Blue Heron Trading Post Powered by Google Groups

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1 Blue Heron Trading Post Powered by Google Groups With Google Groups, Blue Heron owners and interested individuals will be able to easily keep in touch for trading weeks, renting/selling units, or for group discussion. What is Google Groups? Google Groups is an online discussion group service that facilitates the Blue Heron Trading Post. Owners can join the Blue Heron Trading Post for free and then communicate to the entire group via or the online interface: or both! Individual settings can be fully customized to meet the needs of each user. While one user may choose to receive an every time another member posts to the group, another may choose to only look at the posts by visiting the online interface. How do I join? Anyone who visits the Blue Heron Trading Post online can view posts and submit contributions for approval. If you'd like to become an official member of the group follow these instructions. First, go to: Step 1 Click Join this group Step 2 Sign into your Google account if you have one. Then, skip to Step 4. -or- Click Create an account now.

2 Step 3 Fill out the form to create your account, and then click the button at the bottom of the page. Google will then send you an that s a ys : Welcome to Google Accounts. To activate your account and verify your address, please click the following link: Click the link, which will bring you to a webpage. On that webpage, click the link that reads Click here to continue.

3 Step 4 Fill out the form provided and click the button at the bottom of the page. That s it! Your subscription is official and you are now a member of the group!

4 How does the Blue Heron Trading Post work? The group is public and membership is open to anyone who would like to join. Anyone can post messages, read other s postings, and view the group's shared files. Should you choose to join the group, you have the option to receive s instead of viewing the online interface (more about this later). Let s take a look at what the Blue Heron Trading Post online interface looks like This is the home page. From here, you can read messages, post to the group, and see the current members. You can even upload files to share with the group. Using the online interface, you can see recent posts on the home page under discussions. Click on a post title to read the entire message. If you want to add your own post, click the button that says + new post. Then, fill out the form and click the Post message button. Your message will be sent to the entire group. You can also send a message to the entire group simply by sending an to blue-heron-condos@googlegroups.com. Both ways of posting will function the same. It is up to each individual user to decide how they want to receive messages. You have four options: 1. No . The Blue Heron Trading Post will not send you any s. You ll have to sign onto the online interface if you d like to check and see if there have been any posts to the group. 2. Abridged . (Recommended) You will receive an with a daily summary of the posts that have been made to the group. If there are no posts in a day, you will not receive any Digest . This option is really meant for very active groups that have 50 or more posts daily. It will send you a digest for every 25 posts daily, but that wouldn t be necessary for the Trading Post You will receive an for each individual new post to the group. You choose your preference when you re setting up your account. But, if you want to change this at any time, just click Edit my membership on the right column of the home page.

5 Here s an example of how a trade might work using the new Trading Post: Example A Pat from unit 4-8 has the week of August this year, but she wants to trade. So, by sending an to blue-heron-condos@googlegroups.com, she posts to the group that she is looking to trade. The next day, Larry, who has chosen not to receive group s, signs on to the online interface because he is looking to trade one of his weeks. He reads Pat s post and clicks Reply to say he is interested. Larry s message is then posted to the group and also ed to Pat because she configured her account to receive s with every new post. Larry had asked Pat to phone her and after they decide over the phone to make the trade, Pat replies to her own post to tell the group that she is no longer looking to trade her week. The Trading Post might also be used when a potential buyer wants to rent a unit for a week to experience Blue Heron: Example B Mark has heard great things about the Blue Heron and is interested in buying a unit for his family. However, they would like to stay a week at the Blue Heron before they buy. So Mark calls the Blue Heron office to see if any of the owners want to rent out their unit for a week. The manager directs Mark to Blue Heron Trading Post online, where Mark sees that Susan has a week she s like to either trade or rent. Mark then contacts Susan and they agree on the rental. After speaking with Mark, Susan replies to her own post to let the group know that she is no longer looking to rent/trade that week. These are just two examples of how the Trading Post would function. Given the nature of an online discussion group, there are many more possibilities for uses. You can even use the group as a forum to discuss anything related to Blue Heron. Need help? Should you have any questions while using the Blue Heron Trading Post, please contact Kate with Katopia Design. She will be the acting group moderator and you can find her in the members list, or you can her directly at kate@katopia.com. Let s start trading!