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Bit off more than I can chew?

Forums: Questions and Answers About Building Your Site
Created on: 07/08/09 06:41 PM Views: 1778 Replies: 16
Wednesday, July 8, 2009 at 6:41 PM

Boy, do I have some questions........I have created a site and also have a facebook group that I have been using to communicate our ideas about a reunion. We are planning it for 10/10/2009. I had apprx 400 people in my class but only 70 are in my facebook group. How do I get the word out to the rest of them?

Is it recommended that get payment prior to the reunion (i have paypal setup but no one knows about the site yet) or do we just have them pay at the door as they come to the reunion?

i tried to create a survey but not sure how to put it in the body of the site so that it is prevalent? Any other recommendations to get some idea on how many people will be attending?

Any other suggestions?

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Wednesday, July 8, 2009 at 7:03 PM - Response #1

Hi neighbor!

I see you're from Virginia as well - I'm from Woodstock, VA.

The first thing I would do is form a committee to delegate clammates reponsible for looking up a certain amount of classmates (your 70 friends sound like a good place to start) - don't try to do it all yourself or you'll get burned out. Look up at the top of this page at the FAQ's, in there you will find great ways to locate classmates. Send an announcement to your 70 friends about the website and tell them to spread the word. Put some info about the reunion on your homepage. I would be happy to put you down as a guest on my site so you can get some ideas and feel free to take what you like on there - all of us Administrators do it to help each other. FYI: I am on the Help Forums almost daily getting more ideas and learning something new each day. You will catch on real quick Daryl.

Good luck and let me know if you would like to be a guest on my site.

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Wednesday, July 8, 2009 at 7:08 PM - Response #2

Also Daryl,

Did you try using the Survey Maker on the bottom left handside of your website? It's very easy to use.

As far as finding out how many classmates will be coming to the reunion - once they learn about the site and log on, they can check the box on their profile page if they are attending the reunion or not. You will be able to go to Classmate Profiles and see how many are attending in the box on the top.

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Wednesday, July 8, 2009 at 7:10 PM - Response #3

Thanks! Please add me as a guest - that would be a big help.

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Wednesday, July 8, 2009 at 7:21 PM - Response #4

To display your survey link on the left, make sure you have the "Active" checkmark next to your survey turned on. The Survey Maker takes a little getting used to, but once you've got it you'll also be a whiz at creating custom questions in your Reunion Planner, and you'll also have no problem using your Profile Generator. All 3 essentially work the same.


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Wednesday, July 8, 2009 at 7:45 PM - Response #5

Why would I need a paypal "pay now" button AND a credit card acceptance section on the same page?

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Wednesday, July 8, 2009 at 7:54 PM - Response #6

Daryl - you are now a guest on my site. You'll find your name at the bottom of The Class of 79. Once you've logged on you can visit all the pages. I 'll keep you as a guest for a few weeks. Yell if you need more time than that.

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Wednesday, July 8, 2009 at 8:17 PM - Response #7

Daryl,

Two major things you need to do before getting your 70 classmates redirected to your new website:

1. All 400 classmate names need to be added to your Classmate Profiles page. You can do this manually or import from Excel files. As your 70 contacts start logging onto the new site, the computer program will automatically start a "missing" list. The 70 will then know who to be looking for and contacting.

2. Have a dynamic Home Page with major emphasis on the upcoming reunion. As Dawn said, look at other class sites that have reunions coming up within the year for ideas. Right click, copy, and paste images and fill in your own pertinent information.

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Edited 07/08/09 8:23 PM
Wednesday, July 8, 2009 at 8:57 PM - Response #8

How do I remove my own "attending reunion" registration? I somehow went through it and registered myself but I did so for 0 people. How can I delete that?

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Wednesday, July 8, 2009 at 8:59 PM - Response #9

Daryl Watkins wrote:

Why would I need a paypal "pay now" button AND a credit card acceptance section on the same page?

You can give Classmates options to pay by credit cards, check, or "other", which can include PayPal or whatever else. Check and Other payment types require you to log orders as they come in into your Attendees area. Credit card orders are logged and totalled automatically for you. It's really a tradeoff between convenience, fees, and how you personally wish to accept payments. Most Classes accept credit card and/or check orders, while some utilize the "Other" payment type (such as pay at the door, etc.) to meet their own needs.


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Wednesday, July 8, 2009 at 9:06 PM - Response #10

Why do you want to remove it? I see your name with the reunion icon out beside it, and that is what you want as an example for others to follow. As others sign on and mark their own profile as attending, the number will go up at the top of the page.

Are you wanting something different than that???

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Wednesday, July 8, 2009 at 9:20 PM - Response #11

Daryl Watkins wrote:

How do I remove my own "attending reunion" registration? I somehow went through it and registered myself but I did so for 0 people. How can I delete that?

