Upgraded Look and Feel applied to Group and Organixation leader sites!
We have applied the upgraded look and feel to the Group and Organization Leader Sites!
Which also means that leaders can more easily manage their groups from their mobile
devices.
Go to the blog post
for more information!
New Look and Feel for OnlineSignupSheet.com... works much better on mobile devices!
We are very excited to release a brand new look and feel for OnlineSignupSheet.com. This look and feel is not
only more modern looking, but is now designed to work very well on mobile devices! Check out our
blog post
for more information!
Filters added to Group Search
Yes/No and Option Group Information specified by group leaders can now be used to filter the results
of the Group Search. This allows those using the group search to be more specific in the kind of
group for which they are looking.
Reducing frequency of iNquiry Attention Governor emails
NAG emails are being reduced in frequency slightly due to feedback.
Speed improvements to the Group Search
Group Search use of the database has been optimized to provide better performance.
September 8th, 2012
All email addresses must now be verified before use
Before emails are sent to any participant in a family, that participant's email address
must first be verified. This is done through accepting the OnlineSignupSheet.com
group invite, or by following email instructions on how to verify an email address
once the group invite was accepted by another family member. Existing email addresses
in OnlineSignupSheet.com are assumed to be verified, this change will only affect new
families being invited to an OnlineSignupSheet.com group.
Emails now have a name associated with the "From" address
Emails will now be a bit easier to look at as the email will show as coming from a real name
instead of the normal no-reply email address.
Adjusted Organization Leader and Group Leader site
As new features are added to OnlineSignupSheet.com, they clutter up
the navigation on the main Organization Leader and Group Leader Sites.
We have attempted to clear this up by restyling the main action links
on those pages, and then categorizing them into more understandable
groupings.
Member Site Rolodex links to Google Maps
Now when looking up an address for a group member, from the member site
rolodex, you can now click on the Google Map links to see where they live
and use all of the rest of Google Map's tools to get there!
Group Picture for Group Search
To customize each group's listing on the group search, groups may now
upload a picture representing their group which will be displayed
when a user clicks on more details for a group.
Organization Leaders can now edit details of a group from the
Organization Leader Site
Organization leaders used to have to go to a group and edit the group
from the Group Leader Site. Now, Organization Leaders can edit many details
about a group without leaving the Organization Leader site.
Groups can be hidden from Group Search
Some groups may not be interested in advertising their presence via
the Group Search. Organization leaders may decide whether to hide
any given group from being shown in the Group Search. In addition,
any groups marked as 'sensitive' are also not shown in the Group Search.
Group Search!
We are pleased to release our Group Search functionality! This functionality
allows Organization Leaders to provide self service searching to potential group members
for groups in their Organizations. This is a optional feature for any
Organization.
OnlineSignupSheet.com is now Social!
We are very excited to present our new
blog
and
Facebook
page! In addition, we've added Google +1 links to the site. Please friend,
+1, and subscribe to our new social adventure!
Sensitive Groups
Some groups are of a sensitive nature, such as recovery or support
groups. OnlineSignupSheet.com by default shows all the groups to which
a family belong on the leader and member sites. Group Leaders can now
set a flag on their groups to hide their group from those lists.
Managing Group Roster is separate from Managing Group Details
A frequent question has been "How do I remove a family from my group?".
This should be easier to find in the Group Leader site via the
"Manage Group members and titles" link.
Events can no longer be created in the past
Every once in a while we'd receive a report of a lost event. This is
usually caused by the event being created in the past. This is no
longer possible.
Recurring Events!
We are very pleased to announce the ability to create recurring events!
This must be one of the most requested features for OnlineSignupSheet.com!
When creating an event, you can specify recurrence rules similar to most
calendaring programs. As always, feedback is welcome on how to improve
it or any other aspect of OnlineSignupSheet.com!
November 11th, 2011
List of Leader Sites at login for leaders
Those leaders who run multiple groups, or groups and organizations
can now select to which leader site they wish to go upon login.
Organization Leader CSV Info Download
Organization Leaders can now get a CSV download of their
Group Collections, Groups, and Families in those groups.
Internet Explorer 9 tool tips fixed
Yeah, those were bugging me too. They should be more pointy and less
boxy now.
