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Mailing List Setup

This procedure will outline an easy way to have a mass-email announcement list. This is much better than a CC or BCC list to a bunch of people. Individuals can subscribe, unsubscribe, change their email address, etc all without having to ask for your assistance.

The only tricky part is setting up the list. The list is intended to be more of an email discussion forum, however if you get the setting right it functions as a great announcement email list. Although it's confusing to setup, once it's setup it's very easy to use on an on-going basis. People can subscribe themselves and you can handle all your announcement needs without ever going back to the Google Groups website.

  1. Visit http://groups.google.com, click "Create a group" on the right side
  2. You need a Google account in order to proceed. If you have a gmail.com email address then you can login with this, otherwise click to "Create an account."
  3. "Set up group" - The name, email, and group description matter very little and you can easily change them later. Example:
    - Name: Chicago Objectivist Society
    - Email: cos-annc
    - Group description:

    The Chicago Objectivist Society (COS) is a group dedicated to the study of Ayn Rand's philosophy of Objectivism: www.chicagoobjectivists.org

    COS Annc is our general announcement list.

    - Access Level:  select "Announcement-only"
     
  4. "Add members" - Skip this step for now
  5. Click "Group Settings"
    - Change "Who can view" to "Only members can view group content"
    - Change "Directory listing" to "Do not list this group"
  6. Click "Navigation", click "hide" on every option
  7. Click "Email delivery"
    - Prefix: The Chicago Objectivist Society has 3 separate mailing lists. Our prefixes are "[COS Social]", "[COS Study]", "[COS Annc]"
    - Message footer: Click "Make a custom footer". It populates it with all the crucial details, here is an example of a good footer. Be sure that your unsubscribe email address includes the "+unsubscribe".

    You received this message because you are subscribed to the "Chicago Objectivist Society Social Events" announcements. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to cos-social+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com For more information visit: http://www.chicagoobjectivists.org 

    - Change "Replies to messages" to "Replies are sent to the author of the message."


Now your list is configured!  Here is how to use it:

Manually adding e-mail addresses

  1. Click "Management Tasks" > Invite Members
  2. You have two options:

    A) If people were previously subscribed to your email list, it's best to click "Add members directly." This way, you can import their email addresses into this new list without them having to confirm. The problem is that you should only do about 10-15 email addresses at a time so it be tedious. If you do more than ~15 emails at once, Google will flag the import for review. In one experience, we waited 3 days, it still wasn't reviewed, so we cancelled it and just imported them 15 emails at a time.

    The email that the person receives when you add them is a bit confusing so here is an example welcome message we include:

    The Chicago Objectivist Society is moving to a new email list system. This message is to confirm that you've been added because you were subscribed to our past announcement list. If you wish to remove yourself click Unsubscribe at the bottom of this email.

    (press Enter ~5 times after this so there is plenty of white-space, it helps your welcome note stand out)

    B) If you select "Invite members by email" they will be sent an email and have to confirm their subscription by clicking a link.

Sending an announcement

  1. To send an announcement to everyone, you simply compose an email to your group's email address: i.e. cos-annc@googlegroups.com. It will be delivered to all of your subscribes. Be sure to send the email from the same e-mail address you used to create the group. 
  2. If you would like other individuals to be able to send announcements to the whole list, you simply need to make them a manager. To make someone a manager, first, make sure they're subscribed. Then:
    - Login to groups.google.com
    - Click "Management tasks"
    - Find the person's email address, check the box next to it.
    - Click "Set membership type" near the top and change to "manager", click OK 

Allowing people to subscribe

  1. Login to groups.google.com
  2. Click "Group Settings"
  3. Click get a "promotion box"
  4. Copy & paste the code from the second example, you need to paste this into your website