Cut Time loves to hear from its users! We often receive input from our customers and wanted to share a spotlight on how programs are utilizing Cut Time to make things better in their organizations. This month, we asked a few questions of the booster president from the Allatoona High School Orchestra program in Cobb County, Karen Hooker.
How would you explain who you guys are as a program?
We are a High School Orchestra booster program that is a 501(c)3 organization. Allatoona Orchestra is the largest student body organization in the school, and we rely heavily on easy ways to communicate and keep track of each individuals’ financial obligations.
What types of resources and tools were you using to manage your program before you started using Cut Time?
We were using several Excel spreadsheets. With Cut Time it is very simple to credit one person or multiple people for the same obligation at one time.
Before Cut Time we would collect all the student and parent information then someone would sit and input all of that into the director’s address book. We would then create groups and use the directors school provided email and send out anything that needed to be sent. This only allowed one person to send and receive emails so that would always cause a problem. This year we set it up in Cut Time knowing that in the future it will not be necessary to input everyone. We will have the ability to remove the graduating students, and then just add the new students/parent’s information and we will be set. We also have the ability to make changes to the existing students information if needed.
What are some of the biggest challenges you face when it comes to managing your group?
Communication and Collections. Cut Time has made it easy for us to communicate through email to the parents and or students about events, fundraisers, and payments being due. Every month we are able to send out invoices to everyone with just a few clicks. We used to handwrite an invoice for each student or print out a flyer about events and then pass it out during class and hope that it would get to the parents/guardians. Cut Time has also allowed us to link our calendar to our school web page so anyone can see what the Orchestra has going on not just our parents and students.
What types of solutions are you usually looking for to help you do what you do?
Simplicity. We are a booster board of 4 busy volunteer parents and 2 very busy Orchestra Directors. We volunteer because we love and believe in the Orchestra program and want to support or directors and students so they can be the best musicians possible. Cut Time makes meeting our board position responsibilities easier. We spend more time listening to our kids play music and less time doing the behind the scenes stuff so that is definitely a win!
Where do you see the future of your program and how do you think Cut Time will be a part of that?
I can only see this program continuing to grow and produce amazing musicians. Cut Time is going to allow the Allatoona High School Orchestra students opportunities that they may not have had before we started using Cut Time. I previously stated that we have seen a 20% increase in our payment collections, and I am happy to report that we are continuing to see that growth. We are now up to 30% over the past year. I feel the growth in our collections is due to us having the ability to easily send invoices to each student and parent for all the obligations assigned them. This increase in our collections will give our directors the ability to bring in more professional players to work with our students. As a member of the booster board for the last 4 years I am confident that Cut Time will continue to be part of our organization’s future.