We have released an enhancement to the Discussions feature in MemberHub. It has been redesigned for improved readability and and browsing.

Each hub has its own Discussion Board which acts like a mailing list for the members in that hub. When discussion threads have many messages that have been sent via email, the old design for Discussions was showing all the previous text in each message and to parse all the messages in a thread you had to click on each message. Furthermore, the listing of Discussions in the hub wasn’t a view of discussion threads, but rather a list of messages/replies with the latest reply to any given Discussion at the top.

1. It was difficult to see the current discussion threads.
2. It was difficult to see which discussion threads had more activity.
3. It was difficult to parse an entire discussion.

To alleviate these concerns we redesigned the Discussions views.

With the design:

1. The Discussions listing now shows a list of discussion threads, rather than the latest message of any given discussion.
2. Each discussion thread shows the total count of messages in that thread.
3. The discussion thread at the top have the latest activity.
4. When you actually view a Discussion you see one view with all the messages in the thread.
5. Each message hides “previous text” so you only see the reply part of the message.

Login, check it out, and let us know what you think in the comments below!

Have you ever managed a waiting list? It can be a cumbersome process. Especially when you have complicated rules like priority based on membership status, families or employees, managing a waitlist can be a time-consuming, tree-killing process. Enter BumbleBee Software. It’s billed as childcare waiting list software but it could easily be used for any type of organization that consistently deals with waiting lists.

BumbleBee helps administrators manage the entire waiting list process. From their website:

Managing enrollment is key. From processing applications to providing instant updates for parent phone calls, BumbleBee Childcare Software will help you stay ahead.

Also from the website, BumbleBee helps you:

• Quickly setup waiting lists using built-in templates
• Process fees effortlessly
• Project when an applicant will mature out of a waiting list
• Setup waitlist priorities
• Update applicants on their status
• Keeps applications fresh by scrubbing old reservations

Manage waiting lists with ease. Add your own custom priorities like preferences for siblings or employees.

BumbleBee are Good Peoples

Perhaps the best part of BumbleBee software is the people though. I’ve had multiple conversations with Ben and Jeff, the co-founders and they’re great guys. They’re passionate about building software that’s usable and solves a problem. And they’re doing it for the right reasons.

>> Contact the guys at BumbleBee to start a Free Trial today

Join us next week for a Free webinar.

In this 30 minute online webinar Matt Harrell will demonstrate how Hayes Barton Baptist Preschool uses MemberHub private group communication software every day for effective parent-teacher communication and family engagement.

Register for a session now by clicking a date below:

Mon, Apr 16, 2012 3:00 PM – 3:30 PM EDT
Wed, Apr 18, 2012 3:00 PM – 3:30 PM EDT
Fri, Apr 20, 2012 3:00 PM – 3:30 PM EDT

You will learn how to:

• Create private online hubs for each class
• Share photos in a private environment
• Get parents to volunteer
• Send newsletters and go green
• Automate reminders
• Send text messages

Who should attend this webinar:

• Early Childhood Educators
• Directors
• Teachers
• Owners
• CCR&Rs

Our friends over at The Early Childhood Technology Collaborative (ECTC), a group of three very insightful early childhood technologists, have a new survey that we want to encourage our ECE customers and friends to fill out. This is the first survey “in a series of very topical, focused questionnaires.”

The reason you should fill it out is because they’re going to share the results with you through reports and whitepapers which will be just the sort of information programs need to remain productive with technology and become outstanding in their communities.

From the survey website:

We’ve launched this project to describe more fully how technology is being used in early childhood settings and how educators feel about it… and we want you to tell us how you do this and what’s on your mind!

 

CLICK HERE to take the survey.

By the way, this is a great follow up to the recently released NAEYC and Fred Rogers Center Technology Position Statement: Technology and Interactive Media as Tools in Early Childhood Programs Serving Children from Birth through Age 8. If you’re an early childhood professional and haven’t read this I suggest you print it out and read it tonight!

What happens when you have a visitor at your church, school or YMCA? When someone comes to worship with you on Sunday or if a parent walks in your preschool and asks for a tour, what happens after they leave? Do you follow-up with them?

As I’ve spoken with administrators, it’s become clear that this is a common challenge, regardless of the type of organization. Some, know they need to do a better job at it but haven’t made it priority. Others even know exactly how much a new “client” is worth to their organization but don’t have an organized way to keep track of follow-up tasks and reminders. They can literally calculate what it’s costing them to NOT follow-up with a visitor.

If you’re with a church or early childhood education program we’d love for you to visit our Facebook page and answer this question?

How do you follow up with visitors?

Click the link to visit our Facebook Page and of course you should LIKE our page if you haven’t already!

We’ve made an enhancement to our calendars in MemberHub. Hopefully, you’ve taken advantage of the Main Calendar feature for organization-wide events. Those events show up on all calendars and reminders go to everyone. However, sometimes a group might need to post something on their hub calendar but still let everyone know about it…especially if the group is planning on using a particular location that others in the organization may need at that time. Enter the new Show on Main Calendar checkbox for hub events.

Watch this video to learn how to use this new feature and get the most out of your Main Calendar.

