online to offline

Online to offline organizing is all the rage.  From “call to action” emails, facebook events, even push notifications – to showing up in-person at a rally, action, summit, meeting, or volunteer opportunity… well, it’s an art and a science.  The experts seem to think that if you have the right technology, people will be compelled to show up – and *poof* – the Women’s March!  And while I think tech is a piece of the puzzle, the single most important part of it all is being authentic, compelling, strategic, and basically good at organizing!

That being said, in this post, we’re not talking online to offline organizing (but you can learn more here, here, and here).  We’re talking about online to offline SPREADSHEETS!   *mind blown*

From the Sheets to the Streets

Many of us use GoogleSheets to manage event RSVPs – and I think it’s a great tool!  It’s extra convenient if you’re also using Google Forms as a registration system, because the form can dump (yes, that’s my technical word for it!) contact info right into a Sheet, which you can modify, customize, sort, filter, etc.  But what happens when it’s the day of the event and you need to check people in?

If you’re anything like me, you might scramble to find an iPad and check people in on it… but then realize that your Wifi source is unreliable at best, and suddenly your digital plan is in shambles.  Salesforce friends, hold back your judgement for what I’m about to say, but sometimes paper really is the way to go, especially for smaller scale events!

Ok, so if that’s true, then you just print out my spreadsheet, right?  Wrong!  Raise your hand if you’ve printed out a spreadsheet and it’s come out wonky, too many pages, awkwardly laid out, without cell borders (aka clear lines on the page), and who knows what other problems.  Ok, you can put down your hand and keep scrolling.

So let me introduce you to this lovely blog post about how to go about printing Google Sheets.  They cover all the bases, from adding gridlines to selecting which data get printed to page layout preferences and more.  I really couldn’t recommend it enough!

Bonus points to me for finding this kitty printer .gif!!

 

Considerations

The challenges I see with this tip are:

1. having access to a printer
2. having to enter data back into your Sheet or your database after the event
3. wasting paper

but these can easily be mitigated with some good planning!  Plus, there are lots of other examples of when you might want to print a spreadsheet (for example, at a fundraising committee meeting!) besides managing RSVPs.

Do you have stories about print versus digital spreadsheets?  Drop me a line or leave a comment so that I can feature you in TDAA!

PS – dreamforce!

I’m writing from my room in a little extended-stay hostel while attending the biggest Salesforce conference of the year, with around 200,000 people.  Yes, TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND!  And despite that mind-boggling, eye-popping number, I’ve had a great time and I’ve gotten to catch up with lots of friends, learn some cool stuff, and assemble literally an extra suitcase full of swag.  If you’re at #DF18 and we haven’t gotten a chance to see each other yet, get in touch!  I’ll be spending a bunch of time at the Westin today with my nonprofit peeps 🙂  Signing off!