BigTent Blog | Product updates and news for groups

We’re excited to bring you our first installment in a new series where we highlight our inspiring and diverse BigTent groups. Our first feature is a new group to BigTent, Highlands Mommies.

Highlands Mommies was recently in the news for their courageous efforts to face crime in their Denver, Colorado community.

It all started when members began reporting in the forums that their homes had been burglarized. The reports of burglaries became so frequent that group leaders raised this issue to members and asked how they could organize to make their community safer. To find out what they did, watch this short video clip of group leaders Elina Martinez and Laverne Hay, on a Colorado morning show:

We spoke with the Highlands Mommies group leaders to learn more about how they use BigTent, and their group’s hopes for the future:

Q: How do you use BigTent to organize your group?

A: We use the subgroups a lot! For us, that is where most of the activity happens. We’ve created subgroups based on shared interest or needs. This eliminates the problem of the main forum getting filled with questions/comments that only a small group would find useful.

Q: What is your favorite BigTent feature and why?

A: We love the News feature, and the fact that hot topics are kept front and center on the Buzz page. We also adore the forums. At our old site we would not have any way to keep the conversation all in one place, so it can be referenced later.

Q: What changes have you seen since you organized the Town Hall meeting?

A: We’ve had local newspapers write articles echoing what was said at the Town Hall and from the officers. All this resulted in more citizen calls to our officers reporting suspicious activity, which enabled our officers to move faster, find suspects in question and run their information through their database (in many cases they had outstanding warrants and were arrested). Our group is also starting to get recognized for its strength and diversity.

Q: What goals does your group have for the future?

A: We have several big initiatives this year: (1) Work with our law enforcement to make our community safer (2) Work with the schools within our boundaries to help them in any way they need help (3) Attract more members who can help us grow our amazing community.

Q: Is there anything else you would like to share with us?

A: Overall, we love the move to BigTent, our members have had 95% positive reviews so thank you!

Pictured above are Highlands Mommies Group Leaders Elina Martinez, Laverne Hay & Elizabeth Martinez (L to R).

Thank you to Highlands Mommies for sharing their amazing story with us! Be on the look out for more BigTent group highlights!

Cheers,
The BigTent Team

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

You can easily send a private message on BigTent to a fellow group member by following these quick steps:

1. Go to my bigtent > tentmail.
2. Click the “Write TentMail” link and scroll to the bottom of the page.

3. In the “To” field type the name or email of the member you want to message. An auto suggest list will appear with members who match your entry. Select your recipient from the list.
4. Enter a subject, write your message and click “Send.” That’s it!

To send a TentMail to more than one member, place a comma after each recipient in the “To” field.

Please let us know if you have any question about TentMail, or any BigTent feature for that matter, by leaving us a comment!

Cheers,
The BigTent Team

Did you know there is a group 1000 members strong that is full of BigTent group leaders who are there to support and learn from each other?

Well there is, and you should join it today! It’s called BigTent Group Administrators (BTGA) and you can register for FREE from here:

https://www.bigtent.com/groups/btga

Now, a little background: BTGA is a BigTent group run for BigTent group leaders moderated by BigTent group leaders. It’s a vibrant group where all are welcome to ask questions and give advice on topics ranging from:

- How-to question about the site
- Feature work arounds
- Ideas on increasing member participation
- Best practices on running volunteer powered groups

Let us know how you’ve benefited from BTGA by leaving us a comment. We’ll send the most compelling commenter a Starbucks gift card!

Cheers,
The BigTent Team

Group payment reminder – Jan. 31 deadline

If you process payments through BigTent please remember to add your group’s bank info on the manage > manage accounting > settings page so we can direct deposit your funds come February.

You must enter your bank info by Jan. 31, otherwise we can’t wire your payments until you submit that info, and even then we can’t send it until the next disbursement, which is March.

So long story short, don’t slack on this! Enter your bank info today!

Learn more about why we switched to direct deposit here.

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New advertisement location

As you’ve probably noticed, we moved the banner ad that was sometimes placed under your group, to the very top of BigTent pages.

We made this move so there is a clear delineation between your group content and the advertisements on our site. We hope this change helps your members concentrate on your important group content. Thank you to everyone who submitted feedback about this!

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Member tip: How to change your email settings

Watch this quick video to learn how to change your BigTent email options in a few simple steps:

We love to hear from you so please let us know if you have any questions or feedback by leaving us a comment!

Cheers,
The BigTent Team

Admin Tip: How to list your group in the BigTent Directory

Help potential members find your group through the BigTent Group Directory!

Listing your group in the directory is easy as 1, 2, 3! See below for the quick steps:

1. Go to manage > group dashboard > group information > catagory > and select two categories for your group.
2. Go to the “group directory” section, check the BigTent group directory box and complete the remaining fields

3. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click save.

That’s it! Now potential members can locate and join your group through the BigTent Group Directory. You can easily find the directory by going to www.bigtent.com and clicking on “Find Groups.”

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Congrats to Tri-City Mothers of Multiples

BigTent is happy to announce that the winning group of the Godiva Perfect Indulgence Challenge is…drum roll please…

Tri-City Mothers of Multiples

Congratulations, Tri-CityMoMs! It was a very close race to the finish, and we thank all the groups who participated in this fun contest.

