Google Groups for a Troop? I Need an email groups solution

[blw2]

Is anyone out there using Google Groups for your troop?

 

Any tips on how you have set it up? Many settings & I'm not sure which way to turn.....

 

Do you have multiple groups or just one for the whole troop?

I'm thinking perhaps a group for the committee + Leaders

another for the Leaders + Patrol Leaders

another for the whole troop + parents

 

My troop currently using shutterfly for pictures and one big email group for the whole troop and parents.

we use a combination of dropbox and google docs/google drive for committee agenda and other files.

Using Troopmaster to track advancement, but it's email group thing is clunky. Probably not a lot of interest in changing away form this right now, so I'm really just looking for email group solutions...... although interested in other ideas too.

[perdidochas]

We use troopwebhost for the pictures, email groups, docs, advancement and finances. It's a bit of a chore to convert advancement from Troopmaster, but IMHO the total package is worth it. (I wouldn't have said this 13 months ago, in mid conversion, though)

[koolaidman]

Sharing the love for troopwebhost....

[qwazse]

I use Google Groups for our crew, the concil VOA list, and the council venturing list.

 

I am generally satisfied with it. I set up most folks as members, recieving e-mails as they are posted to the list, and a few responsible parties as managers/moderators. What I like is someone can send a message directly to the list and (pending moderator approval) it can go out just as if they logged in and replied to a post via a web browser. What I don't like is that there's no way to set up the complex heirarchies that you're describing in one group. You need separate lists for each. No good way to cross-reference between lists to see who's in what group.

[Tampa Turtle]

We use Google Groups, one for Troop, one for Committee, one for Scouters, and one for each Patrol. Some Patrol Leaders use it. Pain to set up but works well once it gets going. Seems like Google buries it though.

[fred johnson]

I've used Google Groups for years now for a large large large group. Should work fine for a small group. If you grow larger (hundreds), you start getting issues when trying to "add" people. They will want you to "invite" people and that does not work cleanly for email lists because not everyone knows enough to "accept" the invite. It can get to be a big pain.

 

We use soarol.com. I've seen other groups use Facebook.com successfully. Good luck.

[fgoodwin]

I've used Yahoo Groups for over a decade for units and for districts. They have a files and photo area to store pics, and privacy settings if you want to keep your group unlisted. I recommend them.

[EagleScout441]

Scoutlander.com is an excellent program for Troop/Crew/Unit websites. It also has a email broadcast system, as well as "photo albums".

Here is a link to my Troop website:

http://www.scoutlander.com/publicsite/unithome.aspx?UID=12706

The photo, etc. pages, are all members only.

 

[Gone]

We use mytroop. Everything integrated in one place. Great tool.

[King Ding Dong]

Don't use shutterfly for troop communications. Worthless. I was tasked a year ago with finding a solution and I chose troopwebhost even if we didn't use it for advancement. My CC was all for it and then some Scouter at camp told her about shutterfly and "its free". She spend days setting this thing up and now it hasn't been used in 9 months. We needed a communication tool and she got us a photo sharing site.

[blw2]

granted, it's not the best..... especially for scouting..... hence my question.

but it Shutterfly's defense.....has been functioning for them for some number of years now.

On Shutterfly it's just one big email group, so an email goes out to everyone.... boys, parents, leaders, and committee..... or whomever is in the group anyway.

It logs the posts and conversations which I think can be useful.

And as far as taking days to set it up - she must have manually entered a whole bunch of stuff making quite a nice site!!! My first time ever using it, I set up a page for my daughter's soccer team a couple years ago. Took me maybe 10- 15 minutes. I noticed then that it has a calendar function and some other tools that I didn't get into at all Seems to me that it's not really all that bad of a tool for something like a soccer team or a smaller group that doesn't have a need for levels of structure in communication.

 

We still haven't had a chance to meet again to put this issue to bed.....I've seen troopwebhost mentioned a few times. I need to take a closer look at that soon.

& I don't think I've come across mytroop. I'll look for that one too. (edit - I see that it's SOAR My Troop. I have seen that one)

Thanks all!

[Gone]

We still haven't had a chance to meet again to put this issue to bed.....I've seen troopwebhost mentioned a few times. I need to take a closer look at that soon. & I don't think I've come across mytroop. I'll look for that one too. (edit - I see that it's SOAR My Troop. I have seen that one) Thanks all!

That's it. Great tool. Integrates with TroopMaster very well. We use Shutterfly for photos and Blogger for updating camping blogs for our weekend camp outs and summer camp. Helps to keep mom and dad informed. Recently started using Waze for road trips to keep everyone together and to report ETA back home. Our parents appreciate the info, avoids late pick ups and gives a nice trail of activities for the boys to use as planning aids. We require all the boys to check the website and email to stay informed. Has worked like a charm.