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To sum up their support policy, as of January 12, 2016, Microsoft will support only the most current version of IE available for a supported operating system. Read the announcement here:

The oldest supported desktop operating system (OS) is Vista SP2, which uses Internet Explorer 9, and for which mainstream support​ ends April 11, 2017. Windows 7 and 8 use Internet Explorer 11. Windows 10 uses Edge (but Internet Explorer 11 is available).

Since Samaritan cannot support products that are not supported by the manufacturer, we will no longer provide mainstream support for IE9 and IE10, effective immediately. IE9-related issues will be handled on a case-by-case basis.

Samaritan supported browsers:
Volunteer Management Software, versions 7.2-7.4

• eCoordinator: Internet Explorer 11
• eRecruiter and all modules: Internet Explorer 11, Edge, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari

Volunteer Management Software, versions 7.5+

• eCoordinator, eRecruiter and all modules: Internet Explorer 11, Edge, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari

Please read Samaritan’s Browser And Version Support Lifecycle in the Knowledgebase.

What does this mean for me and my organization?

Microsoft says, “It means you should take action.” You should upgrade your browser to Internet Explorer 11 or, if you don’t have the authority to do so, you should speak with your IT staff.

Don’t worry, Samaritan’s Volunteer Management Software (VMS) will continue to work on now unsupported browsers; however, Samaritan will stop coding to and testing on older Internet Explorer browsers.

If you have any additional question please contact your Salesperson, Project Management, Account Manager, or Support.

San Marcos, CA – Every Tuesday morning, Samaritan CEO Bruce Behymer heads to his childrens’ school where he volunteers as a math tutor.  “Sometimes when I am helping a very bright student with calculus problems, I’m still pondering the solution as I’m calling it a day.” Bruce commented. Engineering and math have always been Bruce’s great loves, and he enjoys sharing his experience and knowledge to help inspire promising students to advance in those areas.

Bruce has always been enthusiastically involved with many volunteer projects. In addition to tutoring, he has been a soccer coach and a scout leader for twenty years. The proud father of six children, Bruce has always been very involved in their lives.

After graduating from high school, he studied Engineering and Applied Science at Caltech. “Caltech was a challenging, humbling, and fun place where I was exposed to amazing things. I had two Nobel Prize winners as professors, and I even got to discover and name an asteroid. I named it after my father as thanks for my education”, said Bruce.

After his freshman year, Bruce served a two year mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the interior of Guatemala. While there, he learned to speak K’ekchi, a Mayan dialect. Bruce also speaks fluent Spanish.

At the completion of his mission, Bruce returned to Caltech to finish his degree. Upon graduation, he found employment with a company named State of the Art Consulting (STAC), which was founded in 1983 by some Caltech friends. “At STAC, we worked as professional inventors. People would come to us with an idea and ask if we could figure out how to make it. It was a lot of fun because every three or four months, we’d be working on something completely different”, said Bruce.  “After a while, we wanted to make our own products. We hit a home run with a data compression product for hard disks called Stacker, which eventually had two million users and a 90 percent market share. Stacker won PC Magazine’s Technical Excellence award twice.

While at STAC, Bruce worked as a programmer, team leader, technical evangelist, product manager, and market research manager. After fourteen years, Bruce made the decision to attend graduate school and work on a Masters in Business Administration. In 2000, as part of a team competing with business students from around the world, he won San Diego State’s Business Plan Competition.

While at school, he was contacted through friends by Todd McMullin, one of the founders of Samaritan Software, which had been formed in 1997. Bruce joined the company and inaugurated a quality control department. He later agreed to serve as CEO.

Bruce sees a bright future ahead for Samaritan, and he continues to take an active role in developing and improving Samaritan’s product line. He believes that the company can remain the industry leader in volunteer management software, thanks to an innovative and dedicated staff. “We have a fantastic team. They’re a lot of fun to work with”, Bruce stated.

If you have a question for CEO, Bruce Behymer, please leave a comment below.

