S/O Snowflakes......What sites do your groups use?

[TeenagerMom]

If you belong to a homeschool organization, sports club, Girl Scouts, etc....

 

what sites do they use to disseminate information, especially if it's a high volume communication type group?  By high volume, I mean information that needs to be relayed at least 2-3 times a week regarding various events like field trips, co-op, etc.  Does it allow for signing up for events, paying fees online, etc?

 

And do you feel that mode of delivery is efficient? 

[goldberry]

We use a yahoo email group. We let parents know up front that they will need to sign up and check email. Mostly works pretty well, a few slip through the cracks once in a while.

 

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo

 

Adding, no, you cannot pay or anything like that. You can post files.

Edited March 14, 2017 by goldberry

[regentrude]

facebook.

works for informal sign up lists, but not for paying online (our hs group does not organize such activities)

 

Very efficient, because everybody knows where the info is going to be posted.

I prefer it to email, because I already have to deal with so many emails daily. 

Edited March 14, 2017 by regentrude

[Guest]

Standalone website with an email list.

[LucyStoner]

Meetup allows for payments to be made. But it's not entirely free to use as a group organizer either.

[LucyStoner]

We are in groups that use different things:

 

Soccer- email and their website

Scouts- a site for the pack with a lot of email

One homeschool group- yahoogroup (which feels beyond antiquated to be honest and we are only tangentially connected to this group in large part because of their antiquated communications)

A homeschooling class program- via a website application for schools called Schoology

Another homeschool group- meetup.com

Still other homeschool groups- Facebook

A political group- their website and email.

School PTSA for the fall- it's looking like it is mainly email and Facebook.

Roller derby- Facebook

 

 

I set my phone up so that the contacts used reach me the way I want. While I am not a huge fan of Facebook, it is where the people are and that makes it effective and relevant.

[mom2att]

homeschool-life.com. Yes, there's a fee attached to it (around $7/family). But it does pretty much everything, even accounting. For a large-ish group, it is well worth the price. We've used it since 2008--no regrets.

[Alice]

Pretty much everything uses email. 

 

Co-op used to have a yahoo group then two years ago went to a website with homeschool-life.com. It's a large group so well worth the small fee per family. I think it has made the organizers lives much easier. It keeps track of fees owned, you can do sign-ups for events online, emails are sent through there, etc. There is a way for each person to choose how often they want to get emails and for what kind of information. 

 

Our swim team also used to use a yahoo group and then last summer I set up a website for us through a company that specialized in swim teams. It also had a fee that ended up being a small amount per family (about $5) but it made things so much easier. Registration, sign-up for events, sign-up for volunteers, emails--all in one place. There is the option to pay as well but I didn't set that up last year as it was an additional fee. 

 

All our other activities that we have done use email. Some (Scouts) have their own website and the email comes through that. Others (ballet) just send out email reminders. 

 

For the town sports league we get email alerts. You can also opt in for text alerts when you register for a sport. I believe there is Facebook, but I don't have an account so don't use that myself for info. There may also be Facebook for ballet but I don't use it. 

 

I haven't been in an organization yet that is Facebook only as far as information or that only sends texts. 

[Guest]

I'm not in any group that uses FB exclusively. My homeschool co-op has a stand-alone website with email communication. The co-op also uses Sign-up Genius for any event requiring donations and volunteer help. My book club uses yahoogroups and email. My sports organizations use email (sometimes, there has been a FB page for sharing pictures or things, but not required). My kid's school uses email and text.

[Library Momma]

Every group I've been a part of and activity we've participated in uses e-mail and/or the organization website.  Some also use FB but not exclusively because many people are not FB members.  Text is difficult, when I had my android phone I did not get cell signal at home and therefore could not receive texts at home.  I know I wasn't the only one.

[Zinnia]

We are part of a small coop (15 members) that uses Facebook exclusively. We have very low fees, and the leader prefers cash, so that's what she gets.

 

Sports use email, with texts for when fields are closed.

 

We are in a choir that also uses email and occasionally snail mail.

 

I have one in school. They do email and text, with a fee things paper sent home

 

Oh, and a weekly Bible study (with a big homeschool class) that does email very, very ocassionally, with in person foe the rest. It doesn't have many events/updates outside of the weekly meeting, though, and the teachers meet to plan, as well (they plan over lunch once a month for the next 4 weeks) so not a lot of need for anything else.

Edited March 14, 2017 by Zinnia

[Guest]

Everything I have here is on facebook.

 

Where we used to live it was all done by text....which is great if you KNOW about stuff that's going on and someone adds you to the texts :eyeroll:

 

Cash or paypal.

[wintermom]

In this order of frequency:

 

E-mails

 

Private Facebook groups

 

Website

 

Edited March 14, 2017 by wintermom

[Lady Marmalade]

Our dance studio uses the Team App for the competition teams. I have no idea if there's a fee on their end, but it has turned out to be a wonderful tool.  You can use it from any smartphone or from a computer, so it's not limited to just smartphone users.

 

Absolutely everything we could possibly need is on there.  The calendar is there, group information, upcoming events, pictures of costumes/hair and how things should look, notes as they come up, team rosters, etc.  The only thing I don't know about is the ability to pay for something through the app.  

 

We use Sign Up Genius for recitals and shows for the whole studio.  Also crazy easy to use.  It makes it easy to sign up for something, plus you can leave a little note like "I can work the concession stand, but I will need to take a ten minute break to fix Precious's hair after her first dance".  

[MinivanMom]

All the groups I'm involved in use email to communicate or use an official website combined with email. Many also use Sign Up Genius for organizing volunteers (for soccer snacks, backstage volunteers, bringing meals, etc), but all that information is also sent out by email.

 

I have never encountered a group that uses only Facebook, but some groups here seem to have a Facebook page on the side for advertising their group. Communication still happens by email, because so many people choose not to be on Facebook.

[Farrar]

Yahoo groups.

 

I loathe Yahoo, but it's still a relatively efficient, free way to make an email list work.

[AMJ]

Our group has a Yahoo group that works well for what we need.  We do NOT do Facebook because many people don't use it.  We also have a small group website, but the bulk of the communicating is done through group emails, documents, calendar, etc.

[mamaraby]

GS - private FB (yuck) and text for me, the special snowflake :p

Soccer - email/text, website, and the one board member wants to try out Team Sphere. As a team manager, I prefer the email/text option to Team Sphere. For volunteer sign-up with tournaments they use Sign-Up Genius which worked really nice from a volunteer perspective.

Homeschool group - Homeschool Life

[Bluegoat]

Most things here that I am involved with seem to use a regular email list.  The big HS group is FB based.  This reflects my social circle to a large extent, a lot of them don't have texting cell phones or FB accounts.

[sassenach]

One group uses FB. One group uses Slack. Our church uses The City/Planning Center. All of those can be routed through email and have smartphone platforms. 

 

I have been in leadership for many years and I do NOT do individualized communication. There are just not enough hours in the day.

[FaithManor]

Email.

 

If one doesn't have internet and can't access it from a cell phone, then we probably aren't the best group to sign up for. We have 20 families involved in the club so I can't get involved with myriads of communication options and not make myself nuts. There isn't a 4H website that can be used for this kind of communication. Not everyone has unlimited texting or responds to texts either so we just set it as email, and parents sign a statement that they understand that this is how we communicate, and that they will receive no other additional reminders. We used to send a monthly newsletter, but at 50 cents a stamp that is $10.00 per month plus the time, the toner ink, the envelopes, etc., and we still had parents claim they never saw the newsletter. (I think kids were reading them, and then not showing them to parents.) So we eliminated the time and cost of that.