Are you the new VP Ticktocker for your National Charity League chapter? I suggest trying out Notion for planning the upcoming NCL year. Notion is a great way to manage all of your tasks.
First, let me say…congratulations! Your position is at the heart of your chapter. You are planning and organizing the NCL experience for approximately 150 girls! What you plan is a big part of why families spend money on National Charity League. Now you need to get organized. I am here to help you. I have been on an NCL chapter board for four years and found that Notion was the best tool to keep me organized.
This post is all about using Notion for National Charity League : VP Ticktockers
Best Reasons to use Notion for
National Charity League : VP Ticktockers
1. VP Ticktockers Position is a Big Job
In most chapters, the VP Ticktockers position is a very complex board role. Being on the chapter’s board likely involves monthly board meetings and regular board reports for each meeting. In four years of being on a National Charity League chapter board, the VP Ticktockers always has a lot of information to report. This makes sense because the NCL experience is driven by what the VP Ticktocker plans. Fortunately, NCL Inc. gives you lots of ideas and direction. The one thing that is missing is a good method for staying organized and on top of all of your tasks.
As VP Ticktockers, you have several responsibilities. Some of those will likely be the following:
- Mentoring Grade Level Advisors (GLAs)
- Keeping track of Ticktocker Position History
- Coordinating a Ticktocker Training Event
- Overseeing the Ticktocker Council
- Organizing the yearly Ticktocker Elections
- Updating the chapter Board every month
Clearly, there are a lot of moving parts to this position and that’s why Notion is the perfect tool to keep track of it all. All of that information can be kept in one workspace. In that workspace, you can have calendars, images, databases or tables, contacts, and more. Gone are the days of 20 different files for keeping track of the year, in Notion it can all be put together so you are not searching for information on different devices or files.
2. What is Notion?
Notion is an all-in-one online workspace that allows you to have a task list, notes, calendar, and databases in one location. At the time of this writing, it is FREE to use, and it syncs across all of your devices (yes, it has an app for both iOS and Android). I have been using Notion for a few years and they keep making worthwhile improvements.
Notion is a collection of blocks that can be linked and moved around. Pretty much everything is a block – text, headers, pages, images, databases, etc. I don’t plan on going into detail on how to navigate around the workspace in Notion here, because there are lots of great YouTube videos out there that will give you the basics.
To download the app, go to Notion.so. I am an Apple user, so I cannot speak to the Android app, but I imagine it works just as well. I am constantly looking for a better way to organize my tasks, notes, and projects. Notion seemed like an excellent fit for all of my volunteer work.
Click HERE to get the free Notion Template for National Charity League VP Ticktockers.
NOTE: Since it is all online, I would not put sensitive information such as account numbers or passwords in the application.
3. Board Reports
Notion is very flexible and completely customizable. In Notion, you can see your VP Ticktocker overall plan or task list in a calendar, table, kanban board, timeline, gallery, or a list. And you can set things up to suit your chapter needs. If you like seeing your task list in a calendar form with due dates, you just click a button, and there it is like magic all in a calendar, or you can switch to a Kanban board that shows progress.
Creating board reports is a mundane task but it’s super important for the board members to keep up to date on the different areas of the chapter. This template will help you keep track of when reports are due and you can customize the content to fit your needs.
Keeping all of your board reports in one place helps you remember what you reported on in prior months. Our chapter started using a common Google doc for board reports. It was great for the current month, but it was sometimes a to challenge find the old reports. Those old reports are helpful for the next Patroness that will take your position.
4. Grade Level Advisors
Keeping track of all of the Ticktocker meetings and grade level events is another crucial piece of the VP Ticktocker role. Of course, the Grade Level Advisors will plan their class schedules, but you will need an overall picture.
Notion can help you be on top of all the Ticktocker meetings, grade level events, and the details associated with those activities. The beauty of Notion is that you can slice and dice the information in a way that makes sense to you. You are not limited to the NCL system. Of course, everything still needs to be on the NCL Calendar, but keeping track of the overall schedule might be easier in a more flexible tool.
