The Toco Schlep From the Hills to the field and back
AJA MS Flag

What is this?
A shared ride board for AJA MS Flag games and practices, so we stop losing track in the group chat. Everyone sees the same live list. No app to install, and just the one shared team password from Morris's WhatsApp message.

First time here?
Enter your first name (the parent, not your kid). Your phone remembers it for next time. On a new device, just enter the same name and everything is yours again. If another parent already has your first name, the app will ask for your last initial so the group can tell you apart.

Practices have two legs, games usually have one.
Practices show "Getting there" and "Getting home." Games normally show only "Getting home," because the school gets the kids to games (and home games are at school anyway). When parents need to drive to an away game too, whoever adds or edits that game picks "Parents drive from AJA" (or from Toco Hills) under "Getting to the game" (the choice appears once the game is marked Away), and the card gets a "Getting there" leg as well. From AJA means leaving at the 3:30 carpool, and the leg says so. No need to add a separate event for it.

Two games, one car?
When two events leave the same place for the same place at the same time, like both squads heading from AJA to an away game, or A and B practices on the same Sunday, their cards share one list. You can tell a shared list by the colored bar down its left edge and the little 🔗 "Same list as" line under its title. A car posted on either card shows on both, and kids from both teams can hop in, so post or ask once, from whichever card you're looking at. The rides home stay separate when the games end at different times, so check which leg you're on: the pop-up says "getting from AJA to the game" or "getting home" so you know which one you're signing up for.

I can drive.
Tap I can drive on the leg you're covering and say how many kid seats you have besides your own kid. If kids are already on the waiting list, they hop in automatically, first come first served, unless you uncheck the box. Same thing if you add seats to a car you already posted: anyone waiting fills the new room unless you say otherwise.

My kid needs a ride.
If a posted car has space, tap Hop in and add your kid's name. If nothing has space yet, tap My kid needs a ride to join the waiting list. Waiting kids are seated automatically, in order, as soon as room appears: a new car posts, a driver adds seats, or a kid gives up a seat.

Driving someone who isn't on the board?
Say you told another parent by text that you've got their kid, or you're bringing a cousin along. Tap the ＋ on your own car and type the name. It works even if that family never uses this app. If your car is already full, the app bumps your seat count by one and tells you it did, so the board still matches reality. Names you added yourself get a small ＋ next to them, so everyone can see that ride was arranged off the board rather than claimed here.

Plans changed?
Tap the ✕ on your kid's name to give up a seat; if someone is waiting for that leg, they get the seat right away. Drivers who can no longer drive: tap the pencil on your car, then Cancel this car. Your passengers move into other cars that have room, and anyone left over goes onto the waiting list so the group can see they need a new ride. Nobody gets quietly stranded.

Notifications?
Anyone can get them, and they're only ever about you. Tap the bell at the top to turn them on. Drivers get a heads up about an hour before each drive with the list of kids in the car, plus a ping if a kid hops in or out or the schedule shifts. Parents get a ping about their own kid: picked up off the waiting list into a car, seated by a driver, or losing a seat because plans changed. Nothing you did yourself, and no general chatter. On an iPhone there's one extra step: add this page to your home screen first (tap the bell and it will walk you through it). Anyone who skips all this: nothing changes, check the board like always.

Where is this game?
Tap the red pin on any card and you'll get the school's full name, the street address, a button to open it in your phone's maps app, and a button to copy it. For home games and practices at AJA it points you at Zone A, the main entrance. The board keeps the short names we all use: AJA is Atlanta Jewish Academy, NWC is Northwest Classical Academy, SMA is St Mary's Academy, Bedford is Bedford School, Intown is Intown Community School, Epstein is The Epstein School, St. Martin's is St Martin's Episcopal School, GAAA is Greater Atlanta Adventist Academy. A venue we don't have an address for yet just shows as plain text.

On more than one AJA team?
Each team has its own board with its own password, at its own address. Your name carries over, and notifications you turned on cover every board. The small ball button at the top hops you to the other team's board (it asks for that team's password the first time on each device). If you saved a board to your iPhone home screen, save the other one too; each icon opens its own board.

Schedule wrong or missing something?
Anyone can fix it. Scroll down to Schedule and tap the pencil, or add an event. Once an event's day has passed it locks, so the season record stays as it happened.

House rules.
It's the honor system, same as the chat. Edit your own stuff, check the board before game day, and say thanks to your drivers.

What's the Schlep Board?
The little leaderboard at the bottom keeps score all season: 1 point for every ride you offer, plus 1 point for every kid you carry. Purely for glory. Top schlepper earns the group's eternal gratitude and possibly a trophy at the end-of-season party.

Still reading this?
Ok. Somewhere in this app you can tap three times to unlock a hidden surprise. Can you find it?