Do you have a lot of great ideas for ways that your chapter can reach your college campus, but struggle with how to make your ideas more concrete? With everyone’s schedule being different it can be difficult to manage the planning process of events you want to do on campus, nearly impossible to schedule a servant/leader team meeting, among other things. Here are a few free, online tools that will help your chapter be more productive and efficient in its planning, scheduling, and communicating with the members of your campus chapter.
1. Doodle
Easily see the availability of your group for meetings, events, fundraisers, etc or assist your group in making a decision. Using Doodle, you can send out links to all those involved and once they complete the form with their availability, the administrator can view everyone’s availability and choose the time that works best for all those involved. Visit their website to try it out!
2. Manymoon
The makers of Manymoon define it as a “social productivity tool that makes it simple to get work done online. You can use Manymoon for whatever you need to accomplish: launching a new product, planning an event or building a house”. Delegate assignments to the various members of your team and see your productivity increase dramatically.
3. Dropbox
Join Dropbox and have access to your files anywhere. With a free account you get 2GB of Dropbox with subscriptions up to 100 GB. Share files easily between members of your chapter, store them safely online, and have access to them anywhere on or off campus.
4. Gmail
This tool is more than just an email account. Help your chapter manage its email distributions, documents, calendar, and other things using Gmail that can then be shared with the members of your chapter and leadership team. Centralize all the information your chapter has in one place, using a Gmail account specifically for your chapter that will remain in place when leaders graduate.
5. SurveyMonkey
This easy-to-use web-based survey tool allows you to collect data via weblink, email, Facebook, or through an embed survey on your site or blog. SurveyMonkey allows you to easily get feedback from your chapter students and others about possible event ideas, interesting topics they would like to discuss, or other things that may be helpful to your chapter.
6. Facebook
Social media is a fast-growing place to communicate with students on your campus. Use Facebook and other social media sites to communicate with the students on your campus personally as well as communicate what your chapter is doing. Think about creating a Facebook Page or Group for your chapter that will allow you to easily distribute information across your campus about what is up and coming for your chapter. It is also important to use these tools to develop individual relationships with the students on your campus. Remember that personal invites are greatly more effective than mass communications!
Do you have some other online tools that you worked well for you? Share those tools with the rest of us! Comment below the tools and ideas that you have used in your personal life and/or with you campus chapter.
