We recently did a soft-launch of an important new feature for Care2 Groups: Every group now has the opportunity to have its own mailing list (often called a "listserv").  We'll soon be doing the "full launch" of the service, so we wanted to give you a little more insight into where we're going with all of this.

Why Mailing Lists?
We surveyed Care2 Group Hosts and leaders of small nonprofit organizations and identified this feature as one of the most important tools we could add to our site.   Most members of groups, whether here at Care2 or elsewhere, frequently check their email but only occasionally visit the group's homepage. Thus, the best way to help keep the most group members informed and connected is via email. 

Listservs also traditionally come with associated hosting fees/hassles, so by bundling this with our free group tools we hope to provide a simple, effective solution.

Mailing lists vs Discussion Forums
Our new mailing list service is an extension of our popular discussion forums.  If you like the way the discussion forums work today, nothing needs to change -  you can choose to interact with them exactly as you have been. But now, in addition, you can also receive the discussion posts directly in your inbox, or post to a discussion from your email.  The mailing lists functionality is simply more convenient for some people.

Control
Everyone wants control over what comes into her inbox, so we've provided a range of options.  Every group member will be able to determine what kind of communications she receives via email. The options are:

• Do not receive any email. Read group posts and announcements on the website only.
• Host Announcements Only: Receive only important host announcements.
• Daily Digest: Receive a daily email containing all group posts and host announcements made the previous day.
• Individual Email: Receive an email for each post and host announcement made to the group.

Getting Everyone On Board
Given the importance of this feature, every new member to a group will be asked to set their communications preferences when joining a group. In other words, when you first join a group, you'll be asked to select one of the above settings to determine if/how you want to receive messages via email.   In the near future, we'll also be requiring all of our existing members to identify your preference for each group you're a member of.  You'll only have to do this once for each group (or you can simply set all of your preferences via your My Account Notifications page).

We want to make Care2 Groups the most effective platform for group organizers to make a positive impact. We hope you'll find this new mailing list feature a useful and powerful new service!