Organizational Messaging

This manual explains how administrators and authorized staff send messages to organization members.

Organizational messaging lets you reach targeted member groups without building separate email lists. Messages are delivered using each recipient's personal notification preferences.

1. Before You Start

1.1 Access and prerequisites

Messaging is available to members with administrative roles (owner, admin, operations, accounting, cfi, cfii, dpe).

Your organization must have at least one messaging mode enabled in Organization → Messaging settings. If the Messaging option does not appear in your sidebar, your organization has not enabled any messaging modes.

1.2 Where key pages are

• Send a message: left sidebar Messaging
• Review replies: Messaging → Review Replies

2. Available Messaging Modes

The messaging modes available to you depend on what your organization's administrator has enabled:

1. Individuals – Send to one or more specific members by name.
2. Roles – Send to all members who hold a selected role (for example, all CFIs or all Operations members).
3. Endorsements – Send to all members who hold a selected endorsement type.
4. Entire Organization – Send to all current active members.

If only some modes are enabled, only those options will appear in the Destination selector.

3. Sending a Message

1. Open Messaging from the sidebar.
2. In Destination, select the messaging mode.
3. Select your recipients based on the chosen mode:
   • Individuals: search for and select specific members.
   • Roles: choose one or more roles.
   • Endorsements: choose one or more endorsement types.
   • Entire Organization: no further selection is needed.
4. Enter a Subject line.
5. Enter the message body.
6. Send the message.

After sending, the page displays the number of recipients reached and whether any deliveries failed.

4. Targeting the Right Audience

4.1 Using Individual targeting

Use this when:

• You need to reach a specific member about a personal matter.
• You want to send a one-to-one message without cc'ing a broad group.

4.2 Using Role targeting

Use this when:

• You need to reach all members in an operational role (for example, all instructors about a training policy change).
• You want operational communications to go to a specific function group.

4.3 Using Endorsement targeting

Use this when:

• You want to reach members qualified for a specific aircraft (for example, all members with a tailwheel endorsement about a maintenance hold on the Citabria).
• The audience is defined by a qualification rather than a role.

4.4 Using Entire Organization

Use this when:

• Communicating changes that affect all members equally.
• Sending policy updates, schedule announcements, or safety reminders.

5. Delivery and Results

Messages are delivered using each recipient's active notification preferences (email, SMS, push). Recipients who have turned off all notification methods may not receive the message.

After sending, review the delivery summary to confirm all intended recipients were reached. If some deliveries failed, consider following up with affected members directly.

6. Reviewing Replies

Members can reply to messages they receive — either by email or directly inside the app. Replies are visible to owners and admins.

To review replies:

1. Open Messaging.
2. Click Review Replies.
3. Browse sent message threads.
4. Read replies received from members.

Use this view to track conversations and follow up on member questions or concerns.

7. Replying to a Message (Members)

Any member who receives an organization message can reply without using email:

1. Open the Notifications bell or go to the Notifications page.
2. Locate the organization message notification (✉️ icon).
3. Click the Reply button shown below the notification.
4. Type your reply and click Send reply.

The reply is recorded immediately. The message sender and all original recipients are notified on the next notification cycle (typically within a few minutes). In-app replies follow the same flow as email replies and appear in the Review Replies view.

8. Best Practices

1. Write specific subjects. Members use the subject to decide urgency and relevance. Vague subjects lead to missed messages.
2. One topic per message. If you need to communicate multiple things, send separate messages so members can act on each independently.
3. Use role/endorsement targeting for operational updates. Targeting keeps messages relevant and reduces noise for members who don't need to act.
4. Use Entire Organization sparingly. Reserve it for organization-wide announcements where every member needs the information.
5. Include effective dates. When announcing policy changes, state when the change takes effect.
6. Use News for lasting content. If information should remain accessible over time (not just as a one-time notification), consider posting it in News instead.

9. Enabling Messaging Modes (Administrators)

Messaging modes are configured in Organization → Messaging. Enable the modes your organization will actively use:

• Enabling more modes gives senders more targeting options.
• Disabling all modes hides Messaging from the sidebar.

For guidance on configuring organization settings, see: docs/users/administration/ADMINISTRATION.md

10. Related Manuals

1. Organization settings: docs/users/administration/ADMINISTRATION.md
2. Blog entries for lasting announcements: docs/users/administration/BLOG_ENTRIES.md
3. Member notification preferences: docs/users/members/MEMBER_NOTIFICATION_PREFERENCES.md