The Genius Blog

Building a Slideshow

Everyone needs to go to a funeral now and then. Particularly one of someone your own age.

I went to a memorial service this week for the relative of a friend of mine. I went to support my friend and had never actually met the man that died. The man was my age, though, and tragically left behind a wife and a young son.

Despite the fact that I never knew this guy, this service moved me more than anything has in a while. While I know that all memorial services tend to focus on fond memories of the deceased – this one went far beyond the typical niceties. It quickly became evident that this young man had been absolutely knocking it out of the park as a husband, father, and man of faith.

There were lots of moving stories – snapshots of a man that genuinely cared and intentionally connected with every person he met – from his buddies at church to the Fed Ex guy that delivered things to his house. His wife wrote this incredible letter that they read - and basically said that she felt so treasured, that she would rather have been married to him for 10 years than have a lifetime with any other man on the planet. As they were going through his desk after he died, they found special cards this guy had already bought for his family – a typical practice, apparently, to express his love.

They ran this slide show in the background of this 90-minute service and it showed picture after picture of this man smiling and playing board games and vacationing and just goofing around with his son and his wife and various friends/family. You can’t fake the kind of joy and love in these photos. It was so striking I almost wished they’d just turn it off after a while so I could have a break from the emotion of it.

There are many other details I could share, but the main thing that struck me is how lazy I can get with my family and those I love. If I were to die today – while I’ve done a lot of things pretty well – I’m not sure I’d be satisfied. I’m not sure my slide show would be as full. I’m not sure that my wife would be so genuinely filled-up with love. I’m not sure that I would have demonstrated to my kids the kind of active faith in God that I want to.

This week I saw a glimpse of the potential. The service that you want to have. And it was humbling.

I hope it sticks with me. That the impact doesn’t just burn up in the frenetic blaze of life. Because each one of us is building a slide show. And there’s no time counter on it that tells you when it is going to end. It’s best not to save the good photos for later.

What pictures will you put in your slideshow today?

You are an artist

You are made to be creative. We all are.

I bet you started strong. There was undoubtedly some refrigerator art and play dough sculptures and possibly even some crayon on the wall that had to be scrubbed clean. Creativity is hardwired in all of us. And that make sense really – because everywhere you look, from the intricacy of the tiniest flower to the vast canvas of a sunset – you can see the fingerprints of the great Creator that your life reflects.

	My dad still makes eggs each year and this year agreed to make one in honor of our SignUpGenius Easter Egg contest! Not bad, eh? It's not an official entry, but be sure to check out our other eggs and enter yourself!

That’s something that was breathed into me from an early age. My parents made everything a creative adventure. There were the elaborate Christmas cookies that were almost too detailed to eat… the over-the-top sand castles… the ingenious hand-made Halloween costumes… and around this time of year, the Ukrainian Easter eggs. We did everything with passion.

That was some fertile creative ground – and it definitely shaped me. As a college student and in my twenties and early thirties I had an insatiable drive to create. I studied film/video, moved to Los Angeles, and was obsessed with creating culture-shaping, paradigm-shifting projects. I was never satisfied and was always trying to figure out how to create the next big film.

In the last decade, though, the realities of mortgages and minivans and pee-wee soccer leagues gradually caught up to me. As happens to a lot of folks, the big dreams had to take a back seat to life. To be honest, it was a little depressing. When the dreams got shelved, it felt like the creative side of me had to be boxed up with it.

But lately I’ve been realizing that I was missing the whole point of all those early lessons in creativity. I’d been doused in a culture of Oscars and Emmys and American Idol… and I started to believe that being the artist I was created to be meant that I had to be the best and become world famous and change everything.

I think that what I missed from those early lessons in creativity… is that all of life can be art. We can reflect the creativity and excellence of God in every small thing that we do. There is an absolute beauty in baking the perfect apple pie for your family. Or in coming up with a creative way to teach fractions to your 3rd grader. Or in picking out the perfect colors to paint your home. Or in making a flower arrangement for your spouse. Or in photographing a cousin’s wedding. Or even writing a blog post.

Nobody needs to text in their vote for you or hand you a gold statue in order for you to create beauty that enhances those around you. You were designed for this. You are an artist.

So break out the refrigerator magnets.

