TurboCAD helps to improve the Elections Process in New York City

Hello TurboCAD Community! My name is Travis Fleenor. I'm the Product Training Coordinator at IMSI/Design and I love what I do here.

Much of what I do is one-on-one training. A user may have a project they are unsure of the best way to complete or just need help getting acclimated to the TurboCAD environment and the CAD process in general. While we offer many self-training programs and tutorial bundles, there really is no substitute for this type of one-on- one education. Even for the avid self-learner it provides a much needed head start that accelerates the learning process greatly.

On-Site Training

The other part of my work at TurboCAD is designing classroom teaching for organizations large and small. Often times a small business, a department in a large corporation or a government entity may have several employees who need to be trained quickly for a specific project or set of goals. In this case I confer with stakeholders to design a training program tailored specifically to the organization's needs and the employees' skill levels. Providing this service to businesses and their employees can make them more competitive and efficient as well as help ensure compliance with state and federal regulations such as the Americans with Disabilities Act, local building codes and industry standards in general.

I just completed one such on-site training with the New York City Department of Elections. As I'm sure you can imagine the number of regulations they must adhere to and the importance of being able to exhibit their compliance to federal authorities cannot be overstated. All Departments of Elections throughout the United States are required to produce to scale schematics of polling sites which show the locations of voting equipment and layout of the location. This is necessary to demonstrate compliance with ADA requirements and to assist those working at polling sites with setup that adheres to all regulations ensuring that everyone, regardless of physical ability has equal access to the election process.

Because of its affordability and ease of use, the Department of Elections chose TurboCAD Deluxe as their solution for mapping the thirteen hundred (yes that's right 1300!) polling sites throughout the five boroughs. Each borough is assigned a handful of surveyors and it is their job to create the schematics of each site in their precincts to scale specifications including dimensions, placements of equipment, lists of necessary equipment etc. This must all be done in a format prescribed by the federal government. Given that the majority of the survey employees who worked for the department had little to no CAD experience they made the wise decision of talking to our sales staff and contracting with us to design a training program and teach on-site. This served a dual purpose. Not only did it help get their users up to speed quickly and demonstrate their commitment to compliance with federal regulations, it also worked to facilitate a tighter knit group dynamic between the different survey teams from each borough.

If your organization could also benefit from on-site training, I encourage you to contact our sales staff. I would be delighted to discuss what the combination of TurboCAD and specialized training can do to help you realize your goals.