Communicate with your members on this page.  Create rich text messages, with graphics and images and always be sure your message is getting sent to the complete list!  Access the Communicate page from the Congregation menu. There are two tabs on the Communicate page, Message History and Add/Edit Message.

Message History

The message history tab has three sections: Pending Messages, Saved Messages and Sent Messages. Pending Messages are those messages that are waiting to be sent (status shows as Ready) or are being sent now (status shows as Sending).  If a message is Ready, it can still be edited or deleted.  Once a message starts sending, it can't be changed. Saved Messages have been explicitly saved by the users who created them.  This could be to save the message as a draft, hold for others to review, or to come back to later for any reason. Sent Messages shows the history of messages already sent. You can use a sent message as a template for a new message by clicking on Resend.

Creating a new message

To create a new message, click on the Add/Edit Message tab, select your options, enter your message and click Send.

Send To

You have several options for who to send the message to, members of your congregation, people on your mailing list, or both members and your mailing list.  When you select Members Only or Both, options will appear to select which members to include: All Members All Adults All Men All Women Selected Members Selected Groups If you then choose Selected Members or Selected Groups, a list of members or groups, respectively, will appear, giving you the option to select one or multiple members or groups.  See the Groups page for details on creating groups. If you select Mailing List Only or Both, the message will be sent to all names on your mailing list.

From

In the from list, you can select who you want the message to be sent from.  This way, you can send messages for someone else in your congregation and this name will appear as the sender in the received e-mail message.

Subject

You must enter a subject for the message.

Attachments

You can optionally attach files to your e-mails that will appear as attachments to the recipient.  Attachments must first be uploaded to the server before they can be attached to the message.  Once uploaded, select a file from the pull-down list and click Attach Selected File button.  You'll see it added to the list of attachments below the pull-down.  The list will be hidden if there are no attachments yet. To upload a new attachment, click the Upload a File button.  The pull-down list will be replaced by a Browse button and text box.  Click the Browse button, locate the file on your computer you wish to attach in the File Open dialog box, then click Open.  Once the file has been verified, the Browse text box will turn green, at which point you need to click Upload Selected File.  This will immediately upload the selected file and add it to the pull-down list.  You still need to click the Attach Selected File button to attach the new file.

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.

Schedule

You have three options for when to send your message:  Send Now, Save & send later, and Schedule to send on... Send Now - queues your message to be sent right away.  ChaiTrack processes the message queue every few minutes, and depending upon how many other messages are in the queue from yours and other congregations, there may be a slight delay before your message actually goes out. Save and Send Later - puts your message on the Saved list.  It will not be sent until someone opens it from the message history tab and changes the message's schedule to either Send Now or Schedule to send later. Schedule to send on - allows you to create your message ahead of time, then set the date you want it sent.  The message will remain in the queue until the date you specify, then will be sent automatically. Note - the determination of recipients for a message is made at the time the message is actually being sent, not when it's created.  This feature ensures that, for example, any changes in the membership or mailing list between when a message is created and when it's sent will be automatically picked up and your message will always go to the most current list!

What if a person on the list doesn't have an e-mail address?

ChaiTrack keeps track of everyone you said you wanted your message to go to.  If any of the names you selected do not have an e-mail address on file, you'll get a message status e-mail from ChaiTrack listing the names of those the system couldn't reach, along with a copy of the original message.  This gives you the option to reach those people by different means.

Will recipients be able to see everyone's e-mail address?

The short answer is no!  All e-mail communications in ChaiTrack are sent individually, never as a list of names and not cc'd or bcc'd.  Every recipient receives an e-mail addressed to them individually.

What if two family members are sharing an e-mail address?

ChaiTrack is pretty smart about this too, and they'll only get one copy of the message!