Bulletins

A useful tool for sharing information with account holders
Written by Sharlene Kowk
Updated 2 years ago

Bulletins can be thought of as posting a notice to a bulletin board. It's a quick and easy way to share information that's important and timely, but you want to keep it separate from a busy and crowded email inbox.


Managing Bulletins

Admins, Managers and Coordinators can manage bulletins by going to: Communication > Manage bulletins in the menu.

On this page you can see all posted bulletins, their created date, title, and who they've been assigned to.

Bulletins need to be assigned in order to appear on the blue "Bulletins" page for users. You can assign a bulletin by role, subgroup, label or voice part. You can assign a bulletin to multiple sets.

Viewing Bulletins

Users (account holders) will view their assigned bulletins after clicking on the blue "Bulletins" menu item.

In the above example, Tessa is only a Member, so she see's only the bulletin that is assigned to Members.

Clicking on the title of the bulletin will take her to the full message view. Bulletins can be fully formatted, including using embedded images, and lists.


Adding a Bulletin

Admins, managers and coordinators can add a bulletin by going to: Communication > add bulletin, in the menu. They can also click the "Create bulletin" button that is on the top right hand side of the Manage Bulletins page.

A title, assignment and body text are the only items required to save a bulletin.
Assignments can be set to multiple selections of roles, subgroups, labels and voice parts.

There is a field below the body text area to upload attachments, such as images that can be embedded in the body text area, or other attachments like pdfs which can be hyperlinked in the body text area by inserting them.


Notifications

Notifications will send to assignees based on the settings for bulletin notifications on on the notifications settings page. This is located in the Admin Settings & Tools Area.

You can also checkmark to send a notification immediately if your bulletin is more time-sensitive and you do not want to wait for the usual notification timing.

Notifications will send a short blurb from the beginning of your bulletin. The email notification will not include the entire message - a user will need to login to read the full message.

Immediate bulletin notifications will appear to be from the poster/author of the bulletin - meaning the sender of the notice will be the email address of the person who posted the bulletin.
If you write a bulletin and receive an immediate notification yourself, it may have a potential spam warning (this is common in gmail). It is safe to ignore this warning. The same warning appears if you send a message through google calendar to yourself as a meeting attendee.

Editing and Deleting Bulletins

To edit a bulletin, navigate to the the Communication > Manage Bulletins page.
You can then click the small edit pencil icon next to the bulletin title, or click the title of the bulletin to go to it, and then click the edit tab along the top. Be sure to save your changes by clicking the save button, or press cancel to not save them.

To delete a bulletin, navigate to the the Communication > Manage Bulletins page. You can then checkmark the box on the far left of the bulletin and then click the delete button on the top right of the table.

You can multi select rows by pressing cmd when you click the checkbox.

You can also click to edit the bulletin, and then click the delete button onthe edit view.

Please be aware that deleting a bulletin cannot be undone.

Bulletins vs email, blocks, and more
What is the best scenario for using a bulletin versus other methods of communication within the site?

This really depends on how your group functions, but we've found that many groups needed a space to post important information that was time-sensitive, but didn't want it lost in a deluge of emails. 

It can serve as an excellent reference point for information that people may need right after they join, and because it is editable, it can allow you to update details as they change. Because the full bulletin is never sent in an email, this can also help prevent a user from referencing old information they may find in a previously send email.

Blocks can server a similar purpose with displaying information on one of the home dashboards, but they are not as granular in their assignment as bulletins are. A block is also best for small chunks of information since it has to share screen space with all the other blocks on the page, but a bulletin can easily include much more detail on the screen.

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