QlubbHouse - News, Events, Updates

Email verification notice

2011-12-07T15:37:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we released a new feature that helps Qlubb administers see whether or not their members have verified their emails. Remember to send emails to the Qlubb you must first confirm the email.

On the Members tab, members who have verified will have a green "Email verified" under the member's name.

If the member has not verified his/her email, it will display a "Email not verified" in red

We hope you like this feature and hold on tight there are more features soon.

Back to School - with New Features

2011-08-16T17:10:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone!

It's August and it's back-to-school. We've been busy this summer rev-ving up the site and we have a lot more to add! But for now, as you get your PTAs and classrooms ready for another year of volunteers, events, parties, fundraisers, Qlubb has some new features that we hope will make it even easier (as if that were even possible!)

- Printable 30-day calendar. Yes, we have this now! Just go to either the Calendar tab or the 30-day view, and click on the "PRINT THIS MONTH" link and print out the month calendar.

- We also fixed the pesky problem of HTML emails formatting funny. So now all you Outlook email users won't have to deal with all the funny garbled text.

- For you Enterprise users (if you are managing a whole school with many classrooms, Enterprise is the choice for you (upgrade in your admin screen), we are giving you now the ability to send an email to everyone in your Qlubb Enterprise network - that means from the "mothership" you can send emails to all the members in all the sub-Qlubbs with one click! Yes, it is now that easy to talk to everyone! This can be found in the Messages tab.

The button on the left sends it to just the mothership, the button on the right sends it to all the sub-Qlubbs (classroom) attached to the mothership (PTA)

That's all for now, but there will be more coming in the pipeline so stayed tuned and keep Qlubb-in!

Teacher Appreciation Week (May 2- May 6): Thanking All the Mrs. Gimmeys

2011-04-25T20:20:00.000-07:00

I vividly remember Mrs. Gimmey from 1^st grade. Tall, smart, kind. But, man, did she know how to control 18 six year olds. She new “everything” about the Bill of Rights and could read a mean James and the Giant Peach with ALL the various bug voices. I was a new student transferring into a new school mid-year and she was the calming and reassuring presence I needed to feel comfortable and excited about this new environment.

On the week of May 2, we will be celebrating our children’s “Mrs. Gimmey”s – all the teachers who inspire, comfort and educate us. Regardless of where you stand on the private vs. public vs. charter debate, at the end of the day, we, as parents, are trusting our children’s formative years to these influential professionals.

So whether your school is organizing a big luncheon (as many of you are on Qlubb), a teacher's breakfast or just writing a homemade thank you card, remember your teachers on this Teacher Appreciation Week.

Share your teacher appreciation stories in the comment section below – we’ll pick a few to send out in our next newsletter.

Need help on how to organize Teacher Appreciation Week events, check out some sample sign-up sheets, reminders, events on our demo Qlubb http://smith.qlubb.com.

Check out our Teacher Appreciation Week

Breakfast http://smith.qlubb.com/events/165604
Luncheon: http://smith.qlubb.com/events/165606
Student Flower Bouquets http://smith.qlubb.com/events/165605

New feature: ability to add comments to task volunteers

2011-02-03T01:10:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year! Now that the holidays are over we are back organizing Spring events (e.g., galas, carnivals, teacher appreciation, Chinese New Year, Easter,...). Things look busier than ever.

Today we released a new feature that allows task volunteers to add a short (20-character) note alongside their name/email.

To enable this capability, simply click on the "Allow volunteer comment" box when you create a task. This will enable volunteers to add their own comment to the side of their name.

The comment field is limited to 20 characters which is enough for a phone number, a dish name, an allergy, etc.. The comments will also appear on the printed report.

We hope you enjoy this new feature. Let us know what you think.

Holiday Upgrades!

2010-12-16T10:55:00.000-08:00

In this season of giving, we released new functionality this morning that we hope will make your holidays and new year more organized!

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1) Ability to automatically change your Qlubb name.
Spelled the Qlubb name wrong? Need to change the name to reflect a change in members? Now you can rename it automatically via the ADMIN tab. Super simple.

The very first field on the ADMIN tab is the Qlubb name. To change the name, simple type in the name you want in the field and press the Update button at the bottom of that section).

Once you have changed the name, Qlubb will kick you out of your Qlubb and bring you to the www.qlubb.com page with a message confirming of the change. Qlubb will send you an email notifying you of the change.

You can then just simply go to the new URL http://newqlubbname.qlubb.com. The password remains the same.

