QlubbHouse

New Usability Improvements

2009-10-26T14:41:00.000-07:00

Last night we released some new enhancements to Qlubb that will make it easier for you to find events.

Wider 30-day calendar: Many of you informed us that the 30-day calendar, with its small cells, was hard to read, and therefore hard to use. You will notice that we expanded the calendar view to now include the white-space to the right, which used to be reserved for ads. So now the calendar is wider and fewer ads!

Act Now list: The Act Now list now includes those Sign-up sheets that have no dates. This is often useful for ongoing sign-up sheets like classroom donations which do not have a specific date. Before we only displayed those sign-up sheets with dates; the new version includes all sign-up sheets with dates and those without.

Multi-Date Events: For multi-day events that may a start date in the past and have an end date in the future, we now keep that multi-day event on the "current events" list.

We hope this helps you use Qlubb. Let us know what you think or if you have any other suggestions. feedback at qlubb dot com.

Supported Browsers-Firefox, Safari, IE7, IE8

2009-10-15T10:41:00.000-07:00

Not all browsers are alike. They all seem to tout their adherence to standards, but there are quirks to each browser, and among versions. As you can imagine, it makes development and support a challenge. The challenge is where do we deploy our valuable people resources - to supporting a broad range of browsers or to spend our time developing great features users want. It's a balance.

We write this as over the past few months we have found design and UI issues with some lesser used browsers, specifically AOL and IE6. Occasionally the Flash plug-ins or javascript or layout don't quite work perfectly. And so at Qlubb we decided that our official supported browsers are: Safari, Firefox, IE7, IE8.

Chrome seems to be okay for our Qlubb users and most of the time IE6 is stable as well. But recognize that our bug fix priorities are always with our officially supported browsers (Safari, Firefox, IE7, IE8).

So if you are not on these browsers, please upgrade - not only will our Qlubb experience be more pleasant, but so to will your overall surfing experience.

Download the latest
Safari browser - http://www.apple.com/safari/
Firefox - http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/personal.html
IE8 - http://www.microsoft.com/windows/internet-explorer/default.aspx?WT.srch=1

Ad-free Qlubbs

2009-10-11T16:33:00.000-07:00

For our clean-living, clutter-free members, we are happy to announce today that we are offering an ad-free Qlubb for only $30 per year, or 8 cents per day. No more annoying ads, and it, frankly, makes your Qlubb that much more attractive!

Though we try our best to limit the types of advertising that is shown (we have to pay the bills), we occasionally get a rogue ad. Many of our Qlubbs are faith-based and/or child-related and so the ad-free option will make your Qlubb experience more appealing.

It's easy to get the ad-free option, just go to the Admin tab, and you will find an orange "Premium" button. Click on that and follow the directions.

Let us know if you have any questions. feedback@qlubb.com

premium photo sharing

2009-10-11T16:05:00.000-07:00

We have heard so much from Qlubb users about how they can make photo sharing easier, especially when it comes to making end-of-the-year photo and memory books. Sure, people can view photos from across the photo sites, but too often the photos viewed are compressed. So while they look adequate on line, they too often are of too low of resolution for actual prints or year books.

Having edited more than my share of preschool and classroom yearbooks, I am only too familiar with the nightmare associated with organizing and getting photos for my groups. One of the beauties of Qlubb is that we allow groups to associate and organize their photos by their calendar events. Not only is this easier for people to find photos, but is a life-saver at the end of the year, when you need to find photos for teacher's gifts, for yearbooks, for your own memories.

So today, our team is making available premium photo sharing capabilities. With this new feature, Qlubbs can store/share/download high-res original photos and will get additional storage to accommodate these larger files.

There are two premium photo/storage options:

1GB storage upgrade (in addition to the free 500MB) - $12 per year or just 3 cents/day or about 500 high-res photos
5GB storage upgrade (in addition to the free 500MB) - $20 per year or just 5 cents/day or about 1,800 high-res photos. This is also useful for groups that are sharing a lot of documents.

NOTE: This additional storage can also be used to share/upload files!

To get this new capability, go to the Admin tab (if you are the admin, if you are not ask your admin). You will see a bright orange button on the right hand side, click on that and follow the instructions - it's easy. You and your Qlubb members will thank you!

DONE or not DONE? We clarify...

2009-10-06T15:29:00.000-07:00

One of the early features of our sign-up sheet was the “DONE” button. The original intent was to allow event organizers to create TO-DO lists. And as responsibilities were completed, volunteers could indicate that they were “DONE”. It’s a TO-DO list feature.

