We don't email to the membership list only. All communication goes to all parents who supply an email address so that isn't a problem for us.
To email groups (e.g., our PTO Board, PTO Exec Committee, Room Parents, etc.) we are setting up each "Group" as an event and assigning people to them. Each group is also an interest. But since people have to be assigned, we separate the people who want to be on the board to people who are on the board.
The problem then becomes a user issue. When do you email an "interest" and when do you email "an event." Does that mean we need to have an option to turn off emailing by interest?
Definitely something to look at as we start to determine ways to improve the system. Two potential solutions right now are:
1. Set up an interest labeled "admin use only" and then assign "members" to that interest. If you are scared volunteers might check that box themselves you could call the interest "Bylaws typo committee" or something else you know won't attract any interest. [img]smile.gif[/img] Within Manager, it is easy to email people with a particular interest.
2. Create an event called PTO members and assign everyone to this event that is a member. It is very easy to email within the system to people volunteered for an event.
I'm using a custom field in the admin section to track parent group members, but there's a problem with that. In order to correspond with them, you can't use anything in the admin section as a searchable field and then use the "send email to this list" feature. You have to run a report and download it to your computer to get the list of parent group members, then use that list and cut and paste into your own email program. If you're pretty good with Excel, this is easy enough to do, but if you're not (and my membership person is not), it's a fairly useless flag. As a result, we're keeping our membership database separate, too.
Nora - Colvin Run Elementary
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18 years 9 months ago#126213by Nora - Colvin Run Elementary
I am using one custom field at the volunteer level to capture alternate family name. We have lots of moms who use their maiden name. It is tough to figure out who belongs to who sometimes.
Thinking about using another one under the Admin Section to track who is a PTO Member. Not a high priority yet as someone is logging in memberships in a separate Excel file....one day I hope to see a Membership module!
Nope--haven't figured out a use for those yet. I briefly considered using one of the fields to flag those students who were student council representatives, because occasionally the student council has activities where they need parent help/chaperones. However, I decided against it because as volunteer coordinator, I don't recruit those parent volunteers--the students are responsible for getting their parents involved if they need them. (And I wasn't particularly interested in further expanding my responsibility!!)
