daysofchange.org

We send you a confirmation email and ask you to click on the link inside it so that we can confirm that we have the right address for you. (This also means that you don't end up with any spam or unwanted emails from us).

Why didn't I receive my confirmation email?

If you didn't get your confirmation email within 10 minutes then either:

The email ended up in your junk folder, or
You may have mis-typed the email address

See the next question for what to do.

What do I do if I don't get my confirmation email?

When you create your account you will be shown which email address you used. If you don't get your confirmation email within 10 minutes

Check the email address you signed up with is not a mis-spelling. If you're not sure you can try signing up again.
Check your junk folder. (Look for noreply@daysofchange.org).
Try resending the email.

My confirmation (activation) link didn't work, what can I do?

Common reasons for the link not working are:

Your email reader has split the link into 2 lines. Please try to copy & paste the whole link into your browser.
You have copied & pasted the link incorrectly. Please contact us so we can activate your account manually. It only takes 1 minute.

Where's my Pledge number?

These are the steps to get your pledge number:

Sign up
Confirm your email address by clicking the link in the email we send you
Complete your address details.
You will now be on your pledges page. Make a pledge by ticking one of the boxes on the pledge card.
Your pledge number should now appear on your home page.

Why doesn't my Pledge number show up?

Here are the reasons why you might not see your pledge number

You haven't made a pledge. You must tick one of the boxes on the pledge card to enter the competition.
You don't have a pledge card on your screen. You can remedy this by:
1. Clicking the link to enter your address, so we can create a pledge card for your household. We don't use your address for anything other than putting a pin on the map.
2. Clicking the link to create a default household without an address.

Privacy

What is your privacy policy?

Your privacy is highly valued by daysofchange.org.

In a nutshell;

We will not pass on your private information or email addresses to any third parties without your consent
We hate spam! We will provide e-newsletters and pledge support emails only once per month and occasionally special offers from our partners if they relate to the areas you have expressed interest in.
At any time you like you can revise your pledge card, subscribe or unsubscribe to our mailing list or even opt out of the program should you choose. Being part of daysofchange.org costs nothing, all we want to do is create a brighter future and save you money at the same time!

What can other people find out about me?

Please see the full Privacy Policy.

Why do I need to provide my details?

Your address is needed by daysofchange.org so that we can place you on the map. This enables people to see how many other people in your area are involved in daysofchange.org and so will inspire more to get involved. This information also allows us to tell everyone how many people within their suburb, state, and globally are invovled

We ask you to provide the following personal details:

Your name - so we know what to call you
Address - so you can be put on the sustainability map (people can NOT see where you live on your public profile page)
Email address - so we keep you informed about the program and send you relevant information
Display name (optional) - this is just for fun
Age - just to give us simple demographic information

What information can people see on my public profile?

Your 'public profile' contains only general information that you have posted including your;

Pledges
'About' comments
General 'Information'
Status comments
'Commitment to sustainablity'

Most importantly people will be able to see your pledge cards and the pledges that you have promised to complete.

Your public profile will NOT allow people to see your address or other personal details which have been given to daysofchange.org.

Your personal profile, on the other hand, is your personal home page and as such can only be seen and edited my yourself as the adminstrator.

To find out more see our Privacy Policy.

How do I stop daysofchange.org sending me so many emails?

You will receive 3 types of emails from daysofchange.org - system emails and pledge support emails.

System emails are sent when something happens on your membership that we think you would want to know about, such as another member inviting you to join their group, friend requests, messages etc. You can opt out of non essential system emails in your member profile settings. Non essential emails include messages from friends and acceptance notifications. You will still receive the most important emails from us.
Pledge Support emails - when you make a pledge you will receive follow up emails from us geared towards helping you complete your pledges ... You can opt out of these emails using the unsubscribe link at the bottom of the email.
Newsletters - once a month we will send out an e-newsletter just to keep everyone up to date on new features, whats happening etc...

Getting my house to appear on the map

daysofchange.org uses Google Maps search to put a 'pin' on the map where your house is. Don't worry, no one else will see any of your details. To make this work properly you will need to enter your address details as accurately as possible. Like 110 William Street, Perth, Western Australia, Australia, 6000.

What should I do if I receive an invitation from someone I don't know?

You should feel no obligation to accept an invitation from someone that you do not know to join the program. Simply click on the 'Ignore' button to not accept the invite. There is no risk to you however, in accepting an invitation. None of your personal information (e-mail address, address etc) is shared with anybody else on the website including your friends.

To find out more see our Privacy Policy.

Students

On daysofchange.org, students are referred to in two ways:

Unrestricted - these students must be 13 years or over and have an email address they can use to sign up. This will give them full access to all the features of the website. They are generally invited by their class teacher to join their classes, but can also apply to join their classes by searching for their school and applying to join.
Restricted - this is a special kind of membership we've set up for our younger people. Only class teachers can set up restricted students.