However, some users have been using the “DONE” button in lieu of the “ME” or “ASSIGN” button. So occasionally, a volunteer will click on the DONE and others can not volunteer, which leads to confusion especially for those events that require multiple volunteers.

So today we have improved sign-up sheet capability so that the DONE button is optional. The default behavior will be to NOT have a DONE button.

As you can see in the screen shot, some tasks should have a DONE button – for instance, make reservation. However, others such as “bring pizza” is not going to need a DONE button.

It’s easy to configure-when you create the task, there will be a check box for “add DONE button”

We hope this improves the usability of our sign-up sheets – please let us know if you have others!

New Features - Volunteer Reports and Event Reminders Settings

2009-10-06T11:24:00.000-07:00

This morning we released two new features that we hope will make it even easier to manage and organize your groups.

First, volunteer reports. The sign-up sheets, and RSVPs are great for automatically the organization of users. But often times, the leaders of the group want to know the big picture of who is doing what, when, where... So with that, we now have the "Volunteer Report" that provides the Qlubb with an overview of the membership's participation in Qlubb activities.

The reports are located on the left-hand column of your Qlubb's homepage, right below the Act Now! section.

The report itself sorts members by their name and then lists down all events/tasks which they have or will be participating. Participation in the past is printed in grey, future participation in blue.

Secondly, we have added a new ADMIN feature that allows Qlubb leaders/administrators to set the default event reminder behavior. Until today, event reminder emails were sent to everyone in the Qlubb, by default. However, many Qlubb leaders, wanting to limit spam (yeah, less spam!), have wanted to make ALL their event reminders sent only to those who sign-up for tasks or who RSVP.

So today, we are giving ADMINs the ability to set the DEFAULT behavior for all their Qlubb's events. Of course, each event reminder setting can be individually set. This capability just reduces the need for the Qlubb organizer to go in and change every single event.

Below is a screen-shot of this setting on the Admin page.

uploading files and photos fixed

2009-10-05T00:32:00.000-07:00

We got around to fixing up the file/photo uploading issue.

At the same time, we added some new little fixes.

- you can now copy an event up to 20 times (yeah)
- now multi-day events appears as multi-day events on the 30-day calendar.

Yeah. it's the little things is life right? ..... well, stayed tuned, ... life is going to get much better :)

Take the hassle out of parent-teacher conference sign-ups!

2009-10-03T16:39:00.001-07:00

Back-to-school seems just like yesterday, but already some schools are planning for the year's first parent-teacher conferences. Remember the hassle of signing up for a time...

not having your personal calendar with you?
not writing down the right time?
not knowing where the sign-up sheet is?
forgetting the conference entirely! (I am guilty of missing one too many conferences myself!)
wanting to switch times with someone else, but not knowing who is going when...

This year, do something different... and organized... Put your classroom's parent-teacher conference sign-up on Qlubb. Why?

everyone can sign-up at any time (in your PJs, in front of your calendar, at home when you can discuss child-care options, in the middle of the night when the kids are not screaming, etc.)
automatic reminders will be sent to you (so no more excuses of forgetting the conference!)
changes to the time/place - you'll know
want to switch with someone else - you will know who is going when and where and how to contact them
integrate the event with your ical compatible online calendar (most calendar's these days are!)
teachers can print out the up-to-date schedule!

Make it easy for everyone (parents and teachers alike) this year. Take a look at how our demo Qlubb does it. http://smith.qlubb.com/events/47962

Sometimes it's just so easy being a classroom hero :)

issue with uploading files and photos

2009-10-03T10:16:00.000-07:00

It appears we are having issues uploading photos and files. The pop-up window appears, but clicking on the "upload" button seems to be not actually uploading the photos. We will get to this ASAP and get back to all of you. Sorry for the inconvenience.

delays via Yahoo Mail

2009-09-25T09:31:00.000-07:00

Recently, we have noticed that there has occasional delays in delivery of email to Yahoo Mail users. Eventually the email does arrive, but often the delay can be upwards of several hours. Working with Yahoo, we are looking at various ways to diagnose and remedy this situation. For our Yahoo users, rest assured that your email is not lost and will arrive, it just may not be instantaneous.

This does not seem to be a problem for our AOL, Gmail or MSN/Live users.

New email features and automatic password retrieval

2009-09-18T09:20:00.001-07:00

Today we released a few key, highly demanded features that help the way email is delivered and also automated password retrieval.

