Reminders are another way for you to communicate with your members.  Create rich text messages, with graphics and images and always be sure your reminders will go out on time!  Access the Reminders page from the Congregation menu. There are three tabs on the Communicate page, one for Yahrzeit reminders, one for Birthday messages, and one for Anniversary messages.  More reminder options will be coming in the future - tell us what you'd like and we'll consider it for a future version!

Setting up Reminders

To enable a reminder, check the Enabled checkbox, then click the Save button. Additional options include: Advance Notice - how many days or weeks in advance you want the message to go out.  The default is 14 days for yahrzeits and 0 days (no notice) for birthdays. Read Friday Yahrzeits - some congregations prefer to read yahrzeits that fall on a Friday on the preceding Shabbat, while others prefer to read them that evening.  The default is on the preceding Shabbat. Subject - this will appear in the subject line of the e-mail message. From - this will select who the e-mail message is sent on behalf of.  You can select Congregation to have the message sent using the e-mail address in the Congregation Settings, or you can select a particular member to be the source of the message. Message - this is the body of the e-mail message, and can include graphics, rich text and replaceable token parameters.  Tokens are described below.

When Do Yahrzeit Reminders Get Sent?

Yahrzeit reminders are always sent the specified number of days or weeks in advance of the Service date. The Service date defaults to the Shabbat immediately preceding the yahrzeit occurence that year.  Yahrzeits falling on a Friday may optionally have their Service date be that same day by setting the Read Friday Yahrzeits option to That Evening. Each yahrzeit entry in ChaiTrack has an option to observe the yahrzeit on either the secular date or on the Hebrew date.  When the yahrzeit is to be observed on the Hebrew date, ChaiTrack uses that date, not the secular date, when calculating when to send the reminder.

Creating Your Message

This is the body of your message, and is sent as rich text.  You can type your message in the box or copy and paste in the message created in another application.  If you want to paste text created in Microsoft Word, use the Paste From Word toolbar button - it's the one in the top row that looks like a clipboard with a W on it.  Use the toolbar buttons to format your message as needed. To insert pictures and graphics in your message, click in your message where you want the graphic to appear and click the Insert/Edit Image on the toolbar - it's in the 2nd row, to the right of the Anchor.  An Image Properties window will pop up (you'll have to enable popups for ChaiTrack to work correctly - we promise no popup ads).  Click the Browse Server button in the Image Properties window and select the subdirectory for your congregation from the Image Gallery window that pops up next.  Select the image to insert by clicking on the image in the gallery.  You'll be taken back to the Image Properties window, where you can change the size (Height & Width), set the border thickness and spacing around the picture, and select the picture alignment relative to the text.  Then click Ok and the image will be inserted into your message. If the image you want to use is not already in the image gallery, you'll have to upload it first.  While in the Image Gallery, click the Browse button, browse to and select the image you want to upload, then click Upload New File and the file will be uploaded to your image gallery.  Once the upload completes, you can select the image from the gallery and proceed with your message. PLEASE only upload and only use images in your own congregation's subdirectory.

Using Tokens

You can personalize reminder messages by inserting tokens into the subject line and message body.  The applicable tokens for a reminder are listed to the right of the Message text box. Tokens are enclosed in square brackets and are case-sensitive.  You must enter the token exactly as shown. When your reminder is prepared for sending, ChaiTrack looks up the corresponding information in the database and replaces the token with the data found.  For example, if you enter "Happy Birthday [MemberFirstName]!" in the subject, if it's my birthday then the e-mail I receive will read "Happy Birthday Marty!"