Communication

MemberOrganizer gives the association the ability to communicate with members via these channels:

• Email

• Physical letters

• SMS

Newsletters via email

MemberOrganizer gives the association the ability to send newsletters or other information via email to the association’s members. The association can choose to send to all members at once, or only to selected member groups.

You can also attach files to a newsletter.

You send a newsletter by choosing “Communication -> Emails and letters to members -> Create new email”. Then choose the member groups (or birth years) that should receive the newsletter. Click “Continue”, whereupon you can enter a subject for the newsletter and write the body text.

You can use dynamic fields (see Dynamic fields) to merge master data from members into the content, so that it becomes more personal.

If you want to attach a file, do this at the bottom of the page by clicking the blue “Attach files” button and then choosing the file on your computer that you want to attach. You can attach several files if you wish. The maximum total size of the files must not exceed 7 MB. If you want to attach files that are larger than this, you must upload these large files to your website and then create links in the newsletter to these files.

The “Receive newsletter” field

Under member details there is a field called “Receive newsletter”. When you send a newsletter you can choose the list “Everyone with “yes” to newsletter”, which selects all members who have the value “Yes” in the member field “Receive newsletter”.

Automatic unsubscribe from newsletter

If you want members to be able to unsubscribe from a newsletter themselves, tick “Unsubscribe link” before the newsletter is sent. The unsubscribe link is only available in newsletters sent to the list “Everyone with “yes” to newsletter”.

Ensuring that emails are delivered

MemberOrganizer uses a range of technologies that help ensure emails reach recipients and are not placed in junk mail. Read more here: A little technical detail.

Even though MemberOrganizer uses these technologies and follows all possible other rules regarding bulk email, there is still a risk that individual emails may be caught by a spam filter or similar for some of your members. This may be because the member has set up extra strict rules for which senders the member wants mail from. It may also be that you have used certain words in the email body or subject field that cause some spam filters to react.

We have also heard examples where an email is shown as sent successfully in MemberOrganizer, but a member subsequently says the mail was not received. Unfortunately we cannot see what happens after an email is sent from MemberOrganizer. At that point it leaves our systems, and mail systems outside MemberOrganizer take over and forward the email.

We have also heard examples where an email can be received when sent from your own mail program, but is not received when sent via MemberOrganizer. This is not something we hear very often, and it should not happen, but we have heard of it.

In these situations we unfortunately cannot say what causes the member to say the email was not received. As mentioned earlier, the email at some point leaves our systems, and we cannot see what happens in the subsequent mail systems.

If an email is sent to an email address that does not exist, MemberOrganizer is notified and passes the information on to you, so this situation is naturally covered.

We have also heard examples where an email could not be delivered to a member even though the email was in fact delivered to the member. Again, systems outside MemberOrganizer control these things, and we therefore cannot say why such a situation may arise.

Physical letters

The system makes it possible to create physical letters that you can print on your own printer and hand out or send to members.

This is done by choosing “Communication -> Emails and letters to members” and clicking “Create new letter (PDF)”. Then choose who should receive the letter, and afterwards you can write the content of the letter or choose the content from a text template.

When you have finished the letter, click “Save and create letters for members”, and then click “Download letters”. The system now creates a PDF document that you can print on your own printer.

You can use dynamic fields (see Dynamic fields) to merge master data from members into the content, so that it becomes more personal.

Short messages via SMS

The association can also send SMS messages to its members. It is possible to send to all members at once, or only to selected member groups.

SMS is particularly suited to messages that must reach members quickly. This might be information about a last-minute cancellation of an event or similar.

You send an SMS by choosing “Communication -> SMS to members”. Then choose the member groups (or birth years) that should receive the SMS. Enter the message text.

Member chat

This is members’ private networking tool. Here all members can entirely on their own start a chat with one or more other members directly in the app without going through the association’s administration.

It corresponds to private messages and group conversations in Messenger or WhatsApp.

There are however also some clear differences compared to Messenger and WhatsApp, for example:

The automatic member filter — no manual cleanup

In a Messenger or WhatsApp group, the administrator must manually remember to remove people from the group when they resign from the association or stop paying membership fees.

Our member chat is always synchronised with the member system. When a member is no longer enrolled, the member automatically loses access to the chat immediately. This saves the association time and ensures that former members are not listening in on internal messages.

GDPR and data protection

When a club forces its members into a Messenger group, it mixes the club’s data with Meta’s commercial data collection. In addition, everyone in a Messenger group can see each other’s private profiles, which can be problematic (for example in youth clubs, or if you want to separate private life from club life).

Our member chat complies with GDPR. Members’ data stays in the system, and the association has full control over who can see what. You do not need to share your private Facebook profile with the entire padel club, for example, to arrange a match.

The right to time off for coaches and leaders

In a Messenger group, members can write directly to the coach or chairperson at all hours — straight into their private inbox. This often leads to stress and burnout among volunteers.

With our member chat, the club’s leaders can close the app when they are off duty without their private Messenger inbox flashing with questions at 11 p.m. on a Sunday evening. This separates voluntary work from private life.

Apps such as Messenger are for private friends. Our member chat is tailored to associations. It looks after itself, complies with the law, and ensures that your important messages are actually read — without you having to spend time manually cleaning up member lists.

