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FAQs

We're Not Just Another Online Calendar

"We have recommended you to other teams, you have a great product."
- Coach, Bartlesville Wrestling Club (Oklahoma)

How much does the MyKidsCalendar Service Cost?

MyKidsCalendar is completely free for all parents. Teams using the system are entitled to employ all its features and capabilities for a monthly subscription fee based on the number of youth athletes in its program:

1 to 25 Players/Participants - $5/month (Total - Not Per Participant)
26 to 150 Players/Participants - $10/month (Total - Not Per Participant)
151 to 500 Players/Participants - $15/month (Total - Not Per Participant)
Greater than 500 Players/Participants - $20/month (Total - Not Per Participant)

Subscriptions are only purchased for the months your Group uses MyKidsCalendar. For example, if you have 3 baseball travel teams, each with 15 players, using MyKidsCalendar for the spring season from March through June, your Group’s total cost for MyKidsCalendar would be $10/month (for 45 total participants) x 4 months or $40.00 for the entire season.


Are there any additional charges?

We do offer the option for Team administrators to permit MyKidsCalendar to send automated text messages to parents who have agreed to receive them. A good texting example would be a late-day rain or snow storm that results in the cancellation of a practice, you’d like to send messages about the cancellation to parents on their way to the practice, and our automated email might not be the best communication tool. There is a charge to send text messages, but that feature is completely optional (and only recently added).


Why Does MyKidsCalendar Charge for Text Messages While Some Websites Advertise Free Texting?

In a word: reliability. Services that advertise free texting do so by sending an email converted to a text message. For example, if your carrier was T-mobile and your phone number was 480-555-5200, we could send you an e-mail from Microsoft Outlook or any other e-mail program with 14805555200@tmomail.com in the “To” field of the email. This would then get converted to a text message to be received on the end user’s phone. Carriers that support this functionality do so with the intent that it is NOT utilized for any commercial traffic. So, the downside is that there is minimal reliability and carriers do not support this in any significant volume. Companies who send messages this way run the risk of their servers being blacklisted which means their messages will not go out.

MyKidsCalendar uses a legitimate server with a reputable company (CellTrust) to send our text messages, but this requires us to pay a fee for the service. This, however, means that messages sent through MyKidsCalendar will be delivered reliably and quickly. Since the majority of our customers use texting in time-sensitive situations (e.g. cancelling a practice at the last minute due to weather issues), we felt that reliability was an important requirement for our service.


What is your email privacy policy?

The MyKidsCalendar service asks for your email address to use as a convenient log-in name, and also to automatically build your children's coaches' email lists for communication. Our email privacy policy is unambiguous: we will not sell, give away, trade, or otherwise distribute your email address to any organization, company, or individual under any circumstances. We do plan, however, to send the users of MyKidsCalendar email notifications of changes to our system, upgrades, or new features on rare occasions as necessary (a few times a year, typically), and may use your email address for that purpose.


How long does it take for parents to register?

Parents register for free by providing their name and email address (providing mailing address information is optional, and used for automated directions), which takes less than 1 minute. Once a parent registers, they never have to do so again.


What is my "Personal Calendar"?

Every user of the system is provided their own empty calendar to start. You populate your calendar with the specific schedules in which you're interested (i.e. the schedules for the teams your children play on). If your son plays on the 7-Year-Old Red Intramural Team in the Kansas City Youth Soccer League, you're not really interested in the schedule of the other 20 teams in that league, just your son's. Therefore, you would "Add" your son's team to your personal schedule. Your daughter might be on the 11-Year Old Travel Team of the Kansas City Girls Softball Club, so you would download that schedule as well, combining the two (or more) into your "Personal Calendar".


Can I Put My "Personal Calendar" on My Microsoft Outlook at Work?

Absolutely. Just quickly install our Outlook Synchronization plug-in on your PC once, and then synchronizing your kids' sports schedules with your work schedule is as easy as one click of the mouse.


What If All My Children's Schedules Are Not on MyKidsCalendar?

Clearly, we'd like parents to encourage coaches/team managers to post their schedules on the system. Once they try the service, they will most likely agree that it is the easiest scheduling software to use, and the process of building their schedules is an annual requirement for them anyway. Indeed, we designed MyKidsCalendar with coaches and team managers in mind first and foremost. However, if they are reluctant to do so, you can manually input your own events (i.e. practices, games, etc.) into your "Personal Calendar" to unify all your children's activities onto one calendar. Without question, however, the best scenario by far is that your coaches all take advantage of MyKidsCalendar, more for their benefit than even their parents.


As a Coach, How Do I Build My Parent Email List?

You have two options: you can register parents pro-actively using our “Register Parents” function, or you can instruct parents to register on their own. Either way, your email and parent contact list is built, by team, for you. As you register parents, our system automatically generates an email that introduces them to MyKidsCalendar and instructs them as to how to access their children’s schedules. By registering parents, you assure that they all have the correct team schedule, and is an attractive option for smaller Teams or Groups.

Alternatively, the list can be built automatically for you. As parents register on MyKidsCalendar, they "Add" schedules to their "Personal Calendar". If they add your team's schedule, their email address - which they use to register - is automatically added to your team's email list. Thus, if you make changes to that team's schedule, they are automatically emailed. Also, if you use the "Email All" button, you can send a custom email that you prepare and send it to them. You can also post that same information on a message board they will see every time they log onto the system.


How Do Parents Use the System to Get Directions to Events?

When parents register, they have the option to provide their home address. When coaches insert a schedule event, they identify the location with the address. When a parent clicks on a particular event, the directions function uses their address and the address of the event location to automatically link them to an on-line directions site. Parents can simply print out the directions at that point. If coaches desire, they can insert directions for certain events in the "Notes" section of each event.


Can Other People Access My "Personal Calendar"?

It’s up to the parents. All parents have the option of adding a password to protect their Personal Calendar. If parents decide to add a password, only those with knowledge of the password can access their Personal Calendar. If parents decide not to add a password, then their Personal Calendar would be generally exposed to anyone who knows their email address (which is needed to log on even without a password).


How can I learn more about the MyKidsCalendar Service?

We invite you to peruse our Learn More page or additional details. Also, we encourage coaches or administrators to register for our free 30-day trial and take a few minutes to read through our “Getting Started” guide that you’ll see after you’ve finished registering. And at any time, we encourage you to contact us at either support@mykidscalendar.com or (908) 872-8560 with any questions or feedback.
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