If you have questions about thecommon.org contact Eric Sattler at esattler@comcast.net or Marny Danz at mdanz@thornapple.org.
TheCommon.org
Thornapple Covenant Church has joined with a ministry called TheCommon.org to enable our community to help each other more by connecting people with abilities to people with matching needs. It's a simple way to offer help or ask for help.
To get started, everyone needs to register online. See below for how to register.* Those who completed the registration form at church will be pre-registered by the new TheCommon.org ministry team and you will receive an e-mail that will verify that you have been registered. Then you can go on and change your password. If you turned in a pre-registration form on Sunday and have not received an e-mail confirmation, please let us know. Send an e-mail to Eric Sattler so we can fix it at: esattler@comcast.net.
Who should join? Everyone. Those who have needs or abilities, or both, should join the community.
Needs: Needs can be posted on TheCommon.org. The need can be anything from wanting help with yard care, to needing a ride to the doctor, to wanting to borrow a wheelbarrow...the list is endless. You simply post something you need help with as a project or an item you need in the marketplace. Then others will come on who can meet your need and offer their help.
Abilities: After registering on TheCommon.org you should list the abilities you have to offer. This will help to narrow down the needs that you see, to things you can help with.
Once you've found a need you that you can meet, you indicate that you want to help. Then we have facilitators that will okay the connection between those who have a need with those who can help - and that's it. You will then be free to respond and offer your help.
The Marketplace: Another great part of TheCommon.org is the marketplace. Click on the marketplace to post an item you would like to give away, or look for items others are offering.
Our facilitators are Jonathan Peterson (jonathan.petersen@comcast.net), Gail Evans (gbevans32@hotmail.com) Barb Hoffman (icre84him@aol.com) and Karen Gerard (klmgerard@aol.com).
You will also find opportunities on TheCommon.org to help organizations that we partner with in Grand Rapids. Places like Degage and Mel Trotter will post their needs and you can choose to help out where you can.
*So, how do you get started? First you need to go to www.TheCommon.org and pre-register. To do so and get started now, click here. Then type in your community which is Thornapple Covenant Church. When it comes up, then click on "Pre-Register" and fill in the form. Then read the two Terms of Service (one for thecommon.org and one for Thornapple). After reading them, click that you agree with each and then click the Pre-Register button. After that you will receive an e-mail confirming your registration. At that point you should print off (attached to this page) the "After Sign up Instructions" for additional help to begin using TheCommon.org.
We hope you will enjoy and benefit from the connections made at TheCommon.org. Who knows, you might just make new friends at Thornapple.
If you have questions about TheCommon.org contact Eric Sattler at esattler@comcast.net or Marny Danz at mdanz@thornapple.org or one of the facilitators listed above.
