Archive for April, 2009

BigTent reminds you: Celebrate Mom with flowers!

proflowers

In a continuation of our partnership with ProFlowers, we are providing two new exclusive Mother’s Day (May 10th) offers to the BigTent community. If you’re still deciding what to get your mom for Mother’s Day, these are a great option.

Speaking from personal experience, I just sent tulips to my mom for the first time last month for her birthday via ProFlowers and I instantly rocketed into “favorite kid” status :)

Click on one of the two links below to take advantage of these offers.

Save $10 on Mom’s Delight, plus get a FREE Green Vase, $29.99!

Buy 12 Assorted Mother’s Day Roses + 12 FREE + FREE Vase, $29.99!

Feel free share to these links with the members of your BigTent groups. And for you moms out there – you can also pass these links onto your kids or significant others as a subtle hint :)

Best,

- Rufus and the BigTent Team

minirufus

BigTent helps groups go green

As BigTent’s self-proclaimed “Green Queen,” I wanted to wish everyone a Happy Earth Day! When I’m not supporting groups to get the most out of BigTent, I’m busy turning off idle computer monitors, recycling ink cartridges, and replacing standard bulbs with energy-efficient CFLs. As an eco-conscious person, I am really proud to work at BigTent because the company actively volunteers at park clean up events and helps groups “Go Green.”

A lot of groups use BigTent because it’s a great solution for going paperless. Groups using BigTent’s news feature can save trees (not to mention expensive printing costs) by sending their newsletters out electronically rather than in print via mail.

online newsletter

Members can access a roster online rather than go hunting for a printed copy, and register and pay for their memberships online instead of filling out paper forms or mailing checks.

online member list

online member form

Plus, group leaders can organize volunteer events and track sign ups using our events feature. All these earth-friendly benefits are enough to make Kermit admit that it really is easy being green.

Some of our groups go beyond simply saving paper (and time) with our online tools, and make it their mission to better their environment. BigTent has several groups dedicated to advocating for and protecting the environment, and we’re always looking for more join us! New groups (green or otherwise) can sign up for BigTent in just a few minutes.

A big thanks to our BigTent groups for all the work you do to keep our earth healthy. To show our appreciation, members of groups on BigTent can send a free Earth Day gift to other group members at www.bigtent.com/home/gifts. Happy Earth Day!

Best,
Michelle & the BigTent team

BigTent meets with groups across the US

BigTent is kicking off its 2009 travel plans! We’ll be traveling to 10 cities in the next few weeks to meet with current BigTent members and share our platform with potential new groups.

This past weekend, we stopped off in Fremont, CA, and Minneapolis, MN for a couple of parenting conventions. Here’s the remaining list of where we’re headed and the events we are attending:

-Colorado PTA Convention, April 24-25 (Denver, CO)

-Scout Show, April 25 (Denver, CO)

-Northwest Association of Mothers of Twins Clubs Convention, April 24-25 (Eugene, OR)

-Mid-Atlantic Parents of Multiples Convention, April 24-25 (Fredericksburg, VA)

-Michigan PTSA Convention, April 24-25 (Kalamazoo, MI)

-New York State Organization of Mothers of Twins Clubs Convention, April 24-25 (Rochester, NY)

-California State PTA Convention, April 30 – May 2 (San Jose, CA)

-Washington State PTA Convention, May 1 – 3 (Seattle, WA)

-Neighborhoods, USA Annual Conference, May 20 -23 (Spokane, WA)

If you’re planning to attend any of these conferences, or live in the area and would like to meet up with us, please reply to this post. We’ll follow up with you directly to make further arrangements.

All the best,

The BigTent Team

BigTent adds servers, improves reliability

BigTent is committed to supporting groups and helping them do their best.

We know it’s important to provide a service that’s available when group leaders and members can use it — 4 pm, 3 am, during a snack break, before juggling a million other things, whenever. That’s why BigTent has spent the last several months upgrading its website hosting infrastructure in important ways.

BigTent’s scheduled uptime is now 99.9% or better.  We’ve had less than 10 minutes of unplanned downtime in the last month.

On a graph, our uptime looks like this:

Graph of BigTent server reliability

Some of the improvements include:

  • Quadrupled capacity for user data storage (more room for your photos, Word docs, and PDFs)
  • On- and offsite 7×24 server monitoring and response
  • Partnership with Internap, a stellar connectivity provider and 2009 winner of the TAG Top 40 award.
  • Joined anti-spam programs of some of the largest email service providers, significantly reducing incidences of BigTent mail being marked spam.

Hope you enjoy our increased site uptime! BigTent is here for your groups.

–Mike & the BigTent team