New VA fund raiser

Lori with the Soldiers’ Angels VA teams just emailed me about a fund raiser they’re having. Need to renew a magazine subscription, or looking to pick up a new one? Now’s the time! Magazines will be offered at a discounted price. Best part is: the Veterans Support Team will receive 40% of the profits!

Please take a moment and go look at the link below to check out the magazine offers. Renew or order a magazine and help them help our Veterans!

Link: http://www.freewebs.com/soldiersangelsveteranssupport/

Soldiers’ Angels 101: Reminders

One angel emailed me this morning, it seems she was having trouble remembering when she had or hadn’t emailed her soldier, and she was looking for suggestions as to how to remember this important task and perhaps organize her duties a bit. Well, I can’t speak for anyone else, but I’m a forgetful type too. I get busy and time escapes me, I know I’m not alone in this. We all get busy but we should never neglect our adopted soldiers!

I’ve found it’s helpful to setup a “nag” to remind me each week. For example, every Monday morning I have both my Google Calendar and my Outlook at work nag me to write that afternoon. Tuesday mornings, I have another nag set to remind me to mail out the letter. (Or, in the extreme case that I was so busy I forgot to write, to write it!) Google Calendar is a free service and can send you reminders by email, SMS (standard charges will apply!), or popup.

If you are a Mozilla user, there are two apps which may be of interest to you: Sunbird (a stand-alone app) and Lightning (Thunderbird plugin). Both are free, and perform basically the same tasks as Google Calendar and Outlook’s calendar feature.

There are a TON of free reminder services if you would prefer an alternative to the above.

There’s a wide world of free tools and technology out there just waiting for us, so let’s put it to good use!

Soldiers’ Angels 101: Things I have figured out along the way…

• Keep an eye on cheap printing sites, such as VistaPrint. They are constantly having sales and offer free printing for various products. Better yet, check online coupon hubs, such as RetailMeNot, for coupon codes for heavily discounted items or free shipping!

  If you are looking for higher quality printing, I have been using Overnight Prints. They cost a bit more, but the quality and service I’ve received has been phenomenal. (Plus they sometimes have coupons listed on RetailMeNot!

• If you use Intuit’s TurboTax software or online services to file your taxes, you can use their It’s Deductible to keep track of your out-of-pocket costs for Soldiers’ Angels.

  Granted, I’m not in this for the tax break, but it sure helps when it comes time to buy supplies and postage!

  NOTE: Per TurboTax’s Live Community support forums, donation of time, web services, etc. are not deductible — only out of pocket expenses (keep copies of your receipts!), or donations of physical/tangible items.

Send a greeting card to a soldier

Special thanks to Greta @ Hooah Wife for spreading the word about this!

The US Postal Service has partnered with HBO for the promotion of John Adab’s series about John Adams. You go onto the website and create your letter, and it will be mailed out for free. The letters will be First-Class Mail postmarked with the Power of the Letter cancellation mark. A pretty cool concept, but pity we’re only just now finding out about it! (ends this month)

Link: http://beta.cardstore.com/poweroftheletter.jsp

New domain!

We’re one step closer to getting things ready here. The new domain (BamaAngels.org) is finally in place and all redirections from the old locations seem to be working. Awaiting word from SA central command, but things are looking good so far! Hoping to have the last site design and code changes done pretty soon.

Soldiers’ Angels 101

From time to time, I will post helpful hints that I have picked up along the way or discovered from other SA resources.

We all started out as new Soldiers’ Angels members, and remember fully well how confusing, overwhelming, or oppressive the whole idea seemed at first. Here are a few tips and resources to help any new Angel on his or her way!

• Soldiers’ Angels FAQ – Frequently Asked Questions, this impressive list of question includes many that we all have asked at one time or another.
• Angel How-To’s – Located in the SA Forums, these are “how to” tutorials and tips aimed at new members.
• Angel Boot Camp – Also located in the SA Forums, this section contains anything and everything you need to know about the SA process!
• Soldiers’ Angels Kansas City SA:101 – A great primer for letter writing as well as advice and suggestions.

But wait, we’re not open yet!

I can see via server logs that several individuals/sites have found this site already. This website is not yet open and if approved by Soldiers’ Angels WILL be moved to a domain of its own.

Soldiers’ Angels is currently working on the organizing and uniformity of state blogs. That said, this website is on hold and will not be open (if at all) until after then.

Any concerns / questions? Please contact me using the form link above.

Update: Opened 03/21/2008

Pardon our progress!

This site will be changing over the course of the next few months in order to get things set up as quickly as possible and ensure that every thing is in place. Thank you for your patience!