Hi Erin,

This is just a thought for you and the other members to mull over.

Since this is a new site, I doubt that members are in the habit of checking it. Some of them might have joined and written their piece about themselves and then forgotten all about it. Maybe in a few weeks they'll remember and check in again. (I'm speaking from experience - not with this group, but with others ).

I'm thinking that maybe it would be a good idea to send out an email to all members the day before or morning of a scheduled activity. You probably have a way to send a blast email to everyone, right? Obviously you'd want to make sure it was okay with people before you started doing it, but it might help get the group in people's minds and get them checking in and showing up.

Lynne

I like this idea. I have done a few email blasts already because there are a lot of people who haven't returned since they joined. Did people get their emails? I'm afraid for a lot of people, it might go straight to their spam box! Anyway...I will keep sending out semi-regular emails to keep people updated.

Actually I would rather not get emails - I get more than enough to sort through with work.

Okay...well, I can probably do a "mass email" to only people that have not visited the site for a while.

Hi...

What about a text message - everyone has cell phones and allot like me - get the text right away and sometimes might never log online for a few days - but a text is so much handy too.

Hmmm...that would be handy...but some people might not want to give out their phone numbers...and I might not want people I don't even know to know mine either! Maybe as we get to know one another we can figure out an elaborate system for getting information out...a phone tree, phone a friend, smoke signals...I'm open to ideas....but it has to be a system that allows for member to member updates as I will not *always* be available to do that!

Oh, I like that idea even better, Rod! Much zippier.

The downside here is that your cell phone number would have to be public within the group for this to work, right? Another option might be that Erin and perhaps a few others have the cell #'s and will be willing to send out updates as they read them.

Is there a way to send a text message to an alias or group alias so that the individual phone numbers don't show up? I am a texting dufus, but maybe someone else will know.

On the other hand, maybe some people are comfortable with their phone numbers "out there", and that's okay too.

Heck, with caller id - I choose who to talk to and all - if I get a out of area number or a 800 number - I push the ignore button quick - I do know that each cell phone has a email address assigned to each number - I know this for as far as blast emails to cell phones

I prefer the email - I still get charged for receiving text messages on my cell. Yes, even the spam ones that I don't want to receive!

Well, If we end up with enough interest, we could set up three options: no notification, text notification, email blast.


So Rod, are you saying that I can send an email to an email address and it will come through as a text message? This is exactly the kind of thing I just knew I was missing out on!

I don't know anything about that email / text thing either. Might be a good idea for people interested. So could some people set it up so that if they recieved an email it would go to their phone instead??

I think you can change your settings here and make it so that you get an email any time a post is made on certain sections. Can someone test it and see if you can do that (I'm not sure if the settings look different for other members than they do for me)...if so, then people *could* get automatic emails when something is planned if they wanted to!

If you are logged in, there is a link in the lower right corner of most of the pages that will let you "watch" that particular forum or topic.

You will receive an email when there is something new in that area. You don't receive the actual post, just a note saying "Go look at the topic."

As far as Text Message, you could set up your email to forward certain messages to the email address for your phone. If you don't know that address, check your carriers website or call them. Usually it is something like - YourPhoneNumber@txt.att.net -

Thanks for that info Brian. I just found out you can also choose if you want to recieve newsletters from the site or not (newsletter would be the way I would send out mass emails). Just click on "profile" at the top...and then click on "preferences". You can also set your time there....I'm finally in the right timezone on mine