What's Next?

Sorry its been awhile since the last update. Don't worry, there is a lot of exciting activity going on behind the scenes. Here are some coming attractions in August:
- Edit Meal Comments: Many people have asked for the ability to change or update the meal comment (what they are bringing). This should save a lot of time and confusion

- Import Contacts from a CSV file: If you have your contacts' email addresses in Yahoo/Google/Outlook, you will be able to quickly import those email addresses into CaringMeals, saving typing and time.

- A New Documentation site: CaringMeals is designed to be self-explanitory, but there are times when your have questions or need help with using the site. We are developing a detailed system that will include documentation, examples, and faqs to help you be successful with CaringMeals.

Stay tuned for more updates!

Vijay

My Friends are Your Friends

One of the most powerful features of CaringMeals is the ability to easily find friends.
Wherever you see a person's name, you can click on it and see their profile information (if you are not their friend, you will have to send a friend request). As you scroll down the page on your friend's profile you will see their list of friends. See someone you know? Just click "Send Friend Request" and they will be added to your friend list!

This can help when you share meal coordinating responsibilities with someone else. If your friend coordinates a Plan and invites 30 people, you can simply click on your friend's name (Under "Who Is Coordinating These Meals?") and send friend requests to the people you know.
This can save time entering email addresses, and help you find new friends who can help bring meals!

How Many Friends to Invite?

When creating a new Plan and inviting friends to bring meals, people often wonder - How many friends should I invite?

I recommend basing the number of invitations you send on the number of meals you have scheduled. A good guideline is:

Invitations Sent = 3 x Meals Scheduled

For example, if you have 10 meals, plan to invite about 30 people.

Why invite so many people? It is likely that a certain number of people you invite will not check their email (infrequent computer users). Others may be away for a few days or on vacation. Some may open and view your Plan, but be unable to bring a meal on any of the days. So by inviting many more people than meals, you are much more likely to find people to bring meals on all the days you scheduled.

It is great to see a schedule of meals with a friend's name next to each one!

Keep it Coming

Thank you to everyone for your suggestions and comments since the update in late February! Keep it coming!

Here are some exciting features and changes that have been made since February:
- Show Email Address for friends. This will help identify friends, especially when there seems to be duplicates.
- Receiver Description and Instructions
- Email people when friend confirms. When someone confirms you as a friend, you will receive an email notification.
- Reduce errors when inviting people. Previously, when inviting friends, often there were numerous errors and warnings. Now, only critical errors will be shown.
- Plan Activity Stats. This is really cool.

This component gives you up-to-date feedback on how the plan is doing. It answers: How many meals are left to fill? How many people did I invite? Who actually opened the Plan? This feature will really help everyone track the progress of the Meals.

And there is more to come:
- Video Tutorials
- Tips of the Day
- Signup Confirmation Emails (To help remember your username/password)

As always, if you have any suggestions or feedback, please let me know.
Thanks!
Vijay

Email Errors

Today a problem prevented Emails from being sent from about 7-8pm Pacific. This is resolved now, but please email help@caringmeals.com if you see any unexpected errors.

Thanks,
Vijay

And we're back!

After many months of work and a short upgrade downtime, the new CaringMeals.com site is live!
You can login with the same username and password, and see all of your plans and meals from before the upgrade. Of course, with any new release, there may be unexpected behavior. Please send any questions or comments to help@caringmeals.com.

In coming weeks, I'll provide more details on some of the newest features.
One of the biggest (and the one that took the longest to develop) is the "Friend" functionality. Among other things, this will let you:
- Maintain a list of friends (similar to an Address Book)
- Control access to the plans you create and your profile information (Email/Phone)
- Find new friends! When you click on the name of a friend, you will see a list of their friends. If you see someone you know, just send a friend request and they will be added to your friend list.

Enjoy the new site!

Vijay

An Appetizer

The time is near for releasing the next major update to CaringMeals.com!

To whet your appetite, you can take a look at a few screenshots of the new site.  In addition to being more attractive, colorful, and easier to read, many new features and functions will be part of the upgrade:

• Meal Comments - When a user signs up to bring a meal, they will have the option to enter a description of what they plan to bring.
• Most Recent Plans - At the top of the screen you will see shortcuts to the most recent Plan you have viewed.
  
  
  
  
• Easy to Remember URLs - When creating a Plan, you will specifiy a Unique Name.   This name can then be used to access the plan.  For example, if you choose "JohnMeals", the address will be http://www.caringmeals.com/plan/JohnMeals
• Friends - For security purposes and to maintain an address book, a "Friend" system will be in place.   Friends are simply email addresses that you have marked as trustworthy  (If you have used Facebook, this concept will be familiar to you). To view a Plan, a user must be a friend of the Coordinator.  The old "Plan Password" concept will be removed in favor of this system.  You will also be able to view a list of your friends, view their contact information, and invite them easily to help with meals.  More on this to come.
• Receiver emails - Specify a receiver on the plan, so they can stay informed about the meals.
• Searching! - In the past, we did not allow searching, because there was no mechanism to restrict access to the Plan.  Now, with the Friend system, a user can search for a plan, and if they are not a friend of the Coordinator, they will have to send a Friend Request before they will be allowed to view the Plan.

There is more, but I think this is enough to let you know that the wait will be worth it.  A date has not yet been set (some more testing to be done), but February 27th is the estimate.

The site will still be considered "Beta", which means that it still needs your feedback.  A big "thank you" for all of your input and suggestions that have contributed to the making the site successful!

Blessings,

Vijay