Overview

The Messages area lets you email board members across your entire district or council in one go. It’s your main way to share announcements, reminders, and outreach with the unit leaders you support.

Instead of typing out email addresses, you choose who should receive your message by picking the board Positions and Message Groups you want to reach. Connect then gathers the matching board members for you.

How to Send a Message

1. Go to your district or council and open Messages.
2. Click Send Message to start a new message.
3. Connect sends to Board Members at the district or council level. Now choose who:
   • Positions — select one or more board positions (for example, President or Treasurer). Your message goes to people holding those positions.
   • Message Groups — select which groups to include. At the district level you can reach Districts, Councils, and units. At the council level you can reach councils and units (In-Council and Out-of-Council). You must select at least one Position and at least one Message Group, or the message can’t be sent.
4. Set the From/Reply-To address. This controls where replies go. Your choices include your district or council’s reply-to address, your district or council name with a no-reply address, and your own name and email.
5. Type a Subject.
6. Write your message in the rich text editor. You can format text, add links, and create lists.
7. Attach any files if needed (images and PDFs).
8. Under When would you like to send this message?, choose Send Now or Send Later. If you pick Send Later, enter the date and time you’d like it to go out.
9. (Optional) Click Send Test to email a copy to yourself first so you can check how it looks.
10. Click Send to deliver your message.

Good to know about recipients

• Your district’s or council’s own board members are always included as recipients, in addition to everyone matched by your Positions and Message Groups.
• A person who would receive the message more than once (for example, they hold two selected positions) only gets one copy.
• If no one matches your selections, Connect will let you know there are no recipients so you can adjust your choices.

Additional Features

• Rich text editor — format your messages with bold, italics, links, and lists.
• File attachments — attach images or PDF files to your messages.
• Send Test — send a test copy to yourself before sending to everyone.
• Scheduled sending — choose Send Later to schedule a message for a future date and time.
• Delivery tracking — after a message sends, view counts for Recipients, Delivered, Opened, Clicked, Bounced, Unsubscribed, and Spam.
• Message history — every message you’ve sent (and any scheduled to go out) is listed in the Messages area.

Tips

• Use Send Test to preview formatting and attachments before sending to everyone.
• Schedule important announcements with Send Later so they arrive at the start of the day.
• Check your delivery tracking to spot bounced addresses, then follow up to get updated contact information.
• Keep messages short with a clear call to action, especially when asking units to complete tasks or submit documents.