Fordham students can’t gather for extracurricular activities due to COVID-19 restrictions, but they’re using some of Fordham’s available technology resources to maintain club spirit and productivity. Are you a club leader or an active member? Use the following technology tips to help you continue club meetings and keep members engaged.
Google Forms for Polling
Is it challenging to schedule meetings around members’ busy schedules? Instead of guessing when people are available, poll your members with Google Forms. Quickly create a form, list a few dates and times, and ask members to check off which times they are free to meet. You can also use Forms to gauge opinions and collect anonymous feedback.
Google Calendar for Scheduling
Google Calendar can be used for so much more than just keeping track of class schedules and meetings. Through Calendar, club leaders can create events for recurring meetings and invite members to these events. Members can RSVP for the event and add it to their own Google calendar. Pro tip: Include the Zoom meeting link in the description of the event for easy access (more on that, below).
Zoom for Hosting Synchronous Meetings
Club leaders can use Zoom for free with their Fordham credentials to host synchronous meetings. Zoom’s scheduling feature is particularly useful for weekly recurring meetings. The regular meeting times increase productivity and encourage members to make a commitment to attend.
If you have a large club or need to work on specific projects, consider using Zoom breakout rooms to allow smaller groups to collaborate. Zoom is also a great way to maintain a sense of community and see everyone’s faces each week. Login to Fordham Zoom at fordham.zoom.us.
Slack and GroupMe
Need other ways to stay connected with members? In between Zoom meetings, Slack or GroupMe are two free platforms that can keep clubs connected via messaging.
GroupMe has an intuitive interface that allows you to create and label groups of any size. Within groups, you can send images, calendar events, and polls, making it a good option for casual discussions or club updates.
On the other hand, Slack is a more robust and complicated platform, but it has features that are better suited for file-sharing or large clubs with multiple teams. In Slack you can create a workspace specific to your organization that contains many different “channels,” messaging groups created for particular purposes. Club members can then join any channels that are relevant to their role.
Both applications are available on Apple and Android mobile devices and offer web browser access for computers.
Google Shared Drives
Keep club documents centralized by creating a Google Shared Drive on your Fordham Gmail account and adding all club members to the shared drive. Shared drives are different from sharing folders with people from your own drive because you can set access levels and no single user owns the shared drive. They’re also a great option because they can be passed on to the next members as students graduate, and all members can easily access it through the “Shared Drives” tab in their own Drive account.
