Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Scheduling made easy

When Alex asked for volunteers to try out Jooners.com for their online calendar and scheduling, I have to admit, I was a bit skeptical. After all, I've tried google calendars (which are a pain to coordinate with different people and everyone has to have a gmail account) and Evite for parties (which you end up replying to each person individually). But Jooners, oh my god, is a dream come true for someone like me. If you've read my blog you know that I am a stay at home mom who occasional subs at the public schools when the stars align. I have three girls, ages 4, 5 and 6. All who play soccer, on different teams. I coach one team and am the VP of the soccer league. I'm on various committees at their school and room mother for kindergarten. I have one daughter in Brownies. And am now, officially a Daisy leader.

So having a good online calendar which allows me to contact other people is important. In the past, when planning a school party, I've asked for parents to send food or other items in. We all know what a pain this can be - you end up with people sending in the same items of forgetting. The same goes for soccer - we have parents sign up to bring a snack and usually they forget. Our last game, I had to send Husband across the street to the new grocery store to grab grapes. With Jooners, you make a list and send it to the people you want. So for instance, with my soccer team, I'd click on a pre-made snack duty list, enter in suggestions for snacks (grapes, oranges, watermelon) and then the dates needed and send it to the parents. Then they'd get an email asking them to sign up for a snack date (with no obligation to make an account!!!) and it would auto update. So no duplications! And they send reminders. As coordinator, I can just click on "Snack Duty" on my calendar to see who signed up.

I haven't had my first Daisies meeting, but I know I will be using Jooners alot with them. And not just for snacks. As I mentioned before, there are pre-made templates, with anything from potluck, to car washes to scouts. Inside the scouts section, you can sent out requests for ordering uniforms, snack duty and help with patches. It's so easy. And convenient! I even told my daughter's Brownie leader about it, but she still had a piece of paper sign up sheet. I hope she sends out an email reminder, as I know I'll forget my date to bring snack.

So, overall, I like Jooners. It makes menial tasks such as organizing parents to bring snack easy. And it cuts down on me sending emails back and forth trying to organize events.