Happenings, Updates, Jokes you should know about.
| National Youth Orchestra of US now recruiting!!! (5/16/2012) If you have an outstanding musician in your school music organization, look into having them apply for the National Youth Orchestra of the US!!! Copy and paste the entire link for details: http://www.carnegiehall.org/Education/National-Youth-Orchestra-of-the-United-States-of-America/?utm_campaign=2013_WMI_Programs_and_Concerts&utm_medium=Email&utm_source=14452+W-SBO_Eblast_5-10-12&utm_content=2013_WMI_NYO-USA&sourceCode=14452 |
| Charms and Noteflight announce partnership! (4/11/2012) Noteflight, the leader in online music notation software, is now available through Charms Office Assistant! Charms customers have the opportunity to create a private Noteflight music community as part of their existing Charms account. Noteflight is the only music notation program designed for our connected world. Because Noteflight is an online app, accounts can be used from any computer with Internet access. Students are no longer tied to a music lab: they can work on music at school, at home, at the library... anywhere that's connected. Being online also makes sharing work between students and teachers a breeze! See a demo of Noteflight |
| Charms endorsed in Teaching Music magazine! (2/14/2012) Thanks to the folks at NAfME, for naming Charms as a "One Tool To Rule Them All" in the February issue of Teaching Music (see pg. 34)!!! We like it!!! |
| Center Grove (IN) MS Winds playing at InMEA (1/18/2012) Congrats to Charms user Center Grove Middle School North Wind Ensemble, under director Michael Bolla, for being an invited performer at this week's Indiana MEA conference in Ft. Wayne!!! |
| Inventory now on Charms Mobile (1/10/2012) A basic inventory lookup, including student assignments, has been added to the Charms Mobile. Enjoy! |
| Calendar Event Change notification option (1/10/2012) You now have the option, when you make a change to an existing calendar event, to send an email to the affected groups notifying them of the change. If you choose to send an email, you are taken to the Group Email screen, and the groups associated with the event are automatically selected. We are also looking into creating this notification capability when a new calendar event is first created.... |
| Fort Walton Beach and Randy Folsom! (11/16/2011) Congratulations to Mr. Randy Folsom, Director of the Fort Walton Beach High School Band, on his induction into the Florida Bandmaster Association Hall of Fame on November 13, 2011. FWBHS Band has earned Superior ratings at FBA marching, jazz and concert District and State events for 40 years. Mr. Folsom has been the Director of Bands for 23 years. |
| Bellsouth Update - Fixed! (10/17/2011) According to a tech person at the Bellsouth/Yahoo/AT&T/SBCglobal group whatever block they had on us is now removed. Please send to these folks and let us know if you get any bounces. |
| Bellsouth/Yahoo Mails being Blocked (10/11/2011) Folks, if anyone out there in Charms land has a bellsouth email account and is willing to endure their lousy tech support for a while, please contact our office so we can get them to stop blocking mail from Charms teachers to Bellsouth recipients. THANKS |
| Sync Your Calendar to the Windows Phones! (9/28/2011) Thanks to David from Utah (a Charms parent AND a Microsoft employee) we now have the instructions to sync your Windows 7.5 phone to the Charms calendars! Login to Charms, click the Calendar to find the steps. |
| BASTROP COUNTY NEEDS HELP! (9/9/2011) As you have probably seen, wildfires in Texas are burning out of control. Hundreds of homes in Bastrop County (near Austin the capital) have been destroyed. Wayne King of Smithville High School is organizing a donation/volunteer drive in the area. If anyone can volunteer in Smithville to help with donations, they could sure use it. CURRENT NEEDS: VOLUNTEERS, pet kennels, toiletries, mens/women's/children's socks, new packages of underwear, bandaids, HEAVY DUTY work gloves, benadryl, baby food, formula (all kinds), chapstick, visine, baby tylenol/ibuprophen, new pillows, air mattresses, towels, sleeping bags, washcloths, diapers, laundry baskets, bleach, dishwashing soap, laundry detergent, school supplies in backpacks and we need VOLUNTEERS. PLEASE DO NOT bring clothing, furniture, dog/cat food. The DROP OFF location is the at the corner of 1st and Ramona Street in Smithville. This is also one of the places where lots of volunteers are needed. For further information, please contact Mr. King: wking@smithvilleband.com THANK YOU! |
| Calendar Syncs Restored! (8/20/2011) We found out what was changed by Google and Apple and have made the changes in Charms so the Sync is working again! For the iPhones, we have tested with OS4, so please let us know if it works with the older devices as well. |
