There are a lot of resources available for groups to use to help them become online. However, while most of the US population is online and increasingly Internet savvy, the difficulty in using these available resources either as a leader or as a member make them prohibitive. Some of the resources available are both easy and free or at least cost a nominal amount. In the interest of full disclosure, I work for Qlubb which is geared specifically towards helping clubs and groups get online. I discuss getting online in general, some of which overlaps with what Qlubb does and some which does not. In the rest of this article, I don’t specifically mention Qlubb and I also will list some vendors and suggestions so hopefully this will be useful for any club member or leader to help them get online.
Why go online?
There’s no question that the Internet has done wonders for just about anything. Businesses are more productive, individuals are more productive. Groups and clubs can also similarly be more productive by finding the right solutions based upon their needs. Getting online can not only help promote your club but also help you save significant time – allowing you to focus on the aspects of the club that need you the most or the ones that you find most enjoyable.
Groups need to collaborate, they need to communicate, they need to inform, they need to share – these are all things that can be done well by the computer. There are many “virtual groups” that are doing this already – by connecting people with disparate interests so that they can broadcast information to each other. A quick peruse of Yahoo Groups or social sites like Ning have tools for virtual groups. There are a huge number of startup companies that are trying to address the virtual group needs.
Real World Groups
For real world groups, they have a different need. While clearly they have some of the same needs as virtual groups – such as the need to communicate, inform, share, etc. they also need to accomplish real world tasks. These include:
-- Coordinating real world activities (like events, activities, etc.). Solutions range from Evite for invitations and managing RSVP’s to 37signals for lightweight project management.
-- Maintaining a roster or members (unlike virtual and anonymous avatars from virtual groups). There are very solutions in this range, presumably due to privacy. Most often, this is done through a password protected web page, or through a spreadsheet. Using a spreadsheet is not the ideal solution because it can get out of date quickly. If you pass around the spreadsheet, you have to know who has the “master copy”. Otherwise you can quickly have multiple versions of the roster floating around each with a different set of names.
-- Publishing a public website (for informational and recruitment purposes). There are many startup companies that will help you publish a public web page. While these solutions are easy to use for technical savvy people, they require some effort for those who are not used to putting together a user interface.
-- Maintain a central place for private information (calendar of events, resource page, etc.) so that members can “pull” the information and publish them when they want to. An increasingly popular form of technology used here are “wiki’s” which essentially allow anybody within the group to edit the pages. It provides the ultimate in self-management since everybody can edit anything to their desire. Archived copies of pages are stored so that you can always get back to a previous copy of the site in case somebody accidentally deletes something or made a comment they shouldn’t have. Sites like Pbwiki have nice wiki solutions however, note that for groups that don’t have much technical expertise, it might be a leap. The concept of editing pages for web publishing is foreign to many people but once they get the hang of it, it’s easy.
-- Managing finances (for accounting and tax reasons). Often this is done with standard, off-the-shelf accounting software, such as Quickbooks.
-- Collecting money either from members or donors. There are a few startup vendors that are providing solutions directly in this space. Paypal is a common payment system solution but does have a significant fee for each transaction.
There are a number of other solutions needed for some groups like chat, bulletin boards, classifieds, document hosting, etc. There are many resources on the web that discuss the best solutions in these areas.
Determining the Right Solution
Club members historically don’t have much time or patience to even evaluate new solutions. Clubs typically don’t have budget for solutions to help them get the job done.
If you are lucky, you have a webmaster or a software developer in your group who can help put the group online. The difficulty though is the maintenance of the solution, which in most cases far exceeds the cost of putting it online. In addition, the webmaster then becomes the bottleneck for all further updates to the site. Most groups do not have that skill set in their group (or the person may not have the time to devote to putting something together).
The new SaaS (software as a service) models are great for many groups and clubs because it requires no computers to “host” or install the software. Everything can be accessible from a browser anywhere in the world – which significantly reduces cost, time and overhead. There are software solutions that can be purchased that address the above needs, however, the cost of purchasing and installing, hosting in a datacenter and maintaining the software must be considered.
Finding an easy to use solution that is either free or costs very little is critical for many groups. Understanding not only the upfront costs (in money, time to evaluate, etc) but the ongoing costs (configuration costs, maintenance costs, etc.) are just as important if not more important. In many cases, the upfront cost is just the tip of the proverbial iceburg.
Keep in mind there is also a “user cost” as well that must be considered. Just because there’s a solution you have rolled out doesn’t mean people will use it. In general you can “push” or “pull” members to use new technologies. The best strategy for most people is a combination of both – just enough imperiousness to force the solution on members while providing clear benefits for members to accomplish their motivations. A little social engineering is always needed to effect change.
In summary
Getting online can really help the group flourish, be more efficient and be more effective. Almost every group starts off with an email group which is a smart and easy thing to do to get communicating. Yahoo Groups and Google Groups provide some good functionality in this area. Most groups stay at this level. Look at some of the features of YahooGroups and Google Groups – some of this might be interesting but do require an investment of time to learn them and make them work for you.
As the group’s needs increase, easy solutions such as the ones listed above are available to help you scale your group to get a private and public website and to use it to help inform, coordinate and even collaborate. As in the business and personal world, technology can be used to not only help remove barriers and pave increased efficiency but also to help enrich the group experience.
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