Please note that by changing the Qlubb name, you have changed two things: 1) the URL (http://newqlubbname.qlubb.com) and 2) the email list is now newqlubbname@qlubb.com. But everything else is the same (password, data, events, etc.)

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2) Qlubb Footer added to every email

At the bottom of every email sent to your Qlubb (for example qlubbname@qlubb.com) will be a footer with your Qlubbname and the ability to unsubscribe. We hope this will 1) encourage folks to go to your Qlubb to see what is going on and how to help and 2) make it easier for folks who don't want to receive your group email.

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3) Linking Homepage Image to URL
At the top of your Qlubb home page, your logo is now linkable to another URL. That means that when the user clicks on the image, it will open up a new window with the destination URL. To set this up, go to the ADMIN tab and fill in the "link logo image to URL:" - by default it will go to your main Qlubb home page. Again, please remember to click on the "update" button.

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4) Re-assigning photos to different albums/events

Now photos can be reorganized into different albums/events. Go to the specific photo page and you will see a new pull-down menu with all the Qlubbs events. To move the photo to a different album/event just simple pick the target event. That's it.

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5) Long Sign-Up Sheets
In the past, we split up long sign-up sheets into multiple pages. However, many of you discovered that people did not navigate beyond the first page and so we now have removed the pagination. Long sign-up sheets are now just that, long but all on the same page.

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6) Automatic Qlubb Deactivation

If for any reason you need to deactivate your Qlubb, you can now do it by yourself via the ADMIN tab.

Simply click on the deactivate button, share with us some brief feedback and SUBMIT. You will be then logged out of your Qlubb and an email will be sent to you confirming of your deactivation. Once you deactivate your Qlubb, you will no longer have access to the data, the email list, the calendar, etc.. So please make sure you want to do this!

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7) Photo rotation

Now you can rotate your photos! Click on the icon next to the photo label. Each time you click on it, the image will rotate clockwise 90 degrees.

There are more updates on the way... but for now Happy Holidays.

Some Qlubbs users received duplicate messages...

2010-11-22T22:17:00.001-08:00

We noticed that some Qlubb email users were receiving duplicate messages. We are looking into this problem now - so our apologies for the duplicates.

New Features

2010-11-18T13:21:00.000-08:00

We recently pushed out some new features into Qlubb. Here are some of the details of the new features.
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(All Qlubbs)DRAFT events are now visible to both the event creator AND the admin. This will make it easier easier for event coordinators and administrators to work together to organize events.

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(Enterprise Qlubbs)Motherships can now share their events with selected sub-Qlubbs. In the past, when a mothership creates an event, it automatically gets published to all the sub-Qlubbs. Now, with this new ability to select specific sub-Qlubbs for sharing, when a Mothership Qlubb event is created, the Mothership needs to do an additional step of SHARING it. After creating the new event, you need to press SHARE to publish it to sub-Qlubbs. You can choose whether 1) share it to all the sub-Qlubbs or 2) share it to selective sub-Qlubbs.

As before, once it is shared, the mothership event will automatically appear in the designated sub-Qlubbs (without admin approval).

Mea Culpa - Our Apologies on the Event Bug

2010-11-16T19:36:00.000-08:00

We goofed.

Yesterday morning, Monday at 5am PST, we pushed a new, version of Qlubb out to our users. This new version included the ability for admins to also view DRAFT events and also some Enterprise Qlubb features. In our urgency, we inadvertently introduced a bug into the system that caused our event pages not to show up.

We were able to pinpoint the problem and solve the problem earlier this morning, but not before many of you were frustrated by the problem and the lack of communication about the fix. Mea culpa. I am very sorry the problem occurred yesterday, especially as many of you are in the midst of planning holiday events.

We have put into place new policies that will improve the communication with you - making sure we update Facebook, Twitter and our corporate blog immediately. We have also put into place new deployment policies that will enhance the quality and stability of our code before we push it out to you.

Sophia - Qlubb CEO

Why do you volunteer?

2010-11-02T13:06:00.000-07:00

Since September 1, Qlubb users have organized over 25,000 events! We, here at Qlubb, are floored by the amount of passion and energy by our community.

We want to know what makes you tick. What drives you to volunteer? What do you get out of it.

Take a few minutes to share with us your thoughts on volunteering. Take our Survey today! We'll share our results next week.

Thanks,
Qlubb Team

problem with sending out messages

2010-10-14T03:43:00.000-07:00

Users are experiencing errors when sending emails via the Messages tab. We are working to getting this fixed soon.

