Choose who gets an email

Every email in Communications goes to a list of people. You can use a quick choice, like everyone with an email, or a list the church has made. Admins, staff and anyone with the Communications role can make and change lists.

Quick choices

When you write a message, To has a Quick section that needs no setting up:

• Everyone with an email
• Everyone who leads a group
• Everyone on a group roster
• Members
• Everyone not in a group yet
• Everyone who serves (when Serving is on)
• Everyone at each campus (when your church uses campuses)

Reaches shows how many people that is right now.

Make a list

1. Open Communications, then Lists.
2. Press New list.
3. Give it a Name. What it's for is optional, a note for the office.
4. Choose Smart or Hand-picked.
5. Set the rules, or tick the people.
6. Press Create the list.

The panel beside the form, Who's on it, shows how many people the list makes, how many can be emailed, and a few of their names, as you change it.

Smart lists keep themselves

A Smart list is whoever matches its rules, kept current as people change. Trellis works out who's on it each time you use it, so someone who joins a group this week is on "Everyone in a group" next time you send. Nothing to export, nobody left off.

The rules you can set:

• Status: Member, Attender, Visitor, Child, Inactive. None ticked means any.
• Groups: Doesn't matter, In a group, Not in one, Leads one, or Particular groups. With In a group or Particular groups, As narrows it to a role in the group, like Leader or Host.
• Visitors: where they are in being welcomed, like New or Invited.
• Serving (when Serving is on): Doesn't matter, On a team, or Particular teams.
• Staff: Only people on the staff page.
• Reach: Anyone, Has an email, or Has a phone.

The panel reads the rules back as a sentence, like "Member in a group, as leader, with an email."

Hand-picked lists

A Hand-picked list is the people you choose, until you change it. Search by name or email and tick each person. Use it for a one-off group, like the people helping with an event.

Change or remove a list

On Lists, press a list's name to open it. Change it and press Save the list. To remove it, press Remove this list. Messages already sent to it keep their record.

Write to a list

On Lists, press Write to them beside a list. Or pick the list under To when you write a message. See Write and send an email.

People who can't be emailed

A list can include people Trellis won't email. They're counted on Lists and in Reaches, but no email goes to them:

• No email address on their record.
• They unsubscribed from the church's email.
• Their address bounced before.
• The address is a made-up one, like an example address, that can't take mail.

After a send, open the message to see each skipped person and why.

To reach someone with no email, add one on their record: open them in People and press Edit. Or call or text them from their page. Trellis doesn't send text messages itself yet, so Reach: Has a phone is for finding people, not for texting them from Trellis.

If someone unsubscribed or bounced, their page in People says so. See Unsubscribes, bounces and pauses.

Who can see lists

Lists are for admins, staff and the Communications role. Making a list doesn't show anyone's pastoral notes or prayer requests: lists only read who is in which group and team, not the group's records.

Still stuck? Ask Silas