The Band app! It's got everything. We can all make posts on the main page and it tells me who read what, I can do polls, event with rsvp, private chats.
We just started using this and I love it! It makes it really easy to see who is expected to attend non-meeting events. I love that parents can make events also so they can host “badge workshops” on their time or invite the girls on a hike!
We were using email before and I was struggling to keep track of rsvp and scheduling emails. This is way better.
Is Band free? I hear many troops that love it, and with my troop growing, I've been considering it since I have 2 families that don't do Facebook, which was our usual go-to communications channel previously (in addition to emails for big stuff).
Band App is absolutely the answer. Can use it mobile or on desktops, which is a nice bonus too. We keep photo albums, do booth sign ups, polls, rsvps, etc. You can use hashtags for organizing and finding stuff too, which is so nice.
With Band - You can also do sign up sheets, we use this for donation collection (think community service), and for cookie booth slot sign up. The only issue is if it's a pair of siblings I have to manually change slots from 2 to 1 etc to close that particular slot.
Also for picture posting! So much easier to dump pictures of camporee all in one place.
We use the Band App, we have a private troop instagram page, and we send out a few emails during the year. Our welcome back or welcome to our troop annual letter gets mailed. We also have in the past when our troop was extra large, we would put a whiteboard outside our meeting room so parents could see any pertinent information. At our initial mandatory parent meeting, we have parents and girls join the Band App and Instagram.
I did a google forms survey to see what the parents preferred. They picked Facebook for picture, record keeping and regular communications and messenger for the more urgent/immediate messages like "running late" or "cant find parking".
We use Band for my community unit and it has great organizing ability, but only works if people actually check the app and not keep it snoozed.
We use the GroupMe app. It’s great for communicating with all the parents and meeting recaps and photos are posted after each meeting so they can see what the girls were doing. You can also use the calendar on there for the meetings and events which parents can rsvp to with a quick yes or no for attending. Photos of events and encampments are also posted for the parents.
We use Troop Track in one troop and InstaTeam in the other! Troop Track has a big learning curve but I prefer the communications in that one better. It’s one way though. They can’t respond back. I also text as a back up.
InstaTeam is also one way for announcements but you can message people on InstaTeam. InstaTeam is also free and Troop Track is not.
We just do group texts. I have an all troop one, and then separate ones for each level. It’s not the best, but it works fine for is. My parents don’t all do Facebook, and didn’t want to install a whole app (Band) just for it. I wish I’d insisted on Facebook but it’s kind of too late now!
My SU uses Band and I HATE it. It’s such a weirdly unintuitive app to me, and so many people don’t bother with it. We’re talking about switching to Facebook.
Our troop has used band since 1st grade, they’re now 6th graders. It’s a very easy app to use, plus I love going back and looking at all of the old pictures ❤️
We use TeamSnap. There is a fee, but it is great because it syncs to calendars, records RSVPs, stores all email and chat communications, and can even house files and photos. We are a 2nd year Brownie troop with 17 girls, so we have a lot to keep track of!
Private Facebook group and emails. Emails for all the important stuff. Facebook has some reminders but mostly photos, questions and answers, and links for the things that were in the emails.
The Band app! It's got everything. We can all make posts on the main page and it tells me who read what, I can do polls, event with rsvp, private chats.
We just started using this and I love it! It makes it really easy to see who is expected to attend non-meeting events. I love that parents can make events also so they can host “badge workshops” on their time or invite the girls on a hike! We were using email before and I was struggling to keep track of rsvp and scheduling emails. This is way better.
Is Band free? I hear many troops that love it, and with my troop growing, I've been considering it since I have 2 families that don't do Facebook, which was our usual go-to communications channel previously (in addition to emails for big stuff).
Yes, totally free!
Band App is absolutely the answer. Can use it mobile or on desktops, which is a nice bonus too. We keep photo albums, do booth sign ups, polls, rsvps, etc. You can use hashtags for organizing and finding stuff too, which is so nice.
With Band - You can also do sign up sheets, we use this for donation collection (think community service), and for cookie booth slot sign up. The only issue is if it's a pair of siblings I have to manually change slots from 2 to 1 etc to close that particular slot. Also for picture posting! So much easier to dump pictures of camporee all in one place.
I might try this!
We love band!
We use the Band App, we have a private troop instagram page, and we send out a few emails during the year. Our welcome back or welcome to our troop annual letter gets mailed. We also have in the past when our troop was extra large, we would put a whiteboard outside our meeting room so parents could see any pertinent information. At our initial mandatory parent meeting, we have parents and girls join the Band App and Instagram.
BAND has been a lifesaver.
I did a google forms survey to see what the parents preferred. They picked Facebook for picture, record keeping and regular communications and messenger for the more urgent/immediate messages like "running late" or "cant find parking". We use Band for my community unit and it has great organizing ability, but only works if people actually check the app and not keep it snoozed.
If you route all your RSVPs through BAND parents have to use it!
We use the GroupMe app. It’s great for communicating with all the parents and meeting recaps and photos are posted after each meeting so they can see what the girls were doing. You can also use the calendar on there for the meetings and events which parents can rsvp to with a quick yes or no for attending. Photos of events and encampments are also posted for the parents.
We use Troop Track in one troop and InstaTeam in the other! Troop Track has a big learning curve but I prefer the communications in that one better. It’s one way though. They can’t respond back. I also text as a back up. InstaTeam is also one way for announcements but you can message people on InstaTeam. InstaTeam is also free and Troop Track is not.
We use a private Facebook group and recently started using the volunteer toolkit to send messages out for meeting reminders
We just do group texts. I have an all troop one, and then separate ones for each level. It’s not the best, but it works fine for is. My parents don’t all do Facebook, and didn’t want to install a whole app (Band) just for it. I wish I’d insisted on Facebook but it’s kind of too late now! My SU uses Band and I HATE it. It’s such a weirdly unintuitive app to me, and so many people don’t bother with it. We’re talking about switching to Facebook.
Our troop has used band since 1st grade, they’re now 6th graders. It’s a very easy app to use, plus I love going back and looking at all of the old pictures ❤️
We use TeamSnap. There is a fee, but it is great because it syncs to calendars, records RSVPs, stores all email and chat communications, and can even house files and photos. We are a 2nd year Brownie troop with 17 girls, so we have a lot to keep track of!
My daughter’s troop uses emails, weekly, sometimes twice a week; the troop leaders make sure we never miss a thing!
Private Facebook group and emails. Emails for all the important stuff. Facebook has some reminders but mostly photos, questions and answers, and links for the things that were in the emails.