Tandem for Schools is a dynamic and comprehensive tool for managing events for a school or even a district.

According to Bob Wright Supervisor of Technology of Boardman School District in Ohio:
“I spent much time looking at calendar programs from various vendors. I even worked a considerable amount of time developing my own with FileMaker Pro database. There were shortcomings in all that I looked at…tried. Tandem for Schools was the best fit overall.”

What Tandem for Schools allows an administrator to do is put all the events onto one calendar, which helps simplify the calendar management process.

According to Liz Wiggins, Assistant to the Superintendent at Cascade Christian School District in Washington State:
“The most useful benefit is the ability to schedule all the yearly events in one or two sittings. This used to be a task that would take days to put together. For me it was a solid week of calendar entry and review and refining, and I would have to mess with the formatting to make things fit, and it was just a nightmare. Now we’re looking at where someone at a campus says she can do it in maybe a couple afternoons and we’re looking at hours instead of days and for me it is more of quality control than a daunting task that takes weeks to get done.”

Tandem for Schools has a visually appealing user interface, can be customized with your school logo, and is easy to use.

Staff at the school can submit events and requests to use facilities and they can be approved or denied with a click of the mouse by the person in charge of the calendar. This makes it easy to manage school facilities and prevent double bookings or schedule conflicts.

Parents love having all the school’s event information in one easy to access place online, reducing the need to call the school for information. Parents can also sync the school calendar with their Outlook and get automatically notified of any schedule changes.

Find out how Tandem for Schools can be a great calendar solution for your school. You can schedule a 30 minute personal demo on your own computer, try Tandem for Schools for 30 days, or find more information at the Tandem website.

Want to reduce incoming calls for event directions and times? Tandem for Schools provides two great communications benefits for your school/district and your parents.

First, every event listed on your Tandem calendar includes complete event details along with a link to Google maps and driving directions that are just a mouse click away.

Second, you can automate parent communications through email notification. Parents can subscribe and automatically receive any updates, location changes or cancellations. Parents can also use Tandem to synchronize with their Outlook calendar or online calendar.  More technical users can subscribe to an RSS feed.

“From my experience this year, this site is absolutely fantastic.  It should be even easier for me next year as the information rolls over from year to year.” – Jared D

We know from our customers that the better the communications with parents and the community, the higher  the participation with the school. Using Tandem for Schools will provide your staff with more time and your parents with better real-time event information.

Want to learn more?

• Sign up for a free trial
• Schedule a personal demonstration
• Read more about Tandem

We have all been hearing the latest news of financial disasters, tightening budgets, and families that are keep a much closer eye on their spending.  The latest money news hits all of us.  And it hits your school. What the future holds is uncertain.

Will lower home pricess drive lower assessments and thus les money from bond levies, if they pass as people think more about where their money is going?  It’s hard to say, but we have solutions that inform, update, and build your school community, even during the potentially tough times ahead.

Tandem for Schools is a comprehensive calendar tool for schools and districts that offers the following benefits:

• Very simple event and calendar management with less paper.
• Easy, and FREE, school master calendar creation with flexible electronic distribution options.
• Registered users (parents, students, etc.) get updates when events get changed or cancelled, potentially saving wasted trips and gas.
• Very low cost system that will cost no more than $499 per school.  No per user license costs.
• Low cost of ownership.  We host Tandem on our servers and maintain all the technicalities.  All you do is get started entering and managing your events.
• No additional costly and complicated training necessary.

Tandem for Schools will save you:

• Time
• Paper
• Money
• Gas
• and Grief!

Check out Tandem for Schools today to see our easy, inexpensive and green solution that will help you make the most our of your school or district budget while strengthening your school community.  Get started with our FREE version, Tandem Basic, with absolutely no cost or obligation by clicking the button:

Or try a FREE, 30-day trial of our complete calendar system by clicking here…

Or fill out this demo request form to have one of our experts walk you through Tandem for Schools with a live web demo.

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…

Webster County Schools in Providence, KY are taking a long, hard look at their fuel costs. A recent article in the Journal Enterprise highlights what may be increasingly to come for many school districts: budget cuts for because of vastly higher fuel prices.

In this case, the district is increasing per mile costs for transportation. This will effect everyone: students, families and staff. And some educational opportunities will fall by wayside. Schools and families alike are feeling the squeeze as fuel costs cut into food budgets, etc.

Passing on higher costs to staff and parents is one answer, and it might be inevitable. But creating more efficiency at the administrative level can likely help significantly.

Tandem for Schools provides tools that may loosen the pinch on higher fuel costs at your school/district.

To help you manage costs and create efficiencies, Tandem offers:

• Sophisticated transportation allocation
• Full-featured budget management
• Pre-trip costing to help you plan field trips and sports away trips

Also, Tandem will vastly improve your ability manage the big picture of your calendar planning, helping you plan more efficient trips and consolidate travel.

We can personally show you the great features of Tandem for Schools. All it takes is 15-20 minutes of your time, and a strong desire to make your trip and calendar planning easier for your school or district.

