Tips for the Week!

Since we released the Volunteers module last month, we received lots of great feedback and feature requests to make this feature even more powerful! From smaller changes such as updating the format of the task invitation emails to make them more mobile friendly to larger requests such as the ability to add a Volunteer chair, we've made a lot of updates to this feature.

Did you know that you can add the Volunteer Task Group Name to your emails with use of a mail-merge tag?

You asked for it, and we delivered! We've added a new mail merge field for volunteer tasks, which automatically populates your emails with the group name, so that you can manage your communications more effectively! There no longer is a need to duplicate the same message for each group!

Did you know you have the ability to set a Volunteer Chair?

Previously, only event chairs, site administrators and executives could edit the volunteer tasks associated with the events. We've now added a new role titled Volunteer Chair, which can be assigned to members with any standard access level. The Volunteer Chair will be able to edit the details of any given volunteer task group and can also optionally be copied on all confirmation and cancellation emails.

Visit our Service Updates page to read more about the updates we made to this module as well as others!

Email Statistics: FAQs

We`ve received a lot of great questions regarding the latest announcement about email statistics and limits and wanted to take this opportunity to share our answers with everyone. From understanding email credits to more information on how to access your email traffic reports, we have it all here:

1. Do you count all the recipients of one email in the email limits?

Yes, all recipients of emails are counted in the email statistics limit. This means that if you send one email to 50 recipients, you have used 50 credits from your annual limit. Note that the monthly limit you see is for suggestion purposes and monthly credits that are unused carry over to the next month until the end of your yearly subscription term.

2. Are bulletins included in this limit?

Yes, all emails sent from the system are included within this limit, whether they be email invitations, bulletins or regular emails sent from the message center.

 3. Where can I view my email traffic report and my email statistics?

To find out how to view the email traffic report, click here.
To find out how to view email statistics, click here.

4. What happens if we go over our annual limit?

Prior to setting these limits, we thoroughly analyzed the send patterns of our entire customer base and applied a generous buffer on top of the number of emails sent so that 95% of customers will never go above their annual limit. If we find you are going to go over that limit, we will send you a courtesy email to notify you and will work with you on applying best practices for email sending.

5. Why the change in your email delivery service? Can we opt out of this upgrade?

This is not upgrade for our customers but an upgrade to our email service. Prior to implementing this service, we relied on several different distributors whereby the reliability of email delivery was decreasing due to customers sending emails to invalid email addresses, spam traps and more. As a result, this upgrade was necessary to ensure a higher level of stability, reliability and security. This was applied to the system as a whole and not to individual club or district accounts and as such cannot be opted out of on an individual account basis.

 6. I logged in and followed the instructions to view my Email Traffic Report but do not see this. Why?

It’s possible you’re still on Version 2 of the ClubRunner platform. Email statistic and traffic reports are only available on Version 3.0. We encourage you to switch to Version 3 at your earliest convenience. Please refer to this help article to learn more.

Alternatively, you might not have the correct access levels to view these reports, as these reports are only accessible by members with an access level of 40 or better.

7. When does this take effect?

The new limit was activated on November 24, 2014. However, clubs and districts will be given 90 days from the time of our notice to become compliant. We will regularly be in touch with those clubs and districts that are going above and beyond their annual limit.

8. How does this affect my privacy? Are you sharing my email address with third parties?

Please be assured that we continue to abide by our privacy policy where we state that we will never sell or share your information including email addresses. This change only affects the transmittal of an email after it is already processed and dispatched by our servers, which is the same process we had before. We are serious about protecting your personal information and will continue to ensure it is not divulged or distributed to third parties.

Have more questions? Send them in and we'll be happy to answer them!

Introducing Email Statistics!

You asked for it, and we delivered! We're excited to introduce email statistics reports, which will allow you to better track email and bulletin deliverability, view which emails have been read and by whom, trace emails and bulletins that have bounced or been blocked and view which emails/bulletins have been marked as spam.

