> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://clubdock.co.uk/docs/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Messages > Email the families who have a place at your club, or one family, in your club's name. **Messages** is how you email families yourself — a change to pick-up, a case of chickenpox, a reminder about the summer fair. A message goes to the families who hold places, or to one family, from your club's name. Messages are news about the club and the places families hold, so **families cannot switch them off**. For promotion, such as "booking is open for half term", use a programme's [booking emails](https://clubdock.co.uk/docs/programmes/booking-emails.md), which families can switch off. > [!NOTE] > > Only a **Manager** can send messages. Staff do not see **Messages**, and a parent's **Email** button opens their own email app. ## Write a message **1. Start a message** Go to **Messages** and press **New message**. A draft opens addressed to families with a place from today on, with how many parents that is. **2. Choose who it goes to** Narrow it by programme, venue, school, one session, or dates. Press **See families** to check the list. **3. Write it** Give it a subject and write the message. Press **The parent's first name** to put each parent's own name where you are typing. **4. Attach files, if you need to** Up to 3 PDFs or images (JPEG or PNG), 8MB in total. **5. Test it** Press **Send me a test**. It goes to your own sign-in address only, marked **\[Test]**. **6. Send or schedule** Press **Send now**, or **Schedule** it for later. ![The message composer with the audience and its parent count highlighted](https://mintcdn.com/club-dock/i5cYbq0jP2hBThbX/bookings/message-composer.png?fit=max\&auto=format\&n=i5cYbq0jP2hBThbX\&q=85\&s=603dccc2cdfc675598597a79e3831d60) You can also start a message from: * **A register** — **Email families** writes to everyone with a place on that session. * **A child's record** — **Email parents** writes to all of the child's parents. * **A parent's record** — **Email** followed by the parent's name writes to that parent only. Their child's other parents are listed, unticked. * **The Children or Parents list** — **Message** writes to the families on the filtered list. See [The Children list](https://clubdock.co.uk/docs/families/children.md). ## Who receives it * **Families with a place.** There is no "everyone at the club": a family with nothing booked is not reached. * **Several filters together.** Ticking two venues and a school reaches families with a place at **either** venue **and** a child at that school. * **Past dates.** You can choose dates up to 30 days back — for example, to tell the families at Tuesday's session about chickenpox. Children marked **Absent** that day are left out. * **Both parents.** If a child has two parents, both receive it, once each, however many of their children match. * **Parents who stopped booking emails** still receive it. * **A cancelled session's families** are not reached; they were told by its own email. * **Families you imported but have not invited yet** are left out, and the composer says how many, with a link to **Email these families**. If nobody matches, Send is refused: "No families have a place that matches. Change the dates or filters." ## Sending **Send now** asks first — "Send to 3 parents?" — because a sent message cannot be recalled. It then goes as one email per parent, from your club's name. Replies go to your club's contact email. If you have not set one, the email says replies are not read and to contact the club directly. **Schedule** sends it at the time you choose, UK time, up to 60 days ahead. It goes to the families with a place **at that time**, so a family who books in between receives it. * To change a scheduled message, edit it and save. * To stop it, press **Stop and move to drafts**. * If nobody has a place by the time it goes, it is not sent, and the **Sent** tab says so. A message without a subject or a body is not sent, and the missing field says what to add. ## After it is sent The **Sent**, **Scheduled** and **Drafts** tabs each list subject, who it went to, when, and how many parents. Open a sent message to see what it said, who sent it and when, and every parent it went to, with where their copy got to: **Delivered**, **Not delivered**, **Marked as spam** and so on. The ones that did not arrive are listed first. ![A sent message's list of parents, with Gareth Price's copy Not delivered at the top because of a mistyped address](https://mintcdn.com/club-dock/i5cYbq0jP2hBThbX/bookings/message-not-delivered.png?fit=max\&auto=format\&n=i5cYbq0jP2hBThbX\&q=85\&s=7e00270ad5a8cda524c142118e8850bf) > [!WARNING] > > When an email to a parent bounces, their record says "Emails to this address are not being delivered." They may not be receiving sign-in codes or booking confirmations either. Correct the address on their record to clear it. ## Drafts and keeping * **Delete** removes a draft you no longer want, and its files. * Sent messages are deleted after two years, with who received them and their files. ## Related topics - [The Parents list](https://clubdock.co.uk/docs/families/parents.md) - [The Children list](https://clubdock.co.uk/docs/families/children.md) - [When something does not sync](https://clubdock.co.uk/docs/accounting/when-something-does-not-sync.md) - [Troubleshooting](https://clubdock.co.uk/docs/help/troubleshooting.md) - [FAQs](https://clubdock.co.uk/docs/help/faqs.md) This documentation is built and hosted on [Mintlify](https://mintlify.com), a developer documentation platform.