I have just set up a page for us on 'Teamer', which amongst other things allows myself and Trevor to notify players (free of charge) that they are in the squad for a match (and for them to reply).
It's something I have been meaning to set up for ages so that I can avoid massive mobile phone bills. It won't stop me sending texts completely, but it will certainly help.

All current players should have received a text and/or an e-mail giving them individual logins and passwords. Please use those and log in to our Teamer page as there are loads of things on there that you can enter yourselves to help me run the club.
For example, if you change your mobile number or use a different e-mail address to the one that is listed on there, you can change it yourself on Teamer. You will also be able to see all your team-mates' mobile numbers, so no more using me as 'Directory Enquiries' if you need to contact them !
Also, if you are unavailable on certain dates due to holidays, social commitments or whatever, you enter them yourself.

I am also going to try and use the Payments facility on there whereby you will be able to pay your subs directly into the club account online (if that is more convenient for you than getting cash out of a cashpoint to pay us at matches). The Subs List can be e-mailed out to you all via Teamer so that you all know how much you currently owe.
I will look into this either this evening or over the weekend as hopefully it will help to avoid players building up big backlogs of subs owed.

If anybody is not sure how to use certain things on there, just give me a call while you are online and I will try to guide you through it.

Only four players (Jacko, Terry, Tim & Gavin) have logged in and registered using their passwords so far.

If you have lost or deleted the text/e-mail you (should have) received with your login & password details, please let me know because as the administrator, I can click a button to 'resend invite'.

I have e-mailed the Teamer help-desk and now resolved the issues with logins and the confusing 'Reply 'Y', 'N' & 'M'' messages that players received the other day regarding our match against Lord Morpeth this coming Sunday.

Please read the Latest Club News page for complete up-to-date instructions...make sure you click refresh on your browser first...then please login/register to our page on Teamer if you received that e-mail/text the other day which asked you to do so. I will re-send the invite to players who have not yet logged in and registered anyway.

If you use an i-phone and download the Teamer App for that, it will all be completely free...as it will be if you reply to messages by e-mail instead of text.
If we can get every team member registering to access our Teamer page via their smartphones, it will make things so much easier for me to notify everybody of fixtures, etc and who is in the squad.

I have now compiled a sort of 'Manual' for our players as to how they should be using Teamer, as I know there are still one or two who haven't got a clue how to even login properly !

Please CLICK HERE to download and read the 'Manual' (which is a PDF, so you will need Adobe Reader installed on your computer or i-phone).

I have put a link to our Teamer page here on the Home Page of our website so that all players can find it easily and then login.

Please note that although the general public can read the Manual, they will not be able to login and view our Teamer page. Only club members who have been sent passwords can do that.

I spoke to quite a few of our players at our match yesterday who told me they 'can't' use Teamer because:
a) Their i-phones cannot download the Teamer app, and/or
b) Their i-phones (and other smartphones) won't remember their login & password details (despite clicking on the 'Remember Me' box) and it is too much of a hassle having to keep typing them in every time. Some players have now forgotten their passwords because the 'Remember Me' function didn't work.

I have therefore contacted Teamer and also had a browse on the internet for solutions to this and here's what the problem is...

a) The Teamer i-phone app can only be downloaded if you are using iOS5 (or the even newer iOS6) on your i-phone. Whether you are using an i-phone 3, 4 or 5 is irrelevant. It's the phone's operating system (iOS) that matters.

b) The iOS5 operating system for the i-phone disables cookies by default, which is why the 'Remember Me' function for logins & passwords will not work. Assuming iOS5 is the same as the Safari browser on a computer (I don't have an i-phone, so I wouldn't know), you have to go to Settings on your i-phone, then 'Safari', then 'Accept Cookies' and check 'From Visited' (or 'Always').
Having done that, if you have forgotten your password the next time you log in, there should be a function that you can click on whereby Teamer can text or e-mail you your forgotten password. You then use that, click on 'Remember Me' and you shouldn't have a problem on your i-phone thereafter. If you do, you will need to let me know so that I can re-send your invite whereby you re-register with a new password.
I suspect this is the same with other smartphones (e.g. Blackberrys) with cookies being disabled, so you have to go into Settings for cookies and alter them yourself ?

At the moment we only have about 7 or 8 players who are able to use Teamer because they are either using a computer instead of a smartphone, or they are actually willing to type out their login & password details every time.
Hopefully everybody else will now try out the above suggestions and start using the service, as it will make things a lot easier for me if they do.

If somebody can confirm if any of the above is correct/works when activated, I will then update our own 'Teamer Manual' in due course.

The latest 'problem' with Teamer...

Several of our players informed me this morning that their i-phone app was no longer working, and here's why ...it was a 30-day free trial !

It only costs £3.99 per player to subscribe to the app for the rest of the season though, so I think players should pay for that themselves initially and as soon as possible (presumably by credit/debit card via their i-phone if that's how it works), then the club gives them a £4.00 credit off their subs.
(I will know when they have paid for the app as it will appear on my Teamer co-ordinator's page).

In my opinion, that will still work out cheaper than Barney's idea of the club paying for me to use a pay-as-you-go new mobile phone to text players and find out if they are available or not (or tell them a game is off)...which would be very time-consuming for me instead of using Teamer.

Your thoughts ?