Now that the most recent changes to Community Weaver have been
implemented, I want to go over the changes in how you can search for a
member. You can click on the Time Trader banner above to open Community
Weaver in a new window. Once you have logged in, hover your mouse over
the "Give & Receive" tab and click on "View All Members."
This
will bring up the active member roster, organized alphabetically by
member's first name. Clicking on any of the blue column headings will
change the way the information is sorted. For example, click "Name" and
the arrow pointing down, and the list will start at first names
beginning with Z and work backwards through the alphabet. Click "Joined"
and you can see who joined first, or who has most recently joined and
might be interested in an exchange to get started.
The white
boxes above can also be useful in narrowing a search. Use the
"Neighborhood" search if you are looking for someone in your community
or neighborhood, perhaps for pet sitting or to help with a quick
project.
I want to be sure to call your attention to the
"Affiliations" box: in fact, you may want to log in and make sure that
yours are current. Affiliations are community groups and organizations
you belong to or are affiliated with, such as churches, civic groups,
scouting organizations, schools, employers and charitable organizations
that you may volunteer with. You can list multiple affiliations. To do
this, log in and click the "My Account" tab. Though it doesn't look like
it, you can click the actual words, "My Account." Looking at the box on
the left (where you can upload a photo if you wish), scroll down until
you see the words "Edit profile details" and click on them.
The
first big white box is the Affiliations box. Scroll down and click on
something you are affiliated with. If you want to be affiliated with
more than one thing, you must then HOLD DOWN THE CONTROL (CTRL) KEY AS
YOU CLICK. This will allow you to highlight multiple affiliations. If
you would like to see additional affiliations, please let me know via
email and I will add them.
Why are affiliations helpful? Well, if
someone new to Time Trader is looking for a ride to church, they can
search who is affiliated with that church and see who might just be
going there anyway. If someone is looking to join an organization, they
could look to see if any of the people they have traded with is already
part of that group and perhaps could provide an introduction or answer
questions.
As you scroll further down, check your availability,
your birthday and year (which will not be public but helps me with
demographics), your "About Me" box, add your Twitter URL or your website
URL, and click "Save." Don't forget to click "Save!"
If you use
Twitter, let me know. If we have enough interest we could perhaps create
a unique hashtag that would let Time Traders communicate in a more
immediate fashion.
