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President, treasurer, communications chair

Write to the families in your directory

Send one message to every family you choose, from your PTO's name, without exporting the directory to a spreadsheet or putting anybody's address in front of anybody else.

When you are done

You will have sent one message to each family you chose, with replies coming back to you, and a copy of what you said kept where the board can read it later.

Who else you need

Sending is for the president, the treasurer or the communications chair, because a message goes out in your PTO's name and cannot be recalled. Recording that a family asked not to be emailed is open to every officer who can write to the books, so a reply asking to be removed can be acted on by whoever reads it. An auditor and a viewer can do neither, though both can read what was already sent.

Understand what is sent, before you send it

PTO HQ sends a separate message to each family you choose. Nobody can see who else received it, and no address appears in front of anybody but the person it belongs to.

  • That is the difference from what most boards do today, which is export the directory to a spreadsheet and paste the addresses into the BCC line of a personal email account. The BCC field and the To field sit beside each other, and a message that publishes every family's address to every other family cannot be taken back.
  • There are no templates and no scheduling.
  • Nothing records who opened a message or whether anybody clicked anything, and nothing ever will.
One message each, not one message to everybodyPTO HQ sends a separate message to every family you choose, so no recipient can see who else received it or what anybody else's address is. It is not a mailing list and there is no shared To or CC line. This is the difference from pasting the directory into the BCC line of a personal email account, where one keystroke in the wrong field publishes every family's address to every other family.What a spreadsheet and a Gmail account doTo: 184 addressesOne keystroke from publishing them allEverybody sees everybodyThe BCC field and the To field sit besideeach other, and the mistake is notrecoverable.What PTO HQ doesTo: the OkaforsTo: the PatelsTo: the Alvarez family…one message per family, 184 of them.Nobody can see who else received it.There is no list to reply to by accident,and nothing tracks who opened it.

Write the message

  1. Open Messages from the left sidebar.

  2. Write the subject as a statement rather than a heading.

    Fall Carnival is Saturday, not Carnival. The subject is the only part most people read before deciding whether to open it.

  3. Type the message, using the toolbar for anything you want emphasized or laid out.

    The controls are listed below.

  4. Sign it with your own name.

    The message carries your PTO's name at the top and says who sent it at the bottom, and a note that reads as coming from software is a note parents skim.

ControlWhat it offers
CharacterBold, italic, underline, strikethrough
Paragraph styleParagraph, Heading, Subheading, Small heading
ListsBulleted, numbered, block quote, horizontal rule
AlignmentLeft, center, right
FontArial, Verdana, Tahoma, Trebuchet MS, Georgia, Times New Roman, Courier New
Size14, 16, 18, 20, 24 or 32 pixels
ColorThe named colors on the picker, or any hex you type
LinkAny https:// or mailto: address, and a control that removes one
PictureJPEG, PNG, WebP, HEIC or HEIF, up to 8 MB
What the toolbar offers. Fonts are the ones an email client will actually honor rather than an open list, because a font nobody can render is a control that lies.
The compose screenA subject, the message typed as you would write it, and a list of families with everybody ticked to begin with. Leave a blank line between paragraphs; there is no formatting and no template. The buttons above the list choose everyone, only the families whose dues are paid, or nobody. Under the list, the screen accounts for anybody it has left out, so the count always adds up to the directory.SubjectFall Carnival is SaturdayMessageHello families, the carnival is Saturday from 11 to 2…183 of 183 chosenEveryonePaid members (171)Nobody1 family has asked not to receive these and is not listed.Alvarez, Marisol

Add a picture, and describe it before it goes in

  1. Press the picture control and choose the file.

    JPEG, PNG, WebP, HEIC and HEIF, up to 8 MB. Most phone photos already are.

  2. Describe the picture in a few words.

    PTO HQ refuses a picture with no description: "Many families read this with pictures turned off, and your description is what they see instead."

  • A picture is scaled to at most 520 pixels wide, which is the width a message column has to work with in most mail clients.
  • Pictures are served from your own PTO HQ address, so opening a message does not tell any other company that a named family read it.

Choose who gets it

  1. Untick anybody you do not want, or use the buttons above the list: Everyone, Paid members, or Nobody.

    Everybody in your directory is ticked when the screen opens, because the ordinary message is the one everybody needs.

  2. Read the accounting under the list before you send.

    It names the families it left out: those who asked not to be emailed, and those with no address on file. The count on this screen always adds up to the directory.

  3. Check the number on the button, then on the confirmation.

    That number is the only thing about this that cannot be undone.