October 31th, 2011
Group Leaders can limit who receives the automatic email notices
Although it has been possible to limit who in your group receives
manually generated email notices, it was not possible to limit who
receives automatic email notices. Well, now you can! One of the
neat uses for this feature is for events for just a subset of your
group, just the ladies or just the guys.
Fixes for selecting a Signup Sheet Template when creating or
editing an event
At times, selecting a signup sheet template was more challenging
that it should have been. Now, the signup sheet template dialog is simpler
and should be easier to use. Just click on the row representing
the signup sheet template you wish to use to select that template for
your event.
New Signup Sheet Templates should now appear in the Signup Sheet Template
dialog when creating or editing an event
Some folks have reported that after creating a Signup Sheet Template,
that template does not always appear when creating or editing a template.
This should be resolved.
Organization Leaders can now delete Groups
Broad use of OnlineSignupSheet.com requires more abilities for Organization
Leaders. Now you can delete groups!
September 20th, 2011
Group Leaders can now Hide (and un-hide) Signup Sheet Templates
One of the more requested features. When a group gets going for a while,
they get a good number of Signup Sheet Templates which can make the
list of templates quite long (Launch Party/Swim Party/Regular Game/Playoff
Game/etc.). So, now you can hide unwanted Signup Sheet Templates. This
will not affect any Events already using that hidden Signup Sheet
Template. If, however, you ever need to go back to use that hidden
Signup Sheet Template, you can un-hide it.
Signup Sheet Templates which are In Use can now be edited
It is common for some mistakes to be make when creating a Signup
Sheet Template (misspelled categories, missed items). Now Group Leaders
can make changes to any labels for categories and items, can add
new items and categories, but are unable to remove existing items
and categories. However, the coolest thing you can do while
editing Signup Sheet Templates is...
Categories and Items can be re-positioned in a Signup Sheet Template
When editing a Signup Sheet Template, Group Leaders can rearrange the
sort order of categories, and items within those categories. So,
if you meant for Main Course to be above Dessert, now you can
easily rearrange the Signup Sheet Template to be so.
August 9th, 2011
Fixing Internet Explorer 8 issue with adding new participants from
the leader site
Oops... IE8 users were unable to add new participants to families since
June 15th. With the number of browsers out there, this is going to
happen. Once identified, we had a fix out within hours. However,
for your best experience, I would suggest a more recent browser and
version. (Firefox and Chrome before Internet Explorer, but Internet
Explorer 9 if nothing else.)
Checkbox signup sheet item details now indicates when you can no
longer type in more characters
Some of our users are quite verbose (Hi Cyndi!). However, due to the
layout of the signup sheet, lengthy details would not look good. So,
once you type the 31st character, the details field will flash yellow
and will remove that 31st character.
July 9th, 2011
Details can be added to checkbox signup sheet items
By *very* popular demand, group members can now specify details
for any checkbox based signup item (except for categories which show
addresses). Now, group members can avoid bringing multiple potato salads
to your events.
Current Attendance Status added to Event Notice Emails
Also by *almost as much* popular demand, event notice emails now contain
the current attendance status for your events. This includes the yes,
no, and no but contributing attendance types, and the number of attending
adults if entered.
Event Locations added to Event Notice Emails
We've also added event locations to the Event Notice Emails if you have
events with locations. The location links to Google Maps.
Address Links to Google Maps added to Event Notice Emails
In addition, we've added Google Maps links for address based
signup sheet items.
Updated New Leader Experience Update
Added new leader help for newly created Signup Sheet Templates. This will direct
new leaders to create their events based on their newly created Signup
Sheet Template.
New information page for participants/users with no families
It is possible in OnlineSignupSheet.com to have a participant removed
from a family. We do not delete those participants from the system, they
instead become "orphaned" participants. Although we have added ways
to re-add orphaned participants back to a family, we did receive
error reports of orphaned participants attempting to use OnlineSignupSheet.com.
Now, these orphaned participants are taken to a dedicated page explaining
their status and directing them to their small group leader to resolve.
Orphaned participants are not able to use OnlineSignupSheet.com until
they have been re-added to a family.
June 27th, 2011
New Leader Experience Updates
One of the goals of OnlineSignupSheet.com is to make it as easy
as possible to manage your groups. To that end, we've updated
our new leader experience.
First, the Getting Started Checklist
is now looking at only your created Events and Signup Sheet
Templates to determine if the check marks should be displayed.
