Members-Systems Help

Help Topic: Scheduled messages for an event

An event can have scheduled messages. These are messages that are to be sent at a particular time before, during or after an event to participants in the event. They are especially useful if you do not know the participants at the time of composing the message, as the message is sent to the participants at the time that the message is sent rather than when it was composed.

Scheduled messages can be viewed, edited and created from the Scheduled Messages page, which can be accessed either via the Manage Events page (Managing Events) or from the top of the Event Details and Participants page for that event (Members taking part in an event - Event Participants). They can also be created when an event is copied (again see Managing Events) from a previous event.

The Scheduled Messages page shows both messages which are ready to be sent when the scheduled time comes and below it shows those which have already been sent. Messages which have not yet been sent are shown in the order which they are to be sent, with the first at the top. Messages which have already been sent are shown with the message sent most recently at the top.

Creating a new scheduled message

From the bottom of the Scheduled Messages page, press the 'Create new scheduled message' button.

You must enter a message title, which will become the message subject when it is sent, and you should enter message text in the area at the bottom of the screen. In a later release, it will be possible to format the message in HTML as well as plain text. Also note that at present it is not possible to add attachments for scheduled messages - this will be corrected in a later release.

You must decide if the message is sent to active participants or to all participants (active or inactive) - see Event Participant Status and Roles for more details of active and inactive participants. You can also set a circulation list for the message - the exact contents of the circulation list will be determined at the time it is sent - see Email Circulation Lists for more.

You also need to enter a time at which the message is to be sent. It can be a time relative to the start time of the event, a time relative to the end time for the event, or relative to a specific time. Note that you only need to enter the date and time at the end of this (relatively complex) entry area if the message time is relative to a specific time. Also note that if you copy the event and copy the scheduled messages with it, messages relative to the start or end time of the event will be re-timed to start relative to the start or end time of the new, copied, event. It may also be helpful to know that messages which are timed to be sent to the nearest minute may not be sent at that exact time, since this is subject to internal processing delays and also any message queue or restrictions in place for your organisation (see Organisation Settings for Email).

Editing and deleting scheduled messages

Select the Edit or Delete link by the message you want to update. The interface for editing a message is the same as that for creating a message.

Viewing sent messages

Select the View link next tot the message that you would like to see. Full details of the message will be displayed. Note that you cannot edit or change messages that have been sent.