Getting to Yes:

Quick explanation. A link means your group is connected to a website. That's good. A Feed means your group is connected to a website that delivers information when it changes. Examples of websites with feeds: Blogs, Google Calendar, Youtube.
Using a site with a feed is better.

If you see this

symbol on the page, then the website has a feed. This is sometimes also called RSS. That's geek speak for the same thing.

You don't need to worry about this, just spend a few minutes below and set up a blog, and you'll be all set.

Red Rover is designed to let you organize and communicate with your group using any online tool you like.

All you do is just copy the link of the website you are using in the upper left of your Red Rover page, so it will eventually look like this:

While you are free to use whatever you like, we recommend starting with a blog. Here's an example from the group shown above.

Why a blog? (And why is this better than a Facebook Group?) A few reasons:

1) Your blog content can be put anywhere, making it more likely people will find it and join your group
2) Your blog can connect you with other leaders of similar groups so you can work together and
3) Blogs make it easy to leave a history of your group's activities so other folks can learn from you.

If you don't already have a blog, or a blog preference, try:

http://www.tumblr.com

You'll be set up in a minute, then add the link, i.e. http://UAchessclub.tumblr.com, to your group page. Then you're all set!

Soon, as more leaders use more of these types of tools, we'll start connecting you to similar leaders at similar schools.

A blog may be enough for your group. If you are really trying to get some stuff done, or change the world in an important way, you're going to need some of the additional power tools listed below.

Plug in as many as you want, Red Rover can handle it : )

Think of the Red Rover group page as an aggregater or a digital home for consolidating all of your group's activities. The goal is to let a potential member of your group see what is going on. If they can watch for a bit, they are more likely to jump in.

This page is a collection of group tools recommended by group leaders from around the country. If you have a group tool you love, add it to the suggestion list.

What to do you need to do?

ORGANIZE

COMMUNICATE

PLAN

SHARE FILES

COLLABORATE

PROMOTE

ORGANIZE

Quick Get: An online private group collaboration and task management tool.

URL: http://www.basecamphq.com

Tour: http://www.basecamphq.com/tour

Value:

Manage multiple events/projects and people with one account
Assign user roles to limit view to specific projects
Export to RSS
Set alerts and goals

Misses:

Not free
Without updating, site gets old
Can't find the group through searching online

Cost: from $24/month > http://www.basecamphq.com/signup

Examples: (coming soon)

Back To List

Quick Get: A private online space to share updates, ideas, files, photos, and to do lists.

URL: http://sites.google.com/

Red Rover video highlights: http://vimeo.com/1315131

Value:

Make public, private, or only visible to individuals at YOUR institution.
Choose from a variety of useful page types (e.g. blog, to-do-list, contact list, file sharing).
Embed widgets, video, images, and audio.
Easily track page changes.

Misses:

Tracking changes can be annoying because you receive updates for ever tiny change made.
Change updates sent to email rather than RSS.
Has a relatively small number of themes.

Cost: FREE

Tour: http://www.google.com/sites/overview.html (see examples on the site overview page)

Back To List

COMMUNICATE

Quick Get: A public/private communication tool allowing you to connect with the majority of your members in the most effective way (since Facebook is their #1 social site).

URL: http://www.facebook.com

Value:

Most group members are already on Facebook
Mobile photo uploads of events
Message board
Group leaders can easily send a message to all members.

Misses:

Hard to recruit members and find school groups within Facebook
Mixed with other groups of same name at different schools
Group updates hardly get noticed by members
Have to be on Facebook

Cost: FREE

Examples: (coming soon)

Back To List

Quick Get: Send, receive, and review messages with your group and to your group calendar.

URL: http://www.jott.com

Value:

Send text, voice, and/or email message to your entire group with just one quick and free phone call.
Add items to your group's calendar with one quick phone call.
Review all your messages and reminders on the site.
Set reminders for yourself and receive alarm text messages and email.

Misses:

Can add items to calendar but can't call in to listen to items currently on calendar.
If group members get too Jott happy, you may end up receiving too many text messages.

Cost: FREE

Example: http://jott.com/jott/jott-to-group.html

Back To List

PLAN

Quick Get: A public/private online group calender for organizing daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly activities.

URL: http://www.calendar.google.com

Red Rover video highlights: http://www.vimeo.com/1448846

Value:

Embed/publish calendar to website/blog etc.
Make public or private
Can manage multiple calendars on one account
Set alerts for upcoming events

Misses:

Have to have a gmail account
Have to be invited to the calendar in order to edit it

Cost: FREE

Tour: http://www.google.com/intl/en/googlecalendar/tour.html

Examples: (coming soon)

Back To List

SHARE FILES

Quick Get: A public/private online group manager with wikipages, files, discussions, and list-serve.

URL: http://www.groups.google.com

Value:

Simple, convenient place to store files, ideas, and hold discussions.
Has wiki-pages
Built-in list-serve, which tracks messages
Color and other customization options

Misses:

Have to have a gmail account
Doesn't automatically have calendar integrated

Cost: FREE

Examples: Clark Sustainability Initiative

Tour: http://groups.google.com/intl/en/googlegroups/tour3/index.html#?lnk=hptt

Back To List

COLLABORATE

Quick Get: A simple-to-build (optional public/private) website used for information you need viewed and easily edited by multiple people. Think Wikipedia for smaller groups. For example, the page you are looking at right now is a wikispace.
A great video introduction to a "wiki space"

URL: http://www.wikispaces.com

Red Rover video highlights: http://www.vimeo.com/1449342

Value: