Communication tools on Club 1.0

Before you can send emails to your Uplifter contacts you will first need to connect an email account to your system. This is done via Settings > Global Settings > Email Addresses. By selecting to Add Email Address you can enter in your address and select the desired settings for it. You can add as many emails as you would like and adjust their settings individually. More information on this can be found in our article Settings - Email Address section.

Email From Name: The name that will be associated with this email by most email clients. This will add authenticity to your outbound communications. ex. "ABC President", "XYZ Accounting".
Reply-To Email Address: The email address in which you wish to receive all replies. This is where you should enter your standard email address. ex. "president@abcclub.com", "accounting@xyzclub.com".
Sending Email Address: The email address in which your site will send from. This will default to no-reply@{yourclub}.uplifterinc.com, as a drop-down selection, until updated. If you own your own domain with custom domain-based emails you can find steps to update the sending address in our article How to Setup and Verify a Custom Sending Domain.
Contact Us Form Description: If you enable the permission "Receives Contact Us" (see description below), you must also set a Contact Us Form Description. This is what members will see, as the Subject drop-down option when viewing the Contact Us page. ex. "Registrations Inquiries", "Invoice Inquiries"

Opt-In Requirement: The list's required level of consent in order to opt into the mailing list.
Message List Name: The name of your message list which is seen by both admins and members. A succinct title for the list and what type of content will be sent through it.
Description: Details about the messaging list and what type of content will be received by those who subscribe.

Your Required list is one that users cannot unsubscribe to. Thus, any content you send through this list will be received. This list should be used sparingly and dedicated strictly to things like invoice receipts, emergency information, closures, etc. This list should not be repurposed. Please note that the Can Send Non Opt Messages permissions in order to use this list.

Your Implied Consent list defaults to users opting IN to the list. However, should they so choose, users can opt out of this list to no longer receive content. This list is used (by default) to send member information regarding ongoing subscriptions/memberships, upcoming expiry information, and AGM notices. This list can be repurposed for your needs.

Your Explicit Consent list does not have a default state and requires users to explicitly opt in or out of the list. This list is used (by default) to send members organization news, registration information, upcoming show dates, etc. This list can be repurposed for your needs.

The standard method for creating an email is via the email tool itself. To do so, navigate to Communication > Emails. Here you will have the option of composing a new email by selecting New Email from the toolbar. This will bring you to the recipient filter page to do the following:

1. Apply filters
2. Select Proceed

Upon landing on the recipient page, the system will default to include all of your member's emails available on your site. By using the filters on the left-hand side, you can reduce the listing to only members you wish to communicate with. These filters are exclusive, meaning a member/participant must meet all the filters you are applying. As such, you can place the words "but only in" in between the filters you are applying to give you a better sense of who you are filtering for. 

e.x. "I only want to email members who have participants in my 'Winter 2019 season' but only in 'My Competition Category' but only in 'My Saturday Morning Program'". This example is redundant, as you could simply apply the program level filter to accomplish the same thing, but should offer a bit more clarity as to how the system thinks.

Once you are happy with the list of recipients, select Proceed to begin composing your email. 

The alternative method to the email tool is to create your email list via another admin page. Many admins will find this create mail option very useful. Create Mail is available along the toolbar of most admin-side pages. This button will respect any current filters you have applied to the page you are on, so you can filter in a myriad of different ways that are not possible on the standard email tool page.

Subject: The subject field allows you to create a title that will display in member's inboxes. This should be succinct, but you should refrain from repeatedly sending the same title.
From: The From field allows you to select your desired from address (the address with which to send out your emails). To add more From address options, see the steps under Setup An Email Account For Sending.
Message List: Uplifter has three main message lists: Transaction & Service Notifications, Member Information Messages, and News, Upcoming Program & Registration Information. You should ensure that you are selecting a list that suits the message you are composing. Please note that, with the advent of Canadian Anti-Spam Laws, your members have the right to opt-out of all message lists, save the Transaction & Service Notifications. You should ensure you are familiar with the Canadian Anti-Spam Laws to ensure you do not abuse the Transaction & Service Notifications message list.
Message: The Message field allows you to construct your desired email as well as edit and format the email as desired. You can add images, links, etc. and a familiarity with Word or other text editors will lend itself to your experience. 
Tags: Unlike many of the tags within Uplifter, the tags within the email tool are simple customization items that allow you to make your emails more personal. For instance, if you would like to open your email to your members with their name, you would write, "Hello [member_first_name]," in your Message. This will then customize the email to each recipient.
Attachments: Like many mailing services, you can attach a file(s) to your outbound message. To do so, select the attachment button found right above the Send button (Choose File for most, but differs from browser to browser), and find and select your desired file. Please note that files cannot exceed the maximum file size of 2MB.

For the emails you've sent, you can view their status/completion, both in an at-a-glance graph form, as well as an explicit numerical form.

Yellow: Queued emails not yet sent by the system.
Green: Sent emails that have successfully made it to their destination.
Red: Rejected emails that were explicitly not accepted by the recipient's email server.
Blue: Bounced emails that were not explicitly rejected but were not accepted by the recipient's email server.
Purple: Opted Out emails. These recipients have updated their account settings to no longer receive emails from the Message List you have selected to send an email from.

Note that members have the right to opt out of all message lists, except the "Transaction & Service Notifications" list and you should ensure that your users have reviewed our article What Your Club Needs to Know About the New Canadian Anti-Spam Law, for best practices.

