database because I do not have the time. It’s busy work to
update databases.
ISAT: So how are you handling information?
Michaela: I am right now, all I’m doing...I’ll show you…I have Outlook…My e-
mail…These are the specific civil rights cases that I’ve worked on. Here are the ones that I’m
following up. And then I have little itsy bitsy ones, and that all I’m doing is creating
folders…These are like letters to prisoners…we get a lot of complaints from inmates (they
give accommodation to Jewish, Christian people but they do not give accommodation to
Muslims, so that’s something we’re working on right now because that’s something that’s
protecting under the law of this country). So these are letters that I’ve written to them. So I’m
organizing these on my e-mail Outlook by case and in folders. And eventually it needs to be
transfer to National office.
ISAT: Anything else?
Michaela: We also have a QuickBooks; it’s an accounting software. And just because of the
amount of time that thing takes to load, to update and understand, I have a volunteer
accountant doing that, but eventually we’ll hire somebody to do. I’m not doing that right now
but there’ll be things that I do that will be tied to that. For example, I sent out donation
receipts to donors. That’s something that should be generated from that database. I just didn’t
have anytime to coordinate with Bilal, so he just generated a report from that software and
we mail them all out. I personally mailed them all out and it’s probably so inaccurate…but
what can we do… (chuckle) It’s a man power issue...so...
Regularly Scheduled Tasks Questions

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ISAT: Are there tasks that you perform on a scheduled basis? (For example: weekly,
biweekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly?)
Michaela: With civil rights thing, it’s definitely one. Number of cases opened, closed, and
pending…that’s supposed to be given to national yearly at the end of December, which we
never did.
ISAT: How do you give it to them, to their database?
Michaela: We burn a whole database to a disk and mail it to them. And they download the
report, and manipulate it and do however they want to. Right now we’re working on doing
ACH withdrawals account so people can donate monthly like a voided check. We also want
to do credit card withdrawals for people who donate monthly via credit cards or ATM. And
that’s something that we really depend on the system but we ended up using Bank of
America. We do it monthly to in order maximize the fees we have to cover we do them all at
one time.
ISAT: Is this something that you’re not doing but you’d want to do?
Michaela: This is something that we’d want to do. I have all this information about ACH
and Bank of America, credit cards…I just have to compare the set of fees and I have a
deadline, I have to have this done by the fundraiser. People don’t have a thousand dollars to
donate, but they’re more than happy to donate twenty dollars a month. But for a person to
remember that with everything else…it’s too much. With ACH, it’s easier for them…they
don’t have to remember to write a check. And for us, it’s cost prohibitive to remind people to
donate…we don’t have the time to do that.
Michaela: What else on a monthly basis? We have board meetings and I’m supposed to keep
a message log.
ISAT: Minutes? Yeah, a log of minutes.
ISAT: So have you been doing that?
Michaela: Yeah I have, but it’s not complete.
ISAT: And those are monthly, or weekly, biweekly?
Michaela: It was weekly, but now it’s biweekly. I’m weeks behind of typing up these logs.
It’s not supposed to be my job; it’s the secretary’s. Because of his English barrier…I mean he
speaks English really well, but to take notes, you guys know how it is…it’s a foreign
language…so he can’t do it with speed. Going forward we may start doing things on a
monthly basis
Michaela: We’re playing catch up right now.
Information Collection Questions
ISAT: How is the information collected/gathered? Donators’ information for example…
Michaela: There are a couple different ways. Two major ways: the first way is that...just
explain how CAIR works: CAIR National was founded in ’94. And from them sprung 25
chapters in the U.S. and Canada. Each chapter opens and operates as a separate entity even
though they all share the name CAIR, CAIR-Arizona, CAIR-California…etc…All of them

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are technically and legally a separate unit. The only thing is that we collaborate. Basically,
national approves each chapter based on very specific guidelines. But you still have to
operate yourself. You get very little help from national. The only thing that you do get help
from national is one - membership. When you go to the national website, you can become a
member. (And this could be a monthly thing) They’re supposed to send you updates on who
are the members, whose have expired and who are the current membership because it’s
$10/year. We don’t actually get the money, but CAIR National does. But they provide us the
names of those people so we can solicit, we can contact, e-mail them and whatever you do.
Michaela: And also CAIR National puts out publications about the Qur’an and Muslims
rights, geared toward law enforcements, different between health providers, and so on… And
they provide them to us free of charge; all we have to do is pay for shipment. So our
relationship with them is very different. Most if not all CAIR chapters are tax-exempt
corporations. So if you donate, it’s tax deductible. But the national office is not tax-exempt;
the reason is because they do a lot of lobbying. Anything more than 5% to lobbying and you
cannot be tax-exempt. Which kind of makes sense...even though…I don’t know…? I won’t
go there… (Chuckle)
Questions about Donation Process and Finances
ISAT: So can you take us through a routine if we were donating money, how that would
happen?
Michaela: You would have to contact our office, either by e-mail and send the check to our
office. Right now I just set up a Pay-Pal account so people can actually send us money via
Pay-Pal, via credit card or online to our e-mail address. So in terms of donors, we solicit
people from CAIR. And also at our fundraiser last year, we had this card that people fill out
(which I don’t even know where they are, may be at the office). We wouldn’t use them
anymore; they’re old and totally archaic. So we have two chunks of information: people who
are members who didn’t donate because they did the membership with CAIR National, and
the members who donated that our fundraisers. Those are the two big things right now.
ISAT: So he deals with the money right now?
Michaela: Well, Rami is the treasurer, so he deposits the money to our account and then the
deposit is tracked through Bank of America’s bank statements. And two, he coordinates
somehow with Bilal on inputting the deposits into QuickBooks software.
ISAT: So he handles all the money aspect of it then?
Michaela: Yeah, I would say that Rami does it more superficially, writing checks, but Bilal
is actually tracking it. Neither Rami and I have a lot of experience (smile), I mean I have
some experience in accounting software (MRP, similar to Oracle, but it’s like a
manufacturing software that’s accounting based. I used to use that a long time ago). I’m not
familiar with QuickBooks per say.
Member Tracking Questions
ISAT: So when you’re tracking donators and members information, do you keep that in a
box, all the pledge forms for example, or the forms that you had them filled out?

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Michaela: It’s in a spreadsheet. We have several spreadsheets. And what I just had a
volunteer do was to…for example…We have a spreadsheet of everyone who donated at the
fundraisers. We have a spreadsheet of all the members from national, ones who gave us their
e-mails, ones who didn’t. We also have a database of all the people who have registered to
vote in the state of Washington and they went through us, either they have gone to our
website and say that I am a registered voter, or they have registered through us and we input
that information to the database. I think we have like 10 spreadsheets of people that we have
contacts information on. I just had a volunteer put all of it together, but it has to be sorted.
Because basically I’m very sale and marketing focused. These are the people that are
potentially volunteers or supporters of CAIR in some way. And I want their names, address,
if they have an e-mail, and their phone number. I don’t care about the data whether they have
donated or not; that to me is not important. Right now, I just want to see right now, who do
we have in this community that we have contacts information for. And that is something that
can be kept track off in the QuickBooks software. Because the QuickBooks that we have, it’s
very nonprofit specific and it actually has all these functions of tracking donors.
ISAT: And you said that there’s a database of members?
Michaela: Yes, it’s online through CAIR National and I have the password to access it.
ISAT: Can you access other components of their database? Like would you be able to print
out a report of all the members? People who have donated?
Michaela: People donated to us or to CAIR National. To you. Yeah, I have a list of all the
people who have donated. That’s from the QuickBooks software because Bilal has input all
this into the QuickBooks software, who’s donated what.
Membership Questions
ISAT: How about if somebody wants to be a member? Do they go through you guys and you
guys have to enter that information into CAIR?
Michaela: No, they’ll have to do it themselves. From an operation standpoint, I think there’s
a big disconnection between CAIR National and us in terms of what constitutes a member.
Because CAIR is getting those funds, and a lot of people that signs up as members in
Washington don’t even go to our fundraisers. There’re different levels of members; there are
members who actually do something and be active, and there are people who says they’re
members and pay $10/yr and that’s all the commitment that they need. Most of the people
that go into the CAIR National database are people in that pay $10/yr category and end of
story. But there are people that we contact everyday that we consider members but may be
they didn’t pay $10/yr. May be CAIR National doesn’t even recognize them. So there’s a
huge disconnection between what we consider members and what they consider members. Is
there no cohesion? Is it not necessary?
ISAT: I get on the newsletter that you guys send out…The e-mail…
Michaela: Now see there’s no cohesion between that either because people sign up …may
be…I don’t know…Rami does this, you can ask him…anyway, people can sign up to get e-
mail alert, but we don’t know who they are, may be they are not on our member list, may be
they’re not on national’s member list. Who knows? No cohesion

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ISAT: There’s one e-mail that I got that says it will be discontinue if I don’t send in the $10
membership fee?
Michaela: CAIR National sends out e-mails to their e-mail list, because I think they haven’t
focused a lot on their membership drive, so people aren’t realizing that… for example…I pay
one year, and I didn’t pay for two years after that, and I just paid recently…so they don’t
have a very good system to remind people to update their memberships. So I think they were
just trying to light a fire and tell people ‘Hey, you know, is your membership still valid? Did
you pay it in ’95? You need to update it…’ I think Rami is sending out that e-mail again.
And there’s so little cohesion between these things.
ISAT: Is the newsletter done by national?
Michaela: We do our own, and then national has one. Certain CAIR chapter has their own e-
mail alerts
ISAT: How often is the newsletter?
Michaela: I want to do them weekly (chuckle) but that’s just too much work.
Job Reflection Questions
ISAT: What part of your job do you find time consuming/exhausting?
Michaela: Everything…(laugh) The busy works because if you look at the things that I’m
responsible for, there are so much busy works associated with all of them that I would need,
for example, an administrative assistant, I would need a civil rights advocate, a media
relation coordinator. But instead, I’m the one who’s doing all this busy work so it’s hard for
me to manage because I can’t disconnect, because I don’t have the human resources to be a
manager. So I am managing but I’m also doing the work myself.
ISAT: So you’re managing yourself?
Michaela: Yeah, or people who are actually willing to help us who are volunteers and are
committed…Data entry, updating databases, updating civil rights things …We have a huge
events calendar of all the things happening in our community. I can input it into my Outlook,
but it would be nice to have it online so that people can access it online and see what’s going
on in our community or related community that affect us. And I just cannot do that, it is
physically impossible. I’m getting my MBA too by the way (laugh)
ISAT: Is there something you perform that you find can be made easier/automated? (What is
it?)
Michaela: The message log (phone calls) is one specifically. I think sending out press
releases can be a little more automated because we have this mega list of e-mails and phone
numbers, fax numbers. And we have WinFax software but I have not installed it, I tried, it
didn’t work at my house.
ISAT: If you would like to change or improve one thing about your job what would it be?
Michaela: Like hire 10 people (laugh)
ISAT: Are there funds available to hire?
Michaela: Yeah there are some funds. But the fundraisers will be the kicker.
ISAT: If you can hire one person, what task would you like him to perform?

