When to use it
Texts cut through where email gets buried — good for same-day meeting reminders or time-sensitive notices. Because texts are intrusive and metered, SMS is off by default and only reaches members who have opted in to council announcement texts.
Step by step
- Open Settings → Email & SMS and scroll to the SMS section.
- Toggle Enable in-app SMS sending on, set a Monthly text budget (segments) soft cap, and click Save Settings.
- Use Send a Test SMS — enter your own number and click Send Test — to confirm delivery.
- To send a text blast, go to Roster → Broadcasts → + New Broadcast and choose Send as: Text message.
- Write a short Message (no subject for texts), pick the audience, and watch the segment hint below the box.
- Save the draft, then click Send Text Blast.
Tips & gotchas
- SMS defaults OFF and is per-council — each council enables it independently.
- Only members with a mobile number who have opted in to announcement texts receive blasts; everyone else is silently skipped.
- STOP opt-out is absolute and cross-council — all councils share one number, so once a member texts STOP that handset is blocked everywhere, even for "required" sends. It can only be undone by the member texting START.
- Billing is per 160-character segment. A single emoji flips the whole message to a 70-character encoding, roughly tripling the cost — keep automated/reminder texts to one segment.
- Dues notices always send; discretionary announcements and reminders pause once you hit the monthly budget cap (resets next month).
- The usage panel shows segments used vs. your cap, estimated cost, delivered count, and opt-outs.
Related
- See also broadcast
- See also anniversary-emails