Emailing members

In Communication, under "Membership", you write an email and send it in one go to a group of members: a notice of the general assembly, an announcement, some news. Each member gets their own email, with the club's footer. The page opens with the Club members "Communication" permission; sending needs full access.

Write and send

1. In "New message", if you want to start from a template, open "Choose template". The template fills in the "Subject" and the "Message"; if you had already written something, you are asked to confirm the replacement.
2. Write or adjust the "Subject" and the "Message". The editor has bold, lists, links, colours and "Image", to place an image in the body of the email.
3. Choose the group: the members' "Status" ("Active" by default), the "Category" and the "Year". With a year, only members registered in that year are included; with a category and "Any year", anyone who had that category in any year is included; with "All categories" and "Any year", there is no filter.
4. Check the "This segment" box: how many members will receive it ("With email") and how many are left out because they have no email ("Without email"). "Preview" counts them again.
5. Select "Send" and confirm.

The email goes to the address on each member's personal record. At the end, a message says how many emails went out and how many failed.

Personalise with variables

In the subject and the message you can use these variables, which are replaced with each member's details when sending:

• {member_name}: the full name; {member_first_name}: the first name.
• {member_number}: the member number.
• {member_category}: the category of the current year's registration (left blank if there is no registration).
• {club_name}: the club's name; {year}: the current year.

Any other word in curly brackets comes out as it is in the email.

History

The "History" lists the sends, newest first, with the date, subject, segment and how many emails were delivered. Open a send to see what went out; "Reuse in the editor" copies the subject and text into a new message, and you choose the recipients again.

Templates

The communication templates live in Email Templates, in the "Club members" tab:

• "System": the template Cantera provides, for the notice of the general assembly. You can edit it, and the changes stay in your club only; "Restore template" brings back the original text.
• "Club": the club's own templates. Create them with "New template", with a name, subject and body, and the same variables.

Automatic emails

There are no automatic emails just for members. Two kinds of automatic sending also reach members, and both are off by default:

• The birthday email, in Communication, in the "Birthday communication" block, with "Send birthday email". It goes to everyone in the club with an email address on their birthday, members included.
• Finance emails about the payment notes for dues, like those for any other note: issuing and sending the note, the payment reminders and the thank-you for the payment. They are set up on the same page, in the "Billing communication", "Reminder communication" and "Payment communication" blocks.