More descriptive email subject. We are now prefacing email subject lines with [Qlubb qlubbname]. This will make it easier for you to find and sort out your Qlubb-related emails from all the others in your InBox
Reply to Qlubb email behavior. Now your Qlubb admin can set how replies to Qlubb group emails behave. Your admin can set your Qlubb email to reply to ONLY the sender or to the whole Qlubb (current and default setting). This behavior is found in the Admin tab.
Automatic password retrieval. While we love to talk to our users, often all you really want is your Qlubb password and/or your Qlubb admin password. So today, we have implemented the ability to retrieve your Qlubb passwords via email. The only requirement we have is that you know the name of your Qlubb.

Let us know what you think. We listen!

We are on a tear! iCal synchronization now!

2009-09-10T00:36:00.000-07:00

But wait... there are even more new features. This morning we released iCal integration support. This means that now your group's Qlubb events can be synchronized with any of the ics-supporting calendaring systems, including iCal, Google Calendar, Yahoo Calendar, Microsoft Outlook 2000, Facebook, etc..

With our new feature, you can choose to download your Qlubb entire event calendar or you can choose to just download specific events.

You will see a link "add event to my iCalendar" - click on that link. A pop-up window will appear that opens up a Qlubb ics file. Open this file up with your calendar application - and voila.

We hope you enjoy this new feature and as always please send us your comments, suggestions to feedback (at) qlubb (dot) com.

Printing out event list and event details

2009-09-09T03:22:00.000-07:00

Once again, we listen to our users and we deliver results.

This morning ,we deployed a new feature that allows Qlubbs to print out their entire event list and a specific event details. This is useful on the day of the event, when you may not have your computer or broadband available. With this print out you can bring your Qlubb sign-up sheet to your fair, volunteer day, etc. You can create a printable view of the event by clicking on the "print out event details" link found right next to the green "Send Invite" button.

The event list printout is also useful for Qlubbs users that like to have their sports game schedule or semester events printed out and tacked to the refrigerator door. You can find the button to generate this printable event list up at the top of your main Qlubb page in the Qlubb Tools box.

Regardless of how you use our print feature, we hope you find it useful. Keep sending us great ideas! feedback at qlubb dot come

Email related issues are fixed.

2009-08-31T00:25:00.001-07:00

This weekend, we noticed a degradation of our email-related services (e.g., email confirmation, group email). We have since re-started our mail server and everything is back to normal. We are looking into why it happened and are instituting procedures to prevent this from occurring in the future.

In re-starting the server, we may lose some pending emails. We are going to be re-sending out some Qlubb creation confirmations. If you sent out email this weekend -please resend - just in case. Sorry for any inconvenience.

Help At Your Finger TIps

2009-08-26T10:18:00.000-07:00

Today, we introduced our new online help section. We've included the most commonly asked questions and the detailed answers. We will be continuously updating and adding new questions. So while we always welcome your questions and try to reply within a few hours (help at qlubb dot com), take a look here as well to see if your question has already been answered.

http://www.qlubb.com/qlubbs/help

Qlubb-er Spotlight Series - Lorna Murray, Scouting Organizer

2009-08-25T11:37:00.000-07:00

For our second Qlubb User Spotlight, I would like to introduce to you to another Super Mom-Lorna Murray, an active parent of 2 school-aged boys. She is a "master" Qlubb-user having started 6 Qlubbs to help her organize various scouting groups, for which she manages the Tiger Den Program and serves as website administrator and trainer!

Qlubb: Tell us a little a bit about yourself
I am married with two young boys, ages 7 and 5. My husband's name is Ken and we have been married for 16 1/2 years. I am very active in my children's lives; they are the world to me. I retired from my State job in February 2008 and have been busy volunteering since. I was on the executive board of the Holbrook Elementary Parent Group as Secretary for two years. I volunteered to work in the school library one day a week and as a room parent for my 7 year old's classroom this past year. I hope to do the same this year. I also volunteer in the community as a member of the Holbrook Emergency Management Agency and CERT.

Qlubb: Pick three words that best describe yourself
organized .loyal . committed (to my children, family and friends)

Qlubb: Describe how you used Qlubb in your volunteering responsibilities
I have 6 Qlubb's set up. They are for five Cub Scout Dens and one is for the Leaders of the Pack. We have Tigercubs, Wolfcubs, Bearcubs, Webelos 1, Webelos 2 and Pack 56 Qlubb. There are 12 families for the Tiger Den, 16 families for the Wolf Den, 13 families for the Bear Den, 11 families for the Webelos 1 Den, 7 families for the Webelos 2 Den and finally there are at least 12 Leaders listed so far in the Pack 56 Leaders Qlubb.

