The Ronald McDonald Houses in Portland and Bangor, Maine provide affordable overnight lodging for families whose children are undergoing medical procedures at the local medical center. For many years, room reservations for these families were made using a paper-based calendar system, which was combersome and labor intensive.
In 2011, a 3-student team at Bowdoin College developed on-line room scheduling software called Homeroom that replaced this paper-based process. This software allows the House to easily schedule and report on room utilization, benefiting both the organization’s volunteer team and the families that rely on the House’s services. Homeroom was upgraded and refined by a 4-student team at Bowdoin in Fall 2013.
Homeroom was further refined in 2015. In 2017, a new customized version was developed and installed for the Ronald McDonald House in Bangor. This latter work was done by NPFI, but it relied heavily on the work done by students in earlier years.
The Development Triad:
- The Non-Profit: Ronald McDonald Houses, Portland and Bangor, Maine required an electronic room reservation system to replace its manual paper-based system.
- The College: Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine developed the Homeroom application with two computer science students and an instructor during the spring 2011 semester.
- The Software Professional: Ibec Creative in Portland, Maine provides web hosting support, and NPFI provides bug fixing and feature enhancement.
Instructor/Developer Links:
- “Live” versions: http://rmhcmaine.org/homeroom/ and http://rmhcmaine.org/homeroom-rmhb
- Project Resources: https://github.com/megandalster/rmh-homeroomcivi/wiki/Project-Resources
- Installation and Reuse: https://github.com/megandalster/rmh-homeroomcivi/wiki/installation-and-reuse