The Internet Will Make You a Better Camp Director, Section 3 - Collaboration
There are a few good choices for working together on projects on line.
- Wiki: a wiki is a hawaiian word for fast. A Wiki is a fast & easy way to build a website together. There are lots of wiki possibilities that we can use in the camp world:
reviewing policies with staff or board members
Parent manual - experienced parents can help new parents understand camp from their perspective
job descriptions - work on Job Descriptions with the staff who did the job last year.
There is a great video that explains a wiki from Common Craft. [Click here to see it]
The free wiki service that I use most often is PB Wiki
- Google Docs: At CAIRN the staff works from 4 offices regularly - 2 directors work from home and when Adam leaves camp for promotion, etc, then our administrator is at camp & Adam in Nobleton.
Google Docs allow real time editing. People can be on a conference call and see the changes as someone else makes it. It is in a nice, simple format. You could even get your staff to show you their preparation as they are doing it. - Mind Meister - visual planning. We used it to plan a website but could be great for brainstorming other camp projects - great for winter when people are not in the same place
- Slide Share- share your PowerPoint/Keynote slides. The Ontario high school year often runs in to our Leadership Training week. Slide Share allows us the potential to record the essential training presentations. Since the changes in the insurance industry we designate which are the essential training sessions and require staff to make up those sessions if staff miss them for exams, or graduation
The slides from my presentation are available at http://www.slideshare.net/zoic/internet-camp-director - Highrise - great Customer Relationship Management tool to manage contacts like your donors - free plan: 2 users, no files, 250 contacts.
- Google Apps (email, shared Calendar, collaborating on documents, video hosting, simple website building) You can get Google Apps installed for your domain and then it is s_i_m_p_l_e to add new email addresses, share planning calendars, etc.
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