The Program

What is sustainability?

Sustainability is all about making sure our kids get to enjoy a bright future. It is about ensuring that we protect the environment improve quality of life for all and maintain a healthy economy without comprimising one for the other.

It is based on the understanding that a healthy economy cannot exist without a healthy society and that a healthy society is not possible without a healthy environment. Our communities and the economies that enable them to operate are totally dependant on the state of the environment and so sustainability often has a strong focus on environmental protection than the other two areas as it is the key factor.

How long does the program run for?

The pledge month, where the focus is on getting as many people as possible to make a pledge, runs intensively for the month of May 2010, however people have the rest of 2010 to complete the tasks that they made a pledge to do. Each May a revised set of pledges will be created so that as a community we are moving closer and closer to a sustainable society and in the end we aim to make sustainable practices a way of life.

How can people who don't have internet access participate?

We realise that there are many people who don't have access to the internet. Unfortunately however, the only way to make a daysofchange.org pledge is via our website.

To get yourself started however, you can obtain a household pledge card from our website or your local IGA supermarket.

We encourage you to when possible, get on the internet (either at a friend's or at the library) and join daysofchange.org over the internet. Using the daysofchange.org website will give you the full benefits of the program and will show others that you are willing to make a positive change.

To join the program you will need to have an external email account so that you can be sent your daysofchange.org membership confirmation and support emails. Get you own email address before you join up to daysochange.org. there are many great free email services such as Hotmail.com, Yahoo.com.au, and Gmail.com that can help get you started quickly.

Making and Completing Pledges

How do I find out more about how to do a particular pledge?

Each pledge has a Support Page that is accessed from the online pledge card by clicking on the pledge text or the blue 'i' to the right of the pledge text.

Each online Support Page has a wealth of info on how to do each pledge as well as details of a partner organisation that can help you complete that pledge by supplying relevant products of services.

What if I can't afford to do some of the pledges?

The key to being sustainable is do to do what you can. It is not sustainable if you are doing more than you can afford or handle.

Some pledges require an up front cost, however, these generally result in longer term saving. Almost all our Household Pledges result in savings when the life cycle costs are considered. With this in mind, it maybe beneficial to consider a loan as you factor in, the savings that will be made each year.

There are some pledges however, that will require an initial investment before you start banking the money saved. Bendigo Bank, which is the major financial partner of daysofchange.org, offers discounted personal loans for the purchase of "green products". This might be something you would like to consider if you can't afford the up-front cost of some of the more expensive pledges such as installing insulation and solar panels. You will however, need to make sure that you do bank the savings you make from taking these actions in order to pay off the loan within a reasonable time-frame so that you can then keep the savings for yourself!

Can I change my pledges?

Of course. All you need to do is go to your PLEDGES menu and click on the tab of whichever pledge card you would like to change. Changes can be made be either selecting or deselecting the pledges on your card.

Note that only the Administrator of a household, school or class (these are collectively known as groups) is able to make changes to the pledge card for that group.

Why were these particular actions chosen for the household pledge card?

There are literally an infinite number of actions that people can take to become more sustainable at home, so we had a difficult task to select the final list of household pledges.

The list is a mixture of relatively easy to more difficult actions that most people should be able to understand do relatively easily. Our goal was to have a list of actions from which virtually anybody could find at least one new action that they would be willing to do.

Each year we will re-assess the pledges and update the card so that it reflects the latest technology, prices and government policy.

How were the savings calculated for each pledge?

State and Australian averages were used to estimate savings that maybe achieved by the completing of each pledge. A number of assumptions were made in the calculation of the savings. The best way to determine the possible benefits of each pledge would be to consider the implications of each action for your specific case.

The reduction in yearly costs, as shown on the pledge card is based on overall lifetime costs per year compared to a less sustainable option.

I can't see a Pledge Card for my Household?

Check that you have entered the correct address details for your Individual Profile. Households can only be created when we know where you live.

daysofchange.org Terminology

What is an administrator?

An administrator is someone that is the authorised editor of a particular daysofchange.org profile for the particular household, class, school or organisation. The administrator creates and removes pledges, accepts or rejects members and staff as well as noting when pledges have been completed.

What is an Ambassador?

An Ambassador is someone who helps get other people involved in daysofchange.org whether by inviting them from their personal profile or by word of mouth.

Your Ambassadors are the people who got you involved in the program, that is the people who invited you to join and you accepted their email invite. By acknowledging someone as your Ambassador, you will appear as one of their Recruits. This is just a nice way of saying thanks for getting me involved.

What is the difference between a "Recruit" and a "Friend"?

A 'Recruit' is someone that you have invited to join daysofchange.org and who has subsequently recognises you as being their Ambassador.

A 'Friend' is someone who is already registered with daysofchange.org, who you invite to be your Friend and who accepts your request.

