Communications, in depth

A message starts as a draft. Staff write the subject and the text, choose the channels and pick an audience. A draft can wait as long as needed. Staff can edit it, duplicate it or delete it.

When staff send, the app asks them to type SEND. The message then moves to Sending, and the server works in the background. The end state is Sent or Failed. Staff cannot cancel a message after they confirm. Only a draft can be deleted. A sent message stays in the list with its audience and its date.

The audience count updates while staff choose. It shows the total match, and it shows separately how many people the email reaches and how many the text reaches. Those two numbers are smaller than the total. The server leaves out each person who has no address or no phone number on file. It also leaves out each person who opted out of that channel. Staff never filter these people by hand.

The advanced filter combines rules with ALL or ANY. The rules cover identity, family, contact, address, preferences, membership and safe environment. It is the only choice that can reach children.

Every message has a kind, and each kind has its own rule.

• Essential messages, such as a security alert, always arrive.
• Program messages follow something a family joined. A global opt-out and the program's own switch can stop them.
• Parish news goes only to people who chose to receive it.

Staff can record a global opt-out for one person. It stops every message except the essential ones. Families can unsubscribe from any email or reply STOP to any text. The parish does not need to act on those requests.

• Test Mode limits the send to addresses at the parish's own domain. A banner and a TEST tag mark those messages.
• The app allows at most five blasts in one hour. This protects the parish's name with email and text providers.
• The server cleans the HTML of each email before it sends the email.
• A preview shows the finished email before sending.

The dashboard keeps every message with its subject, channels, audience, status and date. Statistics follow each sent message. For email they show the people reached, opens, clicks and bounces. For text they show delivered and failed texts. A Suppressed count shows the people the send skipped on purpose. A No signal yet count shows messages the provider has not reported on. The providers report back over time, so staff can refresh the numbers.

Other modules send messages for the parish, such as a welcome email, a waitlist notice, a balance reminder or a payment notice. Staff edit the wording of these in the Templates tab, in English and in Spanish. A message marked as live content sends without staff action, and a save asks for confirmation first. Each module names who gets its messages, so a program message goes to the person who pays or signs up.

Staff need the Communications role. Programs and ministries can message their own members through the same rules.