Reports on BigTent allow you access and utilize all information collected on your group’s membership form, plus any admin-only fields you have created.
To learn how to use reports on BigTent, watch this quick video:
Please let us know if you have any questions by leaving us a comment!
Cheers,
The BigTent Team
We’re excited to introduce to you this month’s group highlight, GaGa Sisterhood!
We recently had the opportunity to catch up with Donne Davis of the GaGa Sisterhood about her group using BigTent and what’s new since we last spoke with her in 2009:
Q. How did your group start and how many members do you have?
A. In 2003 I witnessed the birth of my first grandchild and went completely “gaga!” When I came back down to earth, I realized two things: 1) most grandmas are crazy about their grandchildren; 2) being a grandma is complicated.
I was curious what other grandmas were experiencing and wanted to create an organization where we could explore what it means to be a grandma today. I called it the GaGa Sisterhood because we’re all “gaga” for our grandchildren. In December 2003 we had our first meeting and felt such a bond with each other as we talked about the joys and challenges of our role. We wanted to continue the conversation and have been meeting ever since.
Q. Why did your group choose/or switch to BigTent?
A. We have over 100 members and each one joined on a different date. The accounting was a nightmare until we joined Big Tent. The automated membership renewal reminders have streamlined our accounting and allowed me to work on more creative projects.
Q. What is your favorite BigTent feature?
A. Our members love Big Tent’s forum. Discussions run the gamut from grandchildren’s cute sayings to how to get a good night’s sleep. Many grandmas have connected for hikes, theater, and play dates with our grandchildren.
Q. When you’re not busy with your group what are you up to?
A. My daughter and I are offering a Mother-Daughter Retreat on June 11 at Stillheart Institute in Woodside, CA. We’re pairing up with yoga teacher Jackie Long for a daylong retreat to nurture the mother-daughter relationship.
My daughter and I have always valued our relationship and communication is an important part. Since she became a mom in 2003, we’ve spent a lot more time together and have had more opportunities to work on some of our issues. Learn more about the retreat here.
Q. What have you learned from the GaGa Sisterhood?
A. Grandmas have complicated lives and our emotions range from pure ecstasy to deep disappointment. They’re often based on our relationships with the parents of our grandchildren. Having a community of like-minded women to share our joys and frustrations with has been comforting and affirming. It proves to me that no matter what stage of life we’re in, we can form new friends based on the common bonds of shared experiences.
Thank you to Donne and the GaGa Sisterhood for sharing their story with us!
Cheers,
The BigTent Team
Starting today you can rate our customer support! We’ve added this feature so we can gauge how we’re doing and how we can improve our service to you.
Here’s how it works:
1. Submit your questions via Help, located on the top right of every page.
2. Our customer support team will get back to you within 3 business days or less (see our tip for how you can get speedier response times).
3. Within 24 hours of resolving your ticket, we’ll send you an email asking you to rate the service you received.
4. Click the link for “Good” or “Bad”- right from your email inbox. You can even leave us a comment.
We’ll follow up with anyone who had an unstaisfactory experience, so we can properly answer your question and learn how to improve our support to you.
Please let us know if you have any questions about this new enhancement by leaving us a comment!
Cheers,
The BigTent Team
TIP: You can have your support questions answered quickly – sign up for BigTent Premium Support! Click Here for more info.
As a group leader, you can easily view and change members’ forum notification preferences. When members first join your group their forums notification setting will default to daily message digest, unless they have selected another option during registration.
To change a member’s forum notifications, just follow these steps:
1) Go to my groups > [group name] > manage > forums.
2) Click “notifications” next to your forum of interest, to access a list of members’ current notification method.
3) Use the drop-down menu options to change each member’s notification settings.
4) Save your changes.
That’s it! Please let us know if you have any questions by leaving us comment.
Cheers,
The BigTent Team
We’re excited to introduce to you our next group highlight, San Bruno Mothers Club!
We recently had the opportunity to speak with Tatiana Scanlon, President of the San Bruno 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 San Bruno Mothers Club was founded in 1991 based on the concepts of the book “Mothers Club, Nurturing the Nurturers” by Katie Williams. We offer support, information, and most importantly, fun and friendship to local moms and their families. Our club has now grown to approximately 120 members.
Q: Why did your group choose/or switch to BigTent?
A: While the switch to BigTent was made prior to my becoming a member (SBMC has been using BigTent since 2007), BigTent has made the administration of our group a breeze. We have everything in one place, control over so many facets, such as membership forms and reports, and no longer need manual records of membership rosters and calendars. Accounting couldn’t be easier!
Q: What is your favorite BigTent feature?
A: I love the events and calendar section of BigTent and all of the customization options that have been added recently. Our group prides itself on all the events offered to our members and BigTent allows us to keep track of these easily and see them all in one place.
Q: What are a few of the goals your group has for the future?
A: We want to continue to provide new and interesting events for our members. Create more playgroups to accommodate the busy and varied schedules of our moms. And, to become more of a presence in our community by providing service, particularly to families and children. I am extremey proud of how our club comes together in times of need…whether for one of our members or our community as a whole.
