Introducing the New Campus Memo!

Conference Operations & Events and Communications are pleased to present the new Campus Memo to the faculty and staff of Grinnell College. We got a great deal of feedback from the survey we sent, and in this latest edition, we have implemented several changes based on the feedback you gave us. We'd like to take this opportunity to point out several of the new features.

Chronological Listing
Since so much of the Memo was comprised of events, we felt it would be much more conducive for planning your week if the entries were in chronological order. This idea was echoed in the feedback we received. The new Memo features a chronological listing that allows viewers to jump ahead to a specific day of interest. By clicking the day of the week next to the date, or the button for the upcoming week, viewers may navigate through all of the entries currently submitted to the Memo, whether it is this week or three weeks from now.

Days "roll off" as well, so if one views the Memo on Tuesday, Tuesday will be at the top of the page. If visited again Wednesday, viewers will find that Wednesday is now the first day.

New Column Format
The former Memo was difficult to read in the three-column format. With event entries in one column and announcements in another, the new version provides an easier view to read.

Abbreviated, Expandable Entries
The length of the Memo has been considerably shortened by showing only the first 200 characters of each Memo entry. This is allows readers to tell at a glance whether or not they are interested in an event or announcement. However, instead of limiting the length of entries, we have included an "Expand/Contract" button in the form of a "+/-" so readers can expand the entry to read all the details. This gave us the best of both worlds between the former one-column and compact views.

Filters for Quick Sorting
By clicking the "Filters" drop-down menu, viewers can see things only in particular categories, like "Campus Interest" and "Films."

Ease of Adding to Calendar
For viewers using Internet Explorer, the click of a button now opens a file that adds the event to your Outlook or web calendar. We continue to work on ways of making this happen for other browsers.

Printable Version
A new, printable version mimics the look of the new layout, but expands all entries to their full length.

XML Feeds
At the bottom of the "Announcements" column, viewers can click on buttons to subscribe to RSS or Atom feeds of the Memo. For those who are tuned in to the workings of the Web, this option allows users to receive information from the Memo as it is updated. (Learn more about these feeds at Wikipedia.)

Old School Version Still Available
For those who prefer the "Old School" version of the Memo, clicking on the "Other Views" drop-down list gives one the option of selecting the yellow version, the PDF of the old version, the one-column and compact versions.

More Reminders
One of the suggestions we got from our readers was a more frequent reminder from the Memo. Instead of receiving one email on Tuesday, they noted that events get added throughout the course of the week that people might miss. While we have not added more reminders for everyone (though that may come) we have long been providing a subscription list for "The Memo Today." This listserve generates an email to all members with daily reminders listing the events in the Memo taking place today. If you would like to receive more frequent reminders, please email Today in the Memo.

Yet to Come
We continue to work on more features to make the Memo user-friendly and informative for the campus community. Watch for more improvements and greater flexibility in the months to come.

I Like Paper!
We received several notes from people who still prefer the paper version. While we hope that providing an online printer-friendly version and PDF of the older version will be useful for those who want paper, a paper version is still printed each Tuesday and distributed to a mailing list. This version is static and cannot reflected changes made to times, dates and locations, but it does offer a tangible product for those who want it. To subscribe to the paper version, please email [memo] with your name and campus address.