Check out our featured WebStore from Jefferson Junior High School!

Whitney High School
New Smyrna Beach High School
Edward Harris Middle School
Tahquitz High School
Oakdale High School
Ripon High School

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Jefferson Junior High School, where Chris Stoker works, was selected as a WebStore of the Month because they are really thinking "outside of the box" when it comes to communicating with parents and their school. They have started using txtwire (http://www1.txtwire.com) as a means of communicating with parents. Their principal also has a blog on the homepage of their school Web site, where he constantly posts updates about what's going on at their school. The following post was taken directly from his blog in regard to their new text messaging communication:

"We have added a new way to communicate with parents and students via text message. Our hope is that this will provide important information and/or reminders to more people. Users can subscribe to a service that will allow the school to send out quick text messages reminding them about all sorts of things, from when school is out to when grades are distributed. It will also allow us to send out emergency information if it is ever needed."

Along with mailing out information about Fall Registration, they will be using this text messaging service to inform parents about their new online store (ActiveEducate's WebStore) and the option of paying online for Fall registration items. Brilliant!

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We've been gearing up for the new school year by hiring and training additional technical phone support staff so they'll be ready for your calls as everyone heads back to school this fall. Anticipating increased demand for technical support, we've nearly tripled our capacity to answer your calls quickly and efficiently. Here's a comparison of last year vs this year:

July 2008:
Technical Analysts on staff = 5
Phone Support average wait-time = 40 minutes

July 2009:
Technical Analysts on staff = 14
Phone Support average wait-time:
- "How-to" Questions = less than 3 minutes
- "Other" Questions = less than 7 minutes

If you have any feedback on your Technical Support experience, your wait-time, or our new support queues, please email it to Support.BlueBear@activenetwork.com.

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Paying Vendors – ACH vs Check? Positive Pay?
We've had a couple software enhancement requests concerning payables to Vendors and sending files to your bank. I’d love to get some feedback (click here to continue reading...)

Dealing with Stale-dated Checks
You sent that vendor a check last fall, but he still hasn't cashed it. And not just one! You've got checks showing up on (click here to continue reading...)

Is it year-end already?
Wow! How did it get to be the end of the year already? I never understand how this happens so fast. But it's true – it's the end of the year and (click here to continue reading...)

We hope you've had a chance to visit our blog. We're posting new information weekly and monitoring the blog daily so we can reply to any questions or comments you post.

Visit The Blue Bear Blog at http://bluebearsoftware.blogspot.com/

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After you've worked so diligently to set-up your WebStore, it's natural to think that everyone will find it automatically, and start making payments and purchases online. But advertising your WebStore is the key to success, and you don't have to go far or spend anything to do it effectively!

Have you noticed how many places you see signs and posters around your school campus? You'll find them on bulletin boards, around service counters, next to phone booths, and outdoors, posted everywhere! Since your students and parents will be walking through your school during Fall registration, and every day during the school year, these are ideal locations to promote your online student store.

The prospect of long lines and waiting can be a strong incentive for parents to make use of the online alternative. Post fliers and posters to remind parents and students standing in line that you offer online payments that are quick, easy and available 24 hours a day!

You can find more helpful hints and tips on my blog, www.webstorewizard.blogspot.com.

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Expertise: I'm responsible for answering calls and returning calls to our clients regarding the various questions they have about our software. It's my job to do my best to help resolve the issue promptly and correctly so that the client doesn't have to contact us more than once on the same issue.

Just for fun: Taking my dog down to the beach or anywhere she can come with me, BBQ-ing with my friends, being lazy or attempting (unsuccessfully) to bowl.

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