We list events and meetings on every Qlubb site. The school calendar, Scout calendar and the Den calendar are all listed on each site. [We use Qlubb for] communication and sharing event news with our groups and for planning by using the event calendar to show the group all upcoming events. We plan our Scout calendar a year in advance, so families can make their schedules without conflicts with the Scout program. This makes every Scout family very happy. Having the Qlubb website helps us generate volunteers easily.

Qlubb: What did you use before Qlubb?
We used the telephone to make lots of phone calls and a copy machine to make lots of copies of our Scout Calendar. Using the telephone meant we had to repeat ourselves multiple times to each member of the Den and we did this close to once a weeks in some cases. Having the Qlubb makes it so our members can see their Scout Calendar anytime and anywhere they need to view it. The direct emails that go out each week to remind members of their den meetings is the greatest thing ever. I love the Qlubb site very much, it makes everyone's life a lot easier.

Qlubb: What is the best part of being a volunteer? Why do you do it?
The best part is being there and watching my sons' have fun! I do it for them and for me, because seeing the smile on their faces is my reward.

Qlubb: Thank you so much for sharing your experiences with us. You certainly define the Boy Scout Motto of "Be Prepared!"

But Wait... There's More

2009-08-19T00:16:00.000-07:00

We added a new admin feature this evening that limits users' ability to delete messages. Like the other new admin features, this is a setting that can be determine and set by each Qlubb's administrator.

Thanks to our loyal users who suggested this feature. Keep 'em coming!

New admin features!

2009-08-18T09:17:00.000-07:00

Today Qlubb released new admin features that help Qlubb admins better control member access and Qlubb data/event integrity. This is especially helpful for Qlubbs that have larger number of members - this helps to ensure the integrity of the Qlubb event data as well as protect individual member's personal information. The features released today include:

admin password - in addition to specific users being designated as admins, we have added another security feature, a separate admin password. As an admin, when you click on the admin tab, a pop-up window will prompt you for the admin password. The default is "admin" - please change this ASAP.
restricting user ability to add/modify/delete events
restricting user ability to add/modify/delete tasks
restricting user access to view member info in member tab

We are very excited about this functionality which was suggested by many of our growing Qlubbs! So thanks! Questions, comments, problems send them to us.

Uploading Avatars fixed!

2009-08-13T23:05:00.000-07:00

So the uploading of avatars on the Members page is fixed. We had an issue with some permissions on the server that prevented writing to a tmp file (server side mumbo jumbo).

But either way, avatars can now be successfully updated.
sorry again for the inconvenience.

a small, mysterious bug discovered

2009-08-12T12:37:00.001-07:00

We recently discovered that _ (underscores) in Qlubb names throws Microsoft's Internet Explorer's into conniptions.

Microsoft in accordance with IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) does not support underscores in domain names (i.e. http://qlubb_name.qlubb.com). This explains why some users have reported problems with IE and not with others.

This problem only exists in IE and not with Firefox, Safari, or Chrome. So if your Qlubb has an underscore in its name, please use the non-IE browsers. However, better yet, if possible, change your Qlubb name to include dashes ("-") instead. contact help at qlubb dot com to change that.

We will be changing the code shortly to prevent the inclusion of underscores in Qlubb names going forward.

Qlubb-er Spotlight Series - Inaugural Edition, Beth Drummonds

2009-08-12T02:24:00.000-07:00

During this Back-to-School season we will be spotlighting Qlubb users who use Qlubb for a variety of groups. These users will share their experiences with Qlubb, in organizing people, and a little bit about themselves. These Spotlight Users inspire me - their energy, their dedication and their generosity are truly remarkable.

For our inaugural Qlubb User Spotlight, I would like to introduce to you to Super Mom-Beth Drummonds, an active parent of 5 (yes, you read right!). She discovered Qlubb last year and has been using Qlubb to help coordinate the activities of her Kindergartener's and 4th grader's classroom.

