History

My name is Paul. I have three children with my former spouse. Both my former spouse and I have remarried. My wife, Dara, has a daughter with her former spouse who has also remarried. Dara is a flight attendant and works irregular hours. Scheduling with all of these interests in mind is extremely difficult.

The task of trying to schedule our family plans for the holidays was more difficult than usual. Like many families, we found ourselves having to make our plans while respecting the interests of a former spouse and the needs of blended separate households. We had scheduling mishaps due to poor communication. Our inability to communicate effectively resulted in conflicts that made the holidays more difficult for everyone. The holiday season for me has always been a time of hope and a time when children should have fond memories. I did not want to have a cloud over any special times again.

I thought there must be a better way to exchange information and schedule. In a world awash in communication technology, my thoughts turned to the Internet. I looked for a site for communicating; scheduling and sharing information with my former spouse that would help remove stress from both our lives. There were bits and pieces of applications all over the Internet, but nothing offered exactly what I was looking for. I wanted a unique site designed for separate households and built with features to accommodate families that live apart. I could not find such a site. For my children's sake, I wanted to create one.

I talked with Dara about the idea of having a unique website where we both could communicate with our former spouses. It would be a place to manage, schedule and share information cooperatively and efficiently about our children. Dara gave me many more examples of difficulties that could have been avoided and situations that could have been simplified through such a website. She particularly liked the idea of non-verbal communication and scheduling.

I expressed my frustration to my cousin, Kathy, who has been a family law attorney for over twenty-five years. We talked about how useful an interactive website could be. She consulted with other family law attorneys, mediators and parenting consultants, as well as her husband, Deon, who is a retired engineer. Their son, Jai, attended the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management and has a degree in finance and entrepreneurial studies. Jai's fraternity brother, Larry, was a Chief Technical Officer for a national network service provider. This combination of talent and experience was the impetus for the creation of our website.

As our project progressed, we learned that several others who were working with our project had been touched by difficulties of divorce. Our programmer and his fiancé grew up in divorced households. Our consultant and our graphic designer are both single parents. Everyone contributed ideas to the site from different perspectives and life experiences. We found creative, sensitive talent with a clear understanding of our mission. We also discovered that the website could be invaluable for families separated by distance as well as for busy families who could use assistance with the coordination of work and family schedules.

We will continue our work to refine and upgrade our site to offer you the best product available. We welcome your comments and value your opinions.

Sincerely,

Paul & Dara Volker