# What Communications does

> Communications writes, checks and sends emails from the club to its members and contacts, and shows what happened to each one.

Who this is for: Anyone with “Send communications” (by default: Administrator).
Last checked in release 2026.10.23, on 23 October 2026.
Source: https://sportsclubos.net/help/communications/overview/

Communications sends emails from the club to its members and other contacts: newsletters, event invitations, closure notices and formal notices. Each message is written, checked and sent in six guided steps. Before anything goes out, you see who will get it and who is left out, and why. After it goes, you see what happened to every address.

Members choose which kinds of email they want, and Sports Club OS follows their choice for every message. One kind, essential notices, always goes out.

## Who uses it

- The Administrator can write and send messages by default. Your club can give this to other roles on Roles & permissions.
- Seeing the names behind the numbers (who gets a message, who was left out) also needs the permission to see members. Without it, the sender sees the counts only.
- Every member chooses what the club may email them about, on their own **Email preferences** page or from the link in an email.

## Its pages

| Page | What it is for |
|---|---|
| Club > Communications > Previous | The list of messages: **Drafts** still being written and **Sent** messages with how many addresses each went to. |
| Club > Communications > Send new | Starts a new message straight away and opens it, as **New message** does. |
| A message | A draft is six steps: **Kind**, **Who**, **Message**, **Check**, **Test** and **Send**, saved as you go. Once sent, the same page shows the hold, progress and the result for each address. |
| Admin > Settings, **Communications** tab | The kinds of email members choose from, where replies go, and the wording of the text messages staff get about their shifts. |
| A member's page, **Email preferences** card | That address's choices, the messages sent to it, and every change. |

## The words it uses

- **Kind** (also called a category): what a message is about, such as **Club news** or **Events and social**. Members say yes or no to each kind.
- **Essential notices**: the one kind that goes to everyone chosen, whatever they asked for, with no unsubscribe link. It is for safety notices, closures, formal notices and a person's own membership.
- **Address**: one email address. A message goes once to each address, so a household that shares an address gets one copy, in the name of the head of the household.
- **Never asked**: an address whose owner has not yet answered which kinds they want. For an optional message, you choose whether to include them.
- **Hold**: the 30 seconds after you press Send, when **Stop** means nobody receives it.
- **Blocked**: an address that bounced or marked an email as spam. Nothing is sent to it until the office clears it.

## What it connects to

- **Members**: who a message goes to is chosen by membership status, membership type and tag, or by one of your saved Members filters, and by adding or leaving out people by hand.
- **A member's page**: the **Email preferences** card shows the member's choices and the latest messages sent to their address.
- **The roster**: the texts staff get about their shifts are worded on the same Settings tab. Sending them is part of the Staff roster.

## What it does not do

> **Not built yet:** Sports Club OS does not schedule a message for later, send text messages to members, attach files to an email, or let a club save its own templates. A saved Members filter is its owner's own and cannot be shared with the office. To send something similar again, copy an earlier message.

> **Not built yet:** invoices and invoice reminders are not emailed from Communications or anywhere else. Print an invoice or save it as a PDF and send it yourself.

For the full list of what is not built, see [What is not built yet](https://sportsclubos.net/help/reference/not-built/index.md). For what Sports Club OS keeps about the people it emails, and what the drafting service is sent, see [What Sports Club OS keeps about people](https://sportsclubos.net/help/reference/your-data/index.md).

## Articles

- How it works: [Email preferences: who chooses what](https://sportsclubos.net/help/communications/preferences/index.md), [Who a message goes to, and who is left out](https://sportsclubos.net/help/communications/who-gets-it/index.md), [What happened to a message: delivered, bounced, complained](https://sportsclubos.net/help/communications/results/index.md).
- Tasks: [Write and send a message](https://sportsclubos.net/help/communications/write-and-send/index.md), [Start from a template or an earlier message](https://sportsclubos.net/help/communications/templates/index.md), [Have a message drafted for you](https://sportsclubos.net/help/communications/draft-with-ai/index.md), [Stop a message during its hold](https://sportsclubos.net/help/communications/stop-a-message/index.md).
- Settings: [Change email categories, the reply-to address and staff text wording](https://sportsclubos.net/help/communications/settings/index.md). The first set-up is in [Set up email categories and how members choose them](https://sportsclubos.net/help/setup/email/index.md).
- Questions: [Why didn't a member get my email?](https://sportsclubos.net/help/communications/q-email-not-received/index.md), [An email address is marked blocked](https://sportsclubos.net/help/communications/q-address-blocked/index.md).
- For members: [Choose which emails you get](https://sportsclubos.net/help/me/email-preferences/index.md).