Guestbook - lead by example

As your friend's WhatFriendsDo.com team coordinator, there may be times you need to lead by example. Posting Guestbook messages is one of the things people may need a little help with. In many instances, people don't like to be the first to do things - but once you post a message, others will follow quickly.

Posting additional messages frequently is even more important. Your friend is likely to read and re-read guestbook entries - sometimes in the middle of the night when it isn't really very polite to call someone to chat. Seeing new messages will nurture your friend. So encourage your teammates to post often!

Example: Hi Friend! I know your entire team is rooting for you. I hope our messages here give you encouragement, comfort, and laughter. You are loved so much!!

Bold, Italics, Underline .. how can I do these?

In the future the WhatFriendsDo.com website will have user-friendly tools for making bold, italic and underlined text on the team blog and homepage. In the meantime, you can use these HTML codes to give your text a bit more visual definition:

Picture This

Adding photos to your team page is easy, and friends want to see pictures!! You can upload lots of photos, and designate one to appear on the team home page. You can even change the 'home page' photo periodically.

Pictures can tell a story. Some teams post pictures showing recovery, festive events, meaningful symbols, pictures of friends and family, and pictures of everyday life.


Fun idea: Have team members send in their favorite photo of your friend to have posted. If you are really ambitious, you can then let all team members vote on their favorite picture of your friend and get that one printed, framed and then give it to your friend as a gift from the team!

Here's how you do it:

1. Post a blog entry on the team homepage requesting pictures of your friend. Remind team members they can send the email to you via the "send an email function." Give the team a specific deadline and any other criteria you have for the photos. (include a reminder that photos need to be .jpg and resolution should be reduced resolution (to 96 dots per inch (dpi))
   
2. Send an email to the team letting them know you have a new blog entry with a fun way for them to participate.
   
3. When you receive the photos via email, it is always easier to create a new folder on your computer to save all the pictures in, so the files don't get lost!
   
4. Upload the photos to the picture section of your team website. Title each photo. Also assign a numbers or letter, so when team members begin voting they can easily identify which photo they are voting for.
   
5. Start your voting: post a blog entry requesting votes. Instruct team members to post a comment to the blog with their vote for the favorite photo. Or if you wish to keep voting anonymous, have team members send you an email with their choice.
   
6. Publish the results and make prints of your photo. You can also ask team members if they would like to have copies of the photos...or set up a gallery so members can purchase their own copy. Can't decide which photo wins? Make a fun Photo Gifts of all the pictures submitted.
   
7. Plan a fun or special way to present the photo to your friend.

Forming Your Team

When we were coordinating support for our friend Laura, one of the most amazing things was that there were people involved in our cheer and support from all aspects of Laura’s life: her family, her grade school, high school and college friends, her church friends, her family’s friends, her neighbors ---- and the friends of all the friends.

You probably do not personally know everyone in your friend’s life. But you can reach some key people and enlist their help in spreading the word about your team. Send an email message to one person from each aspect of your friend’s life and ask that person to forward the message on to everyone who knows your friend. Here are some ideas to help you figure out whom to contact:

• One relative
  
• One church friend


• One neighbor


• One co-worker


• One family friend


• One school friend


• One friend from social organizations (music/sports/etc)

For the most part, people appreciate being asked to help with things. By including people to ‘grow’ your team, you are easing your own tasks and letting others know that it IS a team! The concept of 'strength in numbers' certainly comes in to play when a friend is going through a major challenge – so gather your team members!

Welcome

Welcome! We're really excited about this blog and hope it will be a useful tool for WhatFriendsDo.com Coordinators. The WhatCoordinatorsDo blog is authored by Fran and Aimee, co-founders of WhatFriendsDo.com.

Here are our goals for the blog:

• Help you gather all the friends who would want to participate on your team
• Give you tips about how to best encourage and support your friend
• Share ideas about events you can organize
• Help you utilize the tools on WhatFriendsDo.com

We're starting out with a few topics we think may be useful to Coordinators; we welcome your suggestions, questions and comments. We think you'll enjoy reading what other Coordinators have done to help make their WhatFriendsDo.com team help their friend along a challenging journey.


Frequent Updates...

If you check the Visitors counter (on the right panel of your team page) you will quickly realize that your team members are checking your site frequently and are eager to see new information. Keeping your team engaged will be the best gift you can gift to your friend, because it will encourage all the team members to stay in touch.

Even an update as simple as this will keep your team members checking frequently:

"It's Tuesday and things are going well. We wish [friend's name] the best...he/she is checking this site often, so please post a message on the guestbook."

Remember that you are close to your friend, but many people checking the site are not in daily communication -- so YOU are the link. Frequent updates will be appreciated.