5. Ticktocker Position History
I have been VP Communications for 4 years of two different chapters. One of the requests was always a view of each Ticktocker’s position history. Currently, this is not easily produced from the NCL website.
Once you setup the position history in Notion, I think you will love it. It even looks pretty. You could pass this task on to a webmaster. The initial setup will take a little time. Afterward, it will be easy to add the Ticktockers jobs for the new NCL year.
You will need to export the Ticktocker names for each class and have a list of each Ticktocker position. Once you have that information you will be ready to get this piece into Notion.
6. Second Brain for National Charity League : VP Ticktockers
Would you like to have a second brain to store all of the information related to the VP Ticktockers role? Keeping notes, tasks, and dates together is so helpful! All of that is in your Notion second brain! By putting information into Notion, you are freeing up your brain for creating and brainstorming new ideas.
Another cool thing about using Notion for project management is the concept of linked pages. For example, you can link tasks to pages with more detail. If you just wanted to leave notes for the next VP Ticktockers, a linked page might be a great place to do it.
Images can also be added easily and are helpful when you are looking for information or collecting ideas. In addition, you can embed website links when you find potential vendors or other interesting sites. You can even embed a video to pass down to the next set of GLAs or your successor.
7. Ticktocker Training
The annual Ticktocker Training is a big event to coordinate. There are so many moving parts to this event. Your chapter may handle this a little differently, but here are the major components:
- Ticktocker Positions assigned for the year
- Training materials updated (if necessary)
- Venue for training (assuming it’s in person)
- Patronesses lined up to train for each position
Keeping track of all of the moving parts is easy with Notion. The template below includes one way to plan the event, however, you can modify it to work with your chapter’s method of training the Ticktockers. Our chapter always kept the latest training documents on the Chapter tab. I still think that is a good practice.
I would not recommend Notion for the creation of the training documents, I would suggest using a word processor application such as Word or Google Docs.
Notion is great at tracking what documents have been reviewed and updated. It also can help you with making sure you have all of the necessary Patronesses committed to the training.
8. Ticktocker Council
The Ticktocker Council meetings are another activity that the VP Ticktockers usually plans. They are smaller in scale than the Ticktocker Training event, however, they are still important. Notion can help plan the agenda and compile feedback from each of the classes. Keeping this information in a central location will be helpful for future VP Ticktockers. It will help them get a read on what is important and helpful to the girls over time.
9. Ticktocker Elections
Keeping track of the Ticktocker Election process is another big task for the National Charity League VP Ticktockers. As you know, you will work with the Grade Level Advisors to coordinate this nominating and election process.
This process takes place over several months, so it could be helpful to view this in a table and calendar views. Once you create the task list and assign a due date, it takes just a few clicks to see everything on a calendar.
10. Easy to Pass Down from Year to Year
I dislike a pass-down binder full of paper for a multitude of reasons. I have received many binders with outdated information, which made the binder worthless. Passing down a lot of files is a step up from a binder. There is still the problem of opening the files to figure out why all of them are necessary.
Notion gives the new board member the ability to drill down into the information. You can drill down into the different subcategories as needed. The pass-down process is as easy as:
- Transferring a login and password
- Explaining the organization of the setup in Notion
- If necessary, share a couple of links to Notion overview YouTube videos
Below you will find a link to the NCL VP Ticktockers template. It includes the following pages:
- Master Task List with a few example tasks
- Board Reports
- Grade Level Advisors
- Ticktocker Council
- Ticktocker Elections
- Ticktocker Position History
- Ticktocker Training
You can certainly change them to suit your own chapter needs. If Notion sounds interesting, give it a test drive and see what you think. If you are new to Notion, I recommend starting with one or two of the pages, such as Board Reports and Grade Level Advisors. Then add in using additional pages, as your Notion skills progress.
I hope this will help you feel on top of the many tasks you have as VP Ticktockers. Good Luck!
NOTE: If you decide to give Notion a try, I would suggest using a Gmail email address that can be transferred to the next VP Ticktockers board member.
Click HERE to get the free Notion Template for National Charity League VP Ticktockers.
This post is all about great reasons to use Notion for National Charity League : VP Ticktockers.
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