| Direct Volunteer Signup Link Now Available (8/10/2011) When a calendar event is created that asks for Volunteer signups, the 'director/helper side' Volunteer Signups screen now includes a "DIRECT LINK" that you can send your parents which will take them right to the signup page for your event!!! Check it out, on one of your volunteer events -- and when you're short of volunteers, send 'em the link to your event signup! |
| Charms User Manual Now Available! (8/2/2011) A User Manual for the Charms Office Assistant was developed for our NCIS User Conference in June, and has now been uploaded into Charms. Full-Access Users (Head directors, assistant directors, full-access users) can find the manual in their Charms accounts under the HUB>Resources area. There are four .pdf files: Basics, Boosters, Treasurers and Teachers. Please be sure to pass these on to your limited-access users! |
| QR Codes for the Charms Public Calendar (7/25/2011) We had an interesting phonecall recently -- a director wanted to use QR Codes (i.e. "2-D Barcodes") to direct people to their Charms calendar. This is very easily done - simply copy the link for your Charms public calendar from your Profile area, then go to an internet site that creates QR codes, and enter that link address for your calendar. Voila~ -- you've got a QR code that takes people right to it! Remember, though -- it's the PUBLIC Calendar -- so be sure your events are being posted there that you want to be there, by clicking "SHOW ON PUBLIC CALENDAR" when you create the event.... |
| Google Calendar Sync not working (thanks to Google) (7/25/2011) Unfortunately we are going to have to remove our instructions for syncing the Calendar with Google for the time being. Our link is supplying the correct information but there appears to be an issue on the Google end of things. If you wish to continue using Google, the manual export of the Charms calendar to iCal format and import into Google still appears to work properly. |
| New "Student Summary" available (7/22/2011) A new feature just added to the Director/Helper side of the Charms system is a handy "Student Summary" screen. Go to any student's main information screen, and 'mouse over' their name in the blue box to bring up the Student Quicklinks dropdown list. Near the top of this list is "Student Summary" -- a summary screen that shows what inventory, uniforms, library, financial data, attendance and Groups the student has, all in one place... Try it out! |
| Calendar Event Start and End Time Settings are here! (6/17/2011) Now you have the capability to designate start and end times for your Calendar Event -- making it time-compatible with external calendar sync processes! Now your Charms event won't show up on calendar exports as an "All-Day" event, when it's really only 9AM - 11AM... Try it! |
| Inventory Labels! (6/3/2011) Inventory labels can now be ordered directly from your Charms account with the same process as we have for our Uniform labels! The paths are Inventory>Barcodes>Order Labels and Uniforms>Barcodes>Order Labels. |
| Silence those cellphones... (5/31/2011) Sign posted outside a concert hall: " If any of your noise making devices go of during the performance (cell phone, ipod, pager, ext...) you will be forced to go on stage and play the bassoon." |
| New Library Custom Report feature (5/19/2011) There is a new Report generation feature in the Library section of your Charms account -- go to Library > Reports, and look for "Build Your Own" - and have it your way! |
| Cathy Benford solves iPhone Problem (5/2/2011) It's an iPhone problem, but Cathy figured out that we needed to adjust a meta tag so the iPhone sends Charms Mobile to Safari rather than creating an independent App. We sent this off to Apple for them to fix it as well. They told me to Press 1 for English. THANKS CATHY! |
| Norah Jones, Renee Zellweger, and Fine Arts in Schools (3/18/2011) Renée Zellweger might have won an Academy Award without the theater courses she took at Katy High School. And it's possible that Norah Jones may have won multiple Grammy Awards even if she hadn't attended choir classes at Grapevine Junior High School. But in each of these cases, and in countless others, a quality fine arts education in Texas public schools is at the foundation of their success. An article by Robert Floyd, Executive Director of the Texas Music Educators Association Corpus Christi Caller Times |
| Charms changeovers have begun... (3/9/2011) Welcome to the first phase of the new Charms redesign! The new main website page is up and running and we are very close to having the actual new Charms internal program up and running as well. Our target date is April 1 (no foolin'!) for the switch to the new Charms layouts. Get ready for even GREATER functionality of Charms!!! |
