An online school calendar can be very beneficial for a school, parents, and students. Here are 5 things you may not know that online school calendars can do.

1. Subscribe to an RSS feed

Online school calendars can have an RSS feed which will allow you to receive updates in any RSS feed reader such as Google Reader, MyYahoo, Bloglines, etc.

2. Sync your personal calendar with school events

Chances are that you use some type of online calendar or desktop based calendar client like Outlook. Wouldn’t it be great if you could automatically populate the calendar you already use with important school events? Additionally, with Tandem for Schools, if you are only interested in the High School Varsity Soccer schedule, you can filter and sync only these events to your calendar.

3. Get automatic email updates and reminders

You can request to receive an email if there are any changes to an event. In Tandem you would click on the event on the calendar and when the details come up you would click on “Email Me Updates”. You can also click on “Set Reminder” to receive an email reminder before an event.

4. Reserve a facility for a event or meeting

If you are a coach, club leader, PTSA leader, ect, you can request a school facility for an event. Once the calendar manager approves the request you will have the room or gym reserved. Tandem for Schools automatically ensures that another party doesn’t book the same facility at the same time. Also, school facilities could be better utilized by the community and the school could even raise money by renting out facilities.

5. Create a custom personal school calendar

You may not be interested in all the groups at the school. Tandem for Schools makes it easy to create a custom calendar that tracks only the groups that you are interested in. For instance if a parent has a child that participates in soccer and jazz band, and they want to be involved in the PTSA, they can create a custom calendar with only events from those groups.

We call it Tandem Basic.  It’s the simplest way to build school and district master calendars.  Gone are the days of multi-step processes.

Tandem Basic allows you to enter all key dates using a web browser in minutes:

• First and last day of school.
• Holidays
• Early Dismissals
• Staff Days
• Etc.

Once all key dates are entered, Tandem Basic provides a collection of useful ways to distribute your yearly calendar:

• Print out attractive PDF’s to use as handouts or post on the web.
• Post an HTML calendar on your web site with ease
• Provide RSS feeds for your school community to subscribe to
• Provide links for users to sync this calendar with Outlook, Google Calendars, and iCal

And if there are changes?  Easy.  Just log in to the calendar and make changes in minutes.  The changes you make are immediately reflected in all electronic versions you have provided.

The best feature of Tandem Basic is that it is completely FREE.  You can get started now with easy yearly calendar creation.  Just click the big green button…

We are excited to announce the launch of our new and improved website.   Here’s what you can expect:

• All in the information  you need to choose and purchase Tandem for Schools
• More videos to clearly explain how Tandem can work for you
• Improved readability
• Cleaner design

Be sure to check out the site today.  Let us know how we can help you decide on Tandem for Schools as the most complete and easy way to manage your school calendars.

Tandem for Schools makes calendar changes a breeze.  And any changes made will be immediately available to everyone.  Plus, users (parents, etc.) that are registered on the calendar get updates of any changes.

Because the Tandem calendar operates out of a central database, your school staff will save loads of time when schedules do change.

Here are some scenarios where Tandem for Schools will greatly streamline the calendar change process:

– A baseball game gets rained out.  Rather than have to make a bunch of phone calls (and receive a bunch from inquisitive parents), you updated or cancel the event.  Registered parents get an email, and everyone on your staff knows – pretty much now.

– Your school administration is trying to finalize the general school calendar.  You enter it in the system.  But two days later, you receive an updated schedule.  You can update it in less than five minutes.  Tandem instantly reflects the changes.

– Had some snow days?  Change the last school day on your calendar with ease.  Parents, staff, everyone?  Happy and updated.

Remember, all of the above scenarios are simple updates made by one staff person to one centralized calendar.  No more fuss getting your changes made and calendar users updated.

Shameless plug:  Tandem for Schools is easy to use and will take the stress out of calendar management.  Learn more and give it a try at www.intand.com.