Or call us at 1.866.685.3449. We’d be happy to help you learn how Tandem can really help save fuel costs… and make your job easier.

Hello all, my name is Darin and I’m a part of the Intand Sales Team.  Prior to joining Intand, I was on staff at the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA), also known as the governing body for high school sports and activities in Washington.  One of the major areas that the WIAA office emphasized was the member schools sending in their athletic schedules and scores.  Often this was a time-consuming task because most of that information had to be collected and organized by an already-busy athletic administrator or secretary.  This is where Tandem can help you.

With Tandem you can create “Schedules” that essentially search your database of information for any area you want.  You can search for groups, teams, facilities and schools in less than 15 seconds.

Plus the schedules automatically update themselves when you make a change or edit to your main Tandem calendar.  OK, so this is related to my WIAA story because, in less than 15 seconds, you can create your 2008 Varsity Volleyball schedule and export that data to a .CSV file (which is readable by Microsoft Excel).  Now all you have to do is email your 2008 Varsity Volleyball schedule to your state activities office.  It’s that quick.

And, what’s more, you can create an unlimited amount of schedules in your Tandem calendar.  So just imagine that you have all your sports teams schedules, band practice schedule and gymnasium schedule all ready at the click of a mouse!

Best of all, extensive technological knowledge is not required to use Tandem.  Our tool was created by school administrators and they know what it takes to make navigating the system a breeze.

For more quick tips and Tandem product information, let me or any of my co-workers know if we can be of more assistance.  You can reach us at 866-685-3449.   And be sure to check out our support area too.  You’ll find tutorials, videos and other posts there that you will find helpful.

Enjoy your summer!

As you consider any calendar product, you’ll likely want an in-depth walk through of the product to get a solid idea of how it can serve your school’s needs.  That’s why we offer you the opportunity to get on the phone with one of our Tandem experts (who, by the way, are very familiar with the administrative environment at schools and districts just like yours) and take a personal tour of Tandem for Schools.

Using GoToMeeting, we’ll guide you through two key features:

• One centralized calendar – Take away the confusion of multiple calendar points.
• Conflict checking – Avoid event conflicts before they create grief for you.

And you’ll experience a host of other ways that Tandem will make your job managing your school calendar much easier.

Set up a demo today to find out how Tandem for Schools can help you – Click here…

Tandem for Schools is powerful, and adaptable to your every need.  You can customize schedules, for instance.  Tandem enables you to filter items by team, activity, etc.  and set them as public or private, depending on if your schedule is for internal use or not.

This handy feature allows you to create event lists for sports teams, drama groups, music groups — or whatever group suits your needs — allowing you to display times and locations in one easy-to-read schedule format.  Use these custom schedules on your website or to create handouts, or whatever else you  need.  Tandem allows great flexibilty in how you use your school calendar and event information.

The National School Boards Association underscores the need for thoughtful policies regarding online social networking within school communities in an excellent study.  With the exponential upsurge of sites like MySpace and Facebook, it is clear that reactive responses don’t work — students will still be typing away after hours, keeping in touch with friends.

Some stats:

71% of students use social networks at least weekly.

59% of online students talk about educational topics online.

50% of online students talk specifically about homework online.

All of this online social networking tech is still shaking out.  People still don’t know what to do with it, or what to make of it.  It’s an untamed beast.  But it shows powerful potential to connect with students and parents in new and efficient ways.

Imagine connecting with your local school community (and beyond) with online calendar updates, event invitations, etc. through MySpace or Facebook.

At Intand, we are looking to drive technology in these areas, especially in the event communication arena.  Look for more in the future.

Scholastic.com has a great article about some things to consider when planning for new school technology.  Some key points:

• Think open – Does the technology tool you are considering implementing play well with the other tools you already have in place?
• Keep and eye on total cost of ownership – What is the entire picture of costs incurred to get up and running, train and maintain the system?  Oh, and don’t forget the hidden costs not many seem to mention: What is the cost in lost productivity and morale as a result of frustration with the tool?
  
• Share the risk – Are you taking on the entire load of the technology, it’s weak spots, potential obsolescence, etc?

Here at Intand, we are passionate about providing great technology tools that empower rather than frustrate.  And we are keen on giving you technology that is a tool that does not distract you from getting your job done, with effectiveness and ease.  Here’s how Tandem for Schools, our web-based, database-driven calendar system can meet the above concerns:

Tandem for Schools integrates easily into your current system, without fuss.  All you need to do is set up the calendar with your facilities, events, etc.

Tandem for Schools costs very little to own. We host it in one of the best data centers on the West Coast, so you don’t have to manage hardware.  It takes little time to get users up to speed and does not require weeks of training.  Licenses are per school, not per user.  When we upgrade the system, you are automatically part of the upgrade.  Easy.  High value for minimal investment.

Tandem for Schools takes on risk for you. You can try before you buy for 30 days.  Support is free.  We maintain the hardware. You don’t have to invest thousands of your scarce school dollars into technology that just may end up going unused.

In this day and age of over-engineered technology tools, Tandem for Schools will take the pain out of your calendaring and event planning processes.