| Fire rescue tale (joke) (3/7/2011) The factory was ablaze, and the local firemen were standing around, helplessly - the fire was just too hot, and no one could get close enough to do anything! The factory company President appealed to them, saying, "All our patents and vital inventions are in the safe in there! I'll pay $100,000 if you can rescue them!" The firemen just shook their heads. "I'll pay $250,000!" Still, no one would make the attempt. Suddenly, a rambling old firetruck from the neighboring town's volunteer fire department came speeding towards the blazing inferno, siren screaming, manned by a bunch of retirees. The truck drove right into the middle of the blaze without even slowing down, and the firemen jumped out and started working frantically to put the flames out around them!!! Sure enough, they got the fire under control, and the documents in the safe were rescued! The company President was overjoyed, and told the head of the Volunteer Dept., "You men have saved my vital documents, I'm going to pay you $500,000!!" The chief looked at him, looked at his comrades, and said, "Well, maybe NOW we can afford to get the brakes fixed on that truck!" |
| CHARMS HAS MOBILE APPS!!! (2/12/2011) Did you know that Charms has Mobile Device capability? Log in with your smartphone, iPad, or even your regular computer, to www.charmsoffice.com/mobile and check it out!!! Work with Student Info, Library, Calendar Events, Attendance, Volunteers, Uniforms, and even Student Recordings! |
| Charms at TMEA, NwMEA, CMEA, KMEA (2/8/2011) We're on the road again (to quote Willie)... Come say hello to the Charms folks at our exhibitor booth at MEA conferences in Texas, Washington, California, and Kansas through the month of February!!!! |
| Two Ants (1/26/2011) Two ants on a bar are singing "We've Only Just Begun". A man leans over to the bartender and says, "Hey, What's up with the singing ant?" The bartender replies, "Those are Carpenter ants." |
| Midwest Clinic a great success! (1/4/2011) We had a GREAT time at the Midwest Clinic, and truly enjoyed meeting customers new and old... We really appreciate the positive comments and constructive suggestions! Watch for the new website look, coming soon! |
| MIGRATION COMPLETED! (11/26/2010) To our new mega-server! This was our largest migration to date and we thank you for being patient while we were down. We have tested extensively, but experience tells us we might have overlooked something. If you come across an error screen - don't panic, but please let us know right away so we can DEAF the issue (Drop Everything And Fix). You know we will. THANKS AGAIN for all your support. |
| New Fee Reports listings (11/18/2010) The Fee Reports area now has the capability of listing all unpaid or paid fees across your entire student organization, showing who has (or has not) paid what for all fees. Check it out! |
| Send Attendance Email from Charms Mobile (11/1/2010) Now you can send attendance updates to parents and students from Charms Mobile! Click the little email icon and the program will automatically send a formatted simple message to each absent/tardy student (and their parents) who have an email address. No typing required! |
| CHARMS CALENDAR - PHONE SYNC! (10/13/2010) Is ready for you to try! When you login to the parent area, click on the calendar and click the link for the instructions! Let us know how it goes! |
| Something NEW - Something BLUE!!! (9/28/2010) Noticed our new filters? When you select a filter for a list of students anywhere in the program, the list turns blue and stays filtered while you visit other screens! We're rolling this out as we write them, so more and more screens will have this new Persistent Filter! Enjoy! |
| NEW RECORDING STUDIO! (9/5/2010) Our long awaited new recording studio is now available to all Charms users with a Windows computer. (Mac version coming soon). The new studio is a pure Java application - meaning no complex installation process. A few clicks to confirm, and the studio is installed! Select from pre-loaded accompaniment files, or select from created assignments, or just record without accompaniment. You can even adjust levels and change the tempo of your accompaniments without affecting the pitch! |
| Express Industries Alliance! (7/26/2010) We are pleased to announce a new strategic alliance with Express Industries a major fundraising company! For the first time, you can easily import your fundraising student accounting information DIRECTLY to your Charms account! For more information visit Express Industries |
| PayPal Discount for 501(c)(3)! (7/22/2010) We have just learned that PayPal offers a discount on their fees for registered charities with 501(c)(3) status. The base rate is 2.2% plus 30 cents for the first $100,000. After that it drops to 1.9% plus 30 cents per transaction. Please contact PayPal directly with any questions as to the status of your organization. (Thanks Dana!) |
| PayPal instructions on Finances screen (7/21/2010) For those using or planning to set up PayPal, we have put a comment and link on the main Finances screen that takes you to a document that describes both how to set up PayPal and how to add a "handling charge" to offset the fees PayPal charges your organization for credit card transactions. |
