Saturday, November 14, 2009
Who is the family communication collaborator in your family?
Who is your family communications collaborator? When was the last time you updated your contact info?
Early this morning my mother was in a car accident. Not her fault and she was not scheduled to work today...just required to attend a mandatory meeting. First message was at 6 AM I could hear noises in the background but figured she was at her workplace and accidentally hit the phone to call me. The first words of the message were, "Do not drive home, just call J, I am OK, car is totaled." When I did speak to her for a minute, I could tell the pain medication was working.
I started with messages to family and friends telling them I would keep everyone updated but keep the calls to the minimum because she was in the emergency room. Thankfully, I have some awesome neighbors in Augusta (Thanks Ron and Dot). They went to visit my mother in the hospital, where she had been admitted but was out of the room for a cat scan. After she returned, they called me from her room and I could hear her in good spirits in the background. DD showed up later and took a picture. As promised, I did not post the picture for the world to see but did share it with a few family members who have data plans on their phones and email for those who do not.
So it turns out, she has a broken leg and a possible fracture in the C2 vertebrate. My mother is also the oldest of 14 children, so you can only imagine the number of family members. Using a variety of tools, we all seem to connect when one family member or another needs thoughts, prayers, recognition, and/or thanks...but you can imagine the diversity of options to contact everyone. Thankfully I have two proactive aunts (Thanks Aunt Laura & Aunt Lois) geographically separated but keep connected to multiple family members primarily through email or voice calls.
So between GMail w/Gchat and video, Twitter, blip.fm, Facebook, and minimum number of voice phone calls the message was distributed. When I looked at the various tools used I wondered, "Who is the family communications collaborator in your network? Who would have been left out of the information loop if only one method of communication was used? When was the last time you updated your family contact information with family, school, or place of employment?"
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3 comments:
Great post. Its one of those jobs those jobs that I will do one day but am too busy to do right now. I've started a Google Document with relative's names, addresses, phone numbers and have shared it with a few key folks in the family. I'm thinking it might be better as a Google spreadsheet - so we can include children's names & birthdays - a great tool for the family history nut too! Many family members seem to be on facebook - but it would still be a great resource if there were a proper list - you've inspired me to do more work on it! Thanks, Leesa
Leesa,
We did the same with Google Docs. In the fam...I am the Google Girl. With so many of my cousins in and out of the military the Google Doc is a great way to keep up with multiple family members. An annual reminder to have them update info keeps it up to date. Adding additional columns for social media connections and screen names also helps us when we are trying to get the word out quickly. Thanks for the comment!
This is from the 'mom' in the post. So grateful to be alive, so grateful for the thinly disguised Angel walking around as my daughter! And my sister Laura, who made the trip from TN to be my 24/7 caregiver for 8 days! I am fortunate to have some of our big family members active on the networks, and email...while there are still some who do neither.
Thanks forever to Lisa, Laura, Lois, and all who added their ptayers. And Lisa does have the best neighbors!! Thanks Dot & Ron, and to JJ, my gran, who stayed by my side!Love y'all, Mom (Flo)
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