In the recent past, many of you are aware that my mother has has some health challenges which are difficult for us three "kids" to manage, since none of us lives in the same state, and all three of us have full time jobs. Plus, my brother still has a child at home.

I just saw an article in the New York Times which offered an excellent way for people like us to manage information sharing.

Prior to reading this, I had been the designated information disseminator, and I had created a group email system. Each time I had an update to share -- which during times of crisis might be more often than once a day -- I'd pull out my group email, copy and paste the list of addressees into a new message form, and fire off the next message.

I'd put the date into the "subject" line, so the recipients would be able to track the recency of each message with ease.

As my mother became aware of my notices, she began to request that I add people to my mailing list, and the notification task kept getting bigger. Some days, just managing these messages was about all I got done.

Perhaps some of you have managed similar systems.

Which is why today I am passing along the idea of using a shared Google calendar to manage the information.

Hope this helps. And, if you've already latched onto the Google Calendar as a way to allow a group of people to both keep track of details AND encourage each group member to self-update the content, please add your comments to this discussion.

Hmmm. Guess no one here is "into" Google calendar. Does anyone have another preferred method of keeping everyone in a family or group "up to speed" on family news?

I know in Linda Campanella's book,"When All that's Left of Me is Love: A Daughter's Story of Letting Go," they used plain ol' group emails, which is what I have been doing.

But as I said, I'm open to new methods of group communication which might be a bit easier...

I didn't respond, Anne, because I have no need of anything like this. I use Google calendar for my personal stuff because it will automatically sync between my computer and my cell phone.

I use FB but don't have a big family so news travels fast.

Wish I could contribute in a positive way! Let's see: my sister is impossible to deal with, my dad is not interested (and is very old), my husband's family are all certifiable ---

in short, we actually keep information from people and have very few to keep in touch with. Those of us who are in contact do some facebooking and the regular stuff. We'll never have a crowd to keep up with.

I swear, we could have our own reality show, or I could just publish a book of the crazy e-mails I have collected with their names blacked out, but no one would believe it....

I know what you mean, Ellemm. I used to work at a small company where the owner was probably certifiable. The stories I have from that time are outrageous, and will someday --if I ever get around to writing it -- make for a very entertaining book. (I expect it will have to be published as fiction unless I can wait to write it until I hear the old boss (my age) is dead...

To give you some idea, how's this for one example: I was making a presentation to a number of clients, all women business owners, at a monthly networking breakfast we used to hold for them. I'd come in to work at 6 AM - all dressed in my power suit, etc. -- to MAKE the breakfast, first.

Just before 7 AM, when it was to start, I got a call from a new member of the group, who was a prospective client (all the rest of the women were current clients) saying she'd had car trouble and she would not be able to attend.

As the rest of the women came in, I greeted them, seated them, put out the food and began the presentation, which was about legal hiring and firing procedures.

My boss walked in at 7:30, took a look at the group, and as I continued speaking, she handed me a note. It said I was fired.

I read it, skipped not a beat, and professionally continued my presentation. When it was done, I received several accolades from the clients, and a good discussion ensued.

When the women left, I confronted my boss. She said she had fired me because the new member had not been present. To her, the new member represented someone she wanted to "close" (make a paid client) after the meeting.

(These days, now that I am a business owner, I understand that my boss probably had been counting on getting a check from this new client in order to make payroll, pay the rent, or something just as crucial, but not being a business owner at that time, none of this made sense to me.)

The boss said I should have offered to leave the meeting and drive 25 minutes each way to go pick her up. (Clearly, the meeting would have been over by the time we returned.)

I said: but then I would be leaving the rest of the guests alone and with no speaker.

She said: I should have co-opted one of the more long-term members of the group, and asked her to run the meeting in my absence.

The story goes on, but I am so totally getting off track from the topic of this thread, that I will stop now.

But surely these stories - yours and mine -- are not the ONLY crazy family or work stories. Anyone want to start a new thread on this topic?

Amazing, weird story Anne.

I think yahoo or google groups would work as well or possibly even better for keeping in touch with a large group. The concept is similar to shared email and shared calendar, except with the "group" setup you get both, plus more. You can share calendars, files, email, links, take votes on issues and more, all in one place. The email is archived in the "group". See groups.yahoo.com or google "google groups"

Namaste,

Elizabeth Bartlett
www.seniorhomecarenj.com

I"d have a problem with doing a Google calendar....info about my aging parent is really, really personal. So the thought of those facts going out to the world scares me.

Yes, I'm sure they are password protected, but Google surely can get into them!

There are only four of us and we already communicate very well. Only two siblings are near Dad.....myself and a sister (who lives abroad) are in the loop. We just cannot do much from where we are.