How Do I Create an Announcement on GroupCollect's Message Center?

We're excited to have implemented a message center in GroupCollect! Messages will be sent as a text to the contact number associated with the passenger you're trying to message. 

There are multiple ways to filter recipients. If you need to send an email in the announcements section, you would filter to Account Holder (email) to send an email. 

On the trip index page, find the trip that you'd like to send a manual announcement for: 

In Trip Settings, click on Announcements to create your first message:

Click the "+" button to create a new announcement:

There are a few ways to customize your recipient list. For the most refined list, choose "send to" and "filter by" to select the relevant contacts for your message. 

"Send to passengers" will send a message to the passengers via their contact information. "Send to trip leaders" will only send it to trip leaders, once you've assigned them. "Send to emergency contacts" will send the message to all of the emergency contacts on a passenger's account. 

You can use the filter button to narrow your list even further. For example, if you want to send a message to passengers, but only the ones with a missing selection (you have a deadline to order shirts for this group, but don't have all of their t-shirt sizes), you can send a mass message to those missing an answer. Then, you can easily meet your deadline and order your t-shirts!  

More importantly, you can message a group or individual that is past a payment deadline to remind them to log in and complete payment for their trip.

Or, you can create a Custom List, which allows you to search a group or individual for a specific category and message them directly. 

You can change the footer of the text message to clarify who is sending the message or to specify a trip. Otherwise, the signature will be a standard "--sent via GroupCollect."

Are you a visual person? Here's a quick video to show you how it's done!