To view email statistics for your club, navigate to the Email Message Center from the Admin page and then click on the Email Traffic Report link on the top menu bar. You'll immediately be able to view your email usage to date with a breakdown showing you how many emails you have this sent this year, within the past 30 days and what your club's monthly average is like. To learn more about email usage, please click here.

Click on the details link under the Actions column to view the types of emails (ie: Bulletin, Event Registration emails, Volunteer Registration emails, etc) that have been sent, the subject line, who the sender is, the date it was sent on, and even select a date range to customize your email traffic report. Click on the emails sent number to dive deeper and view how many emails were successfully delivered, how many were opened and by whom, which have bounced, and more!

There is a whole lot more we're working on to make your ClubRunner experience even better, stay tuned! Have more suggestions you would like to add to our feature wishlist? Email us at feedback@clubrunner.ca.

Tip of the Week: Adding Slideshows to your website

We've been getting lots of emails from clubs sharing how they've made their club sites even more dynamic using Version 3.0! There's nothing that makes us happier than seeing how our customers have customized their websites and added different elements to make it unique, without ever needing to know any technical language.

While some like to add custom graphics and stories about the club, others like to add videos and photo albums to share the latest happenings at the club. Did you know that you can embed PowerPoint presentations on your homepage as well?

Similar to how you add videos to your website, you can embed Slideshows using the Custom Content Widget. Follow the instructions on this help article to add a PowerPoint presentation to your website.

Be sure to comment below with the link to your site to share how you've customized your ClubRunner site too!

Best Practices for Club Websites

 

Did you know that you only have 5 seconds to capture the attention of your website visitor, before they leave? What's worse is that once they leave your website, the chances of re-engaging are very low. There's a lot you can do to make sure your website comes out on top. We get a lot of emails from clubs asking for tips on how to improve their websites and overall website experience, which is why we thought we'd share some best practices:

1.	Be Visual Capture the attention of your visitors with imagery, photos of your club activities, your members, projects, etc. After all, actions speak louder than words and showcasing your club from a visual standpoint not only promotes your club more effectively but also helps visitors get a better sense of what you’re all about, without having to skim through text! The built-in photo albums in ClubRunner are a great way to showcase your activities, and with our web editor, you can easily drop in images alongside your text anywhere.
2.	Content is King - Update it often! Content is King & Currency is Queen! The real factor that drives a website towards becoming popular and successful is freshly updated content throughout the site. If visitors are presented with outdated information, they have no reason to stay on your site to learn more, let alone return. Potential members may feel that your club is really not that active, even if that is far from the truth. Of course updating content on a regular basis is difficult if you have to rely on a webmaster. With no technical expertise required, updating your website on ClubRunner is hassle free!
3.	Make it easy to navigate Your website is the hub of information and the first place visitors come to learn more about your club. If they can't navigate from one page to another or find the information they are looking for easily, they'll associate their negative experience with your club and this impacts your bottom line of recruiting and retaining members. When creating website themes and templates, we always think about the user experience first, which is why all of our layouts, menu options and website templates allow you to build professional and beautiful websites that are easy to navigate through.
4.	Go Mobile Did you know that 17.4% of global web traffic comes through mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets?  The majority of people are online on their mobile devices and not optimizing your website for such devices means you aren't reaching your potential members. Today, mobile optimization for websites is not a 'nice to have', it is a demand that must be met and this is why all ClubRunner websites are optimized for whichever device a visitor may use. If you're using Version 3.0, you can control the mobile settings of your website.
5.	Be easy to find The "if you build it, they will come" mantra might have worked before but it no longer applies! To attract visitors, your website must rank high in search engines. Not only does ClubRunner automatically generate meaningful permalinks for each page on your website, but you can also define your meta tags to generate even more organic traffic. We dominate all major search engines, so having a ClubRunner hosted website means your club will always rank high and be visible in all search results.  Share your best practices with us! What does your club do to keep your website current and exciting? Need some inspiration for your website? VIsit our Live Sites page to see how other clubs have designed their sites. Want a completely new and unique theme? Connect with a ClubRunner Coach to give your website a fresh new look!