| User Conference a Great Success! (7/7/2010) We had over 40 attendees at our first-ever Charms User Conference!!! It was an excellent three days of classes, conversations, food, and recreation -- and we appreciate all who participated! Let's do it again next year! |
| YAHOO BLOCK LIFTED! (really..) (6/22/2010) This time for real! Turns out they were classifying Charms incorrectly. The block also included sbcglobal.net, bellsouth.net, charter.net, and a few other email domains run by Yahoo. Hopefully this should end the problem of undelivered Yahoo emails to real addresses. Now if we can get AOL to cooperate..... |
| New Today in Charms! (6/18/2010) 1) default bank account/activate budgets moved to setup bank account screen. 2) trips are automatically created as a group for easy form collection from students on trips. |
| New Macintosh Opticon Drivers Available (6/9/2010) For the Charms users using the Opticon on the Mac, go to Hub > Resources to download the newest Macintosh Opticon driver/software. |
| Did you know....we now offer monthly subscriptions? (5/26/2010) Does your Charms account expire in July but your budget not come in until September? We feel your pain! Most of us here in the office were once teachers so we completely understand how school and booster budgets work! We have begun offering a month-to-month subscription rate to help our users keep their Charms accounts running until the fall. Please contact Rebecca Baker (RBaker@charmsmusic.com) for a quote. |
| NEW FINANCIAL SCREEN! (5/25/2010) YAY! It's finally here! A way to mark multiple fees as paid by transfer from the miscellaneous ledger! Makes transferring multiple fees very easy. It's so easy a caveman can do it. |
| Testing Email Handling (4/29/2010) We're always trying to improve Charms and due to the recent issue with Yahoo mail accounts, we are trying a new approach to sending email through Charms. Starting today we are restoring your email address to the from line as On Behalf Of. Please let us know if your recipients have trouble receiving their email today. |
| YAHOO BAN LIFTED (4/27/2010) According to someone at Yahoo, the ban against our IP address sending mail to Yahoo addresses has been lifted. Please let us know if you continue to encounter problems with Yahoo. They suggest that the individual users can enter your email address (or the modified one we use to send) in their address books to ensure delivery. |
| YAHOO Emails Bouncing (4/26/2010) We have been informed that Yahoo has decided to block all emails from Charms. We have contacted Yahoo (yet again) and have submitted their required documentation. We hope to have this resolved shortly. THANK YOU. |
| Charms User Conference (3/10/2010) This year, Dorian Business Systems, Inc. will be hosting a Charms User Conference! The user conference will include training sessions, presentations by your fellow music and fine arts directors as well as fun local food and activities. Please take this short (JUST 10 questions!) survey so we may better plan out the best conference for you! If you are interested in attending this conference, watch the website for an opportunity to sign up and to receive more information. Click or copy and paste the following link into your web browser: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/8D3G7TB Thanks for using Charms! *NOTE: Fun as it may be for some to do surveys (?) PLEASE do the survey only once. THANKS! |
| Charms on Facebook (2/2/2010) Come be a fan of Charms on Facebook! Just search for Charms Office Assistant and keep in touch with us and other users around the globe. |
| HTML Email now available! (1/19/2010) Michael Baker has announced that the new HTML Email system in Charms Office is up and live. It works basically the same way as before, but the actual Prepare Email screen is a different screen now, which allows users to make the input box bigger and set that screen to a 40 minute timeout rather than the 20 minute on the other screens. Also, we are using a better HTML formatting toolkit, which has a "Paste From Word" feature which strips out the Word/Outlook formatting gibberish that was causing some problems. And it has a Spell Checker button! That's just for you, Derrick! We've tested this in all the browsers on Windows and on the Mac and have not encountered any problems yet. Let us know if you do! Our building is progressing nicely and if all goes well, we should be back to normal office hours, phones, fax, etc. by February 1. Thanks for your patience! |
| *** URGENT RENOVATION NOTICE *** (11/18/2009) Starting Friday, November 13, our office will be undergoing a major renovation and we will be working from home, Starbucks, Panera, public library, etc. We will still try to provide telephone support, but ask for your patience during this process. If we can't answer your call right away, please leave a message and we will call back as soon as we can. Our fax machine will be offline during this time as well, but we will still have Mr. Blinky and email available. We expect the project to be completed just after the New Year. THANK YOU! |
