Sending notices to families

Under Communications in the left menu, choose Notices. You'll see your drafts, what has been published, and anything taken down. Each notice shows how many families have tapped Got it.

New notice offers the notices we've written: Welcome to the section, Where the badges go, Paying subs, Bank transfer and standing order, Investiture, and Keeping details up to date. Pick one, choose English or Cymraeg, and fill in the boxes, such as the meeting place. Save as draft keeps it without sending anything. You can change the wording afterwards to suit your group. Choose A blank notice for anything else.

Choose A section or Every family in the group. Then, on the publish screen, tick the families who should get it. Nobody is ticked to start with, so a notice only goes to the families you choose. To send to one young person's family, tick that young person. A family that isn't linked to a young person yet can't be chosen, so link them first.

Choose People who were at an event, or signed up to it, then pick the event. Its families are the young people marked present or late on its register. If no register has been taken for the event, the notice goes to the families of its confirmed sign-ups instead.

On a blank notice, answer Do families choose from it?. Lost property sets up a notice where each item has its own photo and a button under it, That's mine by default. Other options are for slots, sign-ups or choices. Save as draft, then add each option on the notice's page: its name, a photo, and how many families can take it. Options can be added after publishing too.

Places per option: one means the first family to claim it has it, a number means that many families can, and unlimited means everyone can take it. How many options a family can take is one, up to a number, or any number. Add a close date if choices should stop on a day. Turn on Nothing here is mine if you want families to say they've looked and none of it is theirs.

A family sees each option with its photo and one of three words: Available, Claimed or Yours. They tap the button under an option to take it, and Let it go to release it again until the close date. A family never sees who else has taken something, only that it is Claimed. Two families can't both take the last place: the second one is told it has just gone.

The notice's page lists each option with who holds it. Hand back marks an item as handed back to the family who claimed it, if the hand-back step is on. Undo puts an option back exactly as it was: a handed-back item goes back to claimed, and a claimed one goes back to available. After the close date the page lists anything nobody has claimed, so you know what to pass on or give away.

Once a notice is right, choose Templates on the Notices page, then New template. Start from a notice we have written, in English or Cymraeg, and fill in its details once, such as the date and place for Investiture. Choose One section, such as Cubs, or The whole group if the details are shared. Only admins and Lead Volunteers can save a template for the whole group. Team Leaders save for their own sections.

To send it again, choose Send on the template. Choose who gets it, tick those families, and send. Nothing is retyped, and nobody is ticked until you tick them. If a family you ticked has already had this notice, the send screen says so, and you can untick them. Sending to them again is still allowed.

By default the email only says there's a new notice and links to it, so the wording stays in the portal. Turn on Send the full text in the email if families should be able to read it without signing in, for example a welcome note. It isn't offered for a notice with account details or a payment reference. Those stay in the portal, and no email ever includes them. On a blank notice, tick This notice has account details or a payment reference to keep it that way.

Open a notice to see each young person and family, whether they've seen it, whether they've tapped Got it, and when their email went. Remind emails the families who still haven't done what the notice asks. Reminders are only sent for published notices.

Take down from families hides a notice from every family, but keeps it in your list with its history. Restore to families shows it again. If a notice went out with the wrong details, take it down, then publish a corrected one. A notice with a close date shows Expired once that date has passed: nobody can choose from it any more, but families still see it until it is taken down. Archive expired on the Notices page takes every expired notice down at once, after you confirm the list. Nothing is taken down by itself.