If you want to use member chat, contact us and we will enable it for you.

Bulletin boards

The system makes it possible for the association to create different bulletin boards where members can write comments that can be seen by other members. This can for example be used to arrange lifts to a team match, or to write requests before a training session.

Bulletin boards can be created in two ways:

• On an activity, enable “Allow comments”.

• When creating an activity, choose the type “Bulletin board”.

“Allow comments” can for example be used on team training sessions, team matches and/or events. In other words, on specific activities.

Activities of the type “Bulletin board” are more general. They give members the option to be notified via email and/or app when a new comment is created on the bulletin board.

Examples of bulletin boards could be in a tennis club or padel club where you create an activity called “Partner finder”, which is used to find partners to play with. Members who are interested in posts on this bulletin board can subscribe, and they will automatically be notified via mail and/or app when there are new posts on the bulletin board.

Note

The main difference between bulletin boards and member chat is who creates them. Bulletin boards are created by the association, while member chats are created and managed by members themselves.

Unsubscribing from bulletin board messages

You can unsubscribe from receiving mail each time there is a new message on a bulletin board. This can be unsubscribed per bulletin board. So if you belong to two different bulletin boards, you can keep receiving mails about new messages on one bulletin board and have unsubscribed from mail messages on the other bulletin board.

In practice, unsubscribing is done at the bottom of each message from the bulletin board, where there is an unsubscribe link that unsubscribes mail messages from that specific bulletin board.

You can also unsubscribe from receiving notifications in the app (mobile phone) each time there is a new message on a bulletin board. Here it is however “all or nothing” — either you never receive messages from bulletin boards that may have been created, or you receive messages from all bulletin boards that may have been created.

This is controlled via the phone’s settings for the app itself, where you choose whether you want notifications from the app or not.

App notifications

Members who have downloaded the app will automatically receive messages directly in the app on their mobile phone (or tablet) in various situations.

This may be when a newsletter is sent via email, or when a new comment is created on a bulletin board.

If you do not want these notifications, turn them off on the phone for the app.

Text templates

If you have information that you want to send several times, or perhaps adjust slightly and then send again, you can advantageously create a so-called text template.

A text template is created by choosing “Communication -> Text templates” and then clicking “Create new text template”.

Once the text template has been created, you can for example send an email to a member using the text template. This is done by opening the member’s master data and choosing the “Actions” tab at the top right, then clicking “Send email”, whereupon you can choose the newly created text template in the “Text template” field.

You can also use the text template as a starting point for a newsletter to many members. For example you can create a text template regarding invitation to the general meeting, and this template can be adjusted slightly year after year before it is sent to members.

Dynamic fields

When you write the content of a text template, you can insert dynamic fields such as {fornavn}, {efternavn} and so on, which the system will replace with members’ names when emails or letters are generated. This makes the content more personal. You can use more or less all master data fields on members to be merged dynamically into emails and letters.

Once you have saved the text template, you can subsequently choose it when you write the content of an email or a physical letter.

Login to Member Portal

If you want to send a mail to members about how they log in to the Member Portal, you can do it as follows:

• Choose “Communication -> Text templates” and click the blue “Create new text template” button.

• In the field “Base on a system text”, choose “Login to Member Portal for members”.

• A suggested text is now shown in the large white text field. If you want to adjust the text, you can do so.

• Click the blue “Save text template” button at the bottom right.

You can now send mail to members based on the newly created text template. This is done as described in Newsletters via email.

Mailchimp integration

It is possible to integrate with Mailchimp, which is a tool that makes it easy to create attractive newsletters.

The Mailchimp integration means that email addresses of members in MemberOrganizer are automatically created in Mailchimp. This applies both when new members join and when members resign. If a member resigns, the email address of the resigned member is automatically removed in Mailchimp.

You therefore only need to maintain the member list in MemberOrganizer, as all changes are automatically transferred to Mailchimp.

You use Mailchimp only when you need to send your newsletter.

The members who are automatically transferred to Mailchimp are enrolled members who have an email address and who have the field “Receive newsletter” set to “Yes”. If you remove an email address on a member in MemberOrganizer, this email address is also automatically removed in Mailchimp. And conversely: if you update a member’s email address, the update is automatically transferred to Mailchimp.

The Mailchimp integration can be used to send newsletters to all members in the association. You will not be able to have activities in MemberOrganizer automatically transferred to Mailchimp, so that you can for example send to selected member groups via Mailchimp.

Here you must divide members into groups in Mailchimp yourself if you want to be able to send to different groups. Alternatively, use MemberOrganizer’s email function to send to these member groups, and use Mailchimp for newsletters to all members of the association.

Setup

We need the following two items from your Mailchimp account to make the integration work:

• API key

• Audience ID

Under your profile inside Mailchimp there is something called “Extras -> API keys”. Here you must find/create an API key and send it to us.

And under “Audience -> Settings” you must find “Audience ID” and send it to us.

We can then set it up, whereupon changes to your members are automatically transferred to Mailchimp.

The integration is an add-on module. Check the price list on our website for prices.

Loading all members into Mailchimp

When you start using the integration, we can run a special job where all your members are transferred to Mailchimp. This is typically done as soon as the integration has been set up.

However, this should not be done if you already have all your members created in Mailchimp.

Just write to us if you want us to start this special job.