Would it be possible to send out an email reminder say, a week ahead of a scheduled event to all club members ?

Just thinking with so many members, how many actually log on to NAM and join in the post. That is how we do events in the R/C club and many times I found that I was unaware or had forgotten an event.

Thoughts.....

Mike

 

That's a good idea. I will bring this up on the next meet to see what will be the best way to make this happen.

Thank you for the input.

 

Great Idea

 

you're talking about over 400 emails....

 

I run a forum for my gaming group on Yahoo and have seen other forums where if they post a "special notice" to the forum, everyone who opts to receive email will automatically get the message delivered to the email.

 

The R/C Club uses Yahoo as well

 

I brought this up several times earlier this past year and the Board members I spoke to at that time cited the issue of an "opt-in/opt-out" need and were looking at it. Remember, we supposedly have a monthly email newsletter. We're not making that, or quarterly... occasionally is more like it.

The biggest issue is handling it in a manner that does not annoy the membership. If the club were to send out individual reminders for every every event, a lot of members would be annoyed with the amount of incoming email. A monthly, or at most a weekly event listing is probably the least annoying frequency that would work.

There is freeware software to manage the opting in or out requirement. The one I have used in the past is called Dada Mail and it handles the management isssues well.

But someone needs to do the work of putting it together, updating the member address database and managing the project. Not nearly as exciting or casual as event coordinating or discussing appropriate use of the club logo. It is a BIG time demand on the person or persons who end up managing it.

There are certain Board functions that require more work than others.. Just ask anyone who has served as Club Secretary, Treasurer, or New Member Packet processor. When you meet and see these people, thank them. If someone is interested in taking on the responsibility of producing a newsletter, they should approach the board and volunteer. Katie very graciously stepped up and volunteered to do the new member packets and maybe another volunteer could handle this.

There is a function of the existing event calendar that let's you request a reminder when you sign up for events. Look for the Request Reminder for this Event link in the upper right corner of the event listing in the club calendar.

 

I am waiting....

I totally forgot about that feature. Nice find.

 

I never did believe that whole "chasing the secretary around the desk" thing..... nope... ain't gonna happen....

 

Thanks a million, Peter. This reminder will work just great. Ones can set how early they would like the system to send a reminder to them. This is great indeed.

As a monthly DCMM news letter, it will be in the next meeting (November).

Also, DCMM website has been updated recently.

 

We just have to get people to
1. sign up on NAM
2. sign into the calendar for the event
3. and then figure out how to get the notification for the event

People aren't using the calendar IMHO - we can talk to Mark F on how to make this more usable.

Also, for inquiring minds on how we send bulk emails - I've got a Constant Contact account that's specific for the Club - I pay for it out of my pocket as a donation - it allows me to craft newsletters and send them out to people who have either opted or we've added as they've become members of DCMM. We do not send the newsletter to people that have opted out.

Regarding the newsletter, we're doing better than we were but we need to do even better. For a while I was sending out monthly newsletters, but we all get busy and less attention has been focused on it. That will change - just let me get through October - in the meantime if anyone has any contributions to the newsletter, please forward them on to me.

 

You can also subscribe to this forum and get an e-mail when there's a new post...

That's how I keep up to date on it...

 

WHO TOLD!

 

If you have not submited your email to DCMM, please go to this DCMM's webpage and join the DCMM's email list, to
make sure you always have the latest information on events, gatherings or offerings from DC Metro MINIs!

 

Its usually those corporate VICE PRESIDENTS doing the chasing!

 

Glad to see my suggestion has brought up some ideas, I was not looking to add work to anyone's list, just trying to get more participation from the membership.

Hope to see you at the Burtonsville get together !

Mike

 

The monthly newsletters were great because there were links to all the upcoming events in the next 30 days. It would be nice to start those again. They also had the appropriate opt in/opt out clause.