Instant Communicator Trial Succcessful – Widespread Adoption Next

The Scofield Farms (SF) Instant Communicator trial with a few early adopters has been successfully completed and we are ready to work on widespread adoption throughout our community.

What is SF Instant Communicator and why should you consider becoming a member?

Many of us have been reading on the List Server about break-ins and groups of suspicious boys wandering throughout our neighborhood. Several well intentioned members of our community have posted updates on the List Server as to the location of the boys and calls to the police. The intentions were no doubt to alert others in our community and for us to “keep our eyes open” and report suspicious activities to the police. The problem with the List Server is that it doesn’t provide a way to Instantly communicate important events. Most people that use the List Server receive emails and the problem with emails is that it might be hours or days before you read your email and the potential threat could could have passed long ago.

SF Instant Communicator uses technology to send important news in a matter of seconds to all members of the community that participate. Since many members of our community are retired or working from a home office – imagine how effective 200 sets of eyes can be in deterring crime in our neighborhood! The Webmasters will make sure SF Instant Communicator is not used to send SPAM.

SF Instant Communicator uses GroupMe software to instantly communicate important news. If you have a smart phone or a phone that can send and receive text messages – you can use SF Instant Messenger.

How can you become a member of SF Instant Communicator?

You can join the Forum. Once you are approved for the Forum you are approved to be a member of SF Instant Communicator. You can just send an email to the webmaster requesting membership. You can join the Forum by registering and then verifying your identity by supplying the webmaster with your pool card number or a copy of your utility bill.

Please join us in helping make our community a safer crime free place to live.

 

Paul Maine

Webmaster

webmaster@scofieldfarms.org

 

 

New Laws Regarding HOA Board Meetings

New laws regarding HOA board meetings became effective 01/01/12.

One state approved method to communicate board meetings is to post meeting notices on our www.scofieldfarms.org website AND to email all owners who have provided their email address to the HOA.

If you have not already done so, please visit and register for the forum on www.scofieldfarms.org. As part of the registration process you are required to provide our HOA with an email address and this email address will be used to send you HOA Board Meeting notices.

If you have any questions you can email me.

 

Paul Maine
Webmaster
Scofield Farms Website
webmaster@scofieldfarms.org

Scofield Farms Instant Communicator

Folks,

This is to invite you to try GroupMe, a mechanism to quickly communicate important news to our neighbors.  It is like the email list, but provides a method of instant communication using your SMS enabled phone.  The news could be something like

  • “Suspicious car driving south on Scofield Farms drive”,
  • a fire in the neighborhood,
  • tornado or hurricane news,
  • help me messages that warrant a quick dissemination.
  • Scofield Farms’ neighborhood watch messages.

We are trying this out with an initial group of volunteers.  In a couple of weeks, and depending on feedback from the group, it would be made generally available to whoever would like to be texted instant neighborhood messages.  We’ll make sure that this is used for appropriate messages, and that non-residents are not added to this group.


So if you would like to volunteer to be an early adopter, please use one of the following methods:

1) If you are already a member of the Forum just email the webmaster from the same email account as the one you use for the Forum and indicate that you desire to join SF Instant Communicator. The webmaster will add you to the group and provide you with additional instructions.
2) If you are not a Forum member please consider joining the forum. If you choose to not be a part of the forum please email the webmaster your name, pool card number and either your SMS enabled phone or email address. After verification the webmaster will add you to the group and email you additional instructions.

Here is the email address for the webmaster:
webmaster@scofieldfarms.org

SF Instant Communicator uses GroupMe. Any users, whether sending or receiving text messages with GroupMe, should be aware that standard text messaging rates may apply. Text messaging rates can normally be found by asking your provider.
Thank you, Kevin for suggesting this application. Special thanks to Piyush Mehta and Jerry Sachs for their work in researching and testing this solution.

Paul Maine
Scofield Farms
Webmaster

New Assistant Webmaster

We would like to welcome Debbie Southerland as our new assistant webmaster.  Debbie and her family have lived in the Park section of Scofield Farms for 7 1/2 years.  She is looking forward to the chance to build community among neighbors through the Web site.

Connect With Your Neighbors

In this day and age it can be difficult to meet your neighbors or to have any of their contact information. A friend of mine gave me the following link to a website that makes getting the contact information easy:

http://neighbors.whitepages.com/

I tested it and it seems fairly accurate.

I hope this helps you to better connect with your neighbors.