Meeting Responsibilities (Duty Roster 3.0) Now Available!

We're pleased to present the all-new Duty Roster 3.0, also known as the Meeting Responsibilities feature!

Available only in Version 3.0, with this upgraded feature, you have the ability to create and manage multiple tasks in an organized list for members to complete during meetings. Create groups and positions, and easily assign members to each task. In addition to all the original features that were part of the Duty Roster 2.0, this new version can also be added to your club website, bulletin or custom page as a widget!

To get started, navigate to the Meeting Responsibilities page and click on add new position. From here, you'll be able to associate your positions with groups, assign duties to members and more.

To learn more about this new feature, refer to our help guide.

Introducing ClubRunner's Volunteers Module 3.0!

We're pleased to announce the release of our all-new Volunteers 3.0 Module! Based on the feedback we've received over the years from our Champions and Early Access Participants, we were able to further customize this new module to cater to virtually any scenario where you need to coordinate people in various commitments organized by time,day, task or group.


The Volunteers module is available in two versions: Basic and Enhanced. We've already included all the essential features needed by clubs into the Basic version, and additional features were added to the Enhanced version. Click here to learn more.  

Available through the main menu on the Admin page, to navigate to the Volunteers module, click on the Events tab and then on the Volunteers link. Note that to access the Volunteers module, you must be on the Version 3.0 platform. Not on Version 3.0 yet? Click here to learn how to switch.
 
Refer to our knowledgebase for help articles and FAQ's to get started with using this module. 

Tip of the Week!

Studies have shown that customizing and personalizing your emails, even slightly, can increase your open and response rates, which is why the use of mail merge tags within your emails is so beneficial.

To help you personalize your custom emails to your members, we've included quite a few mail merge tags that you can include in your messages. These tags allow you to include dynamic content such as first name, club name, spouse name, nick name, etc.

Did you know you can insert these tags in your subject line to increase open rates as well? Apart from adding them to the body of your email, you can even paste these values in your subject line to appeal to your recipients. Sending an invite to your next club event? Add their first name to the subject line for a more personal invitation! For more information on how to insert mail merge tags to your emails, refer to our help article.

Tip of the Week: Sponsor Ads

Did you know that you can control the pages you want your sponsor ads to display?


The Sponsorship module allows clubs to place text or image sponsor ads on their own website as a means of generating revenue. Clubs have always had the ability to display these ads on the homepage, bulletin and on all subsequent secondary pages. As our way of providing you with more custom options, you now have more control over which secondary pages you want these ads to display on, including the photo album list, speakers list, speakers details page, event details page and more.

To view the complete list and choose which pages to display the ads on, click on the Sponsor Settings link from the Sponsors page. If the option for subsquent pages is turned off, the content on those pages will expand across what would have been the reserved right column meant for those ads.

We're constantly making improvements to the ClubRunner platform and would love to hear your feedback and suggestions on what you'd like to see. Email us at feedback@clubrunner.ca with your suggestions!

Tips for the Week!

Did you know you can control the appearance of your website on mobile devices?

Based on your feedback, we have added more control around the appearance of your website on
mobile devices. You now have the option to enable/disable the one column view of your website on smart phones. The one column layout takes all the elements of your website and then presents it in one column taking the width of your phone screen into account. If you disable this option, then the website layout will match that of your site when viewed on a desktop or iPad.

To access this feature, navigate to the Website Designer 3.0 link and then to the Settings tab. Click on "Edit Mobile Settings" and select your choice.

Did you know you can display member spouse birthdays on club bulletins?

You now have the ability to further customize the Birthdays and Anniversaries widget by being able display the birthdays of the spouses of members as well. To turn this option on, simply click on the cog wheel on the widget to navigate to the Properties page, from where you can select the "Show Spouse Birthdays" option.