Friday, May 3, 2024

Communication Information and Guidelines


Need to post about an event you are hosting? Want to send out an email reminder? Read through these guidelines to make it happen.  

Please be mindful that we are all volunteers and requests for information to be sent out immediately may not be possible. It is best to plan ahead :)  

All requests for blog posts, emails, and Facebook posts (for those without an accounts) should be sent to pima.neighborhood@gmail.com.

BLOG POST

In an email, send your blog post with the Who, What, When, and Where details
written as you would like it to appear. Do not send this information via Word document, text, jpg, or pdf because those do not allow for a cut and paste of the information.  

It is best to already have your sign up form completed so that the link can be included in the original blog post.  We generally use Google forms for sign ups.  Please add pima.neighborhood@gmail.com and pimamoneymanager@gmail.com as "editors" to any forms you create.

Be sure to include costs and how to pay. Reminder, troops must pay for all neighborhood events must be troop checks written out to Pima Neighborhood.  Individual families only may pay via Venmo for their own expenses only. Venmo details and physical addresses for individuals will NOT be published on the web.  It is best to look at old posts to see how this is handled.

Attach a jpg of any clipart you'd like to include and send request to pima.neighborhood@gmail.com. 

It is best to announce any neighborhood event at least two months in advance to ensure good attendance.  Experience also suggests that events discussed at the monthly leaders' meeting have better attendance.

EMAIL

The blog is our main vehicle to disseminate information. Our email account is nothing fancy and is monitored by a single individual with no ability for recipients to "unsubscribe." Many individuals are sensitive to the number of emails they receive and, although we may not view our email as "junk," recipients often do not feel the same way.  Additionally, Gmail also considers the account a nuisance if we send out too many group emails in a short period of time and flags the account if that happens, shutting it down for a period of time.


For this reason, we almost always used eBudde ONLY to convey information to leaders and cookie managers about the cookie sale. Please do not turn off your notification settings in eBudde since you will be cutting off your only avenue for important information.  Cookie email requests will always be re-directed back to eBudde.


Within these parameters, the neighborhood strives to send no more that two to three emails a month, including a monthly meeting agenda with a summary of "what's happening" and otherwise only for urgent information.  We do our best to combine information; therefore the email list is not to be used for "reminders" unless absolutely necessary.  Once an event is off the ground, please use the participant list to target those attending.

If you believe an email is necessary, please write the email you want sent, complete with your contact information.  Do not send an email that says "please send an email" without providing the text you want sent out. Doing this prevents misunderstandings about the information you wish to convey and saves time. An email asking for an email without the text you wish to send will simply generate a response to provide the text.

FACEBOOK

Everyone does not have a Facebook account but many do so do not count this avenue out as a way to disseminate information.  The account is private and once you are a member you can post information.  Please be mindful that the site is to be used only to share information about Girl Scouts but otherwise, you are free to post as you please.

If you do NOT have Facebook account, you can send a request for your information to be posted to pima.neighborhood@gmail.com. Do not send pdfs.  They cannot be posted.  If you have a graphic to post, it must be sent as a jpeg. Otherwise, follow the same guidelines as with an email and send the text and contact information you wish to have posted.

OTHER COMMUNICATION OPTIONS

Finally, the service team continually reviews our communications options.  Group sites like Rallyhood are only as good as individuals' willingness to use the platform. Repeatedly, we have been told that another app is not the answer so until we find a better route that everyone is willing to use, these are the chosen routes.  You are welcome to suggest other solutions and also to advertise your event through any means, but experience suggests these three routes are best.

Send questions to pima.neighborhood@gmail.com