SignUpGenius Joins the Pinterest Craze

Ask anybody how they’re doing these days, and the most common response you’ll get is, “Busy!” So who needs another social network to join, right? That was our first thought when we heard about the new Pinterest craze. Once we checked it out, though, we realized what a great site it is for our core users who love to organize, share ideas, and make everything, including online sign ups, look oh so attractive.

So moving forward, whenever you create a sign up, you’ll have the option to pin it to one of your Pinterest boards. And you know all of those informative planning resource articles on our site that provide you with helpful tips for coordinating school events, family get togethers, and sports activities? Yep, you can pin them, too. You can even follow SignUpGenius on Pinterest and browse through our boards for creative ideas to repin. So what are you waiting for? Let the pinning begin!
 

NEW: No-Ads Sign Ups & Email Reporting

Spring is here and the signs are everywhere: the weather is getting warmer, the trees are budding… and here at SignUpGenius, we've got new features blooming all over the website! Today we’re excited to announce two major upgrades.

No-Ads Genius!
You asked for it and we listened! While using our website will always remain FREE for anyone that uses our advertising-supported sign up pages, you now have the option to pay a small subscription fee to remove any advertisements from your sign ups! It's easy and super affordable - and payment can be made by credit card or Paypal in a one-time payment or a recurring payment.

FIND OUT MORE!

Email Delivery Report
As our membership has increased dramatically… the number of email invites and reminders that we send daily has become staggering. We've been working hard to refine our back-end infrastructure to better track all these messages and provide feedback to the sign up creators.

Starting today, as the first of several email upgrades, we will be sending a notification report to sign up creators when their emails are not delivered! With this new report, it's easy for sign up creators to tell which of your emails bounced, which people were “out of the office”, or even which group members utilize a spam verification service that requires action for delivery. Our system compiles all the non-delivery information daily. If we spot any problem with the emails you sent to your group members, you will receive a single email report detailing all the issues approximately 24 hours after you sent the original email. This way you can correct any mistakes and make sure everyone gets the message you intended!
 

Look Who’s Talking… about SignUpGenius

It’s always a little scary when you go to the mailbox and pull out an official-looking government envelope that is addressed to you. Not that I have anything to hide… but I guess I’ve seen so many science fiction movies that my imagination goes a little wild. I received an official government envelope the other day at my house and I am happy to report that the letter did not involve a summons to report to Area 51 for a top-secret experimental human trial. Whew.

No, the letter was actually from North Carolina Senator Kay Hagan. Apparently she must have seen the recent article in The Washington Post, which featured SignUpGenius and talked about how it can be used to plan meals for people in need. Her letter read:

Dear Mr. Rutledge,

Congratulations on the success of your website, SignUpGenius.com. Thank you for your efforts to provide food, support and resources for families during their time of need.

Your virtual sign-up sheet allows citizens across the nation to organize their giving in a simple, effective and efficient manner. I am proud that North Carolina is able to boast such an innovative project and I encourage you to continue these endeavors. Congratulations once again.

All the best,
Kay R. Hagan

I am going to keep this letter and if the government ever does try to lock me away and run experiments on my brain, I will definitely contact Kay Hagan for assistance.

Oh - And in other news… SignUpGenius was recently featured in an article at Faith Village as one of the “Top Online Tools for Small Groups.” Check out the article!

Anyways, I gotta get going... there's already an unmarked white van parked outside the office. I may have said to much...

New Feature: Unlimited Slot Quantity

Happy Monday! To get your week off to a good start, we thought we'd announce a small, but useful upgrade to our site. We have just integrated a change to the sign up creation wizard that makes it easier for you to choose the exact quantity of volunteers you need for your sign up. Instead of being limited to the selections in the drop down box, you now have the ability to enter your own quantity! This works well for large sign ups where you need a hundred or several hundred volunteers for a specific position.

In addition, we have added an "unlimited quantity" selection. You can choose this option if you don't want a specific number listed on your sign up page and you want to leave the sign up slot open to as many people as are interested. If you choose the "unlimited quantity" option, no number will show besides the sign up slot and the sign up button will always be present no matter how many people sign up for a particular option!

Hope that brightens your day. Have a great week!

Announcing New Features!

Here at SignUpGenius, we're dedicated to making your life as a leader easier! We're constantly working to expand our system in order to make organizing your sign ups and events as simple as possible! Today, we're proud to announce several big upgrades that move us another step forward in our goal to provide you with the most powerful volunteer management tool on the planet.

And the best part? Just like the rest of our site - every single new feature… is FREE.

