SOAR

The SOAR EBlast feature is now available on your unit websites ! This feature is available to all customers with the Advanced package.

We have been working on this feature for quite some time - MUCH longer that we originally anticipated. We appreciate your patience while we took the time to create a quality feature for you to use. We believe this feature is going to radically change and simplify how you communicate with your unit members.

EBlast Overview

Communicating with scouts/parents is one of the most important and time consuming tasks unit leaders have.

A typical scout/parent will receive multiple emails each week with reminders, information on new events, final details on upcoming events, changes in meeting schedules, volunteer requests, etc. For each of these, a unit leader will post content to the unit website AND send an email to the appropriate group.

SOAR EBlast simplifies communications in the following ways.

1. Unit leaders ONLY need to post content to the unit website – no longer do they also need to send out separate emails
2. Scouts/Parents receive a SINGLE email each week that contains all updates posted to the unit website AND a list of upcoming events.
3. Scouts/Parents no longer have to proactively check your unit website for new information – it arrives in their email where they are more apt to read it.

This will reduce the time leaders spend which increasing the level of communication with unit members. It will also consolidate all unit communication into a single email that scouts/parents will be more likely to pay attention to.

When you enable the SOAR EBlast feature, your website will send out an email every week to each unit member with updates and upcoming events.

Click here for a screenshot of an example EBlast.

EBlast Contents

Each EBlast consists of two columns

Column #1 - Content added/updated in the last 7 days

• Announcements & Events
  • These are displayed first to emphasize importance
  • Summary details (including teasers) are shown
  • Links to any file attachments are included
  • If an item contains more detail than shown in the EBlast, a link to the full content on the unit website is displayed
• Files, Links, Custom Pages, and Photo Albums
  • A link is provided to the added/updated item on the unit website

Column #2 – Upcoming Events

• Events in the next 7 days are shown in the first section
  • Date, time, location, teaser, and links to any file attachments are provided
  • If an item contains more detail than shown in the EBlast, a link to the full content on the unit website is displayed
• Events in the next 7-30 days are shown in the second section
  • No teaser is shown for these events
  • If there is event details, a link to the full content on the unit website is provided

Den/Patrol Filters

If you are using the Den/Patrol filters and have your Roster setup, EBlast gets even better. EBlast email will be personalized for each unit member. Only content that applies to that unit member will be included in their EBlast email. If Filters are used, you will see a listing of them in the individual EBlasts.

A couple of examples will explain this better.

Example #1 A family has two scouts in a Troop in different Patrols. Each scout and each parent have separate email addresses

• Scout #1 will receive an EBlast with Troop and Patrol #1 content
• Scout #2 will receive an EBlast with Troop and Patrol #2 content
• Both parents will receive an EBlast with Troop, Patrol #1, and Patrol #2 content

Example #1 A family has two scouts in a Pack in different Dens. Both parents hold leadership positions. The father’s account has an email address – the others do not.

• The father will receive an EBlast with Pack, Committee, Den #1, and Den #2 content.

Your website contains two special filters:

• Pack/Troop
  • This filter cannot be changed
  • It should be used for content that effects the entire unit
• Committee
  • This filter cannot be changed
  • It should be used for content applicable only to unit leaders
  • If a parent/adult website account has the leadership flag checked, they will receive this type of content.

You may also have Den/Patrol Filters that are Active but not defined as Dens/Patrols. Everyone will receive content with these Filters.

EBlast Options

A new icon is available under Administration/Email/Eblast called Settings. This page allows you to setup your EBlast options.

• Enable EBlast
  • This will turn on/off the EBlast feature

• Email Address
  • All EBlast emails will come form the email address: eblast@
  • This is an alias to the email address defined by this option
  • This design was chosen to assist in EBlasts not being flagged as SPAM

• Day of the Week
  • You get to pick the day of the week EBlasts will be generated on
  • The time of the day will vary based on the current load of the servers

• Use Patrol Filter
  • For those not using Den/Patrol Filters, this option has no effect
  • If you do use Den/Patrol Filters this option will turn on/off the personalized EBlast emails

• No Filter = All Content
  • There are often unit members that do not belong to a Den/Patrol
  • These are often adult volunteers that no longer have boys in the unit, but still provide their service
  • By default, these members will only receive Pack/Troop content and usually Committee content if they are a leader. They will not see all the Den/Patrol activity
  • When you turn on this option, these unit members will receive all content in EBlasts

EBlast Style

We had originally envisioned that an EBlast email would display the same Theme settings as your website. We quickly found that HTML inside of an email is much more limited than available for a web page. Through experimentation we also found the more complicated the email, the more likely it was to be flagged as SPAM. These are a couple of the reasons the EBlast feature took such a long time to develop.

As such, the EBlast style used is a common set of scouting colors that varies by type of scouting unit. There are currently no options to change the style of an EBlast email as we don’t want to complicate the

This is also the reason there are no graphics or files included in the EBlast email.

EBlast Test

To assist you in understanding how the EBlast feature works and to answer questions of any unit members with personalized EBlasts, we have provided a means for you to see the contents of an EBlast. You can select the Den/Patrol filters you would like to use for the EBlast Test.

This feature is available at Administration/Email/EBlast/Test.

We encourage you to use this feature to explore the power of the EBlast feature and get familiar with it before turning the feature on.

Do I need to do anything?

If you would like to use the EBlast feature.

1. Make sure you have the Advanced Package
   • You can check this (or upgrade) by going to Administration/Account
2. Make sure you have created accounts (Active or Blocked) for scouts, parents, and adults that include email addresses
   • You can import accounts via TroopMaster or PackMaster Import functions
   • You can import accounts via the SOAR Roster or Member Import functions
   • You can add accounts manually at Administration/Members
3. Check that you are using the special Committee Filter for all leader content
4. Select your EBlast settings - but do not turn EBlast on
5. Run an EBlast Test to check out the emails that will be sent
6. Turn the EBlast feature on after you are comfortable how the feature operates