NOAH is stepping up our communications efforts this spring. Most of you have been getting our weekly NOAH NEWS in your email every Monday. We want to add to our network by presenting the following utilities for keeping informed.
1. Email sent as a text message(SMS). If you or your family members use text messaging, you can add that as an additional email address. Every mobile phone is assigned an email address by the wireless service provider. Simply list your 10-digit phone number followed by the wireless domain of your provider, and you have your mobile email address. This is especially helpful to teens who are away from home during part of the day, parents stuck in traffic or at work, families that commute for outlying areas, when internet is unavailable, etc.. While text service isn’t free, many people do already subscribe to this service. The most popular wireless domains are:
Alltel
1234567890@message.alltel.com
AT&T (formerly Cingular)
Example: 1234567890@txt.att.net
Cricket
Example: 1234567890@sms.mycricket.com
Sprint PCS (now Sprint Nextel)
Example: 1234567890@messaging.sprintpcs.com
T-Mobile
Example: 1234567890@tmomail.net
US Cellular
Example: 1234567890@email.uscc.net
Verizon
Example: 1234567890@vtext.com
We’ve tested this method for receiving the NOAH NEWS and it works well. The only limitations are the text length is limited, images are omitted, and hyperlinks are deactivated.
2. Email. This method is as old as the internet. Before this, we used fax machines. Dating back to the mid 90’s, teams dialed up prodigy, juno, and earthlink; and sent the team info over 14.4 modems. This is still a valuable tool, but the latest technologies are often ignored. Be sure to protect recipients privacy by using “B.C.C.” to cloak addresses and prevent spammers from collecting more potential victims. Add mobile SMS addresses to assure greater access to intended recipients.
3. Twitter. www.twitter.com Consider asking your team to set up a free twitter account. When last minute schedule changes are made, a twitter feed can notify everyone via text, email, or via your twitter webpage. Twitter is free. Coaches, Team leaders and athletes can communicate via their mobile phone or computer.
4. Voice-to-text. www.dial2do.com If you can’t get your fingers on a keyboard(or keypad) but you need to notify the team, give Dial2do a look. The Tennis team used it 2 years ago. By preloading your contacts at their website, you can call Ddial2do on any phone and your voice commands activate an outgoing message to a group of email addresses. Your voice is transcribed to a text that is immediately sent to mobile phones and computers. This is “texting” via voice. It used to be free while it was in beta. It now costs $4/mo. Ask your coach to consider this tool for the upcoming season.
5. Blogs noahjaguars.blogspot.com NOAH now has official blogs for each sport. Please subscribe to the “feedburner” email notification box on the blog. This will send you an email of all blog activity. Again, add your mobile phone’s “email address” so you can get a text message when the team has new posts. Athletic Directors have been sent information on how to post to the blog via email. A designated email address is all your team needs to begin blogging your teams latest information.
6. FeedBurner feedburner.google.com used in conjunction with Blogspot, feedburner sends emails daily, recapping blog activity.
7. Jagline 918-650-NOAH www.google.com/voice Baseball & Football are currently using a Jagline telephone message service(918-365-2218). Leaders can post the latest info via telephone log in and then any time a person calls the Jagline, a short recorded message is played over the phone. Sometimes there is a fee for this service. Google Voice offers it free.
Whatever services work for your team, we hope you find the options worth a good review.
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