Q: When you’re not busy with your group what are you up to?
A: I am very fortunate to be a stay-at-home mom to the four-year-old love of my life.
Thank you to Tatiana and the San Bruno Mothers Club for sharing their story with us!
Cheers,
The BigTent Team
You can now choose from several privacy options when uploading a file to BigTent. Selecting “private” will require members to sign in to download the file and “public” will allow members to download the file without signing in.
Follow these quick steps to use this enhancement:
1. Go to my groups > [your group] > files.
2. Click “add file.”
3. Enter the required fields and select the document.
4. Go to the file privacy section and select either public or private.
5. Click upload.
That’s it! An example of when to make a file “public” is when sharing a newsletter or form that you want members to easily download without logging in. An example of when to make a file “private” is when sharing sensitive documents such as a member roster or financial document.
If you want to require members to sign in to access an existing file on BigTent, then just go to the file and switch the privacy to “private.”
Please let us know if you have any questions about this new enhancement by leaving us a comment!
Cheers,
The BigTent Team
Enhancement: More event start & end time options!
Great news! We’ve added additional time options to events. You can now set your events to start or end in 5 minute increments.
This is particularly helpful for school groups, who frequently meet 5 or 10 minutes after the hour or half-hour. Learn more about creating group events here.
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Member Tip: How to find your group’s forum email address
To find your group’s forum email address just follow these quick steps:
1. Sign in to BigTent: www.bigtent.com
2. Go to my groups > [your group] > forums and click on “Email a topic.”
3. Your group’s forum email address will display in the pop-up window. Add the address to your email contacts.
Now that you have the forum email, just send your message to that address and it will post to your group’s forum. Just remember to send the message from the email that you use to sign in to BigTent.
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How-to Video: Sending attachments on BigTent
Learn how to send attachments on BigTent in this quick tutorial video. Just click on the image below to watch:
We love to hear from you so please let us know if you have any questions or feedback by leaving us a comment!
Best,
The BigTent Team
Admin Tip: How to find event payment details
If you’ve used the event payment feature then you may have wondered where to find the event transaction details. Read on to find out where to look:
1. Go to manage > manage accounting > transactions.
* You’ll land on the overview tab, where you can view the total event fees you’ve collected in the time period selected.
2. Click the on “event fees” tab and then click on the name of the event to view its transaction details. If you don’t see your event then use the date range to query the date of the event.
3. Click on an order number to view the details of that particular transaction.
That’s it! Please let us know if you have any questions by leaving us a comment.
Cheers,
The BigTent Team
We’re excited to introduce to you our next group highlight, Laguna Beach Parents Club!
We recently spoke with Board of Directors member, Jill Espinola, about her group and how they have been using BigTent. Here are some great answers that Jill shared with us:
Q: Can you tell us about your group and how they started?
A: The LBPC was started in November of 2005 with around 50 family members. We now have 275 active families and hope to reach 325 this year. The Club founders wanted to create a group open to all families, including same-gender couples, single-parent families, expectant parents, foster parents or other care takers responsible for children — anyone who found themselves in a parenting role would be welcome.
Q. Why did your group choose to use BigTent?
A. We needed to automate as much of our administrative processes as possible. BigTent’s member database, reporting, payment processing and automatic renewals did this for us. We also needed a better way to calendar and RSVP to our events. Lastly, we needed flexibility in how our members received communications from us. BigTent’s ability for members to control their email preferences was ideal.
Q. What is your favorite feature on BigTent?
A. My role with our Club is an administrative one. So, I’d have to say, one of my favorite features is the member database. Before BigTent, we maintained our club roster by hand using a spreadsheet. It was painful to keep all of our member information up to date. Now, everything is automated and our members are held responsible for keeping their own information current. Love it!
Q. What goals does the LBPC have for its future?
A. We hope to expand our membership significantly in the next few years. With the beach as our backyard and a distinguished public education system, more and more families are flocking to Laguna. It is a wonderful place to raise children. Our Club is working to become an integral part of the Laguna Beach community. We continue to work with city leadership to increase the number of family focused activities and to make our city safe, welcoming and fun for children of all ages.
Q. When your not busy with your group, what are you up to?
A: We are at the beach of course! Living in sunny southern California allows us to be outside year round! My family loves exploring our miles of hiking trails, spending time at the park and enjoying time with friends!
Thank you to Jill and the Laguna Beach Parents Club for sharing their story with us!
Cheers,
The BigTent Team
P.S. Do you have a great group on BigTent? Tell us about it by emailing rosa @ bigtent.com
Have you recently moved and need to just update your street address with your BigTent group? If so, changing your address is simple, just follow these steps :
• Go to my bigtent > settings > contact info.
• Go to the “Addresses” section and click “Add a new address.”
• Once you’ve added a new address, click “set primary” in the box of the address you’d like to make your primary address.
• You can choose to remove your old address from your account.
One thing to note is that in order to change any part of your address you’ll need to add your address again and delete your old one.
Please let us know if you have any questions by leaving us a comment!
Cheers,
The BigTent Team
