Manage Your ALA Commitments

One in a series of introductory screencasts created by the ALA Emerging Leaders Group I FOR MORE INFORMATION: http://connect.ala.orgIf you're part of any of the thousand member groups in ALA Connect, you are probably juggling time commitments from committees, events, or other association work. While ALA Connect can't help you organize your personal life, it can clearly and concisely organize your ALA work in one central location. This is how you do it.

September 15, 2009

One in a series of introductory screencasts created by the ALA Emerging Leaders Group I
FOR MORE INFORMATION: http://connect.ala.org

If you’re part of any of the thousand member groups in ALA Connect, you are probably juggling time commitments from committees, events, or other association work. While ALA Connect can’t help you organize your personal life, it can clearly and concisely organize your ALA work in one central location.

This is how you do it.

From the home page, scroll down to My Connect Calendar. The upcoming events related to your member communities are listed in the sidebar. However, you can see all upcoming events by clicking More. This month view calendar shows all the events that are coming up. You can focus on the week or day view, just like in any calendar software. If you’d like to narrow down your events by tag, Select event terms to filter by, and scroll down. I’ll choose ALA Annual Conference. The calendar automatically refreshes to show only those events tagged “Annual Conference,” but there’s nothing coming up in April. By clicking the small arrows next to month, I can move forward to May, and I see that there’s a deadline coming up for the 2010 presentations. Good thing I checked! I can comment on this event, or I can add it to my favorites.

I’ve already added this event to my favorites. To see them, I visit My Profile, and choose the favorites tab. Here all of my favorite items are listed, although deadlines aren’t really my favorite.

To add an event to a calendar of a group I belong to, I must first go to the group itself. Then I can click on the add link, next to calendar. Here I’ll enter all the information about my meeting or other event. If you have more questions about how to add information to an event, visit the calendar FAQ page under Help. After I add my event, it is now listed in the group’s calendar. If other members of your group have chosen to receive notification each time something’s posted, they will receive an email. So, if you’re just practicing, give them a heads up first. Or, choose a time that day, and then laugh at them when they panic.

For more info about ALA Connect, visit the Help community, or use the Contact Us form if you have questions.

This has been Managing Your ALA Commitments in ALA Connect.

Music: Momentum by Crepusculum, available at www.archive.org.

One in a series of introductory screencasts created by the ALA Emerging Leaders Group I FOR MORE INFORMATION: http://connect.ala.orgUsing ALA Connect, ALA members can create a personalized network with colleagues, friends, classmates, and others around interests, issues, events, and more.Each ALA member has an ALA Connect profile, always accessible from the left sidebar. Your profile is already populated with membership information from the ALA membership database.

Online Docs: Collaborative Document Editing on ALA Connect

One in a series of introductory screencasts created by the ALA Emerging Leaders Group I FOR MORE INFORMATION: http://connect.ala.orgYou and your group members can now collaborate on and keep track of your ALA work all in the same spot with ALA Connect's Online Docs!

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Manage Your ALA Commitments

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