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Michaela: Right now, I think there are two things, either an administrative assistant so that I
off load massive busy works, or a civil rights coordinator, which are two totally different
skills sets.
Organizational Questions
ISAT: How do you communicate with the volunteers?
Michaela: Via e-mails initially usually….maybe coordinates meetings from home.
Sometimes people drive from everywhere to our office in Lake City. It would maximize time
and efficiency if we can get people on a conference call. I guess once I have the office then I
can drive to the office, and we have multi lines. But we have two lines…we don’t have seven
lines…so… PalTalk is kind of the only option right now.
ISAT: How are decisions made in the organization?
Michaela: We have no formed process whatsoever because we don’t have clear owner on
certain things. If we have an executive committee, then this person owns fundraising, this
person owns civil rights, then there would be escalation process. But there isn’t one right
now so everyone’s just doing whatever needs to get done. I mean we have the figure heads.
Rami is like the treasurer figure head, Bilal is the civil rights figure head. But sometimes
things happen in the community, and even though Bilal who’s in charge of civil rights, Samia
is the one who drove that thing. Everything is sort of on the spur of the moment. We’re very
reactive and not proactive and that’s part of our problem.
Questions about Tracked Information
ISAT: Of this information that you are currently tracking, is there other information that you
would like to track, but are not doing so at the moment?
Michaela: Besides the events…(pause)…That’s hard, I have to think about that…Not that I
can think of that I haven’t already told you.
ISAT: Of the information that you collect what kind of use would you like to get out of it, or
are currently using it for? I heard from Rami that you guys collect all these information but
aren’t getting much out of it?
Michaela: Yeah, that’s probably true. For example, we have information on who donated
what, but it would be nice if we can…this is what some organizations do that I think…I don’t
know…wrong…but most organization categorize their donators…people who are $10,000
givers. It would be nice if we have a program like the (??) Institute (an Islamic University in
Haywood, CA), they have created these different donor categories. If you donate $10,000/yr
you get all of these different products…So that would be a nice benefits for somebody who
donated … especially for a nonprofit organization…there’s prestige associated with it. It’s
nice to know, of course you did this for Allah, for God, but it’s nice to have an incentive,
more tangible. That’s just one example.
Questions about Key Players and Organizational Structure

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ISAT: I know that you do everything, but you keep referring to these other people. Is there a
way we can talk about who plays what role because it seems like they do something at some
point. So if this is you,…
Michaela: Do you want me to draw an org. chart for you…
ISAT: Yeah because then we can see if perhaps this person can take over and own it like you
said earlier.
Michaela: They are more like figure heads then they are doing things. The thing that Ibrahim
does for example is that he’s the head of the decisions. He’s like the last person to go to. In
terms of communicating things to the public, representing CAIR on a higher level, that’s
Ibrahim.
And Vice Chair, who’s Samia is like second in command. If Ibrahim isn’t there, then it goes
to Samia. Ibrahim also makes sure that the things we’re doing are getting us to achieve our
goals and visions. Samia is also our media chairman. So it’s really her responsibility to drive
the media committee and kind of being a watch dog of the media to see what kind of blatant
attacks are going on that the media does, or it’s not giving fair representation of the whole
thing.
Michaela: The board should be more of a figure head in general, and you have two other
committees, one is an executive committee and one is the advisory committee. The advisory
interjects ideas

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Data Collection Questions
ISAT: If I was a client on the phone, what types of information would you need from me?
Michaela: If it’s a civil rights call, I have an incident report; it’s a Word document and I
enter the date of the call, the incident occurred, the name of the person who’s calling, and the
name of the victim, the person’s phone number, e-mail, address, the name of the person or
entity who violates that person’s rights. And there’s a synopsis that I go through with them so
they can explain to me what happened.
ISAT: Is it possible for us to get a copy of that document?
Michaela: Oh absolutely. If you guys have a disc, I can burn it for you right now. Is it a
floppy? I don’t have a floppy drive. I could e-mail it.
ISAT: What are some common data collection errors made?
Michaela: Yes… for the fundraiser for example. It said that people donated certain amounts,
but then what got entered into our accounting software is different. In some cases, there’s a
delta, what happened there, I have no idea
Organizational Chart
Reformatted based on
Michaela’s drawing
during the interview

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On the fundraising last year, people filled out pledges or wrote us checks. At the moment,
they were putting it into the database to show people where they were. And it would track by
the name, but then Bilal sends me the report of who donated what…people who say that they
donated $1000…but when I look at the accounting record, there’s no balance of $1000. So
did we collect that $1000 or did we not collect the $1000? Or may be the person did it in
somebody else’s name. We got all this donations from the Palestinians’ committee but we
can’t track that because we need a contact name.
Future Vision Questions
ISAT: What do you envision or would like your information system to do?
Michaela: My vision of an information system would be … QuickBooks on steroids. But the
thing is that it doesn’t interface with Outlook; something that interfaces with Outlook
calendar would be really awesome. There’s just so many different aspect of the
business…I’m not working with QuickBooks so I don’t know its limitations. But it would be
nice if it’s something that you can input into…without…being…
ISAT: Are you not working with it because you don’t have the training or…
Michaela: Well that or the time, and it’s also because we only bought one license so we just
let Bilal put it on whatever computer he puts on right now. Once the office is running, then
we’ll transfer them to the computers at the office. For example, I’m used to using a system
where every department can use that system. So for example you’re in a manufacturing
facility, you get an order, and you can input that order as a sale order into that system, and
that sale order takes a record, and it’s going to drive engineering, production, purchasing. In
the back end, it’s going to be able to be built from, and you can generate all kinds of report
from that. QuickBooks is a lot more accounting focus. And although it tracks members, I
don’t know how much it tracks members.
I’m used to using ACT, I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of it, it’s a marketing sales tool
that tracks customer, and in that I don’t like ACT necessarily, but it is a tool for tracking
customers.
Familiar Alternative Systems Questions
ISAT: Do you use that?
Michaela: I don’t. I have used that but not for this company. QuickBooks just track donors
like how much they donated and superficial information. But it would be nice to…be able
to…I don’t know how to explain this if you haven’t used ACT before. ACT …for example,
you can send a letter to someone, or email, and ACT will actually track that, it will create a
record so you can pull up all the different things that you’ve sent to that person, even faxes. I
don’t think QuickBooks goes that far. So for example if you called, I was like ‘what’s your
name? Oh Leila’ so I pull up your thing and I see that on this day she has a civil rights
complaint even though she’s a donor…see what the whole picture of that donor is, not just
from a monetary stand point. I think that’s a lot more important because most of the people
who are donors are not likely to have civil rights complaints. It’s more likely the
communities that are more impoverished. It allows you to do more profiling on your donors.
ISAT: One person that you have mentioned in your email, Miriam,

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Michaela: Oh my very own volunteer (laugh)
ISAT: I guess she helps you with data entry, spreadsheets, tracking members, donors,
Michaela: She has been doing a lot more data entry, but she hasn’t been doing the tracking
on the back end. For example, we do like a direct mail campaign, one that was focus on
donors, members, individuals and one that focus on businesses because we wanted a lot of
sponsors to the events. You get advertising and things if you are a sponsor. There’s a thing
call the business directory, I wanted her to put that in a spreadsheet for me, all the
information … so that I can do a mail merge from it, which is really inaccurate…because
mail merge is too…anyway… Some of those businesses ads are outdated; we get about 10%
of them are correct. Which is a pretty good number, I think that’s pretty high. I do not have
the time to go though the database and make a note that there’s an incorrect address. Nor do I
have time, so I have a volunteer doing this, to go through and make calls to every single one
of these businesses and say ‘Did you receive one of our…dah dah dah...Are you interested
…’ and making a personal contact with that person. QuickBooks can’t do that. ACT can.
You put in a business, and then you can select different categories…this person is a
donor…this person has civil rights complaints...this person is a business owner and we’re
looking to them for sponsorship.
ISAT: Why don’t you use ACT? You don’t like it?
Michaela: I personally don’t like it. There are better tools like the new Microsoft system that
I can’t remember the name right now… it sounds like an acronym… It’s brand new…not
even a year old. But something like that can create profile; you can track all types of contacts
(vendors, buyers, donors, etc)

Systems Proposal ►Appendix A ►2nd
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Second Interview of the Council of American-Islamic
Relations Manager
Interviewee: Michaela Corning (Manager)
Interviewers: Laila Almounaier, D.T. Tran, Tina Norman
it would be used for academic and note taking purposes only. This will be the second
interview of Michaela. The interview was preformed in a coffee shop. This is the third
revision of this data collection instrument. The questions below are presented as they were
asked during the interview. A copy of the transcript follows the question outline. These
questions are follow up questions from the previous interview as well as more focused close
ended questions to better help focus our analysis.
Goals
o Follow-up on answers given in first interview.
o Explore topic of potential volunteer participation.
o Obtain information regarding financial resources.
o Obtain information on current computer system resources.
Questions
Follow-up Questions
1. You mentioned that you currently have about 10 spreadsheets of contacts
information. Can you please list the ways and purposes for which that information is
or could potentially be used? E.g. mailing lists, phone trees, reports to CAIR
National.
2. You mentioned that you have a password to access CAIR National database? Are
there other people who have access?
3. How is that database accessed?
4. What data fields does the CAIR database provide and how is it formatted?
Probing Questions on Unique Identifiers
5. Does CAIR National assign some type of unique membership number to members?
If so, can you get those numbers?
6. Do members have membership cards?
7. For administrative purposes, do you have any problems with assigning member id
numbers and/or membership cards?

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Question about Volunteer Service
8. What requirements are there for letting volunteers and other outside people have
access to your data?
Questions about Data Errors, System Requests, Current Processes
9. Of the data recording errors made, which is the most time consuming to correct?
10. Is there any extra information that you would like to store that is not currently
gathered and/or recorded?
11. Why isn't incident data entry made directly into the Access database?
12. Is there a reason the database isn't left open to make it easy to access?
13. If you had to pick one or two areas to focus on that you currently have a problem with
what would they be? For example, accounting, communications handling, contact
handling, etc.
14. Where are calls received (at the office, cell phones, at home)?
15. What are their requirements for remote access to an information system, such as for
administrators working at home?
Questions about Finances and Future Help
16. How many new man-hours, in the form of new paid employees, do you envision
adding and at what time?
17. What kind of financial resources could be feasibly dedicated to an initial information
system installation and regular maintenance?
18. Do you have members who have known talents in the fields that they are looking for
that would be willing to help?
19. What computer hardware does the organization currently own?
Questions about Technical Resources
20. Do you have Internet access at the office? If so, what kind?
21. What kind of Internet serving resources does CAIR National provide? For instance,
do you have access to the www.cair-seattle.org server and what is it capable of doing?
Michaela Corning Follow-Up Interview Transcription
Follow-up Questions

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ISAT: At the last time, you mentioned in the last interview that you have about several
spreadsheets of contacts information. Can you tell me some ways and purposes for which this
information can be used? For example, mailing list, reports?
Michaela: All of the above.
ISAT: Anything else?
Michaela: Pause…mailing list? I think direct mail, I mean marketing, I don’t know if that’s
what you mean by mailing list. I’m just doing phone calls of members. Like for example,
CAIR LA, one thing they do is they have volunteers and they have what’s called phone
banking, and months before the event, a week before and presale, we have people cold (?)
calling members saying ‘Hey, did you buy your tickets to the fundraiser yet?’ ‘Oh no, I
haven’t’ ‘Oh well then let’s charge it over the phone’. We don’t have the resource for that,
unless you guys want to volunteer. (Laugh)
ISAT: And then you said that you a password to access CAIR National database? Are there
other people who have access to it?
Michaela: Um…I gave a volunteer access to it so she can update it. But besides that, I don’t
think there’s anybody else.
ISAT: Can you tell us a little bit about how it is accessed?
Michaela: Just as a website, and there’s a log in and password. You just go in, and you
update and add like new registered voters in there, people that you know are registered but
didn’t filled out the form that we have. That’s pretty much it. And you can generate reports
like how many people are in the state of Washington, people in the state of Arizona. It will
go into Excel so you can download it as an Excel spreadsheet.
Questions about CAIR National Database
ISAT: Can you tell us a little bit about the data fields that the CAIR database provides? And
how it’s formatted?
Michaela: Which database? Do you mean the accounting? The QuickBooks one or…?
ISAT: Well, actually, I think what they mean by that one is the contacts?
Michaela: You mean like Microsoft Outlook? Or …which? Can you repeat the question?
ISAT: Do you know what fields.?
Michaela: We don’t really have a …
ISAT: Actually, go ahead and let me know about the CAIR National
Michaela: Ok. Sigh…
ISAT: Because I know that you don’t have a database for contacts.
Michaela: Yeah we don’t.
ISAT: And the other database that you have is the civil rights?