If you want to delete your own or any other Classmate's reunion registration:

1) Click your Reunion Planner link.
2) Click the pencil icon under your Attendees column to enter edit mode.
3) Click directly on the Classmate's name.
4) On the resulting page you have a couple options for editing the registration. When you're in edit mode you can also delete the entire registration if you wish to.


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Thursday, July 9, 2009 at 2:02 PM - Response #12

I dont mind taking the funds for the reunion but wouldnt just taking paypal be easier and less confusing than having both pay methods on the site?

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Thursday, July 9, 2009 at 5:18 PM - Response #13

In my opinion the least confusing thing to do is accept credit card payments right on your site itself. Which is also the easiest thing to do in terms of administration, because all of your logging and financial work is done for you. This does come with costs, and there are certainly lower cost ways of collecting money and free ways of collecting money, such as accepting personal checks or pay at the door. People have different needs and desires, so the system is set up to let you best pick the payment method that's most acceptable to you. Having said that though, I generally don't recommend offering numerous payment methods. One or maybe two ways to pay (like credit cards or checks) is typical.


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Saturday, July 11, 2009 at 9:11 PM - Response #14

Hi Daryl,
As far as getting people to log on, I've gotten great help from my classmates who are still in Roanoke (I'm in Charlottesville).

A core group of them (4 or 5) still get together weekly. Two of them have spearheaded the calling using the alumni book that one of them had.

We started with only 70 on our facebook page also, I have 212 (44%) in only a couple of months.

I called the school and had them put the web site address on the marquee sign out on 419. Does PH have something similiar?

The Roanoke Times let us down as far as community announcements. Boo.

Promote the site to the '88 class on FB also, they probably had fun last year and can find and encourage their younger friends.

Once you've let open the gates to the FB group, they'll keep the site on the top of the Google search by continually checking back.

And don't feel like your site needs to be "complete" before you publish! It's much more fun for them to continue to log back in and see what you've changed and updated.

And...not everybody is ready to log on and be social yet. You'll have both ends of the spectrum, I have one classmate who logged on 72 times in one day, and I have people who've been contacted 2 or 3 times, know about it, but won't log on. AND they still live in Roanoke! Another Boo.

Best of luck!
Maggie

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Saturday, July 11, 2009 at 9:11 PM - Response #15

Hi Daryl,
As far as getting people to log on, I've gotten great help from my classmates who are still in Roanoke (I'm in Charlottesville).

A core group of them (4 or 5) still get together weekly. Two of them have spearheaded the calling using the alumni book that one of them had.

We started with only 70 on our facebook page also, I have 212 (44%) in only a couple of months.

I called the school and had them put the web site address on the marquee sign out on 419. Does PH have something similiar?

The Roanoke Times let us down as far as community announcements. Boo.

Promote the site to the '88 class on FB also, they probably had fun last year and can find and encourage their younger friends.

Once you've let open the gates to the FB group, they'll keep the site on the top of the Google search by continually checking back.

And don't feel like your site needs to be "complete" before you publish! It's much more fun for them to continue to log back in and see what you've changed and updated.

And...not everybody is ready to log on and be social yet. You'll have both ends of the spectrum, I have one classmate who logged on 72 times in one day, and I have people who've been contacted 2 or 3 times, know about it, but won't log on. AND they still live in Roanoke! Another Boo.

Best of luck!
Maggie

Reply
Sunday, July 12, 2009 at 4:27 PM - Response #16

Daryl Watkins wrote:

Boy, do I have some questions........I have created a site and also have a facebook group that I have been using to communicate our ideas about a reunion. We are planning it for 10/10/2009. I had apprx 400 people in my class but only 70 are in my facebook group. How do I get the word out to the rest of them?

Is it recommended that get payment prior to the reunion (i have paypal setup but no one knows about the site yet) or do we just have them pay at the door as they come to the reunion?

i tried to create a survey but not sure how to put it in the body of the site so that it is prevalent? Any other recommendations to get some idea on how many people will be attending?

Any other suggestions?

Daryl,
The first thing that you need to do, is to send an email/message to the 70 classmates that you have contact with through Facebook. Be sure to let them know about the website and let them know that it will be used for planning the reunion and that you need them all to register on the site, as well as pass the link on to any other classmates that they might be in touch with. That is how you get your numbers up...to start with.
Next, you need to get a committee formed. These folks need to be willing and able to assist in planning the reunion. You'll need a treasurer and then any other positions you decide upon are up to you. The classmates will need to pay for their tickets ahead of time, because, odds are, that you'll need to reserve a venue, and unless you want to pay for that out of your pocket, selling tickets and collecting money prior to the event is the best way to go about this.
Be sure to check out the FAQs for the site...tons of ideas on there, and be sure to browse the forums as well. We all share everything we do, so you never know what you'll find!
Best of luck to you!
Vicki

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