Send a Text or Message to Members

Your organization’s website enables you to coordinate your activities and communicate with your membership directly through your website dashboard, without using a separate application.

1. To contact members through your website dashboard, click on the “Membership” tab on the vertical Dashboard menu at the left side of the screen.
2. Click on the “Members” tab.
3. To message specific members, use the Search functions to narrow down your results to only the people you want to reach. (To learn how to use the Search functions, see the “Filter the Member List” section of these instructions.)
4. Click on the “Members Actions” button and choose “Message Filtered Members.”
5. In the “MESSAGE MEMBERS” window that opens, activate the toggle switch for the type of messaging you want to send, including text, e-mail, and system e-mail messages.
   • You can e-mail everyone in your membership simultaneously because every member’s e-mail address serves as their username. However, users must opt in to receive text messages from your organization, so you only can text those people who have agreed to receive that form of communication.
   • If you’re sending a text message, type directly into the “Your Message” box that opens when you activate the toggle switch for this option. Your message must be 160 characters long or shorter.
   • System messages address specific conditions, including password resets and alerts to members who have signed up but never logged in. To preview the “Reset Password” system message, click on the “preview” link next to the checkbox that selects this message type.
   • E-mail messages can include any content you want to send. If you’re sending an e-mail message, type your subject into the “Email Subject” box. Enter your message text into the window below it. Use the controls above the message window to add or remove text, incorporate a link in your message, or format your content with styles including bold and italic text. (For an itemized list of these controls, see the Style Controls for Text Widgets page in these instructions.) To include a file up to 15 MB in size, click on the “Browse” button to locate the item you want to attach. To link to a file in your Document Repository, click on the “Go to your document repository” link above the message window to open your Document Repository in an adjacent browser tab so you can use the “ACTIONS” column’s “Copy File Link” icon to capture the link in question.
6. Click on the “Send” button to send your message to the designated members. If you change your mind and don’t want to send the message, click on the “Cancel” button, press the “Esc” key, or click on the “X” in the top right corner of the window.

To use a Message Center Custom Template for your e-blast

Note that these steps begin after you have navigated to
Membership > Members > Members Actions > Message Filtered Members
and activated the second toggle switch.

1. Activate the “Use template” checkbox.
2. Click on the “Select Template” dropdown menu to choose a template from the list of Message Center Custom Templates. Each message is listed by “Name” and “Subject.” Remember that if your desired template’s message subject contains one or more dynamic fields, the names of the dynamic fields will appear in the message subject as shown in the dropdown menu.
3. Click on the entry for the Message Center Custom Template you want to use. To change to a different template, click on the “Change” link and make another selection.
   • Use the “When would you like this message to be sent?” radio buttons to schedule your message. Note that the time you set is the approximate time that messages go out, not the time at which recipients receive their messages. Messages are queued for overall delivery.
   • Select the “Now” radio button to send your message immediately.
   • Select the “Schedule for later” radio button to reveal the “Select date/time” field and set a specific later message-transmission date/time. Note that the message transmission time is listed as Eastern Time and represents the approximate time at which messages go out, not the time at which recipients receive their messages.
   • Click on the “Select date/time in Eastern Time Zone” field to access a combined date and time picker.
     • The “Select date/time” controls open set to today’s date. To scroll forward by months, click on the “>” arrow to the right of the month and year. To select a specific month, click on the month/year to reveal a set of links to upcoming months in the currently selected year. To select a different year, click again, this time on the year shown above the set of links to individual months. Click on an individual year to select it and reveal the set of links to individual months in that year. Click on a month to select a date within that month.
     • After you select a specific date, use the time controls to set the time at which you want your message to go out. By default, the time picker displays the current time. Click on the up and down arrows to the right of the hour to set the hour. Click and drag on the selectors for the hour, minutes, and AM/PM to set the desired time in Eastern Time.
     • When you have selected the date and time, click on the “Set” link at the top right of the date/time picker window to finish setting up your message transmission.
     • To cancel setting a transmission date and time, click on the “Cancel” link at the top left of the date/time picker window.
   • When you have finished setting immediate message transmission or a future message transmission date/time, click on the “Send” button to complete the process.