Today, we have a neat story from Russ Sharek of the Circus Freaks, a Dallas-based troupe of circus-style performers. Russ initially contacted us with a support issue, but once he told us about how he uses GroupMe, we just had to ask him to share a story. After we fixed his problem, he shared this letter with us:

Herding circus performers is a lot like herding cats, except that a cat’s natural propensity for napping leads to the vague possibility of getting in a room with one long enough to hold a meeting.

Because we’re often out in the world doing insane-yet-entertaining things, email and other desk-bound social networking tools aren’t particularly effective ways to corral our out-of-control circus on a realtime basis.

GroupMe’s “mobile chatroom” allowed us to have a way to maintain constant contact, which means on a moment’s notice I know who’s available to breathe fire, walk on stilts or defy gravity for a client’s amusement.

And that means that so long as I have my cellphone, the show goes on.

Russ Sharek
Director, The Circus Freaks
http://www.circusfreaks.org

If you’d like to know more about the Circus Freaks (and look at some cool photos), check out their website!

Every week, we’re going to share a story from one of our users about how they use GroupMe in their everyday lives. You can share your story by emailing us at stories@groupme.com. 

Today, we have an amazing story from Scott Lawrence in San Francisco. Scott learned this summer that he has Stage IVa oral tongue cancer. He recently underwent surgery to remove a part of his tongue and replace it with an implant, which he wrote about on his blog, Scott Versus Cancer. Here’s what he had to say about GroupMe:

Losing my tongue to cancer was scary.  

Not knowing what to expect coming home from the hospital after surgery worried me, to say the least. I had set up some online help to try to organize my support network—email accounts, calendars, a messaging system on my website. None of them seemed to “stick”, and I ended up confusing my friends with logins, passwords and other diversions. I saw a write-up about GroupMe on TechCrunch and signed up. 

I was lucky to keep enough of my tongue to be able to swallow and can speak (somewhat). Right now, I’m using GroupMe to keep my Volunteer Army (~15 strong) posted with updates from doctor visits, tests, and my general health.  With one month of recovery from surgery passed, I still have radiation and chemotherapy to look forward to. That’s going to be five days a week, out of the city, for radiation and three hits of chemo here in the city. 

Since I’ve got everyone plugged into one place with GroupMe I get nearly instant replies to any request and imagine that it’ll be even more useful once I need to start going to those treatments. I can let my network know where and when and any one of them can offer to help, at the same time letting everyone else know that it’s taken care of. Likewise, if someone can’t make it they can let everyone know at once instead of me having to do it individually. 

GroupMe offers some peace of mind in this whirlwind that has become my life. Thank you!

If you’d like to learn more about Scott, take a look at his blog or follow him on Twitter.

Every week, we’re going to share a story from one of our users about how they use GroupMe in their everyday lives. You can share your story by emailing us at stories@groupme.com.