Qlubb: Tell us a little a bit about yourself and your life with 5 children
I am mom to 5 fabulous children from 12 years old to 3 months old. My eldest 3 are in 7th, 5th and 1st grades in Gwinnett County Schools, Suwanee, GA. A typical school year for me is being room mom for 2 or 3 of the kids, being an active PTA Board member, Girl Scout leader for 1 daughter and co-leader for the other, taking care of the school and PTA e-news weekly, getting my kids to daily activities and just trying to find time to be a mommy :)

Qlubb: Pick three words that best describe yourself
organized . focused . crazy

Qlubb: Describe how you used Qlubb in your room parenting responsibilities
As room mom, I used Qlubb for my Kindergartener’s classroom (20 students) as well as my 4th grader’s classroom (25 students). Kindergarten was full of activities from parties, to a shopping mall, apple day, Dr. Seuss activities, teacher birthdays and visits to the nearby park. The 4th grade classroom was not as taxing, but we had several needs throughout the year such as a monthly reader, colonial day and the holiday, birthday and end of the year parties.

The most complex events I organized in Qlubb were classroom parties. At Christmas we had a “shopping mall” with 5 “stores” for my 4th grader in which the children could use money they’d earned in class. We had a movie theater, candy shop, nail salon, game stop and book store. Each of these 5 stores had a “manager” and needed lots of supplies and donations. It was a lot of fun, but crazy. In Kindergarten we had a Penguin themed party with penguin snacks, penguin games, penguin costumes for everyone, etc. Qlubb really made it easy to coordinate all the pieces..

Qlubb: Why did you choose Qlubb?
Before Qlubb I would send an email with information for the parents and a list of volunteer needs or food items, craft items, etc. Then some parents would sign up by "reply all" and all 25 parents received 2,897 emails. Some of those emails were duplicates. Some parents only replied to me and signed up for something that had already been signed up for. I'd send several emails with updates, but folks were always confused. Then I would send a reminder with the final list before the event, but inevitably someone was confused or said they signed up for this or that and I didn't have them on the list or said they did NOT sign up for something and they were not prepared to get it in on time. UGH! With Qlubb, I simply add the event, date, time, needs list to my group, then send. Everyone can see what is/is not signed up for, can sign up immediately, is reminded the day before and my job is done!

Qlubb: What is the best part of being a room parent? Why do you do it?
The best part of being a room parent is being involved with my children’s education. I feel our educators see them more than I do during the school year and have a lot of influence on them, so I like to be as much a part of that as possible. I also try to help take as much of the trivial burden off our educators so they can focus on teaching. The kids at the elementary level still need time for fun and to be a kid, so that’s where I come in!

Qlubb: Any tips on being an effective room parent?
Be organized . Be concise . Have fun.

Qlubb: Thanks Beth, you are amazing. You must not sleep. Can we have you as a room parent this year?

Back to School Again!

2009-08-12T01:56:00.000-07:00

I can hardly believe it myself - Back to School season has come upon again (wasn't it just yesterday I was choosing swimsuits for the kids?). This season not only comprises new lunchboxes, uniforms, and new procedures, it also marks the start of the school volunteering season. (groan....)

We here at Qlubb want to make it easier for parents to volunteer and participate in their children's schools and activities (hooray!). Since launching last year, we now have tens of thousands of users who use Qlubb to manage classrooms, PTA/PTOs, scout troops, youth sports, etc. We understand that busy parents need a simple solution - and the only one designed for school and child-related groups is Qlubb.

Back-to-School Referral Contest
Every week, through the end of September, we will be giving away two, ecofriendly lunch systems from citizenpip. To enter, all you have to do is refer Qlubb to a friend. You get one entry for every referral email. To enter, click here! We will announce our 2 weekly winners every Tuesday.

We will be scheduling maintenance at 3am PDT

2009-08-12T00:14:00.000-07:00

We will be scheduling some server maintenance at 3am PDT. We expect it to last 30 minutes. Thanks for your patience.

Change in default messages behavior

2009-08-11T07:09:00.001-07:00

In the past we viewed our Messages tab of a bulletin board of sorts - a place where people can post notes and such to others. However, we have received feedback from many users that they wanted the default to also send these notes to the group via email.

We resisted because we wanted to reduce email being sent to users. However, after many months of usage and feedback, we hear ya! Now, you will notice that when you post a message from the Message tab, the "email the group" checkbox will be by default CHECKED. In other words, messages posted on will be also by default sent out.

If you want to reduce email volumes, then you of course can still uncheck the box and it will only get posted to the Message boards.

Keep sending in your feedback - our ears are open!

Photos Phixed!

2009-08-11T06:05:00.000-07:00

Photo uploading has been fixed. We apologize for the inconvenience!