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Michaela: With the civil rights we have it in QuickBooks, which is like an accounting
software, and that has database fields, but we haven’t…I mean I’m not using it...So...like… it
would be hard…You’d have to ask Bilal. Didn’t I email you his contacts information?
ISAT: Yeah
Michaela: Okay, because I don’t remember anything (Laugh).
ISAT: Yeah, we’re meeting with him tomorrow.
Michaela: Oh good.
ISAT: So how about for the CAIR National’s?
Michaela: What was the question? I don’t remember the question now.
ISAT: The data fields that’re provided, how’s it formatted? Like first name…
Michaela: The data fields are name, first name, then last name, street address, um…state,
zip, phone number, email address, something about are they a registered voter, duh, I don’t
know why they even put it in there because that’s not even why you’re entering it. And then
there’s one that says what mosque that they attend. Random! We don’t even enter that part of
it. And then um… there’s also fields that say what the sources of that information, like who’s
entering it and one that says CAIR Seattle, we always put CAIR Seattle as the one
who…because we can see…because some are actually generated by people going to the
website and say that ‘I am a registered voter’, and that will update the site. Um…But I don’t
know how… I don’t know what sorts of ways they track those ones, but the ones that we
specifically enter, we click CAIR Seattle as the source of that information…so…
ISAT: So do you know which fields are required? Like you have to put in where there’s an
asterisks where you have to put in…
Michaela: None of them says that. Yeah. Because sometimes we get people but they don’t
have an email address for example, may be they don’t even have a phone number.
ISAT: But not even first name or last name?
Michaela: Um…None of them says required or optional so I never tested it out.
ISAT: Okay.
Michaela: That’s a good question.
Entering Membership Data
ISAT: So I think this is actually might be where, because they have here membership
database, I know you guys don’t have like a membership database, but when you enter
members, do you enter it through the CAIR National database, when somebody comes in as a
new member?
Michaela: No, actually what happens is that national tracks all membership. And to become
a member of CAIR, you go the national website, and they track that in theirs, and you pay
your $10 a year, whatever it is. And every…every…whenever I want I can call CAIR

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National and say ‘Can I get a print out of that?’ And then they can send that to us. So it’s not
something that we can see live at all.
ISAT: I think that’s where the confusion is, because you guys have members but they’re not
official members, and they might not pay that $10
Michaela: Exactly. It would be really beneficial to us if the database could say what kind of
member that person is. Is this the person that fills out the $10 a year thing? No, yes. Is this
the person…may be that didn’t come up but they give us $2500 every fundraiser. We don’t
care for that $10, we don’t see that money anyway…frankly, because that’s CAIR
National’s. But if they are…and may be having like a donor category…What kind of
category is this member? Does this person basically volunteer their time and they don’t
actually donate any money to us? Is this a person who does…May be something where you
wouldn’t just categorize them by a single field, may be they could be multiple fields. Like
yes they are volunteering, yes they did the $10 a year, yes they donate this certain level…
ISAT: But you don’t actually put that in there at all?
Michaela: No, but that’s something we would like to do. And these are good questions for
Bilal because the QuickBooks software actually has a membership arena but I don’t know
anything about it and I don’t know if it’s that complex.
ISAT: You don’t know if it gets enter in there or not?
Michaela: Something is entered in there but I don’t know…I mean I can’t really… I know
that Bilal has given me a report, for example, of who donated what last year because I needed
that for sending out receipts or whatever. He gave me that report, so he MUST have entered
information, but I don’t know if that was something that was entered on the accounting side
because he puts people’s checks …, when he’s looking at the record, he wrote down
who…or is that stuff actually the membership part of the data base, I have no idea.
ISAT: Ok, when you guys ask for, may be at fundraisers, somebody says that ‘I want to
become a member,’ do you guys have a separate spreadsheet that has a bunch of people’s
name and address information?
Michaela: Is this last year fundraiser?
ISAT: Oh I don’t know if it was at a fundraiser, but it was a spreadsheet that you sent, one
of them was ‘Members’ spreadsheet.
Michaela: And does it have like how much people donated and that kind of stuff?
ISAT: I don’t think it did. I was looking briefly at it, maybe it did…but…
Michaela: There was one that says CAIR fundraising something something at the title of the
icon. And that shows like how much people actually has donated or pledged and yada yada…
And then we have…a lot of these…a lot of database…a lot of those spreadsheets I sent you,
especially the ones that say like um…members, no email, members’ telephones, those are
some of the names of the icons, do you remember? Because those are the ones that’re from
national, they’re crappy. Because they’re like…why would we want somebody’s name when
we don’t have any contacts information for them?

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ISAT: Yeah, the spreadsheet that I saw just has first name and last name, address…
Michaela: Did it say ‘master spreadsheet’?
Yeah
Okay, that one is a conglomeration of like all this crazy spreadsheet. That is a mixture of the
voter registration database, the multiple spreadsheets we got from CAIR, the fundraising
thing,
ISAT: So basically anybody and everybody that you can get their names…
Michaela: People who attended our caucus event and we took the information off their
checks…it’s kind of mass marketing…any information that you can get is like spam spam.
See I’m in sales, that’s my background, so that’s how I’m thinking.
ISAT: So you guys don’t have an official like ‘This is a form, fill it out…’
Michaela: We have a form; it goes straight to national. For CAIR-Seattle, we have nothing,
zippo, zilch, nada.
ISAT: Do you know… does CAIR National assign unique membership number? A unique
identifier?
Michaela: I think they do…
ISAT: But you guys don’t see those…?
Michaela: I see, I see it, but I get rid of them, because they mean nothing, absolutely nothing
to us. And I have no idea if they actually …see this is the thing, I don’t know if you saw
those CAIR National’s email about we were trying to get 25000 new registered dah dah
dah…CAIR National has absolute no way of reminding people when their membership
expire. So a person like me, I mean I became a member like three years ago, and I just
renewed it again this year. But it didn’t ask me to renew it the year before…like it was my
official renewal this year. You have no way…I mean usually if you subscribe to a magazine,
they send you a reminder that you need to renew your subscription. And CAIR doesn’t do
that, which is so stupid.
ISAT: And then I’m guessing that members don’t have membership cards?
Michaela: Um, we create membership cards last year but that’s not something we’re
doing…I mean …no one has given me information about that at all…so no
ISAT: For administrative purposes, do you have any problem with assigning number, id
numbers and or membership cards?
Michaela: What was the question?
ISAT: For administrative purposes, do you have any problem with assigning number ids and
or giving membership cards?
Michaela: No, I mean that’s definitely a possibility, it’s only a matter of having the
resources, human resources, to be able to check that, logistically speaking you know, that
sounds like a nightmare (laugh)

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ISAT: And what requirements are there for letting volunteers and others outside people
having access to the data?
Michaela: Basically just personal relationship…basically if somebody comes in there and
they um volunteer, they have to have some personal reference from someone on the board. I
mean it’s not just like some Joe Blow emails me and says ‘I’d like to be a volunteer’ and I’m
like ‘Oh let me send you some spreadsheets’. No, I’d have to know that person personally or
somebody from the board does. We have other volunteers and they do like manual labors, lift
boxes or whatever
Data Collection and Input Quesstions
ISAT: Of the data recording errors made, which is the most time consuming to correct?
Michaela: Of data recording errors? I would say…probably all the things related to
donations and tracking the pledges and who’re actually fulfilling their pledges. I mean who
were monitoring this before I got here, I don’t know. It doesn’t make any sense to me. I mean
I have this spreadsheet and I try to reconcile with what’s in the accounting
software…completely different!
ISAT: And is there any extra information that you’d like to stored that are not currently
gathered and or recorded?
Michaela: In general? Oh let me just make a laundry list for you (laugh) I mean that there’s
all of the different classifications of donors, is a big one, also if there’s a way to tie in
people’s attendance at our events, that would be really crucial to see, you know, who’s
actually coming to our events, who are members, what the delta and why basically you know.
So um… because what keeps this organization alive is donation and pledges…and …if we
can’t keep track of that from a marketing and sales perspective, we can’t really forecast
whether our organization is going to be viable going forward so... that’s very very crucial.
ISAT: And why isn’t incident data entry made directly into the access database?
Michaela: Why isn’t incident? You mean civil rights, why isn’t it entered? Um because I
don’t have time, it’s time constraint, and because I haven’t had any training on the database.
And actually there was training on Monday and national called me on Friday. I mean we
don’t have a live office phone, it’s my cell phone and I check messages. So the time
difference between when the phone call, the conference call for Monday, and the time I
check my messages on Friday, I missed that. And so I missed the training. How
annoying…anyway…And I haven’t had time to follow up with that guy
ISAT: So is there a reason the database isn’t left open to make it easy to access?
Michaela: Well I can’t…I mean there’s no point in having it running, using space while I
can’t even…I need to train myself…I need to either train myself, which takes a huge amount
of time, or have somebody else train me, which I didn’t know was available and I missed it.
And I have to reschedule or do something…and so…We’d just have somebody, we’re
actually hiring someone; I don’t know with what money…we’re going to pulling it out of the
sky (laugh)

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Areas of Focus Questions
ISAT: If you have to pick one or two areas to focus on that you’re currently having problems
with, what would they be? Can you give us some examples? Like accounting, communication
handlings or contacts
Michaela: If you have to pick one or two areas to focus on that you’re currently have a
problem with what? I need to read that and absorb it. (Reading) Sigh...Um…Memberships,
and the accounting side, and civil rights…I would say that those are the three that I would
say are the biggest problems right now.
ISAT: When you say accounting, are you talking about the donating…
Michaela: I’m talking about donating. I’m talking about reimbursing people for expenses.
I’m talking about generating receipts for people because they’re tax-exempt.
ISAT: So all money?
Michaela: Yeah all, even vendors, I mean having vendors listed …all that kind of stuff…
ISAT: And then, I think you already answered this one just a little bit ago where all calls
received and doc on the cell phone at home
Michaela: Cell phone and office voice mail which I retrieve.
ISAT: Are you guys moving to the new office?
Michaela: We have a new office, but um… I can’t move there until somebody in the board
finds time to kind of put it together in terms of IT and phone system. It’s just like the civil
rights thing, you know, it’s an opportunity cost. I mean do I spend this much time training
myself on how to operate the phone and how to put them all together, or do I do this much
work that I have piled up. Well, I’m willing to do the work, you know. And right now I have
my office set up at home. It’s ready to go and I can just jam and get it done. And I don’t have
the luxury right now to go to the office and messing around with things.
ISAT: How many man power, in the form of new employee, do you envision adding and at
what time?
Michaela: We’re adding (laugh) a civil rights coordinator, and we’re adding a voter
register…I don’t know what you call it, a project coordinator position-someone who picks up
civic education and voter registration, um…and that’s happen…I mean we have…um…we
just sent out an email this last couple of days to different groups advertising the position, the
positions I should say…um…So that’s going to be hire immediate, that’s going to be
immediately.
Questions about Financial Informaion
ISAT: What kind of financial resources is going to be feasibly dedicated to an initial
information systems installation and regular maintenance? Ball park…do you know?
Michaela: I have…I have no idea. I really have no idea. That’s a good question for Rami I
think. He is our treasurer.

