BigTent Blog | Product updates and news for groups

Dear BigTent Members,

We are excited to announce that BigTent.com has a new look!

Thanks to our sponsor Old Navy, who made this makeover possible, you will find the site more visually appealing and intuitive to navigate. This is our first step in improving the look and feel of BigTent. We hope you like it!

Before:

After:

After you check out our new look, go get one for yourself! From now until Feb. 22nd, get $10 off purchases of $50 or more at Old Navy, where items start at only $5.

Like the look? Tell us what you think of BigTent.com’s redesign by emailing support@bigtent.com.

Cheers,

The BigTent team

We’re excited to introduce to you our next group highlight, Art Beast!

We recently had the opportunity to speak with Bridget Alexander, Founding Director of Art Beast Studio, about her group, BigTent and group goals for the future:

Q: How did your group start and how many members do you have?

A: The Art Beast group started when we launched Art Beast in July 2009. We were looking to spread the word about our art events and experiences for young children.  We now have 643 members.

Q: Why did your group choose/or switch to BigTent?

A: We choose BigTent because it was such a friendly place for beginners to develop outreach skills and build a membership. With terrific ease, we were able to set up events, post news, feature our site in photographs, and develop a membership base. We stayed because the maintenance is so simple and our members love the weekly newsletters that profile events in all their groups.  The price is certainly right as well!

Q: What is your favorite BigTent feature?

A: We love the calendar and event scheduling. We set aside time every few months to input all the events for the quarter ahead, and then we never have to do a thing to keep our members informed each week.  We also use the news and email blast features to highlight details to our members.

Q: What are a few of the goals your group has for the future?

A: We would like to build our photograph vault on BigTent as we realize many people explore our group through these visuals. We would also like to partner with other BigTent groups in our area.  So many parenting groups are on BigTent that it only makes sense to forge those bonds.

Thank you to Bridget and Art Beast Studio for sharing your story with us!

Cheers,

The BigTent Team

P.S. Do you have a great group on BigTent? Tell us about it by emailing acerundolo@bigtent.com.

Hello BigTent Admins and Members,

We know the BigTent site has had issues over the last 24 hours, preventing users from logging in or navigating the site. We sincerely apologize for any frustration or inconvenience this has caused – it is no fun to be on a slow site! – and thank you for your patience as we investigate the issue.

Please rest assured that maintaining optimal site performance is our number one priority, and our tech team is working diligently to resolve the problem. In order to do this, we will need to roll out a system update tonight that we hope will fix the issue. This means that the site will be down from 7pm – 8pm PST/10pm – 11pm EST this evening, January 25th, as we perform the site maintenance. Please schedule your BigTent activity accordingly.

We value your membership, and thank you for being a part of the BigTent community!

If you have any questions or comments, please go ahead and send them to support@bigtent.com, where we would be happy to address them.

Best,

The BigTent Team

Dear Group Admins,

Looking to grow your group this New Year? BigTent gives you the ability to create a public web page for your site.

Having a public page will allow your group to be searchable on the internet, giving prospective members the opportunity to learn about and sign up for your group.

How to Enable Your Public Page:

1) Go to the Group Dashboard tab of the Admin Manage section. Scroll to the bottom of the page under “Marketing Your Group” and click on “Group Public Page”.

2) Click the “on” radio button. Note the public page location url, which you or others can use to access the page.

3) Choose a background style for your public page using the drop down menu (basic, sky, or flowery).

4) Click “save” at the bottom of the page. You now have a skeleton of a public page. Keep following the remaining steps to customize the page for your group.

5) Add a group banner by clicking on “view/edit” in the “Group Banner” box. At the bottom of the page, select “edit group banner” where you can select an image from your computer, the web or flickr.

6) Add a group message to non-members in the ”Public Page and About Page Message” text box. Click “save”.

Congratulations – you now have a a live public page!

Log out of your BigTent account and browse to your public page url to see what your page looks like to non-members.

Taking it Further:

For more information and step-by-step video instructions, watch our public page video tutorial: http://bit.ly/A6dIoJ

Use BigTent’s rich text editor to futher customize your page with pictures, headers, custom fonts and more. Here’s how: http://bit.ly/x3ZTw3

As always, please be sure to reach out to us with any questions at support@bigtent.com.

Best,

- The BigTent Team

We hope everyone is having a fantastic start to 2012!

One of our New Year resolutions is to hold monthly training sessions where we demo the BigTent site to help familiarize new admins with BigTent functionality and features. These will also be good for some long-standing admins who are just looking for a refresher. Here are the first two scheduled trainings below:

- Weds, Jan 18th – 10:30am PST/1:30 EST

- Weds, Feb 1st – 5:00pm PST/8pm EST

You can sign up for a training by following this link.

All the best,

- The BigTent Team

Did you know that you can get an email when you have something in you group’s moderation queue needing your attention? To sign up just follow the steps below:
1) Log onto your BigTent account.

2) Go to www.bigtent.com/group/index

3) Click on the red “Moderate” across from you group’s name.

4) Go to the “settings” tab.

5) Select the radio button for the notices you would like to receive and check the boxes for the forums, News or classifieds posts you want moderator notices from.

6) Click “Update” to save your changes.

To all of our members in California:

Because of the success of last year’s program, we’ve partnered again with BlueShield of California to bring you an awesome opportunity to recognize moms who have made an inspirational difference in the health and wellness of their families, neighborhoods, or communities in California.