An easy workaround is to send email to your group via qlubbname@qlubb.com using your regular email client (not via the Messages Tab). This is a very reliable method of sending email to your Qlubb members.

Messages will still get archived in the Messages tab.

We are working to get this fixed as soon as possible.

New features and server upgrade

2010-10-13T16:26:00.000-07:00

Things have been a bit hectic here at Qlubb - but in a good sense. Usage is WAAAY up which means that over the past few weeks you may have experienced a few more "oops" errors than you would have liked - too many people hitting our servers. So last week, we upgraded our servers so performance should be faster and more reliable. Please let us know what you think.

This week, we also released two new features:
1) the ability to disable regular members from editing Qlubb description fields found on your Qlubb's main page. By default, we allow members to edit this but you can easily turn this off by going to your Qlubb Admin tab and unchecking the box

2) the ability to save an event as "DRAFT" - This option makes it easier for event organizers to setup and completely organize a future event before regular members can view it and start volunteering. Now when you create an event, you have the option to 1) "ADD" it directly to the calendar (like before) or 2) "Save as DRAFT" which will be visible only by the event creator and will not be viewable until it is "PUBLISH"-ed.

Draft events will appear in gray on your calendar list and can not be emailed or sent to other members.

To publish, just go into the event page and click on the publish button next to the event name.

There are more features coming, so stayed tuned and keep sending in your comments.

Get the Most Out of Your Qlubb: Join Our Free Webinars Next Week.

2010-09-17T01:59:00.000-07:00

We want to invite Qlubb users to a few webinars next week that will help you learn more about how Qlubb can help organize groups - both big AND small.

We will be hosting several 30-minute webinars next week to help you jump start your coordination activities.
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"Room Parenting Made Simple" webinar - how to create a Qlubb, create sign-up sheets, create a recurring event, calendaring, emailing, etc.. This is great for 1st time users and experienced users alike.

MORNING WEBINAR: Tuesday, September 21 at 10am PDT

EVENING WEBINAR: Thursday, September 23 at 7pm PDT

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"Qlubb Enterprise" webinar - learn how Qlubb's newest offering helps organize larger organizations with multiple sub-groups (schools, scout councils, PTAs, sports leagues)

Wednesday, September 22 at 10am PDT

New Event UI + Google Map Integration

2010-08-27T12:00:00.000-07:00

This morning, we released a new UI for our event page. With the increased amount of functionality (especially with Enterprise Qlubb) and data now being presented on the page, we felt it was getting a little cluttered and frankly stale.

You will also notice that events now have Google Maps integration with an event location.

Try out our new UI and let us know what you think.

Qlubb Instructional DIY Videos

2010-08-25T04:07:00.000-07:00

For the past several weeks, we have been hosting regular weekly webinars for new users - "Room Parenting Made Simple." These 30-minute webinars are a great way to quickly get up to speed on how to organize your volunteers.

But still many of you have been unable to make these webinars and wanted some type of quick tutorial to help them get started.

Well, your wish is our command. Today, we are releasing Qlubb DIY videos. Each video is less than 3 minutes long and quickly goes through a different aspect of the Qlubb service.

The first five DIY videos are:
1) How to create a Qlubb

2) How to create an event and sign-up sheet

3) How to create a recurring task and event

4) How to create a poll and copy a task and its details

5) Volunteer reports and basic Admin settings

Check them out and let us know what you think!

New Help Community

2010-08-10T00:01:00.000-07:00

Today we released our new help community from Get Satisfaction. With our growing user base, we wanted to tap your expertise in helping the greater Qlubb community answer questions, post suggestions and just share your experiences.

We have received so many cool ideas in the past year through our help@qlubb.com and feedback@qlubb.com, we felt it was a shame not to share it with the rest of you.

So as of today, our http://www.qlubb.com/qlubbs/help now gets redirected to our Get Satisfaction page. If you have a question, please check Get Satisfaction first. If you can't find the answer, post a question and we will answer it online.

However, if you have an issue that is specific to your Qlubb, your email ID, etc... please send it to help@qlubb.com - we want to keep your info private!

Qlubb Experts Speak: 5+1 Room Parenting Tips

2010-08-06T08:34:00.001-07:00

We recently asked our 60,000 users to share their room parenting experiences and we were overwhelmed with the response. For most of the surveyers, being a room parent exceeded their expectations and a large number of Qlubb users have been room parents more than 5 times!