Second, when a new leader creates their first few events, they
will be prompted with some helper dialogs to explain
the need and use for Signup Sheet Templates and how to Generate Event
Email Notices. Experienced leaders may opt out of getting those
messages.
June 20th, 2011
Style Updates
The Leader Site has received a major upgrade to it's style. We are
trying to move the application into this decade. The Member Site
received some minor, but very pretty, updates to its styling.
Leader Site Events now has maps
For those Group Leaders who live in the Leader Site, we've added
map links when viewing an event for locations and address based
signup sheet items.
June 15th, 2011
Email filtering for Group Leaders
Group Leaders can now filter and slice and dice the email addresses
of their group to either email a specific set of group members (guys
or gals) or just a few members. This ability is available under the new
"Gather Specific email addresses from your group" link on the main
page of your Group's Leader Site.
Inviting existing families as leaders to your Group
Group Leaders have had the ability to invite new families as leaders
to their Group, but not existing families. Now, when inviting existing
families to your Group, you will be able to invite them as leaders
with a specific leader title.
Updated Invite Acceptance verbiage
When new families are invited to OnlineSignupSheet.com, they are sent
to the Member Site. With the newly added ability to invite families as
leaders to your group, leaders were a bit lost as to what to do next.
Now, there is a bit more information for new leaders regarding the
differences between the Leader Site (with links to the Leader Site) and
the Member Site (with the existing links to the Member Site).
Participants removed from a family can now be added back to a family:
It is possible (though rare) that a participant is removed from a family.
OnlineSignupSheet.com now allows you to attach an "orphaned"
participant back to a family. To attach the "orphaned" user back to a
family, just type in the email address of the "orphaned" participant
when adding a new participant to the family. This works both for Group
Leaders from the Leader Site and from Edit My Information on the
Member Site.
Better email checking when adding new participants
In addition to being able to add "orphaned" participants to families,
the adding of a new participant is more robust. An email address must
be entered when adding a new participant before entering any other
information. Then, OnlineSignupSheet.com will check to see if that email
is in use, and if it is, will not allow you to use that email address
(providing some information on how to proceed). As with "orphaned"
participants, this is available to Group Leaders on the Leader Site as
well as from Edit My Information on the Member Site.
Fixing Global Templates being cloned as global
Some Signup Sheet Templates are global in nature: that is, any group
is able to use them in their groups. When cloning those global templates,
they were also kept in the global space. Now, when Group Leaders clone
global Signup Sheet Templates, those templates are linked to your group
only.
March 22nd, 2011
New Home Page! New Color scheme!
Thanks to
Home Stone Design Group,
OnlineSignupSheet.com has a brand sparkling new home page! And, with
the home page change, a lighter, friendlier color scheme has been implemented
across the site!
Groups can customize their group invite email
Generic email invitations to groups are now history! Group Leaders can
now customize the content of their invitation emails. On the Leader
Site, click on "Customize your group invitation email template?",
and follow the directions closely... there are some specific things which
must be in the template for it to save!
Group Leaders can set/reset their password from Edit My Information
On the Member Site Edit My Information page, group leaders can now
set/reset their password. However, if you forgot your password, you still
need to go through the
reset password process.
New Families can now be invited as leaders
To keep the excitement and momentum going when inviting new families
to your Group, you can now invite those families as leaders. This allows
those families to be effective the moment they start using
OnlineSignupSheet.com.
January 5th, 2011
Public facing Group Search for Organizations
Some Organizations (Churches, Clubs, etc) like to advertise their
presence to the outside world. If all of your Groups are on
OnlineSignupSheet.com, you can easily do so! On your Organization
Leader site, click the "Change your Organization's Details?" link. From
there, you can set your group to be searchable. The searchable url
is on your Organization Leader Site main page.
Group Information for Group Search
Every Organization has specific information which they want to
advertise per Group on the Group Search. Organization Leaders
can now enter specific information which they expect their
Group Leaders to fill out which will be shown per Group on the
Group Search feature. On your Organization
Leader site, click the "Manage information you would like each group
to provide?" link. There you can specify any thing you like, for example:
Study Topic, or Marriage Preference, or Target Age Range.
Organization Logo
Just like Groups, Organizations can also have a logo. Logo's are
primarily used as branding for your organization for the Group Search
functionality.