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ISAT: I just thought that’s a question you could answer.
Michaela: I probably could if I go home and like spend an hour and a half going through it,
but I just…I just don’t have the time. And Rami has direct access to that stuff, and I don’t.
Availability of Volunteer Help Questions
ISAT: Do they have members who have known talents in the fields? You guys have members
who have talents in the fields that you’re looking for, that would be willing to help.
Michaela: Um…There are members that have known talents, but the kicker is that are they
willing to help (laugh). I found that they’re willing, but it’s really just time constraint. And I
don’t necessarily think we have entirely identified who have what strength.
ISAT: We’re actually maybe taking some surveys to…
Michaela: Are you talking about the community survey thing?
ISAT: Actually it’s a survey that we’ve came up with just so see what kind of see what
people, what computer skills people have that we might be passing out during the…
Michaela: Okay. You talked to Rami about that?
ISAT: Do you know who permission I should probably ask?
Michaela: I’m the one coordinating the fundraiser so… (laugh)
ISAT: Ok, so I’ll leave that question to the end.
Michaela: Okay, we’ll talk later.
Current Computer Inventory Questions
ISAT: What computer hardware does the organization currently own?
Michaela: They don’t know. I’m currently renting it out, for free. Um…We own four
phones… I’ve been told that that’s not computer hardware (laugh), well they’re very high
tech multi-line phones so they’re not exactly like…Sigh…What do we own? We own a
computer and a hard drive but it’s not useable; it’s too old. Somebody gave it to us, and we
fired it up and we were like ‘Oh my god’. So we really, at this point, own nothing. No
computer hardware.
ISAT: How about we talk about what is it they don’t own but are using?
Michaela: Mine, I have a Dell Inspiron 8200, and it’s like a year old or something. Basically,
that’s a lot of the reasons why they hired me because they didn’t have an office when I got
hired, and the fact that I have a home office set up already for my previous job. I think that’s
why they were like ‘Oh it’s going to be a no brainer…you got a computer, printer, scanner,
you got a fax machine that copies, dah dah dah’
ISAT: What versions of the current software do you have?
Michaela: Bilal would know the QuickBooks one. The “civil rights” Access database, I…I
don’t know the exact version; I mean I know that Access in general is version specific, but is

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the actual database version specific? Because I know that you can…just like old Word…you
can open an old Word document in your current XP
ISAT: What version of Windows are you using?
Michaela: I’m on Windows XP. I have like Microsoft Office Professional XP 2003 or 4. But
I didn’t create that database; it was created at national and sent to me.
ISAT: How was it sent to you?
Michaela: On an email, it was zipped. Didn’t I send it to you? Why don’t you open it and
look at the properties and check it out?
ISAT: Depends if it will open, like you said if it’s going to on regular Access like whatever
version that I’m running…
Michaela: If you have Access I think it’s going to open it.
ISAT: Yeah, but I’m worried if it’s going to list the current version that I’m on or the version
that it was.
Michaela: May be if you save it to your computer and just right click on properties and
without just opening it, may be it will tell you. If not, then I can email national.
ISAT: Any other software?
Michaela: Um…I have Microsoft Project but I’m not using that yet. And we have WinFax
Pro, do you know what that is? It’s like a software that enables you to send out multiple faxes
for doing press releases and stuff like that. It’s brand new; I mean it’s the newest version. I’d
have to go home and look at the box.
ISAT: So WinFax…we’ll just look at whatever the newest version…We’ve also been looking
into your CRM suggestion…
Michaela: Oh the…Yeah, it’s pretty awesome. The last company that I was at, they were
ditching their ACT and going to Microsoft CRM. Wow
ISAT: So WinFax, and you said Project, but you’re not using that?
Michaela: Microsoft Project… I have to think about that. I think Microsoft Office XP
Professional, WinFax (not really using that). I just downloaded a bunch of virus software,
ZoneAlarm, it’s a firewall. And I donated, what am I saying…I downloaded Adware, which
goes though and wipes out spyware and stuff. Oh my god, I had 95 things on my computer.
You can go to download.com and you can get those things for free, and they’re not even trial,
they’re free versions.
ISAT: Do you have the free version of ZoneAlarm?
Michaela: Yeah, and I have the free version of Adware.
ISAT: And what kind of software license do you have?
Michaela: Just personal…I don’t know about QuickBooks though; you’d have to ask Bilal. I
don’t know about that. I think that he got…I don’t know, you’d have to ask him

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ISAT: Is there Internet access at the office?
Michaela: DSL actually.
ISAT: Does CAIR National provide any Internet serving resources?
Michaela: No
ISAT: Do you have access to the CAIR-Seattle.org server?
Michaela: I don’t know if it’s actually a server though. It’s like hosting or something. May
be I should give you Imran phone number. He’s like our IT guy in California. He moved. He
would know about the IT stuff. Let me just find his phone number here. He’s really nice and
he’ll help you. Ok so his name is Imran; his phone number is 1-805-300-4262. He actually
owns an IT company here.
ISAT: Do you backup of all your data?
Michaela: Like on my computer? Turn off! (Laugh) No I don’t actually…Well I guess some
of it we do. Because some of it is housed on our yahoo site, so that would be technically a
back up, but it’s not all there…Just another project that I need to do.
Questions about Key Players Roles
ISAT: And the last time you have mentioned Mubarek, who’s on the board?
Michaela: He’s our secretary and he’s also our civil rights chairman.
ISAT: Can you explain just a little bit about his roles?
Michaela: The roles of a secretary is 1) to take meeting minutes, and he’s supposed to keep
them in a file…and um…he’s passed them to me and I can’t keep it up to date to save my
life. And um…as a civil rights chairman he also negotiates with different partners like Hate
Free Zone and ACLU. Um…one of the things…one of the things that he um…actually
…that’s… civics education, the person that’s titled project coordinator. We’re actually going
to be sharing resources with Hate Free Zone, so we’re going to be paying half of that
person’s salary. But they’re actually going to be in Hate Free Zone’s office. But there’s going
to be a chair/Free Zone employee. But he’d actually like to offer that civil violation piece
because it should be a person by themselves, not shared duties. Because that’s just too much
work you know for one person.
Questions about Civil Rights Database
ISAT: Do you know if it’s required to keep the civil rights database separate from any other
database?
Michaela: It has to be separate only because it has to be given to national on a yearly basis
because um…what’s his name...
ISAT: Not just the data but the whole database?
Michaela: The whole database is given to national because they um… what’s his name…Dr.
Nemir (?) whatever…he’s our research director. He’s the one who puts together that civil
rights report every year. It’s reporting how many civil rights incidents and yah dah yah

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dee…We’re supposed to give it to him but we couldn’t…we just couldn’t get it updated,
so…
ISAT: I think the reason we’re asking is because we’re thinking of adjusting this
database…So you need to stay with this database so that you can have the information to
upload to the national database?
Michaela: Yeah I don’t think the benefits to…if you create it in CRM or something…I don’t
see the benefits to having those things linked at all. Even if it’s a member who happens to
have a civil rights claim or something…I don’t …I don’t necessarily see it being entirely…I
mean…there could be a benefit like you could just see who’s a member and who’s getting
violated but I don’t know if it’s that pertinent.
ISAT: It doesn’t matter what kind of systems that come up, you’d need to log on to that
database and upload the information no matter what. You need the chaining to be able to
eventually go directly to it
Michaela: Yeah I mean I know that there are systems that can feed into each other, and so
you can feed them into each other…but as long as you can keep some of it separate. And I
think CRM has some of those capabilities you know, that’s why they have a web interface
and everything…so…I don’t know…my god
Revision of Data Flow Diagram for Accuracy
ISAT: Can you take a few seconds to see…I don’t know if you’re familiar with data flow
diagram or not but just to see if there’s something that’s like ‘no way, this is not what
happens’
Please see the dataflow
Michaela: Hany is a board member too but he doesn’t have a position that’s like a title,
besides just a director, and his name is Elkordy.
ISAT: Does Bilal go to the board meetings?
Michaela: No. No…I mean he has in the past but we didn’t think it was really best use of his
time since has a lot of data entry to do (laugh).
Now the donations are coming from the Muslims community through me, but I don’t know if
that’s very clear on the diagram. Because there’s no flow…do you know what I mean…It
looks like it’s coming personally from me or something…May be it should be more clear…
I would say that um… Bilal is not …he’s actually a volunteer accountant, not a volunteer
secretary.
ISAT: I actually emailed him and set up an appointment for another member to meet with
him, and he wrote back and his name was Mohammed.
Michaela: It’s Mohammed Bilal Khan, but he goes by Bilal for some reason. So… he’s
never introduced himself as Mohammed…
ISAT: Because he signs his name Mohammed in the email…

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Michaela: Because in Pakistanian culture, there’s a lot of people who’s named Mohammed.
But they usually use their middle names because they think it’s like disrespectful to go by the
name of the prophet Mohammed, which is totally a Pakistanian thing.
ISAT: Donations never go directly to Bilal, so can we cross that out?
ISAT: Not even the information about…
Michaela: The information does, but not…but it usually goes through Rami. I wouldn’t even
say that Rami gives it to Bilal. I would say that it goes to Bank of America and Bilal’s getting
those information via the history of the deposits
ISAT: So Bilal is not actually getting the sheet that says who deposits what…
Michaela: No
Michaela: I would say that here one line would be monetary and one would be information-
based. And I think that the only thing that gets filtered to him directly is the information-
based stuff if they needed to be. And here, all this stuff is going to Bank of America and he
has to have that money signed. I think it might be important to differentiate between the two
things in terms of the process flow.
Michaela: He processes certain thing and he’ll provide reports to Rami. And he also
provides reports directly to me. I don’t give him information, but he gives information back
to me.
Michaela: And I don’t think that this is an ideal system. I mean my personal opinion is that
we need an accountant, or an accounting person in the office, someone who can be a
receptionist and an accountant, who can transfer phone calls, and that kind of busy work, and
then also someone who can update the database, the civil, the accounting database, who can
track all that stuff, do payroll, yah dah yah dee. That’s what I envision (laugh)
Michaela: I don’t give anything to Bilal, donations or information.
I’m just a filter really. But honestly, all board members receive donation and give them to
Rami but they don’t have a significant role in that
Miriam doesn’t have anything to do with the civil rights database, should I cross that off?
She does data entry but not to the civil rights database.
ISAT: Who’s doing entry into that?
Michaela: I’m supposed to be but I don’t have time…so…yeah. Um hm…I mean I still have
things to follow up on like cases but I can’t because of the fundraiser you know.
ISAT: Does the civil rights database connect to the ACLU at all?
Michaela: Yes
ISAT: Both way?
Michaela: Well, I wouldn’t say that the civil rights database can feed back to the ACLU
(laugh) but I do. So I do…like…

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ISAT: We should just put you in the middle with like…
Michaela: I think…I think I should be in the middle because if you think about it…you have
the board members at the top here, and they all have their little functions or whatever. And
then I’m here. All of their information feeds into me, and I feed out to these different
systems, except the accounting one. And Bilal’s kind of like out here on the side, do you
know what I mean. I think if you have the hierarchy a little different, it might…
And I report directly to Ibrahim, and the other board members feed information to me.

Interview with Mohammed Khan
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First Interview of the Council of American-Islamic
Relations Secretary
Interviewee: Mohammed Bilal Khan (Secretary)
Interviewers: Ryan Prins, Aaron Smith
it would be used for academic and note taking purposes only. This will be the first interview
of Mohammed. The interview was preformed in a coffee shop. This is the third revision of
this data collection instrument. The questions below are presented as they were asked during
the interview. A copy of the transcript follows the question outline. This interview contains a
majority of open ended questions since this was the first interview with this individual. Also,
some close ended questions are included from information that was analyzed from previous
interviews.
Goals
o Find how Mohammed fits into the organizational system. Figure out what exactly his
role is, how long he has been in that position, and what tasks he is specifically in
charge of.
o To gain a more substantial picture of CAIR's information, procedural and
organizational systems by getting a second, distinct and disparate perspective of
them.
o Get a better understanding of how their accounting system works.
o Find out what obligations they have as a NPO for financial statements.
o Obtain suggestions from Bilal on what he thinks would benefit CAIR.
o Get a feel for what he sees as the problems with the current system.
o Get a better understanding of how Bilal is involved with the civil rights aspect of
CAIR.
Questions
1. What exactly is your role at CAIR?
2. What do you do there?
3. Do you have an official position or a title for what you do?
4. How long have you been doing the basic QuickBooks accounting?
5. Within in your position of doing the QuickBooks accounting, what are your specific
tasks that have been asked of you from the organization?
Probing Questions on Position

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6. When you are working with QuickBooks, what is it you are generally doing?
a. Is it inputting data, generating forms?
b. Follow up: Forms are created one time?
c. Follow up: Is very frequent that you change them?
7. Do you ever get any forms from the national body of CAIR to use within
QuickBooks?
8. Besides QuickBooks, are there any other tools or programs that you use to do your
tasks for CAIR?
a. Follow up: Do they work well together?
9. How often are you using QuickBooks to input data or to output data?
a. Follow up: You just wait until you get a month’s worth of data then take a day
or so and input all the entries?
10. Are there things that you have to have completed for quarterly or yearly deadlines?
a. Follow up: Do these need to be forwarded to the government or the national
branch of CAIR?
Questions about Suggestions, Storage, and Processes
11. Of the tasks that you perform that are time consuming what is it that you find
exhausting?
12. Do you make physical copies of checks to keep for the records of CAIR?
a. Follow up: How are those stored?
13. Is there a task that you perform now that you think could be made easier or more
automated?
14. If there is one thing that you would like to change or improve of the tasks that you do
for CAIR, what would be one, or a couple, of things that you would like to change or
improve?
15. Of the way that data is stored, collected, and processed, what do you see as some of
the hindrances or problems that arise?
16. Do you ever have to get contact from the Excel spreadsheets that CAIR-Seattle uses?
17. When using QuickBooks, have you found any problems with the software that hold
you back from performing your duties properly?
QuickBooks Specific Questions
18. Do you know which version of QuickBooks you are currently use?
19. Is that a license that you purchased?
a. Follow up: Was it a special kind of license?
b. Follow up: Were you reimbursed by CAIR?
20. Have you used QuickBooks before you started working with CAIR?
21. Do you think any kind of training would help people use the software more
efficiently?
22. Is there any other software system you would prefer besides QuickBooks?
23. What are things that you require your accounting software to do?
Questions about Errors

