Lettuceshare has a new feature that many people have asked for: a members page!
The new page is available to everyone in your group, and can be accessed via the page menu in the top right corner of each page. The reason why it's available to everyone is that people have mentioned that they're sometimes stuck with a packed box at the end of the night and no contact details for the username on the box. The new page should give you enough information to track them down.
There's some new member fields you can fill in too. For instance if people want to organise themselves into delivery groups you can now add that information. There's also space for just adding notes on accounts for all the other bits of information that need to be kept track of. And there's a download button so that you can keep a copy if you need to.
All the information shown on the members page is customisable, try clicking the Edit Columns button and choosing different combinations. There's also a new Wide grid option, so the columns you select can now take up the whole page. If you're a group admin, you will have access to all the data stored for accounts, and this information is now editable inline, in the grid.
The plan going forward is to make inline editing (and wide grids) available across lettuceshare, with the stock page being next. If you have any feedback about how the members page works, please let me know, as the features here will be making it into other parts of the system soon.
Lettuceshare has just been updated to simplify the control bar you see at the top of the page when logged in. If you don't like the new defaults, you can change the settings for your account by going to the new settings page from the page menu. There's not much there at the moment, but that's where new account settings will be added in the future.
If you're a group admin, and use the tools menu to update your group settings, there's now also a new page for that listed in the page menu. That makes it slightly easier to access than before. If you have any feedback about these changes, please get in touch or leave a comment!
I've upgraded quite a few pieces of software that lettuceshare.org uses recently, which will lead to more visible improvements to the platform soon. I'll have more information about those changes as they start to roll out.
For now, to make sure you've got the most up to date version of the site in your browser, can you please reload the page as soon as you've logged in? If you load a page on lettuceshare for the first time this week and notice any problems, please try reloading that page too.
If you still have problems or notice any thing strange after doing that, please don't hesitate to contact me at: info@lettuceshare.org
The Open Food Network has launched the Australian Food Forum as a place where foodies can ask questions and share knowledge. If you're interested in getting involved and building the fair food movement, get on board and create an account!
Would you be interested in supporting the growth of food co-ops and bulk buying groups in Queensland? Please read this request from UQ honours student Meegan Hardaker:
As part of my honours research at UQ I am investigating the barriers and opportunities for bulk buyer’s groups to work towards a brighter, fairer and more sustainable food future in SEQ. I am currently looking for participants who are involved with bulk buyer’s group to do a short interview (roughly 1 hour in length), which will take place during December 2016 or January 2017.
I've made some changes to the way availability lists from suppliers are imported into lettuceshare.
If your group pre-orders, then everything listed from a supplier is now made available to order during the import process. If an item with the same name is available from a different supplier, that item will be made unavailable for the other supplier.
The import process has not changed for groups that don't pre-order. This is because stock availability can be updated just before the group meets. Simply enter the quantity that has arrived for packing into the availability list itself, and only those items will be made available during the import.
The above only applies to lists provided by a single supplier. I've also made some changes to how the multi-supplier format can be used for stock tracking. Up until now, the quantity column in this format has added new quantity to the total (which is the same as how it works for the single supplier format). This column is now used to update the total quantity, for this format only. During the import, the quantity will be checked for any changes and an adjustment will be recorded when required.
A number of buying groups around Brisbane have documented their procedures over the years, and they have been kind enough to share them around. I've had a go at compiling them all into a How To Guide for running a buying group, and would love to make it a group collaboration project if anyone is interested. Please get in touch if you would like to add or edit a section of the guide for your group.
There's an index page for everything I've put up, including sections for specific buyers groups. Thanks to everyone who as worked on this documentation so far, especially those at Turnstyle Bulk Buyers, Chewsday Collective and West End Bulk Buyers.
Welcome to lettuceshare, Coochie Foodies! They are based on Coochiemudlo Island and currently order every 2 weeks. Well done to Russell and Gabrielle for getting another co-op started! They're currently accepting members, and have had a great response from the local community already.
Lettuceshare is teaming up with Brisbane based local food distributor, Sovereign Foods, with the aim of making the process of running bulk buying groups and co-ops even easier. Working together is a natural fit, as it means we can integrate purchasing software with stock distribution. We have lots planned, but would also love your feedback as we start this new project!
To celebrate the partnership, and to show we're serious about helping buying groups, we're making it cheaper to get started with lettuceshare.org. From now on, monthly hosting fees will start at $20/month and scale up as your group grows by $2 per member. Prices for all groups will still be capped at $50/month.