October 20th, 2010
Edit My Information Overhaul
The uber long Edit My Information form has been rewritten. Now
there are tabs for each participant in the family, the overall
family info, and the group in which the family belongs. You can now
even add new participants from Edit My Information.
Limit who receives an Event Notice Email
When Group Leaders send an event notice email, they can now limit who
receives that email. From within the Generate Email Notice page, click
on "Click here to limit who will receive this event notice email.".
A dialog will appear allowing you to select/de-select who will receive
the email. (Note: Neat Trick: If you need to plan an event for which
you do not want to include a group member, like for a surprise party,
you can keep an event unpublished, but send an event notice to everyone
but the person whom you wish to exclude. Although un-published events
do not show up on the Member Site, direct links from Event Notices
are still accessible to group members.)
Generate Email Event Notice from the main Leader Site Page
Group Leaders can now get to the Generate Event Email Notice page
from a specific "Generate and Event Notice Email" link on their
main Leader Site page.
Participants now have gender
Due to popular demand, participants (users) now have a gender, which
is a required field. This will allow future abilities of filtering
by gender (Girls Nights Out, etc).
October 8th, 2010
Group Leader Titles
Organization Leaders can now define Group Leader titles. Leaders are
no longer just "Leader".... they can be "Coach", or "Connection
Champion", or "Great One". This information is then visible in
the Group Leader Site for those leaders, and in the Member Site
rolodex.
Organization/Group Collection Leaders can collect email addresses of leaders
Organization Leaders at times need to send emails to specific leaders
of specific roles in either their Group Collections or their Groups.
They can now filter through specific Group or Group Collection leaders
and then further filter by their role. Organization And Group Collection
Leaders can access this from their Organization/Group Collection Leader
Site by clicking on "Send an Email to specific Email Addresses?"
Organizations now have Group Collections
In order to manage more complex Organizations, OnlineSignupSheet.com
now has Group Collections. Group Collections belong to an Organization,
have their own leaders, and contain Groups. This is a purely optional
feature. This allows Organizations to have sub groups (area coordinators,
or regional facilitators) who can manage groups in their area of
responsibility.
September 1st, 2010
Birthday/Anniversary daily emails
Group Members can now choose to receive daily emails containing the
birthday or anniversary's of their fellow group members. This is an
easy way to keep in contact with group members and make sure
they feel special on their special day.
Automatic Event Email Notices
After a long hiatus in the shop, Automatic Event Email Notices are back!
When editing an event, Group Leaders can choose to have event notice
emails sent a specified number of days before the event. Fire and forget
email notices, now on OnlineSignupSheet.com.
Minor tweak to the Event Notice Email
OnlineSignupSheet.com joins the new century with some small improvements
to the Event Notice Email. Bolded headers, and better links (no more
tinyurl links) will help make the event notice more readable.
August 19th, 2010
New Events default to starting and ending at noon
To reduce the time it takes to create an event, all events default their
start and end times to be noon. This should help Group Leaders
get to the right time for the events.
Added FAQ and Tours to OnlineSignupSheet.com
To help advertise OnlineSignupSheet.com, we've added an FAQ page
and a set of tours from a leader and member perspective. This should
help give everyone a better understanding of how to use
OnlineSignupSheet.com.
August 7th, 2010
Quantity Signup Sheet Item
We have frequently needed to collect from our small group a number
of items which don't easily fit into a checkbox: $100 for service
projects (for which we don't want one person signing up for all $100),
or a specific number of canned goods for a canned good drive, or
100 forks for a BBQ. Instead of breaking those up to 20 items per
checkbox, Group Leaders can now add a Quantity Signup Sheet Item
to their Signup Sheet Templates. They define a quantity, an increment
($100 in $20 increments), and then group members can sign up for
as many increments as they wish on the Member Site's signup sheet.
This should make mass item signups easier to manage and for members
to signup.
June 22nd, 2010
Publish/Un-publish Events
Events used to show up for group members the second they were created.
Now, Group Leaders can choose to publish or un-publish their events.
Un-published Events are visible on the Leader Site for Group Leaders,
but do not show up in Upcoming Events on the Member Site.
Invite new family with reduced details
Due to popular demand, Group Leaders can invite families based on
little more information than their email addresses. Families who
accept the invite will still be expected to enter the required
information which the Group Leaders did not add. When adding a new
family to your group, click on "Or would you like to create a new
reduced details Family (entering just family name and email)?".