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24. Of the data that you enter when you enter it into QuickBooks, are there some
common errors or problems that can be made or are made when entered into
QuickBooks?
25. How many errors, in a percent do you say you have?
26. About how many entries or accounts do you have in QuickBooks?
Questions about Contact With Community and National Branch
27. In your accounting perspective do you ever make contact with CAIR National?
28. Do you ever send reports back to the community?
29. Are requests for forms or data output requested frequently, or not so frequently?
a. Follow up: How many would you say a month?
Questions about Archiving and Account Tracking
30. For your QuickBooks database is there a backup procedure?
a. Follow up: Are those backups made after every time you input data?
b. Follow up: How far back do your backups go?
31. How are the accounts tracked?
32. In regards to your membership, do you get a membership number from CAIR
National or CAIR-Seattle?
Questions about Data Storage and Access
33. Is centralized data storage is really important?
34. Would you like to see these people trained, at least minimally, in using all of the
software applications?
35. Would you like to be able to access the information over the Internet after they are in
the new office, or do you think it would be better if people went to the office to do
their processing?
36. When you work, how do you get the information?
a. Is it mailed to you?
b. Dropped off?
c. Do you work at home?
Mohammed Bilal Khan Interview Transcription:
Ryan: What exactly is your role at CAIR? What do you do there?
Mohammad: I specifically maintain their accounting system. Which is QuickBooks for now.
And uh, um, I understand that they are going to have more systems, like a payroll system
added to it. But, QuickBooks as it is right now cannot handle everything.
Ryan: Is it inefficient in what it does?
Mohammad: Well, you know, the needs that they have right now is very limited. It’s not as
if it is a big organization and it needs a lot of stuff. For now quick books can handle it, and,
for what I see for the next 5 years it can handle it. Cause the amount of information that they
are generating right now is too little.

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Ryan: Too little to require a bigger system?
Mohammad: Yeah.
Ryan: Do you have an official position or a title for what you do?
Mohammad: No. I am not on their roster, you could say. I am just as a volunteer.
Ryan: How long have you been doing the basic QuickBooks accounting?
Mohammad: Uh, less than a year.
User Specific Task Oriented Questions
Ryan: Within in your position of doing the QuickBooks, like, what are your specific tasks
that have been asked of you from the organization?
Mohammad: Um, anything to accounting. Fundraising, you know, that they money is
collected or properly recorded, um, and um, the receipts that go out. Accounts relievable,
accounts payable. Plus, then QuickBooks has this option to maintain your donors, list of
donors. Address of donors and stuff. Used for sending newsletters and stuff. You know, the
address and names are in there so you can draw that and generate a letter or something. You
know, so it can do multiple things.
Ryan: When you are generally working with QuickBooks, what is it you are generally
doing? Is it inputting data, generating forms?
Mohammad: Everything. Data and if you have designed the forms, it comes with the generic
forms, so you might have to tweak it here and there, um, certain columns that are not there,
you might like to bring in a certain column. So, once you have done those forms, you don’t
have to go back to those again. Unless you want to change something. The same goes for the
letters. A donational letter, or receipt letter that says you have made a donation of x amount
of money for the whole year. So, um, its already there. You do it once and you don’t have to
do it again. Same goes for 1099s if you want to send it to a corporation. Those are all
designed and built in. So, you do it once and you don’t change it again.
Ryan: Then those forms are one time created, like you said?
Mohammad: No.
Ryan: It’s not very frequent that you change them?
Mohammad: No, you don’t frequently change them. No.
Aaron: Do you ever get any forms from the national body of CAIR to use within
QuickBooks?
Mohammad: Well, uh, so far we haven’t received anything. So, it’s kinda an independent
item. They run their show, we run our show. We could have picked any other accounting
software and I don’t know what they are using. It’s more or less independent. They do share
data, I suppose.
Ryan: Besides QuickBooks, are there any other tools or programs that you use to do your
tasks for CAIR?
Mohammad: Um, not really. No. Unless, the regular Microsoft Office Suite, that. Um, plus,
I mean, I have used, um, something like, um OCR software. Because you get a form or a

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spreadsheet and it is typed, you don’t want to put it in again. But, basically Microsoft Office
does what I need. Because you can download stuff from QuickBooks to Excel, you can
upload from Excel to QuickBooks.
Ryan: They work well together?
Mohammad: Yes.
Questions about QuickBooks
Ryan: How often are you using QuickBooks to input data or to output data?
Mohammad: Currently, the way it is right now, it’s like whenever. The data that we have
right now, is like, so insignificant that you don’t want to do it everyday. So, uh, I usually do
it once a month.
Ryan: So, you just wait until you get like a month’s worth of data then take like a day or so
and put it all in?
Mohammad: Yeah, exactly. I usually wait for the bank statement. Then I know what the
activity was and then I go searching for the records the checks, who did we write it to. And
the payments that came in, who paid it. You might talk to Rami.
Ryan: We’re in process of doing that.
Mohammad: So, he’s my contact. Michaela or Rami. Michaela gives me the petty cash
stuff, so I put that in. Usually once a month.
Aaron: Are there things that you have quarterly or yearly deadlines that you need to meet to
send to the government or the national branch of CAIR?
Mohammad: Uh, there might be some. But I haven’t done any of them yet. But, I am sure
that there is something that you need to provide to the state. Being a nonprofit organization
we need to do that. So, I don’t know I have never done any account for a nonprofit
organization, so I am not aware what kind of forms they need. There are some forms that
they need to get to the state. It’s just a state form. It is just one of those things, like, and
income tax form. You do need to send it to the state.
Ryan: Of the tasks that you do that is time consuming or that you find exhausting? You
mention that you do the entering in one day. Is there one thing in that day that you find time
consuming or exhausting?
Mohammad: I wouldn’t say that. I would say fundraisers. Hectic. Tons of checks and those
need to be loaded in and maybe the address needs to be entered in. Cause, it depends if they
are an existing donor. That’s easy. If they are new you need to punch in a whole address. So,
you need to setup the person or which is an account. It’s needs other stuff also.
Ryan: That account information that you talk about, if it’s a new person that is all stored in
QuickBooks then?
Mohammad: Yes. Yes. It has all the information about the person or maybe a corporation or
maybe a company or whatever. So, you need, name, address, and whatever the other stuff is
needed.
Ryan: When you have a fundraiser like that, do you try to get the information input soon
after the fundraiser?

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Mohammad: We would like to do that. But, we had one fundraiser and I had to key it in.
Um, which was around 3 or 4 months later. So, whoever kept the records before didn’t keep
check copies. So, we have to get the check copies from the bank and type it in.
Physical Data Storage Questions
Ryan: Do you make physical copies of the checks to keep for the records of CAIR?
Mohammad: Yes.
Ryan: How are those stored? Are they stored in a binder or a folder?
Mohammad: Currently they are stored in a folder with the statements.
Ryan: So, like monthly?
Mohammad: Monthly, yeah. The activity of the thing, so it’s all stored in. It would nice on a
hard disk. So you can easily search and stuff.
Ryan: So if you had them scan into a PDF or something like that?
Mohammad: Yeah.
Questions about User Suggestions and Problems
Ryan: Is there something of the tasks that you perform that you think could be made easier
or more automated that it is now?
Mohammad: From past experience, I know that banks could provide you all the information
that is on the check. The name, address, account number, and all that kind of stuff. The
amount written on the check, the check number. They can provide you on a spreadsheet or on
a downloadable file. Then we key it in. They have a way, because it’s an account and they
have it somewhere, cause it might. I was working with Citizens before and that’s how, our
checks went to the bank directly, they never came through the company. So, all they
provided was a data file that had all the information that was on the check. And, it was
loaded up and nobody had to key it in.
Ryan: All taken care of in the file. Now it’s like, does it give you the check number, the
amount, when it was cashed? Is that basically what it gives you now? From the online?
Mohammad: Yeah, not even that. It won’t even be a file file. If you ask for a file it will give
a deposit date, check number. I doubt that you’d even get the check number too. Those fields
that you usually get are the date and the amount of the check. That’s about it.
Ryan: If there is one thing that you would like to change or improve of the things that you do
for CAIR, what would be one or a couple of the things that you would like to change or
improve?
Mohammad: I’m too new at it. I don’t know exactly. Nothing that would stand out. I don’t
know.
Ryan: Of the way that data is stored and collected and processed, what do you see as some
of the hindrances or problems that flow, how it gets processed or things like that?
Mohammad: So far we’ve had no problems because the data is very small. Minimal. So, no
problems accessing data. But, I’m sure as years go by we’ll have plenty of them and the
system will get slower and slower. So, I don’t know how much data this corporation will

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generate. So, and it depends if it is a single user accessing data. They’ll be much better than
multiple users. So, it depends on how fast it grows and much access people are going to have
access to this particular database. So, if there are 5 to 10 people accessing this data it will get
bogged down and really slow. Maybe, as far as it is right now, it’s fine. But down the road it
maybe different.
Aaron: Do you ever have to get contact from the Excel spreadsheets that CAIR-Seattle uses?
Mohammad: Contact information? What do you mean?
Aaron: To contact a company or something. Or, do you only ever deal with what is in the
QuickBooks?
Mohammad: Well, uh…
Aaron: Like if you wanted to look up a member, or do you ever even need to look up a
member?
Mohammad: In case if… give me a scenario, like in searching.
Aaron: Like in the role that you’ve played so far, have you ever had to check out the Excel
spreadsheets that Michaela keeps to find a member’s information to call them or anything, so
far?
Mohammad: Not me. But Michaela does. I understand that Michaela might ask me if I have
this member’s information, I know this guy paid it then and do you have his telephone
number, address. I might have it and she might not. So, the information flows this way, from
Michaela to me. Either way, it deepens on what is asked. Because if she is looking for
somebody and I have it and she doesn’t then she’ll ask me. But, I wouldn’t go ask her,
because I have no need for it.
Questions on how the QuickBooks Software Operates
Ryan: When using QuickBooks, have you found any problems with the software that hold
you back or other things like that?
Mohammad: Payroll. The way it is designed, you have to subscribe to the payroll tables.
Like the deductions that you have on your payroll. So, you have to subscribe to QuickBooks
to get those tables. Without subscribing to those tables, you cannot use the payroll.
Ryan: When you say subscribe, what do you mean?
Mohammad: Subscription to updated tables. Every year they will send you updated tables.
Like the deduction percentages, SDI. Those things you gotta subscribe to before you can use
that function. If it is a big function and it has good use, as you would have more employees
you would like to use that. Currently, we are using it, not the payroll system, since it is not
built in and we don’t subscribe to it. But, we are entering the salary information in there.
Ryan: Do you know which version of QuickBooks you are currently use?
Mohammad: The most recent one.
Ryan: Is that a license that you purchased?
Mohammad: It is the license that I purchased. I purchased it under CAIR.
Ryan: You were reimbursed by CAIR?
Mohammad: Yes. I will be. <laughter>
Ryan: Was it a special kind of license?
Mohammad: It is a nonprofit version of QuickBooks. It is not the standard version.

