Archive of BMW Motorrad Club Cape (2006 - 2019)

You need to have been assigned the right permissions to be able to send newsletters.  Usually only committee members have this permission.

Steps:

1. Click "Create content"
2. Select "Newsletter issue"
3. Enter title
4. Choose Newsletter database
5. Enter the newsletter content
6. Set the Calendar dates (or not)
7. Set the Newletter to "published" if dates are set for an event.
8. Save
9. Send

Notes:

Newsletter Title

• Keep it short(ish) with only relevant content.
• Avoid special characters (& especially)
• Don't put in "BMW Club" or similar, as the system adds "BMW MCC Cape" to the title already.

Newsletter Databases

There are 3.  Only one of them is current (BMW MCC Cape), unless you take steps to update one of the others (BMW MCC Ladies or BMW MCC Members).

The BMW MCC Cape database has all forum members, and all who have subscribed to the newsletter via our website.  People can unsubscribe via a link in a newsletter (at the bottom), or via their account settings on the forum.

The procedure for sending the newsletter to current members only is to

1. Unsubscribe all from the members newsletter DB,
2. get a CSV list of the emails of current members from the member admin system, and to
3. bulk subscribe them to the Members newsletter DB.

Newsletter Content

Keep it concise and don't put in large images or file attachments.

Bear in mind that the content, if set to published, will end up as a event on the site calendar.  Think about where you want questions, comments, registration or discussion to happen.

Typically, if the newsletter is for a trip, the full content of the trip announcement is on the forum under "Trips and Tours", and you want all comments and discussion to happen there.  So, at the bottom of your newsletter, put in a link to the trip announcement and mention that this is where updates and discussion must happen.

Calendar Dates and Publishing

In the "Publishing options" at the bottom, immediately above the "Save" button, you can set the newsletter to be published.  If you do this, it will add the newsletter content as an event in the calendar.  The dates of the event need to be set by you, otherwise they default to the current time.

Saving and Sending

After you have saved the newsletter, you will see tabs along the top above the title.  One of these is "Newsletter", and on that tab you can choose to send the newsletter (which you must do otherwise it won't go out).  You do have the option to send a test email which you might want to try if you are unsure about something.