Store your images easily for
       use on multiple sign ups!

Add Your Logo or Photo to Your Sign Up!

Now it's easy to customize your sign up page for your group or organization by loading your logo or image right onto the sign up! When you get to the "themes" page of the sign up creation wizard, choose a theme with the background colors you want. Then look for the checkbox that says "Upload my custom image" to send your image to our server.

To make it even more useful for you… we've added a new theme category called "Colors." This category is loaded with background themes using popular color combinations. Select the one that fits your school or group colors, then add your logo or image to match.

Over 30 new themes in our "Colors" category!

And if that isn't enough - the custom images are completely integrated into our sign up duplication and transfer functionalities, making it super easy for larger organizations to share images across multiple sign ups. For example, a school administrator could create a sign up that includes the school logo, duplicate that sign up, and then transfer the copy to a teacher. That teacher now has access to the logo in her account and can use it on any of her sign ups going forward!

Finally - with any new functionality comes a new responsibility for safety and security. We're dedicated to protecting our users to make sure that no inappropriate images could ever get loaded and sent out to users. Therefore, our support team will manually review every image prior to publication for the safety of everyone that uses our site. The review process is fast and won't interfere with the creation of your sign up - but is one more reason you can be confident in using our site.

Easy. Highly customizable. Safe. Ready to get started? Login today and add an image to a new sign up or an existing one! It couldn't be simpler!

Add Social Media Sharing to Your Sign Up Page!

Your members can help spread the word!

The social media revolution is here - and you can't afford to be left behind! Sites like Twitter and Facebook can be powerful tools to help you recruit and communicate with your volunteers. Now, with SignUpGenius, you can automatically add "share" buttons to any of your public sign up pages. Users that sign up for something can easily spread the word to their entire social network and help do some of the recruiting work for you! This new setting is enabled by default on all new sign ups, but can also be disabled prior to publishing your sign up. So what are you waiting for? Get sharing!

Download Your Responsibility to Your Calendar or SmartPhone!

It's already great to get our automated email reminders when you sign up for something - but now you can also add your sign up responsibility to the calendar of your computer or smartphone with a click of a button! Users with an account at SignUpGenius will have the option to download their responsibilities to Outlook or Mac iCal after signing up.

After signing up, your members can easily add their
responsibilities to their calendars.

In addition, there is a simple button to add the event to your Google calendar - which syncs perfectly with any Android phone. For iPhone, iPad, or Blackberry users, you have the option to email yourself an ICS file, open the email on your device and easily add the event to your mobile calendar. Now it's even easier to keep track of all your volunteer responsibilities!

Login with Improved SSL Security

Privacy and security have always been top priorities for our site. As technology advances and changes, we're aways working to find better ways to protect our users. Even though we don't deal with financial information, SignUpGenius now joins a number of major sites in using SSL encryption for login and registration pages to better protect email/password information. To see the new feature, look for the HTTPS in the header of your browser and the safety seal on our login pages. We're proud to be one of the only volunteer sites to make this upgrade!

And More to Come

2012 is a big year for us and we've got plenty of additional great features in development. Continue to check our blog for the latest upgrades to the site!

Happy Sign Ups!

Congrats to the SignUpGenius Valentine's Day Contest Winners!

We're thankful for the hundreds of folks who recently entered the SignUpGenius Valentine's Day Contest and let us know what they're hoping to receive this holiday. A big, sugary congratulations goes to Stephanie Biscardi and Deborah Sigrist for winning bouquets of chocolate covered strawberries. Stephanie let us know in her contest entry that she's hoping to get something handmade from her sweetie. Deborah would like a prime rib dinner. Hint, hint guys!

Thanks to all who entered for making another SignUpGenius contest a big success! 

My Favorite Sound in the World

I remember sounds.

The tape-deck that is my brain seems to record them. Sometimes I like to roam the archives, replaying the tracks in my life like a playlist of favorites.

One of the first I remember is from being a kid. I remember waking up on school mornings and just lying in bed and hearing the sound of my mom taking out dishes for breakfast. I loved that sound. It was like a musical alarm clock announcing that everything about the day was normal and safe and that there was someone out there thinking about me long before I even woke up. Even as I got older, I used to love coming home from college just to hear the morning symphony of silverware.

