Email preferences: who chooses what

Every message the club sends belongs to one kind of email, such as Club news or Events and social. Each person says yes or no to each kind, and Sports Club OS follows that answer for every message, so nobody gets a kind of email they switched off. One kind, Essential notices, always goes out.

The kinds of email

A club starts with four. The club can rename them, change what they say, and add or remove kinds on Settings (see Change email categories, the reply-to address and staff text wording).

Essential notices are marked Always sent wherever they appear, and cannot be switched off. An essential email has no unsubscribe link. Keep it for facts people need.

Choices belong to an email address

A choice is kept against an email address, not a person. Everyone who shares an address, such as a household, shares its choices, and gets one copy of each message. If a member's address changes, the new address has its own choices, and starts as not asked.

Where an answer comes from

Until someone answers, each optional kind is Not asked. An answer can come from any of these, and each is recorded:

• When a member first signs in. A member who has never answered is taken to a page headed Before you start: what should we email you about? with Yes and No for each kind and a tick, Only send me the essential notices, nothing else. Save and continue can be pressed once every kind has an answer; nothing starts already chosen.
• On their own Email preferences page, from the account menu at any time. It works the same way, with a Save button and a Changes list.
• From the unsubscribe link at the foot of every optional email (below).
• By the office, on the member's page, when the member has asked.

The member's side is described in Choose which emails you get.

The office's view

On a member's page, the Email preferences card shows each kind with Yes, No, Not asked or Always sent, when the member last answered (or They have not been asked yet. They are asked the first time they sign in.), who shares the address, the latest messages sent to the address and what happened to each, and the last changes with when, how and by whom.

If you can change members, press Change, choose Yes or No for each kind (or tick Essential notices only), and press Save. The card says Only change these when the member has asked you to. It is recorded as changed by the office.

If the card says No email address on file, so nothing can be sent., add an address to the member's details first.

The unsubscribe link

Every email of an optional kind ends by saying why the person is getting it (they are a member or contact of the club and have not opted out of that kind of email), with an Unsubscribe link and a link to choose what the club emails them. The unsubscribe link needs no sign-in. It opens a page headed Stop these emails?, for that address and anyone who shares it, with:

• Stop Events and social emails (the kind of the email it came from),
• Stop everything except essential notices,
• What you get now: each kind marked On, Off or Always sent.

Opening the page changes nothing; only pressing a button does. After pressing one, the page says, for example, Done. No more Events and social emails., with That was a mistake, keep sending them to undo it. Mail programs that show their own unsubscribe button beside the sender switch off that kind of email in the same way.

The message's results then mark that address Unsubscribed. A link stops working after a long time; the page then says This link has expired. Sign in to Sports Club OS to change what we email you.

When the address stops working

If an email bounces because the address does not exist, or the person marks one as spam, Sports Club OS stops sending to that address altogether, essential notices included, until the office clears it. See An email address is marked blocked.

Every change is recorded

Each change is listed in Changes: what changed (for example, "Club news: not asked to yes"), when, and how (at first sign-in, by the office, from an unsubscribe link, reported by the mail system). The member's card also says who made it. The person sees the same list, without names, on their own Email preferences page.