AUTHOR: Dr Susan Palmer
1. You don’t need to set everything up at once
Setting EVERYTHING up at once can get overwhelming – and takes time. I found it much easier to set up just a few tasks to get things rolling – and then come back and add some more over the next few days.
2. Use Facebook to help Gather your Crew
If you have friends on Facebook – but you don’t have their contact details – ask them to forward you their number so you can send them an SMS invite.
3. Have all details ready before you start
If you are setting up an account for someone else make sure they know that you are doing it. It is best if they can tell you what they need and when. We were all so excited to help out – but then didn’t realise we would need to know what help they wanted, when they wanted it and who they wanted us to ask!
4. Crew Members – leave the notifications on!
Sometimes requests for help were added and I missed them because I turned off notifications.
5. Don’t be shy asking for help
If all of the tasks are accepted quickly by your Crew and there are Crew Members missing out on helping – add more tasks. I had people contacting me because they had missed out and wanted to do something.
6. I used the list of ‘Social’ tasks a lot during my treatment
My friends found it really helpful to know when they could drop by and visit – and when I wanted to be left alone to rest.
7. Don’t worry about inviting too many people to join your Crew
I invited about 40 people when I was setting up my account – and then did not have enough stuff for them to do! I would start with about 10 and then add people as you go along.
8. Make sure you add extra information to meal tasks
Friends wanted to know exactly what to cook for us. I added a simple note in the details section telling them what food we like to eat – and even uploaded some of our favorite family recipes to the message board via the Chat function.
9. Keep the extra task details simple
At the start, I spent so much time entering heaps of written information for each task and thanking everyone over and over… It took SO long. By the end, my information was really short and to the point. My Crew told me it was so much easier to understand what I wanted.
10. Consider designating a ‘sweeper’ within your Crew
We had someone who regularly checked for tasks that were still unallocated after a week or so. She was then able to pick up these tasks that others were not able to do. Just make sure this person has the flexible spare time to help.