Upon creating their account, members are prompted for their message list preferences. Thereafter, should a member wish to update their preferences they can do so by logging into the site and navigating to My Account > Message Lists.

On this page, members can update their preferences, as to which lists they would like to opt into or out of. Once happy, they may select to Update to apply their changes.

By enabling this feature new users will automatically receive a verification email to the account they supply during sign up. This email will include a verification link and code. They can then follow the link, which brings them to your club site, and enter in the code from the email to verify their account.

For existing users, they will need to prompt the verification process manually. This is done by logging into the system and following the prompts they will encounter. The system will notify them that they cannot proceed until they verify their account. This is done by selecting the supplied link (which sends the email), then following the same steps as a new user to supply the system with the verification code.

Once this feature is enabled on your site, site administrators can also manually verify user accounts. To do so, please navigate to People & Accounts > Member Accounts. Here, you can review the list of your members and select to verify them by selecting the Verify User icon.

1. Navigate to Settings > Global Settings > Email Addresses
2. Create or Edit an Email Alias
3. Enable the Contact Us permission
4. Set a name/description in the Contact Us Form Description field
5. Click Save All

To begin receiving emails from users via your Contact Us page you must first have at least one email with the Contact Us permission enabled. For this please navigate to Settings > Global Settings > Email Addresses. There, create or Edit an Email Alias. During this process please ensure you have enabled the Contact Us permission by clicking on the icon, as well as entered a value in the Contact Us For Description. This value will show on the Contact Us page as a Subject line option to select when filling in the form. Click Save All to complete the process.

Contact Us Submission - Confirmation Message: A message that appears at the top of the Contact Us page when a user submits an inquiry through he Contact Us page.
Contact Us Submission - Auto-responder Subject: The subject of the email that is automatically sent to the user to confirm the Contact Us query has been received.
Contact Us Submission - Auto-responder Message: The content/body of the email that is automatically sent to the user to confirm the Contact Us query has been received.
Spam Filtering Threshold: The threshold/allowance for spam and spam-like emails. Each email you receive through your Contact Us form will have a Spam Score. 1 indicates it is very unlikely to be spam, while 10 is almost certainly spam. Settings your threshold to 1 will block nearly everything. Settings this to 10 will block only the most obvious spam. For best results, set this to 10 and reduce the value as needed as you receive further emails.

Display Alert When Submissions Exceed Spam Threshold: Toggle whether or not the system will apply a badge indicator in the main admin menu when spam messages have been caught. It is advised to enable this while fine tuning your threshold value.

Your Contact Us page will be located at <yourdomain>/contact-us/. This page can be edited like any other page on your site, adding images, Google Maps, etc. Please note, however, that you will not be able to see the Contact Us form while logged in as an admin. The form will only display to standard users or those who are not logged in. As such, you may wish to open an incognito browser tab or view the page in another browser to see the page in full. Alternatively, you can simply log out, but that can get bothersome if you are updating/testing the page frequently.

Emails that are caught by your spam threshold settings will still be accessible through your Contact Us Logs page. Access this page via Communication > Contact Us Logs.

A listing on the Contact Us Logs page can be reviewed for legitimacy. If you find it to be spam you can simple Delete it. If you have found the system has captured a non-spam message you can have the system re-send the message to your proper inbox by selecting the Send Email icon.

To add a post to your news feed, select ​ Add New Post from the toolbar. This will open the Create Post page. Once you have entered your desired information select to Save to display the new post. 

Title: The title or heading of your news post. This will also be a link in your news feed that will bring users to your News page.
Posted Date/Time: The date/time at which this post should be released. A future date will ensure the post is saved but not shown until the day/time is reached.
Description: A short description to capture your audience. This should suggest the content but often will not contain the entirety thereof. 
Visibility: This drop down will dictate who can see your post. You can select from:

• Public: Anyone can see it at any time 
• Admin Only: Only those logged into the site while also having the Admin permission allotted
• Members Only: Only those who have created accounts and are logged in can see the post. Note, however, there is no way to restrict who can create an account on your site.

Content: The full post's information. Note that you can edit your news post in much the same way you can edit your site pages, using the editor toolbar. 

Invoice notes are found at the bottom of any invoice edit page (Accounting > Invoices > Edit ), just below the Payments section. Invoice notes can be added by selecting Add a Note. The comment field will allow you to add your desired information while the drop down will allow you to select between a private note (one only admins can see) and a public note (one the member can see as well). Once you are happy with your note, select to Accept and Post the invoice. Select Cancel to discard the note, or Delete to remove it.

To edit an existing invoice note, navigate to the invoice edit screen and select to Edit . If you wish to remove the note, select Delete . 

Invoice notes can be quickly viewed by admins from the order manager page (Accounting > Invoices) by hovering over the Notes icon.

Member account notes are found on the member's account page. It's important to note that Member account notes are not notes to the member in question, they are notes about the member/member's account. By selecting the [Account] tab you will have access to the Notes tab. 

Adding a note can be accomplished by entering your desired note content into the text field and selecting Add Note. You cannot remove or edit member account notes. These notes are used to communicate information between admins. Because of this, members cannot view these notes.

Participant message boards are found on the participant's profile (People & Accounts > Participants > select participant > Message Board). Here you will find a listing of all public news posts you have created, but you can also add your own participant-specific messages. To add a message, enter your desired content into the text field and select Post. 

Once posted, a message will display on the participant's message board feed. You cannot edit or delete a message. The message board is visible to participants (and their respective members) by navigating to their participant profiles (My Account > Participants > select participant > Message Board).