Great job! Other amenities?

[yarnb...@yahoo.com]

Sheryl,

Great job and VERY pro-active. That's wonderful!

A question for you--does Google Groups offer a calendar, membership
list, polls, and other similar amenities? (I've never used Google
Groups, so I'm still learning how to navigate around here.)

If you could, would you mind posting a quick FAQ or other such item
(like that great document you posted to the Meetup Group's Discussion
list)?

Thanks in advance!

Bob in Cincy
yarnbob514 AT yahoo DOT com
(513) 200-7523 (cell, v only)

[Serti]

Calendar - don't think so.
Polls - don't think so.
Pics - not directly, but they do have links to Blogger and other things
we might expand to if needed. Due to its past connection with Usenet, I
don't think it's terribly picture-oriented atm, but I'm hoping that
will change - see below.
Member list - well, I can access it, I thought you guys could too...let
me know if you can't find a tab for it or something. I can see all the
complete email addresses as well as the nicknames everyone has
associated with them (btw all, please put your nick on your membership
entry if you haven't, I don't know most of your emails and I'd rather
address you by name!)

I don't know what all this group thing does and what I have access to
might be very different from what you have access to, so we'll have to
work together on the learning curve. :-)

I do know at the moment this has few bells and whistles compared to
Meetup or Yahoo, but being Google, and in beta, it might pick up more
features as time goes on, and that's what I am counting on. If they
don't, we can always pick up and move. Google seems to have their act
together as far as tech goes, and giving them input on what features
would be valuable is a good idea. I'd imagine the members at some
point will have feedback into the process, so we could very well have a
part in shaping the future of what Google groups becomes. :-) Google
bought Usenet so at present it's more bulletin board-like, but you have
a vast amount of other groups to connect to and access to all their
archived info. The main upsides for Google were the lack of obnoxious
ads, generic message functionality, and (perceived) less invasive to
privacy/better spam control etc.

Here's a link to their help section and some how-to's:
http://groups-beta.google.com/support?hl=en

If anyone has more experience with Google groups, please feel free to
enlighten us.

[Audra]

Hi, I'm still figuring out the interface too. *g* Members don't seem to
have access to a member list, just a count on the general information
page. There may be a setting you can change or it may not be possible
at this point - as you say, it's still in beta. Maybe there's somewhere
you can post a sticky note or something with a member list.

I run several groups on Yahoo and have never used the calendar feature.
With that said, however, my brother set up a Yahoo group for our family
and the calendar has become a god send for keeping track of people's
schedules and activities, so I hope Google incorporates something like
that for groups like this that do meet regularly.

Audra

[Serti]

Thanks for the feedback, Audra. I'm hoping Google expands their
features for everyone as well. I started a Roll Call thread for people
to step up and say that they're here, and started an email contact
thread for those who don't mind posting an address. I'm also asking if
people want a reminder email - so we're growing!

[Audra]

Sorry to be out of it! I posted to the roll call. My daughter's had
this nasty flu that's going around!

I recently found the following site that I am using for work to
incorporate a calendar on our website:

http://www.calendars.net/

so I pass it on to you in the event that it may be useful. It's free
(so far, anyway).