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Ryan: Not like the version on the shelves?
Mohammad: No, well you can buy it off the shelves, but it is specifically designed for
nonprofits. It comes with other stuff. Geared towards nonprofits.
Ryan: Have you used QuickBooks a lot before you started working with CAIR?
Mohammad: I have used it before, but not a nonprofit version. Just a regular version and it
was years ago when the software was very simple. Now it’s much more integrated and it
does lots more than before, very little help. <laughter>
Ryan: So, the ease of use is pretty steep?
Mohammad: I would say, it’s not steep. But you have to use it once to get familiar with it. It
uses the accounting terms and if you have been working with a nonprofit and you know what
it means, I have never worked with it, so I have no idea when they are talking about it in that
sense. I have no idea, I have worked all this in a corporation for profit in when they talk
about accounts and general ledger of accounts, I can relate to it as in a for profit organization.
I can never relate to it as a nonprofit. I mean, their account structure is totally different. It’s
not very steep. Yeah, you got to get familiar with it.
Ryan: Do you think any kind of training would help?
Mohammad: Oh yeah. If you could get one of those courses. Not the basic, basic. Maybe an
intermediate course or advance. Because, it’s very simple to play around and learn.
Ryan: Is there any other software system you would prefer besides QuickBooks? Or, is
QuickBooks the way to go?
Mohammad: For the organization that is so small I think that QuickBooks is sufficient
enough. All other software would be tedious. Like Peachtree, one step above. It’s too
modular, too bulky, and nothing comes standard. Well, some things come standard. Plus you
have to do a lot to setup. This thing out of the box it’s sets itself up.
Ryan: What are things that you require your accounting software to do? Obviously you
would like it to do payroll, keep track of your donations, be able to output forms. Is there
anything else, maybe things that QuickBooks can do but has the feature to do. Are things that
you would like it to do?
Mohammad: Well, I haven’t found anything that it cannot do. So, like I said, the needs for a
nonprofit organization, and this thing is designed for those folks, it can generate letters for
fundraising. It can have grants. Like, pledges, it can track that too. It pretty much can do
everything. I don’t think that there is anything so far. I haven’t found anything that it is not
capable of doing, so far.
Questions about Errors
Ryan: Of the data that you enter when you enter it into QuickBooks, are there some common
errors or problems that can be made or are made when entered into QuickBooks?
Mohammad: Addresses. Cause, that is a generic problem in any software that you keep
track of. Somebody enters the address differently and the system cannot match it together.
You might have 4 accounts for the same name because the system things that there are three
different or four different accounts. So, it’s also the same way. You might have one account
open with how the names are, you might have spelled it differently and on the other account

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you might have spelled it differently. So, you will be carrying duplicate accounts all over the
place. So, if there was a way to standardize addresses. Because I know that post office has a
disk, at least for Washington state or the whole country, that you can see all the address for
the state. Some how standardize the address and it knows that it is the same guy. ABC that
you have it is the same as EDFG and it just merges it together. That was a big problem that I
had, because when you are looking for someone who owes you certain money and he might
have paid it in another account and we send out a letter to him and saying, you haven’t paid
it. And he is like, I paid it. But, you don’t know that because it is located in a different
account.
Aaron: Are there any other causes of accounting errors? Where someone says they paid and
they say you’ve paid too much?
Mohammad: Usually it is the keying errors, not something that the system is doing wrong or
recording it differently. It is just applied to the wrong accounts.
Aaron: From the paper to the machine you don’t get a lot of errors besides addresses?
Mohammad: It’s the human aspect of it.
Ryan: How many errors, in a percent do you say you have?
Mohammad: There haven’t been many that I can find, but I would say a couple of percent.
Ryan: About how many entries or accounts do you have in QuickBooks?
Mohammad: Donor accounts. I would say, I don’t know. Around 500.
Questions about Civil Rights Involvement
Ryan: We know that CAIR is pretty involved in the civil rights aspect. What is your role as
that pertains to aspect of CAIR? Or, is that something that you don’t necessarily deal with?
Mohammad: Yeah, I don’t deal with that. Or, I have very little knowledge of that aspect. I
am all for it, you know. Civil right. I am focusing on the accounting needs.
Aaron: I thought that she said at some point that he was some kind of civil rights figurehead.
Mohammad: Who, me?
Ryan: Yea. I think that is why we had that question in there.
Mohammad: Maybe somebody else. <laughter>
Ryan: You have very little to none interaction with CAIR National?
Mohammad: I have been a member for a long time with CAIR National. But the interaction
between CAIR to CAIR?
Questions about Contact with CAIR National and Data Flow
Ryan: In your accounting perspective do you ever make contact with CAIR National?
Mohammad: No. I don’t. No need to. Unless we are paying or they are paying us. That is
about it.
Ryan: One thing we would like you to do, is draw a data flow or a hierarchy of information
within the organization. How you see it. So we can get an idea on how you view the
organization. Maybe a personal perspective, or even how the data flows within the

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organization. You have mentioned that you get the checks than you input it into QuickBooks.
If that all makes sense.
Mohammad: I’m trying to think. Ok, the data flow. How would it flow? I get it from Rami.
This is all so new, I have one contact and that is Michaela or Rami and the information gets
to me through Rami, so far. So, I mean, that is all I get, the statement and the copies of the
checks or whatever that needs to be input. So, I don’t know how to draw that. The
information flows from me to Rami, Rami to me, or me to Michaela.
Ryan: More triangular.
Mohammad: Yeah. Cause Rami takes care of the accounting for budgets.
Report Requests
Aaron: Do you ever send reports back to the community?
Mohammad: No. I send them back to the person that the request came from. Michaela might
have asked for a certain thing.
Ryan: Are requests for forms or data output requested frequently, or not so frequently?
Mohammad: Not so frequently.
Aaron: How many would you say a month?
Mohammad: Maybe once. Unless, maybe, once a month.
Backup Procedures
Ryan: For your QuickBooks database is there a backup procedure?
Mohammad: A floppy.
Ryan: It all fits on one floppy?
Mohammad: So far is has. I got on hard drive two partitions so I put it on the other partition
in excess to the floppy disk.
Ryan: Are those backups made after every time you input data?
Mohammad: Every time.
Ryan: How far back do your backups go?
Mohammad: No archive. Just the one previous.
Account Tracking
Ryan: How are the accounts tracked?
Mohammad: By name. It can be setup by an account number.
Aaron: Do you use that now?
Mohammad: No. We can if we want to.
Aaron: In your perfect world, would you?
Mohammad: I would. Because all the names are so common. I mean, look at my name. It is
so common.
Ryan: In regards to your membership, do you get a membership number from CAIR
National or CAIR-Seattle?

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Mohammad: CAIR-Seattle started doing it. Yeah, I noticed that some of them had it some
of them didn’t. So, that could be the account number.
Ryan: In the perfect world.
Mohammad: Yes. Some accounts have it some of it done. It is another field that is input
when you setup the account. I stuck that number in there, but some accounts don’t have that.
It would be better to have it.
Ryan: We only ask because we are looking for a unique identifier for accounts, so that they
might be easier to track.
Mohammad: I don’t know how Michaela is tracking the members that she has. If she has a
spreadsheet or a Word document, I don’t know how she is tracking them.
Ryan: So, you have never seen the data the she has?
Mohammad: No I haven’t. I would rather have her use the QuickBooks, so that whenever
she updates that the QuickBooks gets updated also. Or, if there address change. People move
all the time and then we won’t have the current address. And if she has it then QuickBooks
doesn’t have it and if QuickBooks has it then she doesn’t have it.
Ryan: If there was some way that you would be notified when a change was made on her
end. Would that work too?
Mohammad: Well, I was wondering about what does she do? Sending out letter, or asking
for pledges payments. QuickBooks can do that and I don’t know that she can use that part, so
I intend to talk to her about that one of these days.
User Vision of Organization
Aaron: How would you like to see the organization of the Seattle CAIR?
Mohammad: Like the information from the systems?
Aaron: It could be information. Information, anything that is coming out. How would you
like to see CAIR look, at least in Seattle?
Mohammad: The way, I don’t know how it is structured now. It think it is like pyramid
style. The information flows top down. Like I said, I am too new to the organization to know
anything about that. But, I would rather have it horizontal, kinda.
Ryan: When you say it is pyramid style, is that with Michaela at the top?
Mohammad: Um, no. I think that there is another gentlemen, Ibrahim. And he has some
other members that are below him.
Ryan: Is he the director?
Mohammad: I think so. Like I said, I am unfamiliar. And he has some directors underneath
him, Rami is underneath him. I don’t know where Michaela fits in. But I know that Rami is
one of the directors.
Ryan: But, overall, your main contacts?
Mohammad: Rami and Michaela. I don’t have any idea who is around them.
Aaron: And you said that you would like to see it horizontally?
Mohammad: Yeah, because then I would rather have all these folks having access to the
system. They could easily run reports, easily look at any data they want.
Aaron: You just have the system up top?
Mohammad: Because the reports are rare, somebody has to run them or look at them. It
doesn’t do any good if it is sitting in one person’s desk.

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Aaron: Centralized data storage is really important?
Mohammad: Oh, right. Definitely. Just to look at somebody, or what is the financial
situation of the institution today. You don’t have to call somebody and have them call
somebody else and then get the information two days later.
Aaron: You would like to see these people trained, at least minimally, in using each of the
software applications?
Mohammad: Just point for running for reports. QuickBooks has the option of limiting
access to each individual.
Ryan: Like a users account? So, you login every time you use QuickBooks?
Mohammad: Yeah. Yes. So you can give access to a payroll person to just payroll.
Ryan: Or give access to just make reports?
Mohammad: Yes. It has that capability, but it would be nice. But, that requires a multi-user.
Ryan: A single station that users can connect to?
Mohammad: Yes.
Aaron: Would you like to be able to access this over the Internet after they are in the new
office, or do you think it would be better if people went to the office to do their processing?
Mohammad: No. Currently they are all volunteers. It would be ideal to have it over the
Internet. That would be really good. You don’t have to be in the office all the time.
Ryan: Favoring remote access over building access?
Mohammad: Exactly. Michaela being there she is the only one that is pay rolled. She might
have the whole system on her desk with folks coming in over the net and accessing the data.
Questions on how Information is Obtained
Aaron: When you work, how do you get the information? Is it mailed to you, dropped off?
You work at home?
Mohammad: I call Rami and ask for it and he hands it to me.
Ryan: What do you get?
Mohammad: Copies of checks, statement, and the payments that came in. And if there are
particularly, if he paid checks, what was he paying for. The checks that were deposited, what
were they for. Were they for pledges, general donation, or some special project. I need to
know that. And he just gives me a bundle with all that in it.
Ryan: Of that stuff, you just file it away when you are done with it?
Mohammad: Once I record it, balance my statements for that particular month.
INTERVIEW END

Systems Proposal ►Appendix A ►Questionnaire for Rami Al-Kabra
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Questionnaire of the Council of American-Islamic
Relations Director
Questionnaire issued to: Rami Al-Kabra (Director)
Issued by: Graham Ford
Miscellaneous: This questionnaire was issued because a time conflict arose between the
interviewers and the interviewee. A meeting was scheduled and had to be cancelled due to
time constraints by Mr. Al-Kabra. This questionnaire created and used as an alternate method
to get the questions answered that we had prepared to ask during the interview.
Goals
o To assess the economic resources and fundraising capabilities of CAIR-Seattle.
o Find out who is in charge of how the finances are spent.
o List CAIR-Seattle’s spending priorities.
o Find out how important information management is to the organization.
o Get an idea of what the organization is willing to spend on an systems solution.
Rami Al-Kabra Questionnaire Responses
1. How would you describe your fundraising model?
a. Very much dependent on the grassroots community. Typically funds are
gathered at an annual fundraising banquet where national speakers,
community members and public officials are invited.
2. Are there any grant opportunities that could be pursued for the funding of a computer
information system?
a. Don’t know.
3. How are spending decisions made?
a. At the Board level based on a Budget
4. Could you please list CAIR-Seattle’s spending priorities?
a. Administrative operations
b. Community Relations
c. Civic Education
d. Media Relations
5. Where does information management lie among your current list of spending
priorities?
a. Not a high priority as we have a small office