What is my "To Do List" for and where does it come from?

Your ' To Do List' is a list suggested actions which will assist you in making the most out of the daysofchange.org program and website. The items in this list when clicked on will direct you to a page which will allow you to complete the suggested action.

What is a "username" and how do I get one for myself or my groups?

A username is a public name that you set for yourself or your group. Once you've set this then you'll be able to send all your friends and colleagues to your special url /username.

Set your username in your member profile or when editing the profile for any of your groups.

What's the "Latest Activity" I see on my home page?

This is a "feed" of your friends pledges, groups you're a part of or following, and some information about recruits. We might add other information here from time to time.

Being an Administrator

How do I invite all of my staff, students or members to join my organisation or school?

For unmoderated groups there are 2 ways to do this. Moderated groups can only use the first method.

By pasting your employees or members email addresses into the recruit form. This can be found by clicking on the "Invite staff" or "Invite members" links on your organisation's profile page. (Here you can also invite existing members of daysofchange.org to join your group).
(Unmoderated groups only) If you have a lot of email addresses you may prefer to send an email using your own email system. There is a general invitation link you can send out to everyone. Successful signup using this link will result in membership of your group (so that people appear as staff or members) as well as daysofchange.org. You can find this link by either:
1. Visiting the public profile page of your organisation or school and copying the link location of the "join staff" or "join members" buttons in the top right hand corner of the screen.
2. Going to the recruit form (see method 1. above) and copying the link shown at the bottom of the form into your clipboard.

About member management settings

Moderated groups are those which require administrator approval to join. You can change these settings for your own groups from the edit panel for your group. You can generally control 3 things:

Staff - is approval required to join the staff of this organisation or anyone join?
Members - is approval required to join the membership of this organisation or can anyone join?
Child groups (subsidiaries) - can anyone nominate your group as a parent or does this relationship require approval?

Note that households are always moderated (you don't want just anyone moving in do you?), and that classes at schools are always moderated too. Students are generally invited by the class teacher.

Parent Child Group Relationships

If you have an organisation that has subsidiary groups and you would like to link them all up so that you can see what the organisation is doing as a whole you can.

To do this

First create the main 'Parent' profile and one for each subsidiary 'Child'.
Next from the subsidiary groups you nominate the main group as your 'Parent' group.

Once accepted by the Parents Administrator your organisation will be linked within the system.

Recruiting

How do I invite others?

Click on "Recruit Someone New" under the 'Recruits' menu at the top of your profile page and enter the email addresses of the people you want to invite. Enter an optional personal message and then click "Send an Invite" and an automatic invitation email will be sent to them with a link for them to click to accept the invitation. Recruit someone now

If I just invite someone by email, phone etc, will I see them in my list of recruits?

No. Only people you invite via your Days of Change profile page will appear under your "My Recruits" area. When you invite people, make sure you remind them to recognise you as their ambassador when they register on the daysofchange.org website.

What if someone I invite is already on daysofchange.org?

If someone you helped get involved in daysofchange.org has already joined daysofchange.org and has created a profile page then inviting them will not make you their Ambassador. The only way for you to become one of their Ambassadors is to ask them to acknowledge you under their 'My Ambassadors' section.

Importing contacts by CSV file

Select the CSV file after you have successfully exported it from your nominated email program and select 'Upload' in the 'Invite Others' tab.

Adding Gmail Contacts

To import your contacts simply follow these steps:

Enter your gmail username and password below (NB: we do not store this password) and click on "GET CONTACTS"
Select the contacts you want to invite to daysofchange.org.
Optionally edit the preloaded message and click 'Send'

An email from the email address you used to log into Days of Change will then be sent to all your selected contacts.

As people respond you will see them appear under the "My Recruits" page.

Exporting Outlook Contacts

In Outlook, on the File menu, click Import and Export.
Click Export to a file, and then click Next.
Click Comma Separated Values (Windows), and then click Next.
In the folder list, click the Contacts folder, and then click Next.
Browse to the folder where you want to save the contacts as a .csv file.
Type a name for the exported file, and then click OK.
Click Next.
Click Finish.

Exporting Apple Contacts

To be able to export your Contacts from your Apple Mac, you will first need to install the "Address Book to CSV Exporter".
Once you've installed the Exporter application, run it and save the CSV file that it creates on your computer.
You're then ready to upload the CSV file on daysofchange.org.

Exporting contacts from other email programs

To do this please follow the steps below

Go to your email program, export your contacts as a CSV file and save it on your desktop How do I do this?
Click on "Choose File" below and select the CSV file from your desktop.
Click "Upload"
Select the contacts you want to invite to daysofchange.org.
Optionally edit the preloaded message and click 'Send'

An email from the email address you used to log into Days of Change will then be sent to all your selected contacts.

As people respond you will see them appear under the "My Recruits" page.