Note: The sample of the FCMAT BBS desktop on this page is not interactive and is displayed here only to let users know what the graphical interface looks like through both modem, network and Internet connections.
When you are connected to the FCMAT BBS, double-click on your Mailbox icon to read your electronic mail messages (e-mail) and download any files that are attached to your messages. Person-to-person messages are private and no one else on the system can read them. Messages you send to Conferences are public and are intended to be viewed by all users of this BBS. This system automatically keeps a copy of any message you send in your own mailbox.
The News icon is where announcements of interest to all users can be found, as well as information about any changes in the FCMAT system. The California Department of Education has its own icon where you can read any communications posted by the CDE. (You also can open the icon, "State Forms & Software" within the Resource Library, for other relevant files posted by the CDE. The Common Questions is where a list of frequently asked questions are answered in text files for user reference.
The Software icon contains the client software you download to give you a graphical interface with the system. When updates to the client software become available, you can download the appropriate software for your computer from this icon.
You can read informative messages in any of the subject-oriented Conferences. Find out what your peers are saying about the issues that affect California school business. You can reply to any message in any conference simply by choosing reply from your message menu. Or you can post your own new information by sending a new message to any of the subject conferences. If there's a conference subject that you think needs to be created on the system, send a detailed e-mail message to the administrator.
You also can participate in public or private On-line chats in which you can hold a conversation with any other user who is on-line who accepts your invitation to chat. Chats, as opposed to formal messages, allow you to see each other's comments instantly.
Virtually all of the on-line assistance you
need can be found in the Help folder. To save the
amount of time you spend on-line, you can save any of these files
to your own computer, port them to a word processing program and
print them for future reference.
The Resource Library of the FCMAT BBS is filled with helpful information. As mentioned earlier, many of these will be included in the FCMAT home page on the World Wide Web. When you double-click on the Resource Library icon of the FCMAT BBS, you will find:
Publications: Summaries of hundreds of helpful publications on every aspect of school business management, with information on how to order them from the publishing agency. If you don't want to scroll through all the publications to find something, you can use the system to do a keyword search. You also can save and/or print any of the text information you find in the entire FCMAT BBS.
Consultants: A comprehensive list based on the public school consultants list compiled from the California Association of School Business Officials, arranged by category.
State Forms & Software: Projection software and other programs from the California Department of Education for use by school districts; the latest versions of forms issued by CDE, including J-200s, J-380s, J-90s, and other pertinent guidelines and communications. And now, you can receive the full J-200 software from here.
District Advisories: (Intended for county offices of education.) This includes actual "bulletins" prepared on an annual basis by the Kern County Superintendent of Schools as it communicates with its 47 client districts. Save these bulletins, change the names to the appropriate personnel in your area, and you have a year's worth of helpful communications to the districts you serve.
Miscellaneous Resources: Fact books from the California Department of Education; a list of fiscal contacts at the CDE; a list of names and numbers of all 58 county superintendents; definitions of fiscal and accounting terms, and other items of interest to both school district and county office of education business officials.
Legal Research: The text of legislation such as AB1200 and AB3141 and an outline of requirements and procedures mandated by AB1200, as updated by legislative amendments. Our plans call for adding relevant legal briefs and new laws affecting school business.