VBS Messaging

Messaging in the VBS admin writes to the people registered for this week and nobody else. It opens with every registered family already in To, so the common case — a reminder to the whole week — is a subject, a message, and send.

Narrow it down, if you need to

Remove the Every family chip with its × to start from nothing, or open Browse all teams, groups, and people to pick a smaller audience. Inside, VBS offers what it knows about these people:

Registration status — Confirmed.
Volunteer status — Pending or Approved, which is how you chase the people who applied to help and have not heard back.

Tip

Messaging pending volunteers is the one send worth doing early and often. They applied, and silence is what loses them.

Choose how it goes out

Pick a channel

Send by offers Email, Text or Both. A line underneath says what this send costs against your allowance — “Uses 14 of your 10,000 remaining emails” — before you write a word.

Warning

Choose Text and the count changes to something like “14 people · 1 has no mobile number · 13 will get it”, with See who to name them. A parent who registered without a phone number silently receives nothing, so read that line before sending anything urgent by text.

The composer with Text chosen, showing how many recipients have no mobile number, the text credits used, and the message length in characters — Text spends credits and skips anyone without a mobile number — both are on screen before you send

Write it

Subject, then the message. The bar above an email sets headings, bold, lists and links; a text message is plain, so it has none. Personalize inserts details like the recipient’s first name; Preview shows the result as a parent will see it.

Send, schedule, or save it

Send goes now. The arrow beside it offers Schedule… and Save draft — schedule the “see you tomorrow” message the evening before and stop thinking about it.

Tip

Send the week’s practical details as email and keep text for the short and urgent: a closing running late, a change of pickup door.

Permissions

Messaging needs permission to send messages for the organization, which the VBS Director role does not include — a director opening this page sees You don’t have access to this page. Ask an organisation administrator to add messaging to your role if sending is part of your job.

The composer here is the same one used everywhere else in Hubl, so sending limits, the from address and your church’s email branding are covered in Sending messages.