Systems Proposal ►Appendix A ► Questionnaire for Rami Al-Kabra
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For the following questions, imagine a computer system that solved 100% of your top
information management problems related to finances, fundraising, and membership
information.
6. If you were to give an estimate of the funds that could be raised up front for such a
system, how much would that be? $2000? $5000? $8000?
a. 5,000
7. For the same system, what level of recurring costs would be sustainable?
$100/month? $200/month?
a. 100
8. Given that the organization is growing rapidly, what would you forecast your answers
to 6 and 7 to be a year from now?
a. Probably close to the same

Systems Proposal ►Appendix A ►Survey for CAIR Members
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Survey for Council of American-Islamic Relations
Members
Survey available to: All CAIR-Seattle members in attendance at their 2nd
annual fundraising
banquet on Saturday, May 8th
.
Survey administered by: ISAT member Laila Almounaier
Miscellaneous: This survey was intended to better serve CAIR-Seattle by providing them
with needed information about who has the available skills to help with implementing a new
information system. However, due to the magnitude of the event and time conflicts by ISAT
team members the response was less than anticipated. Data was colleted for a few
participants and those surveys will be passed on to CAIR-Seattle for further review. The
survey that was administered is below.
Goals
o To administer a survey to current CAIR-Seattle members.
o Inquire about skills that members currently have.
o To find out if current members would be willing to help CAIR-Seattle in the future by
volunteering their time to the organization.
o To provide this information to CAIR-Seattle for uses other than what ISAT primarily
intended.
Survey
See next page

Systems Proposal ►Appendix A ► Survey for CAIR Members
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CAIR-Seattle
Volunteer Survey Form
CAIR needs your help to serve the community. Offering your time is just as valuable as
donating money. Don't hesitate to help out, even if it is only an hour or two a week.
Jazakum Allah Khair!
Personal Information:
Last Name First Middle
‫ٱ‬ CAIR Member
‫ٱ‬ Not a CAIR Member
Street Address Occupation
City State Zip Code Phone:
E-mail:
Are you willing to volunteer some of your time to help CAIR? ‫ٱ‬ Yes ‫ٱ‬
No
If so, how many hours per week can you offer? ___________________
What kind of work are you willing to help out with ? (Circle all that apply)
Office work (phoning, mailing…) Contacting politicians Outreach and PR
Coordinating with media personnel Fundraising Assistance
with voter registration
Legal consulting Newsletter articles, letters… Monitoring the
media regularly
Helping at events Word processing/Data entry
Other:____________________
On a scale of 1-4 please circle how you rate yourself in the following computer skills?
1-NEVER USED 2-BEGINNER 3-
INTERMEDIATE 4-EXPERT
• Computer networks 1 2 3 4
• Web page authoring 1 2 3 4
• Database applications 1 2 3 4
• Operating system support 1 2 3 4

Systems Proposal ►Appendix A ► Survey for CAIR Members
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• Computer hardware support 1 2 3 4
Circle the computer technologies that you are VERY familiar with using?
• Windows XP • Windows 2000 • Windows ME • Unix/Linux • C/C++
• Java • ASP.net • JSP • PHP • Perl
• Visual Studio.net Technologies (C#/J#, etc…) • Excel • PowerPoint
• Outlook •Access •Word • QuickBooks
•Other:_________________

Systems Proposal ►Appendix B ►Feasibility Study
Page 100 of 118
Appendix B: Feasibility Study
Introduction
In this feasibility study Information Systems Analysis Team will be covering some of the
problems that we have found within the Seattle Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic
Relations (CAIR-Seattle), “the organization," as well as some of the opportunities for
solutions to these problems. The study will discuss the purpose for the analysis, the current
system and the areas for improvement, benefits of the new system, and finally if the proposed
system is technically, economically, or operationally feasible. A problem statement will be
provided to better focus the scope of the feasibility study.
Client Description
The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR-Seattle) is a nonprofit organization
established to promote an accurate image of Muslims and defend their rights in the United
States. CAIR-Seattle is a recently formed chapter that started about a year ago in
Washington. They currently have one paid employee along with five board members and
many volunteers. The chapter’s annual budget is projected to be a little over $200,000 this
year.
PPrroobblleemm SSttaatteemmeenntt
During our analysis we conducted three interviews with two key individuals within our
client’s organization. The data collected during the interviews revealed a number of
information-related issues. Some of these issues that we have found are listed below. To
provide you with a better understanding of these problems, we are defining them here by
their terms because they will be referenced though out the systems analysis and proposals.
• Data collection

Systems Proposal ►Appendix B ► Feasibility Study
Page 101 of 118
o CAIR-Seattle’s database does not have any required data fields and is lacking
unique identifiers for the records that they keep. This means that all data is just
entered the way that it is and cataloging is inconsistent from person to person.
There might be extra, non-required fields in one data set, while another data set
might be lacking these fields.
• Data redundancy
o Because of different computer applications and a lack of training on these
applications, there is redundant data contained in multiple places within the
CAIR-Seattle information system. This redundant data is difficult and time
consuming to maintain; any attempts to maintain information integrity are very
difficult since all of the information is separated over many files within the
system.
• Information access
o CAIR-Seattle has multiple sources of information but access to this information is
limited by lack of software training and also by physical location. Another user
cannot access the information that is stored on a different computer, unless he/she
is in possession of that computer. Also, due to the lack of unique identifiers on
records, data inaccuracy and inconsistencies can make finding records difficult
and time-consuming.
• Information storage and archiving
o All of the current information that CAIR-Seattle uses is stored on two computers.
Access to data storage is limited to these computers, thus information access is
limited to one user at a time. There is no standard archiving practice in place; one
user might archive on a regular basis while another might not archive at all. Also,
there is no current system in place that would automatically archive the
information for them.
• Information dissemination
o The current way that information is disseminated in CAIR-Seattle is at times very
troublesome for the user. Information may be difficult to access and at times the
users are not trained in how to access or create the proper listing of information
that they need.
• Information accuracy
o Because of redundant data, incompatible file types, and a physical separation of
data it is difficult to maintain information accuracy. There is no method in place
to cross check for data entry errors and to verify information accuracy.
• Lack of human resources (all but one staff member works on a volunteer basis)
o With only one full time staff member human resources are very limited. This full
time staff member performs a large majority of the work and because of this,
some tasks are never completed as time cannot be found to complete them.

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• Lack of standards in data gathering
o Information that is collected by CAIR is not defined by a proper and unified
standard. One member of CAIR might gather information in one manner and
another member might collect it in a completely different fashion.
• Inadequate training
o CAIR-Seattle is utilizing many pieces of software while their depth of knowledge
is not very extensive on some of them. They have limited proficiency on the
software, but they realize that the software may have much greater
unacknowledged possibilities.
• Process inefficiencies
o Many of the processes that they use currently could be streamlined into fewer
steps done by the user. Some processes, such as logging of phone calls, currently
require more steps than necessary to complete.
• Lack of a data recovery system
o Currently CAIR-Seattle does not have a backup system for much of their
organizational critical data. If there was a catastrophic malfunction and all data
was lost, there would be no backup system in place to recover the lost data.
Based on our data analysis activities we identified what we feel to be the root causes or
problem(s) associated with those issues.
We feel that there were many problems and issues that revolve around the data collection,
information storage, and information retrieval. Many of the above listed issues stem from the
direct lack of sufficient human resource (1 full-time staff), process inefficiencies, and a lack
of software training.
Of the issues that we found, the Information Systems Analysis Team will be focusing on how
CAIR’s existing software applications interact and how the information stored in those
applications relate.
Purpose
The purpose of this feasibility study will be to analyze the current system within the
scope of technical, economic, and operational achievability. From this, the Information

Page 103 of 118
Systems Analysts Team will provide this study to CAIR-Seattle to better help them make an
informed decision on whether to proceed with this proposal.
Overview of the Current System
CAIR-Seattle's current information system mainly revolves around the correspondence
processes between itself and the Washington State Islamic Community. CAIR-Seattle can be
contacted by phone or e-mail. As shown in the Data Flow Diagram (see Appendix D), the
data for phone correspondence is stored in a spiral notebook and the e-mail correspondence is
stored in Microsoft Outlook. These two records are then combined in order to keep track of
civil rights violation cases in a second process. At the end of the year, the data of these cases
is sent to CAIR National in Washington D.C.
Also shown in the diagram is the membership data that CAIR National sends to the
Seattle chapter that is used to keep track of current members and to remind them of events or
request donations. The correspondence and recording of cases processes are currently being
handled by one person. Problems in the current information system occur within the
correspondence and storage of case data processes. Further details about the problems are
explained in the next section.

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Problems and Opportunities
Data Storage:
CAIR-Seattle suffers from dire disarray in data storage, which makes for inefficient data
retrieval. Forms are kept in Microsoft Word and the following information is stored in
muddled Microsoft Excel spreadsheets:
• Donor information
• Chapter members information
• Partners information
• Political and media contacts
• Attorneys’ contact information
• Fundraising associates information
• Data activists information
• Islamic community centers and mosques
Financial information is stored in Intuit’s QuickBooks and scheduling is done with
Microsoft Outlook. Michaela, the only paid staff of CAIR-Seattle, admittedly does not know
how to use these applications to their fullest, and volunteers who help work with the data
cannot be expected to know them either.
Data Entry:
Beyond the method in which the data is stored, another problem is presented in the
manner in which it is entered. All data is input using a laptop or personal computer, mostly
by Michaela or by volunteers to whom she delegated the task, with the exception of financial
data, which is tracked more or less exclusively by Mohammad Khan. Using a laptop is
convenient for working on the go and moving around the office, but the standard 4200-rpm
hard drive that most laptops are equipped with is nearly one half the speed of a desktop PCs
hard drive. This lack of speed makes it inconvenient to load large databases to view or add

Page 105 of 118
contact information, which leads Michaela to use a notebook to take notes, which must then
be re-entered into the computer later.
Due to her many responsibilities, transferring the notebook to the computer becomes
backlogged and often must be handled by volunteers. When this occurs, the paper to digital
transfer lends itself to data errors or loss.
Some of the things that we will be able to build off of are the fact that the organization
knows what types and how much of the information they want to be stored. They also have a
very good idea as to the scope and amount of information that they will be keeping track of.
For example, the organization’s financial advisor tracks only about five hundred donor
accounts in their QuickBooks software.
As it has been mentioned, their current infrastructure for data input is very poor and could
be improved upon. But, knowing what types of information and the amount that needs to be
stored will enable a more efficient system design. Also, it should be noted that by having the
organization in possession of a high speed internet connection and computers to be used for
organizational business leaves many options open, due to the fact that they have current
hardware in place for their data collection. New hardware, or add-ons to current systems,
may later be recommended, but we will not overlook the opportunity provided by hardware
already in place.
Benefits of Proposed System
Our goal is to examine the aforementioned problems and explicitly identify the
information requirements of our client. We intend to investigate hard data, interview various
organizational members, and analyze what information users need to perform their jobs
effectively. After gathering the data we will prepare a systems proposal that provides
cost/benefit analyses of alternatives and recommendations.

Page 106 of 118
After identifying CAIR-Seattle’s information requirements our goal is to provide them
with an opportunity to rebuild their current data structure. The benefits of the new system
will allow better tracking of new and current clients. Using a reliable database, CAIR-Seattle
will have the opportunity to create effective relationships with clients, manage data
efficiently and track financial securities. Our objective is to develop a set of standard
procedures that will allow the employees to effectively perform their tasks. Our intent is to
help CAIR-Seattle enhance the capabilities of their technology infrastructure as well as the
organization’s information flow. Below is a brief summary of how the systems will be
improved as well as how organizational objectives will be affected.
System improvements:
• Streamlining information data collection, entry, storage, and retrieval by
removing unneeded steps
• Improving data accuracy
• Reduce data redundancy
• Provide information about training for their current software packages
• Moving information into a central storage location/server for centralized
access
• Improving the integration of software systems and the data they contain
Organizational improvements:
• Improved information access by authorized users
• Streamline procedures for account maintenance
• Increased office efficiency

Page 107 of 118
Technical Feasibility
CAIR-Seattle's current technical resources are somewhat limited. They are currently
working off a laptop and other personal computers from home. They do however have access
to a high-speed Internet connection, as well as some personal and nonprofit software licenses
that they are currently using to perform their daily tasks. Even though their technical
resources are limited, we do believe that some of them are sufficient enough for the new
system. Add-ons will need to be looked into based on the assessments that are made about
implementation of a new system. These add-ons may be a simple piece of hardware for
backup or as large as a server for central data storage. Other unavailable resources that may
be needed for a newly designed system can be upgraded from their current system to meet
the needs of the technology requirements. Depending on our different recommendations and
their choice of implementation, other resources may need to be acquired to produce optimal
results from the proposed system.
Economic Feasibility
The Seattle chapter of CAIR is funded through a donation process; no funds are sourced
from the national organization. Donations are received as one time donations through
fundraisers. In addition, many members choose to make regular donations via a variety of
payment methods. Thus, the framework exists to find funding for an initial investment in an
information system and then fund regular maintenance over the long term. In addition, as a
nonprofit, there exists the opportunity to apply for grants to help fund a future system.
Also, in terms of the cost for time taken to obtain data for this study, it all comes out of
personal time for the volunteers and out of the workday for Michaela. Therefore, caution will
be made to only require needed interviews and information gathering from Michaela and
volunteers. The analysts’ are providing their time and services free of charge to the
organization.