  • Paid members is the one to reach for when the message is about something only members may do, such as a vote at the next meeting. It is drawn from the dues record on each directory row, so it is only as current as that record.
Who may send, and who may take somebody off the listSending is for the president, the treasurer and the communications chair, because a message goes out in your PTO's name and cannot be recalled. Recording that a family asked not to be emailed is open to every officer who can write to the books, including the secretary, the membership chair and the volunteer chair, so that a reply asking to be removed can be acted on the day it arrives. An auditor and a viewer can do neither, and everybody can read what was already sent.Send a messageIt goes out in the PTO’s name and cannot be recalled.PresidentTreasurerCommunicationschairRecord that a family asked to be left aloneA lower bar on purpose, so a reply can be acted on the day it arrives.Everybody above, plus the secretary, the membership chairand the volunteer chair. An auditor and a viewer, neither.

Take somebody off the list when they ask

Replies come to you, not to PTO HQ, so a family asking to be removed is asking you. Every message tells them to reply and ask, which is the whole of the mechanism: there is no unsubscribe link.

  1. Record it on the Directory page, on that family's row.

    The control reads that they asked not to be emailed. Once it is set they stop appearing on the compose screen entirely.

  2. Record it the day you read the reply.

    Any officer who can write to the books can do it, including the person who read the reply. A request to stop being emailed that waits a week for an officer is a complaint waiting to happen.

  • This is not the same as the privacy flags above it. Those decide what other families see in the class list and at the family portal. A parent who keeps their address off the class list gave it to the PTO for exactly this, and still receives what the board sends.
Hiding an address is not asking to be left aloneThe privacy flags on a directory row decide what other families see in the class list. Whether the board may write to somebody is a separate setting, changed from the directory with the control that says they asked not to be emailed. A family that keeps its address off the class list still receives what the board sends, because they gave the address to the PTO for exactly that.One row in the directoryPriya Patel[email protected]Email: hiddenOther families do not see theaddress in the class list or atthe family portal.Still receives board messagesAsked not to be emailedThey told the board to stop.Recorded from the directory,when somebody replies to ask.Not offered on the compose screen

Read what you sent, afterwards

  • Every message is kept in full under Already sent on the same page, with who sent it, when, and how many families it reached. A secretary writing minutes in November needs the October notice in front of her, not a summary of it.
  • The audit log carries a line for each send naming the subject and the count.
  • Where an address was refused, the message names it so you can correct it in the directory, and that list stays on the message rather than disappearing with the page.
What you are told afterwardsThe screen says how many families it reached. Where an address was refused it names it, so it can be corrected in the directory, and that list stays on the message rather than disappearing with the page. Every send is also kept in full under Already sent and carries a line in the audit log naming who sent it and to how many.Sent to 180 families4 addresses did not accept it: [email protected], and others.Check them in the directory.And it stays on the recordAlready sent — the whole message, as it went out, with who sent itand how many it reached.The audit log — one line per send, naming the subject and the count.Nothing records who opened it, and nothing ever will.

How to check it worked

  • The screen says how many families it reached, and the number matches what the button said before you pressed it.
  • The message appears at the top of Already sent, with your name, the time, and the full text as it went out.
  • The audit log carries a row naming the subject and how many it reached.
  • Your own copy arrives if you are in the directory. It carries your PTO's name, says you sent it, and replying to it reaches you rather than PTO HQ.
  • After recording that somebody asked not to be emailed, their row in the directory says so and they are no longer listed on the compose screen.

If it did not work

What you seeWhat it meansWhat to do
There is no compose form on the Messages page, only what was already sent.Your role may not send. Sending goes out in the PTO's name and cannot be recalled, so it sits with the president, the treasurer and the communications chair.Ask one of them to send it, or ask your president to change your role on the Board tab in Settings. You can still read everything that was sent.
The screen offers fewer families than the directory holds.Somebody has asked not to be emailed, or has no address on file. The line under the recipient list says which and how many.A missing address is one to collect. A family that asked to be left alone is a decision to leave alone. Neither is a fault to correct on this screen.
The send is refused because nobody is chosen.Every family you ticked has since asked not to be emailed, or none of them has an address on file.Reload the page and look at the line under the recipient list, which names how many were excluded and why.
The message reports that some addresses did not accept it.The email provider refused those addresses. A mistyped address and a mailbox that no longer exists both land here.The message names them. Check each one against the directory and correct it, then send again to just those families.
Nothing was delivered at all.The email provider refused every message, which is usually a fault at our end rather than yours.The message is saved under Already sent, so nothing has to be retyped. Try again, and if it fails a second time write to support.