Email, WhatsApp or an app? Keeping every member in the loop

Most sailing clubs communicate with members through several channels at once, and each one has a place. Email works best for anything every member needs to see, a members' app or portal for the things that matter to each member personally (including urgent on-the-day changes, if it can send notifications), WhatsApp for chat, and a single page on the website or in the app as the one place that is always right. Most of the confusion in clubs comes from the same message going out on four channels, each slightly different, with none of them clearly in charge.

Who does each channel reach, and who does it miss?

Email reaches almost every member, because the club has their address from when they joined. It does miss the people who never open it, and it can end up in spam folders if it's sent badly, but it remains the right channel for renewals, AGM notices and anything official. Your constitution may also say how notices have to be given, so it's worth checking.

WhatsApp is fast and people genuinely read it, but it only reaches the people who are in the group, and in a normal group everyone can see everyone else's phone number. The admin is often a single volunteer's phone, which becomes a problem on the day they leave.

Facebook and Instagram tend to reach the public and prospective members better than they reach existing members, and the platforms decide who sees what. They're excellent for showing the club off, but they aren't a reliable way of telling members something they need to know.

A members' portal or app is increasingly part of the membership system itself. A portal lets members keep their own details up to date, renew, book courses and events, and see their duties, which takes a surprising amount of work off volunteers. Some systems also have a mobile app that can send push notifications, and for a club that's the most direct route to a member's phone there is: the message arrives immediately, it can go only to the people it concerns (the racers, say, or the parents of juniors on Saturday's course), nobody's phone number is shared with anyone, and the club rather than one volunteer controls it.

The catch is that an app only works if members install it and allow notifications. A separate app that members have no other reason to open reaches almost nobody, so the clubs that make it work tie it to things members already have to do, such as renewing, booking and checking their duties, and make sure there's still an email or text route for those who never install it.

The website is where anyone, member or not, should be able to find out what's happening, which makes it the natural home for the one place that is always right.

What do people actually need to know, and how should they hear it?

Members and visitors want to know all sorts of things: what's on this week and next, whether there are still places on a course, when their duty is, how Wednesday's race went, what's happening socially, and when the bar is open. It helps to think of club messages in three kinds, because each suits a different channel.

Time-critical changes are the ones that can't wait. Plans at a sailing club change with the weather, so racing is cancelled or postponed on the morning, and a training course is often called off the evening before or first thing on the day when the forecast looks doubtful. The people affected need to hear quickly, and they aren't always members: course participants, visiting sailors and the parents of juniors are often not in any of the club's groups, so they depend on the club reaching them directly. A push notification or text to exactly those people is ideal, with email or a WhatsApp message as the fallback.

Personal messages are about one member's own dealings with the club: their renewal, their booking, their duty next Sunday, their child's course. These are best sent automatically by the membership system, by email or as an app notification, so that nobody has to remember to send them.

General news covers everything else, from the calendar and results to social events and club announcements. It belongs on the website or in the app, where anyone can find it when they want it, with the newsletter and social media pointing people towards it.

Whatever the kind of message, the same principle applies: there should be one place that holds the truth, usually the club calendar on the website or in the app, and it's changed there first before anyone is told. That only works if everyone who can change the programme knows where the truth lives and has the access to update it, and if nobody posts a change anywhere else without updating it first. It sounds obvious, but it's the thing that goes wrong most often, usually early in the morning when the forecast has changed overnight, and it's what members and visitors notice most when it does.

Who should own the WhatsApp groups?

It helps to separate the club's official groups from the ones members set up for themselves. Members often run their own groups, for a class fleet, a group of friends who cruise together or the parents of a junior squad, and those are their own business. The club shouldn't try to manage them, but it also shouldn't rely on them for anything official, because not everyone is in them and nobody at the club controls who is.

The club's official groups are different, and they should belong to the club rather than to any one person. Naming them clearly (for example "[Club name] official: racing updates") helps members tell them apart from everything else on their phone. In practice that means at least two admins from the committee, a short note pinned in each group to say what it's for, people removed when they leave the club, and the groups listed in your access register alongside every other club account.

It's also good practice to ask before adding people. Some members would rather not have their phone number shared with a hundred others, and that's their choice to make. For the same reason, the club shouldn't hand out members' phone numbers so that someone can set up a group of their own.

How do you get members to read the newsletter?

The short answer is to send fewer, better emails. A few habits make a real difference:

• Splitting the audience. Racers, cruisers, parents of juniors and social members are interested in different things, and people who only receive what's relevant to them keep opening the emails.
• Automating the predictable messages. The welcome for a new member, renewal reminders and the reminder that someone's duty is coming up can usually be sent automatically by the membership system, by email or as an app notification, which leaves the newsletter free for genuine news.
• Letting members choose. Offering a simple choice of what they hear about keeps the mailing list healthy and cuts the number of people who unsubscribe altogether.
• Being consistent. The same day, the same sender name and a subject line that says what's inside all help members recognise and open the newsletter.

What about data protection?

Members' contact details are personal data. Using them to run the club is what members expect, but using them for anything that looks like marketing, such as passing on a sponsor's offer, needs more care, and the ICO's guidance for organisations is the place to check. I'll cover data protection for clubs properly in a later post.

A simple channel map

It's worth agreeing a simple channel map at committee and putting it somewhere volunteers can see it. This is an example, and your own will look different:

The point is that every channel has a clear job and a named owner, and none of them is trying to do another channel's job.

Getting it straight

Sorting out a club's channels is typical of what a Club CTO monthly clinic works through with your digital officer: what to keep, what to stop, and who owns what.