How to Keep Up With the Arkansas Society of Freethinkers

ContentsWhy do this?....................................................................................................................................1How to set up an account on Meetup.com and join the Arkansas Society of Freethinkers...........1How to Install the Meetup.com App on Your Android Phone......................................................2How to Install the Meetup.com App on Your iPhone.....................................................................5How to Automatically Sync Your Google Calendar to the ASF Meetup.com Calendar..............8How to Automatically Sync Your Outlook.com Calendar To ASF’s Meetup.com Calendar......13How to Add the ASF Calendar to Microsoft Outlook.................................................................15

Why do this?

The Arkansas Society of Freethiners’ (ASF) events are often created with only one or two weeks’ notice – occasionally even less! Also, the location of events usually varies from week to week. You need a way to keep up with our events that is less cumbersome than logging onto the Meetup.com website every time.

The meetup.com app for your smartphone can tell you within 5 seconds what events ASF is planning, what time they start, and where they are located! You can then open the events to get more details, RSVP, comment, and see who else is on the RSVP list. If a location is unfamiliar to you, just tap it and use your phone’s GPS to navigate there!

When you subscribe to the ASF calendar in Microsoft Outlook or your online calendar service, you can automatically overlay ASF events with your personal events to see if you have a conflict (e.g. someone’s birthday party). It’s an awesome feature for busy people!

In any case, the first step is to sign up with Meetup.com and “join” ASF:

How to set up an account on Meetup.com and join the Arkansas Society of Freethinkers

1) Go to www.meetup.com2) Click “Sign up” in the upper right corner of the page.3) Select to either “Sign up using Facebook” or “Sign up using your email address.”

a) Facebook signup.

-enter your Facebook login and password.b) Email address signup.

-pick a (public) name.-type in your email address.-pick a password for use on meetup.com.

4) Enter some basic info as prompted.5) Click “Find a Meetup Group” in the upper left of t he page.6) In the white search box, type in “freethinkers” and select within 50 miles of zip code 72201. Click the magnifying glass icon in the search box to execute the search.7) One of the results should the the Arkansas Society of Freethinkers. Click the icon to go to our page. 8) Click “Join us!” in the upper right corner of our page.9) [recommended, but optional] Save this page to your bookmarks for convenience.

You can now log into meetup.com and view our calendar, files, etc. at any time.!

How to Install the Meetup.com App on Your Android Phone

1) Tap your Apps icon (usually a grid design at the bottom of your screen). Find the “Play Store” app and open it.2) Tap the magnifying glass and type “meetup” into the search box. 3) Select the app with the red and white name tag logo.4) Tap “Install”. Read and tap “accept” on the permissions statement that pops up.

5) After the installation process completes, the Meetup icon will be visible somewhere on your screen. Tap it to open the app.

6) If you have already set up a meetup.com account, tap “Log in”. Otherwise, tap ”Sign up”.

Sign up: (skip if you already set up an account) Select to either sign up using Facebook or your email address.

a) Facebook signup.-enter your Facebook login and password.

b) Email address signup.-pick a (public) name.-type in your email address.-pick a password for use on meetup.com.

You may be asked to fill out some basic demographic info.Log in: (if you set up an account already) Enter your user name and password.

(7) Note the four tabs at the top: Activity, Meetups, Groups, and Profile. Click “Groups”.

(8) Tap the magnifying glass in the bottom right corner. Type “freethinkers” in the search box.

(9) Identify the Arkansas Society of Freethinkers in the results and tap to go into our group.

(10) Click the red “Join us” icon.

You can now keep up with ASF activities just by tapping the Meetup link on your phone! If an organizer changes the time or location of an event, or sets up a new event at the last minute, you can instantly view the change on your phone! You can even use your phone’s mapping or GPS navigation to locate events!

How to Install the Meetup.com App on Your iPhone.

1) Tap the App Store icon.

2) In the App Store, tap Search, which brings up the search text field. Type “meetup” here.

3) Tap “Install” (note that in the picture above, the app has already been installed so the icon says “Open” instead.4) After the installation process completes, the Meetup icon will be visible somewhere on your screen. Tap it to open the app.5) If you have already set up a meetup.com account, tap “Log in”. Otherwise, tap ”Sign up”.

