By this time, I had joined the Information Services Committee and had worked on a few projects. A good friend of mine, and the Mason who introduced me to serving at the District level, R.W. Timothy McGavin, had been appointed to the Grand Lodge Service Committee. One day, I get a call from him asking to meet for a meal to talk over an idea. We discuss my experiences with the MYCHIP Program, and my view as that the tech was certainly antiquated and that a better system was needed. This is just one of the many examples of me opening my big mouth, and effectively 'volunteering' myself for a new project.

I spent the next few months summarizing the challenges above, and coming up with options to handle those challenges. After enough research, I found that another Grand Lodge had already decided to upgrade, and was using a newer system, both hardware and software, to accomplish their CHIP program. That Grand Lodge was the Grand Lodge of Missouri, and their Child ID Program is called MoCHIP. After speaking many times at length with their program director, I was convinced that the software they were using(written by a local software company owned by a Brother) was the right course, but needed some further updates. Their software used wired networking between laptops to break the process back into Assembly Line process, and have children visit several stations(Data, Fingerprint, Photo/Video), and then pick up a USB stick embedded within a credit card format(for keeping in a wallet) at the end of the process.

This is well organized and reliable, but I saw a few more upgrades to make it even simpler. First, I hate laptops for this, because they're expensive, and if one part breaks, you have to replace the whole thing usually, because repair parts are hard to find and there are few people with the skill to take the laptops apart and repair them. Tablets, on the other hand, are almost entirely integrated, have few or no moving parts, and are usually much less expensive to replace. Additionally, with the keyboard separate from the tablet, we only need them where they make sense.

Second, I wanted to take the program to the next level of data security. The universal problem with digital CHIP programs is that, at some particular time, data has to be stored on a hard drive of some kind before being transferred to the final CD or USB stick. I worked with the software maker to keep the data stored in RAM while data is held, and then erased from RAM after it is written to the USB stick.

In my mind, this is only version 1.5 of MYCHIP, not the 'full upgrade'. I would very much like to replicate this functionality in an open source program that can then be submitted to the Google Play Store. This way, Android Tablets(likely Samsung) can be used due to their much higher power efficiency AND greatly reduced per-unit cost than Windows Surface Go tablets. That combination would allow a single kit to size up to an even larger group for the same price, and potentially size down to be run by one or two individuals for a small scale event.

All this is plans for version 2.0 of MYCHIP. When that happens, we'll see...............

Also, if you happen to be reading this AND work for a MA Police Station, the most expensive portion of the kit remains the FIngerprint device. If your station happens to be end of life-ing a perfectly good fingerprint device, please reach out so we can see if a donation might be possible.

MYCHIP Program

Squared Circle

One of my most challenging and rewarding projects thus far in Masonry has been my time with the MYCHIP Program. I've always advocated making use of modern technology and software to accomplish tasks in Masonry that were previously far more labor intensive and hard to coordinate.

Case in point, the Massachusetts Masonic Youth and Child Identification Program, which has identified more than 300,000 children since its inception in 1988. From a operational perspective, the program has had two main phases, analog and early digital. The analog phase was the beginning of Child ID programs, using ink based fingerprinting, video casettes for recording the child's responses, and paper forms filled out by hand to contain the child's information. Massachusetts also holds the distinction of adding and outstanding enhancement to that program, in the form of dental bite plates, which captured both DNA, as well as the intended teeth impressions, at a time long before DNA was commonly used for identification. The idea was groundbreaking in its use and the MYCHIP Program was recognized nationally for its contribution.

The early digital phase came as video cassettes were beginning to be phased out, and digital technology was just starting to be mobile in the mid 2000s. That phase also introduced commercial integrators of these various pieces of technology to serve Child ID Programs. This came in the form of a metal briefcase containing a laptop, a webcam, a single finger optical fingerprint device and a printer. The data was typed in, the child was photographed and had video taken via the webcam and gave fingerprints via the scanner one finger at a time for all 10 fingers. The data was then recorded to a CD (yup, CD burning......so retro).

This had the advantage of using modern technology but also came with several disadvantages. The first was time. Information had to be written down, transcribed into the laptop, which added some time, but most of the time delay was in the scanning of each individual fingerprint and also the burning of the CD. Each took between 2-4 minutes to complete. This was for a single child, so a family of multiple children could take up to 30 minutes to do all children. That the program was changed from an 'Assembly Line' process to a 'One Stop Shop' also made the process longer.

The second disadvantage was maintenance. Laptops had fans and rotating hard drives, webcams were designed for desk use, and not for being set up and set down frequently, which put strain on cables, printers had ink cartridges dry out and other physical problems with belts and such, and Laptop CD burners were still reasonably delicate, and significant bumps of the table while burning could ruin a CD. The final disadvantage was cost. Laptops, webcams, fingerprint scanners and mobile printers were all new enough to cost significant money. Combined with the proprietary software to match the assembly of the kit, you were at the mercy of the maker and their chosen price and profit margin. If you wanted to scale up, you had to pay the price of the kit, and there was no reasonable way to 'make your own' kit at the time.

Cut to 2018...