With so many experts in the Qlubb community, we thought we would share some of their best tips on being an effective room parent.

Communicate regularly with the teacher - meet weekly to plan out upcoming events and volunteer needs.
Communicate regularly with other parents - keep parents in the loop and informed on how to help.
Use a centralized website to coordinate activities and to reduce email traffic (www.qlubb.com)
Coordinate thoughtful group gifts - they don't have to cost money but can be homemade gifts your class make together (e.g., cookie basket, jar of notes).
Start and plan early - give parents the opportunity to plan their volunteering into their busy schedules

AND
Smile - everyone appreciates a positive, can-do attitude: teachers, children, and parents (even the difficult ones!)

Room Parenting Made Simple Evening Webinar

Many of you have wanted to attend our regular Room Parenting Made Simple Webinars but couldn't make the mid-morning times. Well, we are listening and we are scheduling our new webinar to be next Monday at 7pm PDT (10pm PDT). Register here

Welcome Center'd Plan users

2010-08-02T12:24:00.000-07:00

This past weekend, Center'd and Qlubb reached a partnership in which Qlubb would migrate and transfer existing Center'd plans over to Qlubb. The partnership was formed as a result of Center'd strategic decision to focus its efforts upon their new local deal aggregation service. www.thedealmap.com.

We, here at Qlubb, welcome Center'd plan users to Qlubb and want to make the transition as smooth and painless as possible. So if you are a Center'd plan user and have a plan you would like to transfer over, please fill out this form and we will automatically transfer the details/sign-up sheets over. http://www.qlubb.com/centerd_transfer.

Of course, Center'd users can also create their own Qlubbs from scratch by going to www.qlubb.com or www.qlubb.com/centerd_new - either one works.

We are holding two special webinars for Center'd users to help them with the transition. If you are interested, please register here....

Thursday, Aug 5 at 10am PDT https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/781032921
Wednesday, Aug 11 at 10am PDT https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/896793784

So once again, welcome Center'd users and let us know if you have any questions.

Sometimes When Sh*t Hits the Fan, All You Can Do Is Sit Back and Avoid the Splatter

2010-07-20T19:10:00.000-07:00

Early this morning, we saw a bit of instability at Qlubb. We checked around our servers, our Amazon EC2 and saw nothing unusual. We quickly learned that the DNS servers at our DNS hosting service, Mydomain.com, had all (including redundant and backup servers) failed, a victim of a sophisticated DOS (denial of service) attack.

Though the service appeared to come back mid-morning, it was temporary. Our team discussed potentially redirecting our domain to a different DNS host provider. Though straightforward for simple websites, moving to a new DNS host provider mid-day was likely to introduce even more problems given the integrated way Qlubb's functionality is all tightly integrated with the DNS (e.g., mail server, our domain mapping functionality, other Qlubb services). So we decided to stay put, hoping that mydomain.com would quickly re-stabilize their services.

Six, seven, eight, nine, ten hours later... we are finally up. I apologize that Qlubb was unavailable today as I know thousands of you rely on our service to organize your group activities. However, rest assured we are planning to deploy a secondary DNS server to avoid this type of scenario (though rare) in the future.

Looking back, I am glad we did not attempt to move to another DNS service provider as it would have opened a whole new can of worms. But it certainly wasn't comfortable watching the sh*t hit the fan...

Good night.

mydomain.com is down and out... and so it Qlubb

2010-07-20T12:47:00.000-07:00

Early this morning, we noticed that we were unable to get onto www.qlubb.com or any of our Qlubbs. We quickly realized that the problem was not in our court but rather with our DNS provider (Mydomain.com). Apparently all their DNS servers went down due to malicious attacks (or so they say). Around 8am, things appeared to be resolved, and www.qlubb.com was back up. However, about two hours ago, we noticed that browsers could not resolve www.qlubb.com.

We have been in contact with mydomain.com and they are aware of this widespread issue and are attempting (albeit rather unsuccessfully) to fix this problem as quickly as possible. Let's hope they don't resolve to golf balls, sand, old tires and mud.

We will let you know when it is stable and fixed. We are also looking into alternative/backups DNS providers to avoid this problem going forward.

Again, we apologize for any inconveniences you may have experienced.

Let mydomain know you want this fixed ASAP via twitter. http://twitter.com/mydomaindotcom

Roomparenting Made Simple Webinars

2010-07-14T16:26:00.000-07:00

Being a roomparent is one of the greatest privilege (yes, privilege) of being a parent. And with severe budget cuts, overstretched teachers, and larger classroom sizes, roomparents are now more important than ever! Your impact will be even greater!

