Searching for a member and more on affiliations

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.

Affiliations: what are they and why should I use them?

When you log in to Community Weaver (CW) at timetrader.timebanks.org there are a lot of options for you, and a lot of potential pieces of information you can share with other members of the timebank. Keep in mind that any information you put into CW is accessible only to those people who have become members of Time Trader.

Let's talk about some of that information. Click on the tab that says “My Account”. Look to the left side of the screen, in the white rectangle where your profile photo is. (Don't have a profile photo? Add one before May 15, send me an email telling me you did so, and I will credit your account 1 Time Credit!)If you scroll down to the bottom of the white rectangle you will see the words, “Edit Profile Details” in blue. Click on them.

On the next screen, if you scroll down just a bit, there is a thin gray line making a box that is titled “Networks.” Within that is a box titled “Affiliations.” These are community groups and organizations that you may have ties to – schools, churches, civic groups, etc. in alphabetical order. You may click on more than one, you just have to hold down the CONTROL key as you do so, then scroll down to the bottom of the page and click “SAVE.”

Affiliations are useful in Time Trader because people can search with them. Thus, if someone needs a ride to a particular church, they can search for people who are already going there to get a ride. Similarly, you can look at affiliations to see if there are people who belong to a particular civic group or who are affiliated with a school or community activity about which you may want information or which you find trustworthy. Want information about getting your child involved with a 4H or scouting group? Trying to decide between two people who offer the same thing? You could use their affiliations (or their location, or their availability) as the tie breaker.

Affiliations are one more way for you to tell people who you are and what is important to you. The more information you share, the more likely you are to find people who wish to exchange services with you.

Questions? Comments? Want a particular affiliation added to Community Weaver? Contact the Coordinator at timetrader@familyservicerochester.org.