Open a tab while logged into your Communitas account and click on the grid icon, you should now see a Gemini icon. Clicking that will take you to the main Gemini chat page (after clicking some permissions). You can start chatting with it right there. However, if you click the "Deep Research" icon, it will do a much more thorough search - which also takes a lot more time (10-20 minutes) - and allows you to guide the process.
While in the main Gemini chat screen, click on the Settings icon (bottom left). Choose Apps and choose which Workspace apps you would like Gemini to search. Then you can search different apps using Gemini. Here's a search in Gmail:
@Gmail Who are the top 5 people that I correspond with by email?
Try this in other apps as well.
You provide the sources you want (web links, videos, audio, text, Google documents, etc.) and ask questions about those documents. This is a great way to access your own information. For instance, you can upload the PDFs of all of your appliances and ask NotebookLM to put together a maintenance schedule - monthly and yearly. here's the link to NotebookLM.
Because this runs under our non-profits license, Google does not access the searches, chats or materials you supply. If you have added your Google apps to Gemini, you can turn off access to your Workspace apps at any time. Check out the Google Gemini privacy statement here.
Check out the new "How-to" video section for videos on how to use Google Workspace. Click on the "Videos" link on the upper right.
THIS MESSAGE IMPACTS YOUR ONLINE SECURITY: PLEASE REVIEW CAREFULLY.
We recently experienced an active attempt to access one of our BambooHR accounts and to change an employee’s banking information. Fortunately, the recent changes we made to logging into BambooHR, and the security features of BambooHR itself, helped slow the process and contain the issue. This event has reminded us of the fact that not all people outside of Communitas wish us well.
As we analyzed the issue we realized that we need to be much more careful about how we handle support requests from our staff. All of the stewards of the various systems (Training, website, Google Workspace, BambooHR, Acumatica) have the desire to provide help to you in a timely manner. But, this helpful attitude left us open to helping someone who was acting like they were a staff member but in fact were spoofing the staff member.
To increase our security, we are instituting a new procedure for anyone accessing BambooHR, Acumatica and Google Workspace. We are requiring that change requests for those accounts be made from a verified Communitas email account (@gocommunitas.org or @christianassociates.org). This will allow us to ensure, to the best of our ability, that the requestor is actually who they say they are. This will NOT change how you presently access Bamboo or Acumatica; it ONLY applies to requests such as password resets, personal information or banking changes, etc.
This is actually not a recent requirement. Since 2021, new Communitas staff have been informed of the necessity of official correspondence being handled through their Communitas email account. But, we now realize that this should be required for everyone seeking access to Communitas key services (such as HR or payroll).
We realize that some of you do not regularly access your Communitas Google Workspace account, including your Communitas/Christian Associates email. If you do not remember your password, please open the following link in a browser tab: nexus.christianassociates.org. Type in your account name - <accountname>@christianassociates.org. When prompted for a password, click on “Forgot my password”, and a new one will be sent to your personal email account - if you have set that up previously (visit helpdesk.christianassociates.org for help).
When you log in, you will be prompted for a new password. It must be at least 12 characters in length and contain at least one of each of the following: UPPER case, lower case, number.
Although you will be required to contact us through your Communitas email account, you still can set up your email to forward to your personal email account. Check out the “How-to” page on helpdesk.gocommunitas.org. For your Google Workspace account, please also set up two factor verification (2FV) to further protect your account.
We are trying to balance ease of use and communication within our community with the very real threat of people who wish to do us harm. Attacking small and mid-size nonprofits is actually big business, because many of us tend to be naive about online security. Let’s not be naive. We are doing this for YOUR security online. Please feel free to contact us if you have concerns or questions: helpdesk@gocommunitas.org.
We have recently change the manner in which you log into BambooHR. This should make it easier (fewer passwords - Yay!) and safer. To access your BambooHR account, simply follow the steps below:
Open up nexus.christianassociates.org in a browser (Chrome, Safari, Firefox, etc.) and click on the BambooHR icon. Note that you may be prompted to log into your @christianassociates.org account if you haven't done so.
When prompted, choose the login option “Log in with Google”.
Et voila, you will have access to your BambooHR account. You can always log into BambooHR by returning to nexus.christianassociates.org.
Google now has the ability to add Appointment schedules to your @christianassociates.org calendar. These schedules allow anyone to follow a link and set up and appointment with you directly from your work calendar. You can also choose other calendars to reference, allowing you to share a personal calendar with your work account and block out those times from your schedule.
Information on setting up an Appointment schedule can be for here.
Information on adding an appointment schedule to your Workspace Profile can be found here.
We started a Google Classroom to show the basics of using Google Meet. We will be adding others programs in the future. You can "enroll" at the link below. Please note that you will need to be logged into your @christianassociates.org account to register.
The easiest way to access Google Workspace Mail, Drive, Calendar or Groups is to simply type the associated URL (Uniform Resource Locator) into your browser address bar. For instance, to open email in a new browser tab, simply type "mail.christianassociates.org". You can do the same for the following applications:
Calendar - calendar.christianassociates.org
Drive - drive.christianassociates.org
Groups - groups.christianassociates.org
Note: You must use the domain name "christianassociates.org"; "gocommunitas.org" will not work. For a fuller explanation, check out this page.