Salt Lake City, Utah — Samaritan is pleased to announce the release of version 7.2 of our Volunteer Software. Some of the popular features include:

• Logged Data enhancements
  “Logged Data” is the name for the fields in the surveys that store the data that users enter to create “Log Book Entries.” In 7.2 the Samaritan Development team converted the “logged data fields (LDF)” to “user defined fields (UDF).” This simplified the code by reducing the field types and also added a few new field types, previously available as UDF but not LDF.
  Knowledge base article
  
• Automation enhancements
  Over the past several releases Samaritan’s Development team has been enhancing the former “E-mail Alerts” (in the Tools>Admin Options) to a system which can create other types of automations rather than just e-mail alerts. One example of an automation is to change records in mass.
  Knowledge base article
• “Equals During” filters
  For years users have been able to build simple to complex filters, called “Named Searches.” As a new “Named Search” filter 7.2 includes options to search on values during specific periods of time.
  Knowledge base article
• “Verification” UDF
  Several new UDF types were created when the “Profession” system was release in version 6.9.6 for the “Emergency System for Advance Registration of Volunteer Health Professionals (ESAR-VHP).” One of those new UDF types, “Verification,” are now a standard UDF type.

Samaritan appreciates the diligent work done by our clients and internal teams in designing, implementing, and testing these new capabilities. For a comprehensive list of all new features and enhancements, please review our Engineering Notes.

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We wish you a joyous holiday season, filled with bright moments and quality time spent with loved ones.

Here’s to ringing in a prosperous, healthy, and happy new year!

Salt Lake City, UT — Samaritan has relocated its primary, Salt Lake City headquarters on October 15, 2014.  All correspondence and packages should be sent to the new address.  Samaritan’s new address is:

265 East 100 South
Suite 290
Salt Lake City, UT 84111-1641

The new office provides needed additional space and improved infrastructure.

Salt Lake City, Utah — Samaritan is pleased to announce the release tonight for version 7.0 of their #1 rated software. Highlighted new features include the following:

While there are a number of enhancements, the feature most highly anticipated by customers is the HTML-configurable Log Book Entry report, which can be formatted to be used as a name badge report. This can be used to produce temporary paper badges as needed.

Additionally, volunteers may use webcams to take their photos during the registration process via eRecruiter, or during the sign in process via Sign In. These photos may be included on the printable name badges.

In an effort to improve on-site security, volunteers can be flagged as “Blacklisted”. If a blacklisted volunteer attempts to Sign In to a volunteer site, the system can send alert messages to designees. These “Blacklist Alerts” can be sent to any email address, including email addresses assigned to mobile devices.

Finally, for instances when organizations use volunteers as volunteer managers, we now offer the “Promote” feature, which allows eCoordinator users to generate limited-use eCoordinator log ins from volunteer profiles. Filtered through criteria set by administrative eCoordinator users, it is possible to generate additional log ins for your volunteers to use. This feature is available to Enterprise users only.

Samaritan appreciates the diligent work done by our customers and internal teams in designing, implementing and testing these new capabilities. For a comprehensive list of all new features and improvements, please review our Engineering Notes.

Salt Lake City, Utah — Samaritan is pleased to announce the release tonight for version 6.9.9 of their #1 rated software. While there are a number of enhancements, the system has been highly anticipated by customers who need to publish and manage pre-requisites for their service opportunities. Volunteer managers can select pre-requisites from a customizable list and apply these for one or more opportunities they manage. If they network with other programs, offices or projects in their organization the pre-requisites can be shared with them or the system will allow each party to establish their own sets. Volunteers will see the pre-requisites alongside other key information about the opportunity. If they do not meet one or more requirements they will not be able to complete a registration form for that opportunity.

Other new features include interface enhancements when managers set up new data filters, improved reminder emails when volunteers sign-up for schedule slots and the ability to pre-determine how many days in advance our searchable calendars will display upcoming schedules. Volunteer registration forms will more clearly highlight required fields and also pre-format phone numbers so that the data entry experience is more streamlined. When reporting their hours or taking a survey they can now upload photos or other files that help managers better see what occurred off site.

Volunteer managers will benefit from enhancements to our logbook system that now provide calculated averages for selected ranges of hours served by volunteers. This helps to quickly evaluate how much effort is being applied. Managers will also benefit from being able to rapidly sort data by the dates when volunteers were referred and/or placed with their opportunities.

At the request of a number of customers Samaritan has created a new “Archive” capability that allows selected records to stored outside of the main data displays or the Recycle Bin in case they are needed in the future. Hours for archived volunteers are still available in the logbooks.

Finally, security has been further enhanced by allowing System Administrators to pre-set password expiration dates for all types of users, including customer clients. If credentials expire the user is simply prompted to create new ones based on the old so that no contact with administrators is required.

Samaritan appreciates the diligent work done by our customers and internal teams in designing, implementing and testing these new capabilities. For additional information on each feature please review our “Release Notes.”