Some of my favorite tracks come from my wife and kids. The "I will" said just to me. The beautiful horrible gasps of pain that preceded those first sweet cries from my two biological kids. The sound of the African rain against the roof of a beat-up taxi as we drove back from picking up my two adopted kids from their orphanage. You won't find those sounds on iTunes, but I can hear them more clearly than any song on my iPhone.

Lately I've got a new favorite. And this one I bet you've heard too. It's not a catchy tune – but I could listen to it every day and not get tired of it.

It's the sound of the garage door.

I think I first noticed it this summer. My wife took my kids on a trip for a couple days and I had to stay home and work. I'm generally not a worrying type of guy, but for some reason that trip I was keenly aware of how my life had the potential to be completely turned upside down in a moment. A forgotten turn signal, a bartender that doesn't take away some guy's keys - and in the blink of an eye - the soundtrack of my life could get a lot more silent.

So I'm waiting on the day they're coming home and it's so amazingly quiet in the house. And then suddenly, piercing that silence is that sound I've heard a million times before that took on fresh meaning.

The garage door.

Everyone's home. Everything's normal. Everyone's safe.

Like a new remake of an old favorite.

So now it's nearly February and sometime in this next month you'll probably buy some flowers or some chocolate or a new tie for someone that's important to you. And while it's great to to have a day that makes us stop and remember and express love to those we care about – we gotta make sure that happens a lot more than on Valentine's Day. And for me - I’m going to try and remind myself daily – to say what needs to be said, to cherish the moments, to thank God for the gifts.

And now I've got a daily audio reminder.

My favorite sound.

Announcing Our Contest Winners!

Here at SignUpGenius, we love to shine the spotlight on people who are making their corner of the world a better place. That’s why our recent "Real Life St. Nick Contest" was such an inspiration to all of us and hopefully to many of you as well. With so many encouraging entries about the ways that every day people are influencing others with their extraordinary generosity, we had a tough time deciding on just a few to receive prizes. Congratulations to our "Real Life St. Nick Contest" winners!

1st Place: A $100 Visa gift card for Kimm Cray and one for her real life St. Nick daughter, Lauren.

“I nominate Lauren Cray. Four years ago, Lauren began helping raise funds for an orphanage in Kenya with 20 children in a rented facility and in constant worry about their next meal. In August, Lauren took a leave of absence from her job to help more. She has purchased a van and a small farm for them to grow food. She is a hero to these kids on the other side of the world!”

2nd place prize: A $50 Visa gift card for Maxcine Howell and one for her real life St. Nick mom!

“My mom is 82 yrs old and is still sewing gifts for people all year long. She remembers birthdays for 8 children (1 deceased), 22 grands, 15 greats, and a million adopted ones. She remembers to pray for everyone and will give her (and my dad's) last dime to help someone. She's the greatest.”

3rd place prize: A $25 Visa gift card for Margaret Konczal and one for her real life St. Nick friends, Bob and Jo! 

“My ‘parents’ are nice people I met when I started going to church when I was having a difficult divorce. My ‘parents’ helped me get back on my feet to take care of my then 3 small children. They are generous to the church and community also and my ‘dad’ even bought the next town over a fire truck when theirs broke down and they couldn't afford a new one.”

When asked about her response to winning the contest for her generosity to kids in Kenya, Lauren Cray responded, “I was so surprised to find out that my mom had entered me into this contest, and even more surprised that I had won! I told my friend that I wanted the gift card to go to Belwop Rescue Center for the two new children who just arrived on our doorstep at Christmastime.”

Lauren shared with us a little about the Belwop Rescue Center in Kenya. “I have been involved with Belwop for four years, since I was a junior in college. My work at the orphanage for the last five months has included creating fundraising to purchase a small income organic farm as well as a passenger van, teaching art, planting a home garden, painting and selling pictures. In addition there have been so many great personal experiences: hosting a Christmas pageant where leaders in the community could come and watch the kids sing carols and at the same time bring them gifts, or just playing with the children and tickling ten little munchkins until we were all crying with laughter! The best day of the trip was my last day there: I got to see all the kids open up their very first Christmas presents, wrapped in shiny paper with their names on it-- the girls screaming with joy over their first ever baby dolls (each unique to them) and the boys jumping up and down over their soccer jersey or toy car. I am going back next summer to help build a new home for the children of Belwop, hopefully with a large team, to see this dream continue on.”

Thanks to Lauren and all of our real life St. Nick's for their efforts to make a difference in the lives of others! To read some of the inspiring entries, click here.

 Follow Dan Rutledge on Twitter

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