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Thursday, October 23, 2008

Jooners Summary

Jooners is an organizational website aimed towards parents, but anyone can use it. It helps to organize all your different activities and events. The big question is how is it different than other organizational sites? A number of bloggers reviewed it, and here is some of what they had to say.

Suzanne wrote "When I first poked around on Jooners, I thought it was a neat idea. While it is mainly targeted to busy parents as a way to help them coordinate schedules and events, it is useful for any volunteer group or other entity that plans events. Participants can RSVP and, critically in my mind, let the other attendees know what food or beverages they will bring to the event. I've coordinated a lot of volunteer meetings in the past, and this would've been enormously helpful in ensuring that we did not wind up with 600 cupcakes but no salad, drinks, or napkins. (Not that there is anything wrong with an overabundance of cupcakes, but not everyone is down with empty sugar calories for dinner.) I think Jooners is more accessible than another program that I've used to organize big meetings, Basecamp."

Eucalayptus Pillow liked the way Jooners eliminated the need for repetitive emails to be sent. She wrote, "For instance, for the PTA craft fair that is coming up, I have some willing volunteers (a.k.a. “crazy moms”) to help me do anything from posting flyers to recruiting vendors. All I do is create an event on Jooners by clicking on a list of online planners. In my case, I clicked on “organize volunteers. I then fill in all the relevant information about my event and all of the necessary tasks. I then complete the initial planning process by importing all of my volunteers’ emails addresses, which can come directly from my web mail address book. And then Voila! I click on “send” so that an email alert is sent to my volunteers to pick a task they can help with. No unnecessary emails back and forth. It’s all in one place. And that way, everyone else sees what others are doing. So none of this whining like, “I wasn’t copied on the last email… I didn’t know Barb was managing the bake sale…. Whaa waa…”"

Whirlwind raved about Jooners, writing, "But Jooners, oh my god, is a dream come true for someone like me." Can't get a much better recommendation than that! She elaborated, "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 or 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."

Sally HP described the way Jooners can be used for a series of events, in addition to organizing one party. "I recently became chair of a committee that organizes meals and services for members who need them, and I really hope to find this an invaluable tool. If I set up a meal service and need 6 people to make meals on different nights, they'll just respond by clicking on the link in an email sent to them and signing up for what works. If you open up a free account, you don't even have to do the double work of writing what you signed up for in your own calender because Jooners will automatically add it for you, and then it sends reminders for that specific event in addition to a weekly calendar sent each Sunday for the following Monday through Saturday."

She also wrote about the resources section on Jooners. "Lastly, there is a resources section so that people can add people, places and services that make life easier, and then people can review those resources. So if you are looking for a caterer in your area, you can search them and read reviews in one spot. Resources cannot be deleted, which can be good and bad, but hopefully there would be enough balanced reviews to make an informed decision."

Whether planning a party or organizing a group for a whole series or year of events, Jooners can get everything into a calendar, track each person's responsibilities, and keep everyone informed and reminded. For parents and other busy people, it is an invaluable tool to get organized and stay organized.

posted by Alex Elliot @ 8:23 PM 0 comments

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Name:	Alex Elliot
Home:	MA, United States
About Me:	Professional Mom of two cats, a dog, an ant farm, and oh yeah...two boys: a 6 year old and a 3 year old. Also found in my house is my husband who is known on this blog as The Big Giraffe.
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