One very handy feature in MemberHub is the ability to subscribe to calendar events and have them automatically push to your personal calendar system like iCal, Outlook, GMail calendar and smartphones. If you subscribe to your organization’s Main Calendar feed (as opposed to each hub calendar separately) you get all your hub calendar events in one feed. Sometimes it can be difficult to tell which hub the event came from. Well not now!

Now the name of the hub will appear in brackets at the very beginning of the Notes section. So you will always be able to tell which hub the event is associated with. It’s a small change that can make a big difference in the day-to-day use of calendars in MemberHub and it’s the small things in life, right!

As a refresher you can read the Subscribing to Calendars in MemberHub help article.

Enjoy! We’ll have some other announcements about calendar enhancements later this week.

Last night, while I was settling into some evening work, I received a text message from one of our first customers (yep, that’s how we roll). He wondered if I had a few minutes to “chat MemberHub”. I said, sure! What resulted was an extremely productive and encouraging 1 1/2 hour discussion. Here are some things I learned from that call that I want to share with you:

• We have some of the most genuine customers on the face of the planet!
• Productive conversations often happen after hours.
• When you have passionate customers/members/parents LISTEN TO THEM.
• Over-promising and under-delivering is very easy, so watch out!
• I don’t say thank you enough.
• I still need to learn to listen more than I talk.
• I want more customers to have my cell phone number.

This particular church has been using MemberHub since September 25, 2009; that’s a long time. I knew they were considering some altnerate solutions and he shared with me, quite honestly, that they tested a competitor’s system out for 2 months. His words were, “MemberHub came out with flying colors.” Sweet!

He went on to explain how MemberHub was easier to use, better for managing multiple groups and generally a more stable product. Of course I want you to know all of that awesome stuff about MemberHub, but what I really want to share is this.

You want, no you NEED customers/clients/members/parents/volunteers that aren’t afraid to talk to the leaders at your organization. And you need the leaders at your organization to listen to them. This type of communication is imperative for real progress to be made. Everyone’s trying to figure out how to be transparent using social media.

Well here’s an alternate idea:

Pick a night sometime soon and call your first customer/member/parent/family/volunteer. Here’s the game plan: say “Thank you.” Then listen.

I’d love for you to share your thoughts or experience with this sort of thing in the comments below.

More and more people are simply ignoring email all together these days. Considering we all use email (and email is not dead) that can be a pretty big problem. Yet we still send a ton of email and we need folks to reply. Anyone that’s managed a mass email campaign can attest to the fact that the biggest challenge is getting folks to just open the darn email. It’s all about the Subject, right! Yes.

Of course there is no shortage of advice out there on how to get your marketing emails opened but what about personal emails? You know, the ones from your personal email address to a colleague, family member or friend. Well here are some tips that I’ve learned over the years on using the Subject field to make sure you get a reply or at least their attention.

Use the Persons Name in the Subject

This is a great attention grabber. The first time I saw this used on me I realized how valuable it was. It immediately caught my attention and now I use it all of the time. Include the recipient’s name and what you want them to do and you’ll get results. For example:

Acknowledge That They are Busy in the Subject

This is a good one to use when you’ve tried to reach someone by email before and have yet to get a response. We all prioritize our email and we often simply ignore emails that aren’t urgent or important at that time. It’s not that we don’t want to reply, it’s just that we’re busy. So if you’ve sent one or two emails already and not had a reply, then shoot them an email with the following subject and I bet you’ll get a reply!

Use a 1-word Subject

Perhaps nothing is more catchy than a 1-word subject in an email. It always grabs my attention and I am sure to open it. I am on one particular email list and every email they send has a 1-word subject. It may be time sensitive or just a catchy word. Here’s a few examples of words that they’ve used in their 1-word subject:

worst, heard, #1, mission, 2012, but, invite

and my personal favorite:

Early childhood learning programs thrive when teachers and parents collaborate. Getting parents engaged and involved at your school is challenging and that’s why ECE leaders are coming together on Twitter Wednesday night at 9:00pm ET to discuss this topic. You should join the conversation. Here’s the deal.

The conversation is going to take place on a Twitter chat with the hashtag of #ECEtechCHAT. Fran Simon (the host of these Twitter chats) provides some guiding questions for the discussion Wednesday night:

1) Parent engagement and involvement are very different. What role does technology play in connecting with parents? What is the role of social media? What about other tools?

2) How do you use or envision technology being used to engage and involve parents?

3) What do you do to narrow the digital divide for parents/families?

4) What are the best applications (that means Internet systems as well as apps),devices, and processes for engaging and involving parents?

New to Twitter Chats?

Twitter chats are really easy. If you’ve never participated I would go straight to TweetChat and follow their instructions on how to participate in a Twitter chat. TweetChat makes it really simple to participate. Remember, the hashtag is: #ECETechCHAT

Why You Should Participate?

Chats are a great way to connect with smart and influential people . You’re going to come away with a handful of new ideas, new tools to checkout, links to follow and articles to read. You’ll make new friends, increase your Twitter follower count and should you participate and ask questions your name will get mentioned a lot…which is above all…just FUN!

Why I’ll Be There

Using technology to engage parents is exactly what MemberHub is helping an increasing number of preschools and childcare centers across the country (and a few in Europe too) do. This is an important topic and we have a lot to learn too.

See you Wednesday at 9:00pm ET!