Forget all the horror stories you have heard and read about being a roomparent - that was SOOOO pre-Qlubb! No more chasing down volunteers, no more post-its and email chains, no more paper sign-up sheets, no more uninformed/clueless parents! And remember, Qlubb is free for classrooms and roomparents!

Join us for a quick 30-minute webinar on how to make roomparenting easier for EVERYONE- the roomparent (you), the teacher, and the other parents.

create a classroom calendar
organize classroom volunteers
share photos/files
setup email lists
setup polls
plan holiday parties
setup classroom to-do lists
answer any questions you may have...

We will be holding webinars EVERY Monday at 10am. Sign-up today and spread the word!

ROOMPARENTING MADE SIMPLE - WEBINAR TIMES

Mon, Jul 19, 2010 10:00 AM - 10:30 AM PDT

Mon, Jul 26, 2010 10:00 AM - 10:30 AM PDT

Mon, Aug 2, 2010 10:00 AM - 10:30 AM PDT

Mon, Aug 9, 2010 10:00 AM - 10:30 AM PDT

Mon, Aug 16, 2010 10:00 AM - 10:30 AM PDT

Mon, Aug 23, 2010 10:00 AM - 10:30 AM PDT

Mon, Aug 30, 2010 10:00 AM - 10:30 AM PDT

Mon, Sep 6, 2010 10:00 AM - 10:30 AM PDT

Mon, Sep 13, 2010 10:00 AM - 10:30 AM PDT

Mon, Sep 20, 2010 10:00 AM - 10:30 AM PDT

Mon, Sep 27, 2010 10:00 AM - 10:30 AM PDT

No more problems with Users

2010-07-07T01:23:00.001-07:00

Earlier this evening, we encountered some lost User email information. We have since fixed it and all has returned to normal.

If you notice some members email assigned to info@qlubb.com, please let us know (send an email to help@qlubb.com).

ERROR IN USERS INFO

2010-07-06T17:42:00.000-07:00

There has been an error in our User table - you will see many of your users set at info@qlubb.com - we are fixing this as we speak. We apologize for any errors you experience.

Sorry for an inconvenience.

Learn More about Qlubb

2010-06-09T09:44:00.001-07:00

Exciting things are happening at Qlubb.

Qlubb is holding 2 webinars in June.

Qlubb 101 - Wednesday June 16 at 10am PDT.
https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/432833681
Learn how to quickly start your Qlubb - organize events, create sign-up sheets, create recurring events, and simply make your group management MUCH easier.

Register here https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/432833681

Qlubb Enterprise Sneak Preview - Wednesday June 23 at 10am PDT
https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/617873809
Already a Qlubb user, but looking to organize a group of Qlubbs - perhaps a PTA, church, scout council, mother's group with playgroups... This is the webinar for you. Learn about how the Enterprise solution will help you organize a group of groups with event sharing, event and calendar templates, and group hierarchies.

Register here https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/617873809

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week: Day 2

2010-05-03T22:49:00.000-07:00

Today is the second day of Teachers Appreciation Week and we will be sharing another story on how schools around the country are celebrating their teacher's indefatigable energy.

Like many schools around the country, College Park Elementary School is hosting a breakfast for teachers. But to spice the usual breakfast pastries and bagels up, parents are also hosting omelet and belgian waffle stations. With portable stoves and a variety of chopped omelet favorites (ham, peppers, cheese, onions, tomatoes, avocados, bacon), parents will be preparing custom omelets for teachers. The belgian waffle station will make belgian waffles on order to be topped with whipped cream, powdered sugar, Nutella, maple syrup and jam.

What is your school doing this week? Share your story.

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week: Day 1

2010-05-03T04:28:00.001-07:00

May 3- May 7 is Teacher Appreciation Week.

Each day this week, we will be sharing how various Qlubbs are celebrating the Herculean efforts of our nation's teachers.

At MacArthur Elementary school, each teacher will be receiving a glass vase in which students can place real and handmade flowers all week.

In addition the PTA will be organizing a breakfast on Monday. On Tuesday, the children will wear their teacher's favorite color. On Wednesday, the teachers will be treated to a Cinco de Mayo luncheon. On Thursday, all teachers will receive a variety of snack foods and on Friday, they will get treated with ice cream!

How is your school celebrating Teacher Appreciation Week? Share with us!