Lions Clubs – Social Distancing Methods
Global Lions Forum, Lions Members, and To Whom It May Concern:
I have had the opportunity to discuss our communication and IT needs over the last few weeks with experts conversant with general IT requirements for large, distributed organizations. The main people consulted are:
Winster Ceballos, IT Pro, Paterson NJ. Tech Zone co-chair for LCI Con.
Dan Uitti, IT Pro, Watertown, CT. Tech Zone co-chair for LCI Con.
Jeff Schwab, Purdue University, IT Department, Network Architect
Jeff Galbraith, Community Education, Caresource Insurance. Super-user.
Amy O'Shea, United Way of Indiana, Registered Charity
Dan Wilcox, IT Manager, FedEx Consumer Technology: DG, District 25D
Paul Curtis, Howick Lions Club, New Zealand. Professional web designer.
Sean Richards, Tanium.com, Director of Strategic Accounts
IPID Tom Gordon: Former co-chair, LCI Board Technology Committee
These people and others consulted are either experienced Lions, heavy users, or architects of systems for mass communication. As a group, they are conversant with both the current technical state of the art and the strengths and weaknesses of the Association. We thank them for their time and expertise.
Lions’ primary requirements include low IT staffing, ultra-low budgets, ease of use, accessibility for the blind or visually impaired, compliant to our organizational structure and by-laws, communication of time-urgent messages by area directly to members, ease of database management and continuous updating of capabilities at little or no cost. That’s a tall order.
However, the consultants are unanimous in recommending following pathways:
Standardize on Google/Google One as a basic platform for clubs and districts, with G-Suite for super-users and State Offices
Google’s lack of licensing, free or cheap entry, ease of use, and robust architecture combines with cloud storage under one roof to beat all comers. One system will also vastly simplifies training and development programs.
G-suite for heavy users and MD level is available for charitable entities for about US$20 per month or less per user, and includes up to 1TB of cloud storage in that price. It also integrates with all the tools we have now or plan to use.
Google/ Google One replaces all basic Microsoft-like functions with full back-up as one works. Transitions are more easily managed, due to single sign-on without passwords, and there’s no software to buy. Blind and visually impaired users are better supported, and the system and calendars allow easier scheduling and access to interested parties. It also easily transitions copy to web design functions for easier updates to websites and social media.
The basic services include:
Docs Fully MS compatible Office replacement
Sheets Online signup for events and meetings and more
Forms On-line response forms
Hangout Videoconferencing and conference calling
Translate Full capacity for languages at no charge
Gmail most-used email system on the planet
Calendar Fully accessible calendar for team use.
Drive Cloud storage, 15GB for free, 1TB for $10/Month
Blogger Free web log for ongoing articles and compilations
Slides PowerPoint replacement that also supports video
YouTube Video presentations
Earth Geolocation, mapping, navigation via Google Maps
Moodle (app) E-Learning, surveys and polls.
Classroom G-Suite E-Learning platform
Duo Phone and Video calling
If we use our charity status as above for G-suite, we also become eligible to apply for Google Ad Grants of up to $10,000 per month. This could be an amazing opportunity for free search ads to support social media campaigns, club events, recruiting, and general awareness of our Association.
Mailchimp for Email
Mailchimp will allow you to send up to 2000 emails per day and up to 10,000 per week without being flagged as a spammer, for free. If one creates district mailchimp accounts, the MD office can feed those and still be well under the daily limit, without having to learn a new system.
If you use Zapier to help link G-Suite and other applications like mailchimp and Eventbrite, we would greatly reduce the need for copy and paste, data entry, and other chores. Zapier operates in the background to allow for more integration with less training.
Integration
Start transitioning MD offices to G-Suite and Mailchimp, then make phase 2 the rollout of a texting service like Onecall, Textedly, Simplified Alerts or Callfire. Very little that we do really needs the instant message capacity. We can add it later, for little or nothing. The overall thought is to just get the front end of Google+Mailchimp working first and reduce our training burden while improving effectiveness.
G-Suite combined with Zapier and Mailchimp will solve most of our mass communication needs without killing our MD Administrative Secretaries.
Expansion
If we continue in this direction in the future, we can add tools much more easily. Quickbooks for accounting, Quickbooks payment processing, Canva for graphic art support, and an e-learning app like Google’s Moodle or Classroom would all work better if underpinned by Google and Mailchimp. Facebook and Instagram will also be well-supported.
In addition, Techsoup (USA/Canada) also offers donor management systems from Blackbaud and grant finding tools like Grantstation at steep discounts. These are licensed software, but are designed to work with G-suite and distributed users. The larger clubs and Foundations may find these very useful for development, financial data, tax filings, and public reports.
Eventbrite also is a very simple option to promote club, district and MD events outside of Facebook. Zapier allows one-page creation of Eventbrite activities, so it saves time by automatically filling event information from calendars and emailed documents. Eventbrite is also free for free events.
Products that were frequently mentioned, tested or reviewed included Facebook and their related products like WhatsApp, Zoom.com, Slack, Bluejeans, Cisco WebEx, and others. These are all good, quality products, but they are not designed as an integrated system. For clubs and zones that have good Facebook user penetration, it’s fine, but there are many people that won’t use facebook for whatever reason.
For the small committee or club, or with members that are technically challenged, a tool outside the Google platform is freeconferencecall.com which will support small groups and committees. This is classic conference calling: one dial-in number with a participant code for up to 1000 participants. It will also support videoconferencing and international calling.
Summary
Lions could benefit from a recommended system of proven, integrated IT products to improve communication, training, recruiting, development, and marketing. Google provides the best overall option for global use.
While our immediate mission is to improve our communication to members, this systems approach will solve a number of other problems as well.
Google/Google One/G-Suite combined with Mailchimp and Zapier, Quickbooks, Canva, and Moodle would serve a large proportion of the needs of clubs, districts and MD level entities at little or no cost. They offer superior backup, transferability, and compliance. All this is within a continuously updated system that is disaster proof and easier to support.
In suggesting these services to Lions entities, we are doing exactly that: suggesting. We are not endorsing these companies or their products, nor are they mandatory. They are being recommended on the experience of experts in the field to solve our immediate IT and communication challenges, while providing a sound platform for future growth.
We Serve,
PDG Charles Short
Lafayette, Indiana, USA - 18 March 2020