Tri-City will be receiving a year’s worth of Godiva Coffee sponsored parties, as well as $1,000 toward their group. Stay tuned for more awesome opportunities to win cool stuff for your group from BigTent!

Please let us know if you have any questions by leaving us a comment. We would love to hear from you!

Best,

The BigTent Team

We are thrilled to announce that we’ve created a way for group leaders to require members to share certain information about themselves – such as first name or phone number – with their BigTent groups.

Admins have always had the ability to require members to share information with group leaders but have not been able to require members to share information with the entire group on the member list and profile page.

Now admins can ensure a more personalized community with just a few clicks. Just follow these steps to enable this helpful feature:

1. Go to manage > invite members > member types & forms.
2. Click the “edit” link next to the membership type & form you want to change.
3. Click the “edit” link next to a question for which you want to enable the required sharing feature.
4. Select “All members (member required to share with group)” and click save. Repeat this step with any question for which you want to enable the required sharing feature.
5. Save the form.

That was easy! But now you may be wondering how the required sharing will affect your members. Please read our FAQs, which answers questions that admins may have about this new feature:

Q: What happens with my new & renewing members once I require certain questions to be shared with my group?

A: Any new or renewing members who complete your membership form will be required to share the fields you’ve specified with the entire group and won’t be able to “unshare” the information later.

Q: What happens with my existing members who are not currently sharing this information once I require it?

A: Members who either haven’t completed this info, or declined to share it with the group previously, must to go to my bigtent > settings > profile privacy and agree to share this information. To save the settings on their profile privacy page, members must agree to your new sharing.

Q: What if a current member never completes the information that is now required to be shared or never agrees to share it?

A: You can wait until the member renews (she won’t be able to submit the membership form unless she agrees to share the fields you’ve specified), you can manually change the member’s renewal date to force her to renew sooner or you can remove her from your group and invite her to join again.

Special thank you to Roxanne, one of our super star group admins, who consulted us on this feature.

Please let us know if you have any questions by leaving us a comment. We would love to hear from you!

Best,

The BigTent Team

Back by popular demand!

To celebrate the holidays and to help get groups up and running in time for 2011, BigTent will migrate member data for groups that want to launch before the end of the year. This member data can include anything such as names, addresses, and kids information.

If your group has 50+ members, and you would like help migrating their information into a BigTent group, email us at support@bigtent.com with “Data migration” as the subject line. Already have your list of member data? Feel free to attach it to your message.

“Data migration” usually isn’t synonymous with “lots of fun,” so think of it this way: calling on BigTent for member data migration is like getting a jet pack for your group. We’ll handle the migration, so you can focus on the fun parts of your group — putting on events (with timesaving online payments), hosting discussions, and more.

Don’t let the thought of having to migrate your data to a new technology slow you down! Put on your jet pack, launch on BigTent, then blast off into an awesome world of free tools for online groups.

As an added bonus, groups that migrate their data before the end of the year will get a special, BigTent-hosted Q&A forum in their groups. The Q&A forum provides a month’s worth of tips to get your members comfortable with using BigTent, and features timely responses from BigTent experts.

We look forward to seeing your group on BigTent soon!

Best,

Diane & the BigTent team

We are once again honored to have PTA volunteer, community coach and expert, Monica Baucke, host a free upcoming webinar for school leaders. If you can, please sign up and join us.

How to Organize Your School Online

Tuesday, September 28th @ 9 am Pacific/noon Eastern

Register for free

Monica will share several tips for managing your group online, including:

• How to get buy-in from other school leaders
• How to set up and organize your group and subgroups
• How to create a BigTent buzz

The session is designed to be interactive, and no question is too big or small. Take this opportunity to learn from Monica! Monica is entering her third year using BigTent to manage communications for not one, but two schools: Croce Elementary and Christensen Middle School.

Hope to meet with you soon. Let us know if you have any questions or feedback.

Best,

The BigTent team

BigTent is very excited to announce our new partnership with Cloud B. We are partnering with Cloud B and the Audubon Nature Institute to help saves animals stranded and injured by the oil spill crisis in the Gulf of Mexico.

There are three easy ways to help through our website:

1. Donate $1 with the click of a button

2. Donate $5 with your Cloud B purchase

3. Share this opportunity to support the Gulf Coast through Facebook and Twitter

By taking one of the actions above, Cloud B will make a donation on your behalf to the Louisiana Marina Mammal and Sea Turtle Rescue Program.

To learn more about this new campaign, please visit http://www.bigtent.com/promo/cloudbaudubon

Thanks everyone!

The BigTent Team

About Cloud B

Cloud B is an innovative designer of award-winning sleep products for children of all ages. Cloud B’s Twilight Sea Turtle, Gentle Giraffe, Sleep Sheep, and other high-quality products are helping children sleep peacefully and healthfully the world over.

About Audubon Nature Institute

Audubon Nature Institute is a family of nine museums and parks dedicated to nature. The Institute serves as an educational resource, an environmental guardian, a leader in economic development, and a venue for family entertainment.