Members will only be counted towards the monthly hosting fee if they purchased in the last month. So for instance, if you're starting out with 10 members you only need to pay $20/month, 15 members purchasing in a month would be $30. Your active buyers for the month will be shown on your invoice regardless of the hosting fee calculated.
We hope this helps existing lettuceshare users who are still building their numbers, and suits the budget of groups who have yet to give lettuceshare a try. Remember it's always free to trial, just get in touch.
New feature: members page
The new page is available to everyone in your group, and can be accessed via the page menu in the top right corner of each page. The reason why it's available to everyone is that people have mentioned that they're sometimes stuck with a packed box at the end of the night and no contact details for the username on the box. The new page should give you enough information to track them down.
There's some new member fields you can fill in too. For instance if people want to organise themselves into delivery groups you can now add that information. There's also space for just adding notes on accounts for all the other bits of information that need to be kept track of. And there's a download button so that you can keep a copy if you need to.
All the information shown on the members page is customisable, try clicking the Edit Columns button and choosing different combinations. There's also a new Wide grid option, so the columns you select can now take up the whole page. If you're a group admin, you will have access to all the data stored for accounts, and this information is now editable inline, in the grid.
The plan going forward is to make inline editing (and wide grids) available across lettuceshare, with the stock page being next. If you have any feedback about how the members page works, please let me know, as the features here will be making it into other parts of the system soon.
If you're a group admin, and use the tools menu to update your group settings, there's now also a new page for that listed in the page menu. That makes it slightly easier to access than before. If you have any feedback about these changes, please get in touch or leave a comment!
lettuceshare updates
I've upgraded quite a few pieces of software that lettuceshare.org uses recently, which will lead to more visible improvements to the platform soon. I'll have more information about those changes as they start to roll out.
For now, to make sure you've got the most up to date version of the site in your browser, can you please reload the page as soon as you've logged in? If you load a page on lettuceshare for the first time this week and notice any problems, please try reloading that page too.
If you still have problems or notice any thing strange after doing that, please don't hesitate to contact me at: info@lettuceshare.org
thanks,
Malcolm
Australian Fair Food Forum
Invitation to participate in a study on cooperative bulk buyer’s groups in South East Queensland
As part of my honours research at UQ I am investigating the barriers and opportunities for bulk buyer’s groups to work towards a brighter, fairer and more sustainable food future in SEQ. I am currently looking for participants who are involved with bulk buyer’s group to do a short interview (roughly 1 hour in length), which will take place during December 2016 or January 2017.
Please go to http://meegshardaker.wixsite.com/fairfoodforthought/08-honours-project-details for more information and contact me directly if you have any questions or are interested in being involved at meegshardaker@gmail.com.
Stock Import changes
If your group pre-orders, then everything listed from a supplier is now made available to order during the import process. If an item with the same name is available from a different supplier, that item will be made unavailable for the other supplier.
The import process has not changed for groups that don't pre-order. This is because stock availability can be updated just before the group meets. Simply enter the quantity that has arrived for packing into the availability list itself, and only those items will be made available during the import.
The above only applies to lists provided by a single supplier. I've also made some changes to how the multi-supplier format can be used for stock tracking. Up until now, the quantity column in this format has added new quantity to the total (which is the same as how it works for the single supplier format). This column is now used to update the total quantity, for this format only. During the import, the quantity will be checked for any changes and an adjustment will be recorded when required.
Buying Group How-to Guide
There's an index page for everything I've put up, including sections for specific buyers groups. Thanks to everyone who as worked on this documentation so far, especially those at Turnstyle Bulk Buyers, Chewsday Collective and West End Bulk Buyers.
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Coochie Foodies
New pricing structure
To celebrate the partnership, and to show we're serious about helping buying groups, we're making it cheaper to get started with lettuceshare.org. From now on, monthly hosting fees will start at $20/month and scale up as your group grows by $2 per member. Prices for all groups will still be capped at $50/month.
Members will only be counted towards the monthly hosting fee if they purchased in the last month. So for instance, if you're starting out with 10 members you only need to pay $20/month, 15 members purchasing in a month would be $30. Your active buyers for the month will be shown on your invoice regardless of the hosting fee calculated.
We hope this helps existing lettuceshare users who are still building their numbers, and suits the budget of groups who have yet to give lettuceshare a try. Remember it's always free to trial, just get in touch.