Simply nominate an outstanding California mom in your life and she could be one of ten “Shield of Honor” winners - 4 winners will receive iPads and 6 winners will receive $50 iTunes gift cards!

Here’s how it works:

1. Go here: http://www.bigtent.com/promo/blueshieldca and nominate a mom by October 5th
2. Your nominee will be notified to accept her nomination
3. Ten finalists will be chosen by Blue Shield for the “Shield of Honor”
4. Public online voting determines the top four iPad winners

Nominations can be brief. In fact, here is an example:

Roxann T. was nominated because: “She’s the founder of our local “Motherhood with Cancer” support group, which has touched the lives of over 1,000 families in the area.”

Nominate a California mom, and get the word out about this great recognition opportunity, by going here: http://www.bigtent.com/promo/blueshieldca

Please let us know if you have any question by leaving us a comment. Remember to nominate a mom by October 5th!

We’re excited to introduce to you our next group highlight, San Mateo Mothers Club!

We recently had the opportunity to speak with Michelle P, President of the San Mateo Mothers Club about her group, using BigTent and their goals for the future:

Q: How did your group start and how many members do you have?


A: The group started in the early 90′s as a way to get Moms together for camaraderie and to form playgroups for their children. We have over 400 families in our club who participate in our playgroups, children’s outings, Mom outings and special events.

Q: Why did your group choose/or switch to BigTent?


A: Our group had a private Yahoo! Group prior to joining BigTent in 2008. We switched to BigTent to make all aspects of the club more efficient – events, classifieds, payments, database for newsletter mailing, etc.

Q: What is your favorite BigTent feature?


A: My favorite feature is all the various email settings – I can choose to receive forum messages as they come in, classifieds daily, anonymous postings, and I can reply from email instead of constantly logging into the site.

Q: What are a few of the goals your group has for the future?


A: To help more moms find friendship and camaraderie in Motherhood.

Q: When you’re not busy with your group what are you up to?

A: I travel near and far, and enjoy reading development books.
~~~~~
Thank you to Michelle and The San Mateo Mothers Club for sharing their story with us!
Cheers,
The BigTent Team

Events on BigTent can be used for more than just RSVP’s. You can ask your members to bring items and even sign-up volunteers to handle tasks.

After setting up the details for your group’s event follow these steps:

To collect sign-ups for items to bring:

1) Check the box “Ask attendees to bring something,” click “Add an Item” and specify name and # of this item needed.

2) Click “Add” to add the item.

3) Set limits or requirements  across all items, by clicking  click “Set advanced options.” Here you can require each party to bring a certain # of total items (e.g. 3 total items whether they’re baked treats, appetizers, or entrees). Or you can limit the # of total items any party is able to bring.

To collect sign-ups for volunteer shifts:

1) Check the “Attendees can sign up for tasks or shifts” box and click “Add a Task.”

2) Specify the name of the task/shift (tip: include details like the time shift begins/ends) and the # of spots available.

3) Click “Add” to return to the event screen. Add as many tasks as you’d like.

4) Click “Set advanced options” to require attendees to sign up for at least a certain number of shifts or to limit the number of total volunteer shifts available to each guest.

We’re excited to introduce to you our next group highlight, The Woodlands Mother’s of Multiples!

We recently had the opportunity to speak with Jennifer Flinn, State and National Representative for The Woodlands Mothers of Multiples about her group, using BigTent and their goals for the future:

Q: How did your group start and how many members do you have?

A: Currently we have 173 members.  We are a local club under the umbrella of the National Organization of Mothers of Twins Clubs and the Texas Mothers of Multiples.  We formed 15 years ago as a break off from a larger North Houston Club when our area grew large enough to sustain its own organization.  We have been growing ever since!!

Q: Why did your group choose/or switch to BigTent?

A: Our group had a private Yahoo! Group prior to joining BigTent.  BigTent allowed us to offer a “one stop shopping” for our club, allow for dues renewals, for subgroups such as our Higher Order Multiple Moms (triplets and more), RSVPs for events and a separate classifieds section that is searchable and uniform.

Q: What is your favorite BigTent feature?

A: My personal favorite feature is subgroups.  I am on the Board of Directors and this locked subgroup allows us to conduct business very quickly and easily between our meetings.  We currently have subgroups for more than 5 areas of the club.  This allows moms to become even more closely connected with other moms based on interest or age of their multiples.

Q: What are a few of the goals your group has for the future?

A: Our group continues to do community outreach each year and bring awareness of the issues and joy of multiple birth parenting.  We are very active with March of Dimes and many local hospital’s Neonatal Intensive Care Departments.  We continue raising funds to support these organizations and bring Multiple Birth parenting classes to hospitals.  We hope to grow more and more each year and be able to raise additional funds to continue support of these and other projects.

Q: When you’re not busy with your group what are you up to?

A: I am employed full time outside of the home and have 4 ½ year old twins so the group is one of my only outlets.  I get very little free time but we like to check out local parks and swim on the weekends this time of year.  It is nice to always have Mommy friends to call and get together with so that the girls get time to play with friends and I get to chat with another adult outside of work.

~~~~~

Thank you to Jennifer and The Woodlands Mother’s of Multiples for sharing their story with us!

Cheers,
The BigTent Team