Page 108 of 118
With respect to the cost of hardware this value could range from a value in the hundreds
of dollars to one in the thousands of dollars. This all will vary on the implementation that is
chosen by CAIR-Seattle. Small hardware purchases may be needed to implement specific
parts of the proposal but some larger hardware purchases, such as servers and additional
computers, would require a larger financial requirement. With this said, care will be taken to
find solutions that can be implemented with current funds and also alternative solutions will
be offered that would require fundraising to implement properly.
The software that CAIR-Seattle currently uses has been purchased for the exclusive use
of organizational business. Other software may need to be purchased and the costs of these
packages may vary. The cost could range from the hundreds of dollars to the thousands.
Licensing fees and special software for nonprofit organizations will be looked into to find the
most cost effective way to provide the software that they might need for the proposed system.
However, some software packages do not offer a nonprofit organizational price, so retail
price will need to be paid in these instances.

Page 109 of 118
To guide research into potential future expenditures, a tentative list of spending priorities
can be enumerated as follows:
1. Administrative Operations
2. Community Relations
3. Civic Education
4. Media Relations
Information management would fall within administrative operations; however it is only
a small part of this item. As seen in these priorities, their funding is divided among a variety
of purposes. When asked for an estimate of what could potentially be raised and committed
to an information system, the amount of $5000 was given for initial investment costs. This
amount makes this project economically feasible.

Page 110 of 118
Operational Feasibility
CAIR-Seattle currently operates mainly with volunteers and one fulltime employee. A
typical volunteer’s commitment varies depending on events or projects that are forthcoming
within the organization. Board directors, as figureheads of the chapter, are more dedicated
volunteers. However, board directors do not have an organized advisory committee to help
with their decision-makings. Some board directors also cover additional positions that
possibly could be assigned to other employee(s).
The full time employee fills the managerial position. Nevertheless, the manager does not
have other employees underneath her to manage. The following are tasks that could be
delegated when the new system is installed:
• Data entering
• Maintaining and updating of databases
• Maintaining and updating of the contacts list
• Updating the events calendar
• Answering phone calls
• Coordinating media relations
• Producing press releases
• Membership drives
• Maintaining meeting minutes
• And coordinating civil rights actions

Page 111 of 118
If the manager was able to delegate those tasks to one or two other qualified employee(s),
CAIR-Seattle can accomplish the following:
• Reduce data entry errors
• Reduce redundant data storage
• Speed up work processes
• Keep track of all information within the organization as well as affiliates
• Increase the ability to be informed and proactive
• Ultimately provide a quality service to the community
After the system is recommended, a decision will be from the organization on whether or
not to implement the system. From the interviews that have been conducted it has been
shown that a new system would be a benefit for the organization and they are seriously
considering a system that will help them with their current information problems. It will be
important to find either paid staff or volunteers to maintain the system once it’s implemented.
If there are updates or other facets of the system that need maintenance, they can be taken
care of by a designated individual who is assigned to this task within the organization.
The system, if implemented, will be used as their main information system. They will
have their old system that they use currently, but any improvements that are made to help
streamline the process will be taken over the current processes of data management. If the
system is simple to use and provides continual residual benefits to the organization the use of
the system will be very plausible.

Page 112 of 118
Limitations of Study and Assumptions
There are some limitations to this study based on some uncertainties that lie within
CAIR-Seattle. Some areas of concern are with how much manpower will be acquired over
the coming months. It has been mentioned that acquiring more manpower is high on the
priority list for this organization, but the actuality of this occurring is uncertain. It is
dependent on many variables that are not very clear at this point in time.
This study was completed based on the assumption that these new full time staff will not
be acquired. This reasoning was taken for the fact that if a system is designed that requires
more manpower than currently provided, they will not have the necessary human resources to
utilize the system. Further certainties about their staffing situation will relieve this issue.
Conclusions
Based on the preceding information, this project is feasible. Some restraints will need to
be placed as manpower and finances are in short supply but in high demand. This will not,
however, stop or halt our advances to provide a system that will cover the selected issues we
have outlined in our problem statement and throughout this feasibility study. We feel that this
feasibility study lays out a practical and obtainable framework that we will be able to work
within and help improve on the current system that CAIR-Seattle currently has in place.

Systems Proposal ►Appendix C ►Organizational Chart
Page 113 of 118
Appendix C: Organizational Chart

Systems Proposal ►Appendix D ►Data Flow Diagram
Page 114 of 118
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Systems Proposal ►Appendix E ► Additional Information About System Alternatives
Page 115 of 118
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System Alternative 2: QuickBooks Plan
Server – Dell.com
Module Description
Product
Code
Sku Id
OptiPlex 170L Intel® Celeron® Processor 2.40GHz, 128K/400MHz FSB 24CL1 [221-4262] 1
OPERATING
SYSTEM(s)
Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional, SP1, with Media and
NTFS
XPP1EC [420-2119] 11
MEMORY 512MB DDR Non-ECC SDRAM, 333MHz, (2DIMM) 512N32 [311-3475] 3
KEYBOARD Dell PS/2 Keyboard, No Hot Keys PS2 [310-4822] 4
Monitors Dell 17 inch E773 CRT color monitor (16.0 viewable) E773S [320-1582] 5
Graphics Cards Embedded Intel® Extreme® Graphics INT [320-0428] 6
Boot Hard Drive 80GB EIDE 7200RPM 80 [341-0420] 8
Floppy No Optical or No Floppy Drive, Filler Panel N [341-0425] 10
Mouse Dell PS/2 2-Button Mouse L [310-4825] 12
Network Adapter
(NIC)
Integrated Intel 10/100Mb LOM w/ remote wake-up INT [430-0554] 13
Removable
Storage Devices
48X CDRW CDRW48 [313-2369] 16
Audio Solutions Integrated Audio INT [313-8170] 17
Support Services 3 Year Limited Warranty plus 3 Year NBD On-Site Service W3YOS
[970-9772]
[902-4780]
29
Mouse Pad Mouse Pad MPAD [310-3559] 38
Purchase Intent Purchase is not intended for resale. NOT4SEL [462-4506] 138
TOTAL: $852.30
Workstation – Dell.com
Module Description
Product
Code
Sku Id
OptiPlex 170L Intel® Celeron® Processor 2.40GHz, 128K/400MHz FSB 24CL1 [221-4262] 1
OPERATING
SYSTEM(s)
Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional, SP1, with Media and
NTFS
XPP1EC [420-2119] 11
MEMORY 256MB DDR Non-ECC SDRAM, 333MHz, (2DIMM) 256N32 [311-3473] 3
KEYBOARD Dell PS/2 Keyboard, No Hot Keys PS2 [310-4822] 4
Monitors Dell 17 inch E773 CRT color monitor (16.0 viewable) E773S [320-1582] 5
Graphics Cards Embedded Intel® Extreme® Graphics INT [320-0428] 6
Boot Hard Drive 40GB EIDE 7200RPM 40 [341-0419] 8
Floppy No Optical or No Floppy Drive, Filler Panel N [341-0425] 10
Mouse Dell PS/2 2-Button Mouse L [310-4825] 12
Network Adapter
(NIC)
Integrated Intel 10/100Mb LOM w/ remote wake-up INT [430-0554] 13
Removable
Storage Devices
48X CD-ROM CD48 [313-2365] 16
Audio Solutions Integrated Audio INT [313-8170] 17
Support Services 3 Year Limited Warranty plus 3 Year NBD On-Site Service W3YOS
[970-9772]
[902-4780]
29
Mouse Pad Mouse Pad MPAD [310-3559] 38
Purchase Intent Purchase is not intended for resale. NOT4SEL [462-4506] 138
TOTAL: $749.70

Systems Proposal ►Appendix E ► Additional Information About System Alternatives
Page 116 of 118
Purchase from: newegg.com
D-Link 8-Port Broadband VPN Router, Model DI-808HV $88.00
Lexmark Multi-function printer, 19 PPM, 4800 x 1200 DPI Model X6170 $130.00
25 Ft, Cat. 6 Patch Cable, With Snag-Free Caps, Black, Model 10X8-22225 $4.95
Software
Purchase from: caliente.com
iWYWO - US 2 user initial purchase $50.00
First time customers must purchase a minimum of 2 users.
Initial purchase includes the new high performance WYWO Server
iWYWO Upgrade - US $15.00/additional user $45.00
For existing WYWO 4.4x, Classic or Professional Users
Purchase includes the new high performance WYWO Server
Purchase from: Intuit.com -
QuickBooks 5 user license upgrade with Ultimate Support Package $1359.16

Systems Proposal ►Appendix F ► Suggested Methodology
Page 117 of 118
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Phase 1 – Purchasing (2-3 weeks)
1. Hardware and software purchases
a. Software and hardware can be purchased on the Internet all at once and
should be delivered in 2-3 weeks with standard shipping.
Phase 2 – Installation and Preparation (1 week)
1. Network setup
a. The first step is to install and configure the local area network and connect
it to the Internet.
b. When configuring the VPN/Router, it should be password protected.
PPTP VPN service should be configured.
2. Computer installation
a. Client computers can now be safely connected to the network.
b. Internet access should be verified.
c. The server computer should be configured with a ‘static’ IP address. See
Windows and VPN/Router documentation for instructions regarding this
configuration.
d. All Windows patches and service packs should be installed using
Windows Update.
e. Windows should be configured to automatically download new security
patches and these should be installed regularly.
f. Verify that antivirus virus definitions are updated and that automatic
updates are configured. Computers should be configured to regularly scan
the hard drive for viruses.
3. Software installation
a. QuickBooks should now be installed per the instructions provided with the
software on the server computer.
b. The server computer should be configured to store the QuickBooks
database.
c. See QuickBooks support and documentation for more information.
d. To use the online QuickBooks features, the firewall will need to be
configured to allow the Intuit servers to connect to the server computer.
Consult QuickBooks support and firewall documentation for more
information.
e. Install QuickBooks on remote and local client computers.
f. Connect to VPN from remote computers and verify remote access.
4. Back-up old data
a. An archive of ALL data should be created incase problems occur in
migration.
b. This should include all Excel spreadsheets, Outlook data, and QuickBooks
data.

Systems Proposal ►Appendix F ► Suggested Methodology
Page 118 of 118
Phase 3 – Training (1 – 2 months)
1. Application and procedural training
a. Users should learn and test the new system.
b. Sample data should be used in this case to verify procedures.
c. Procedures should be used and tested in conjunction with new software.
d. Practice imports of old data into new system to verify data import
methods.
Phase 4 – System Migration (2 – 4 weeks)
1. Optional: Re-install QuickBooks
a. In some cases, it may be desired to reinstall the QuickBooks software and
start fresh for the new system.
2. Migrate data
a. This includes data imports from QuickBooks, Excel, and Outlook data.
b. Care should be taken to research proper importing methods and data
formats.
3. Audit data
a. All ‘old’ data must be updated to conform to new formatting and
procedural standards.
b. This is important so that errors in the old data do not cause problems to
persist into the new system.
Transition Complete

System proposal

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System proposal