Sign up: (skip if you already set up an account) Select to either sign up using Facebook or your email address.

a) Facebook signup.-enter your Facebook login and password.

b) Email address signup.-pick a (public) name.-type in your email address.-pick a password for use on meetup.com.

You may be asked to fill out some basic demographic info.Log in: (if you set up an account already) Enter your user name and password.

6) Note the four tabs at the top: Activity, Meetups, Groups, and Profile. Click “Groups”.

7) Tap the magnifying glass icon. Type “freethinkers” in the search box. Locate the Arkansas Society of Freethinkers in the list.

8) Click the red “Join us” icon.

You can now keep up with ASF activities just by tapping the Meetup link on your phone! If an organizer changes the time or location of an event, or sets up a new event at the last minute, you can instantly view the change on your phone! You can even use your phone’s mapping or GPS navigation to locate events!

How to Automatically Sync Your Google Calendar to the ASF Meetup.com Calendar

1) Log into your gmail account. www.gmail.com All gmail accounts also include a calendar.2) Go to your Google calendar by clicking the grid-like icon in the upper-right. When you click the grid, a box opens. One of the items in the box is “Calendar”. Click it.

3) Your Calendar opens, and it looks something like this:

4) On the left side of the screen, down about halfway, notice where it says “Other calendars”. Next to the words “Other calendars” there is a button with a downward-pointing arrow. Click the downward pointing arrow. A box will pop up.

(5) From the box, select “Add by URL”. The following box pops up:

(6) Highlight the entire string of blue text below. This is the URL. Make sure you select it all and nothing else:

webcal://www.meetup.com/ARfreethinkers/events/ical/Arkansas+Society+of+Freethinkers/

Right-click the highlighted text (leaving it highlighted) and left-click “Copy” from the box that pops up. (7) Now place the curser in the rectangular text box next to “URL”. Right-click in the box. Left-click “Paste” from the box that pops up. The text you copied above appears in the text box as shown below:

Click “Add Calendar”(8) The information from the meetup.com calendar is copied over to a new calendar in your Google account (and is automatically updated from now on). You can set up many different calendars and display, hide, or overlap them in different ways.(9) [recommended but optional] If you would like to change the name of your ASF calendar to something more descriptive than “Events –“, left-click the downward pointing arrow next to the “Events” calendar and then left-click “Settings” in the box that pops up.

Type a new name for the calendar in the box next to “Calendar Name”. Perhaps something like “ASF calendar” or “ASF”. Then click the “Save” button.

How to Automatically Sync Your Outlook.com Calendar To ASF’s Meetup.com Calendar

1) From a desktop or laptop computer, log into your Outlook.com account. Click the down arrow to the right of the word “Outlook”. In the bar that drops down, click “Calendar”.

2) Click “Import” in the top bar.

3) Click “Subscribe” on the left side of the screen.

4) Enter ASF’s calendar URL. The URL is:webcal://www.meetup.com/ARfreethinkers/events/ical/Arkansas+Society+of+Freethinkers/Hint: use copy and paste from these instructions.

5) Give the calendar a name, like “ASF” for example. Click “Subscribe”6) ASF’s calendar should now appear on your calendar! You can click the gear icon in the upper right corner to toggle the ASF calendar on or off.

How to Add the ASF Calendar to Microsoft Outlook

1) Go to the Arkansas Society of Freethinkers’ page on Meetup.com: http://www.meetup.com/ARfreethinkers/

2) Click the “Calendar” tab in the center of the page.

3) Scroll to the bottom of the calendar where you see various “Subscribe to a feed…” links.

4) Click the “iCal” link (and not the others). 4a) If your internet browser is Firefox, a box may open asking which application to open the link with. Choose Outlook.

4b) If you are using Internet Explorer, you need to click “Allow” in the boxes that pop up.

4c) If you are using Chrome, you may need to click “Launch Application” in the box that pops up.

5) Click “Yes” in the box that pops up after Microsoft Office opens.

6) The ASF calendar opens in Microsoft Outlook. You can toggle the view on or off in the left sidebar by checking and un-checking the box next to the calendar. Note that only current and future events display.