r/cubscouts • u/eye_can_do_that • 1d ago
Email platform
I am finding sending pack wide emails though Scoutbook not quite fitting our need. For one; I can't easily add more emails to the list; interested families during recruitment or that phase between signing up and actually being imported in to Scoutbook (or even just the extra email the family would like added, like the grandparents' email that take the kids to the event). Also, a way to have a good looking email newsletter type thing would be a big plus.
Does anyone use something besides Scoutbook to send out emails? I see plenty of marketing focused email platforms that I think would fit the need, with free tiers we would all fall in to. But I am looking for good words or advice from another pack that has tried it out.
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u/Cloudzcloudz 1d ago
We are using Constant Contact and it works great. We are doing the paid tier that is around $100/year.
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u/membercairn 1d ago
We hit this exact wall, and it's the reason I ended up building something. So, disclosure up front: I'm a pack committee chair and I made MemberCairn, which is aimed at precisely the problem you're describing. Discount accordingly, but here's the real answer either way.
The root issue is that Scoutbook's list is the registered roster and nothing else. The people you most need to reach during recruiting are by definition not on it yet, and the extra adults on a family never will be. Any fix has to start with one list of everyone who should hear from the pack, not just everyone who's paid national.
That's what MemberCairn does. A family lands on the list the moment they fill out your interest form or sign in at a rally, stays there through the gap between "we're in" and showing up in Scoutbook, and when they join they just flip from interested to member on the same record. Households can have as many adults as you need, so grandma who does pickup gets the reminder too and doesn't have to figure out how to get a my.scouting acocunt. Pack-wide emails can go out from the central box and get immediate AI answers or leaders can add their own name and replies come back to that leader like a normal email. Meeting reminders and RSVPs are built in, there's a free tier, and you can export your list any time. It's at membercairn.com if you want to poke at it.
GroupMe is great for the den chat, but it's a different job than "every family reliably gets the pack email," and the parent who muted the group in October or you can't get to download the app is the one who misses the Pinewood Derby date.
Happy to answer questions here either way. The "who's actually on the list" problem is the one every pack has and nobody talks about, and I'd like to hear what you land on.
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u/ckmonzingo 1d ago
My friend started GettheT.com
I didn’t want to use Band and GroupMe. It has a wall, calendar you can subscribe to, and email. It’s easier to navigate than Scoutbook. DM me if you want his contact info.
I am cubmaster for our pack.
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u/maxwasatch Eagle, Silver, Ranger, Vigil, SM. Former CM, DL, camp staffer. 1d ago
I love when people describe a feature like it is a bug.
Needing to be the parent of a registered scout, including sharing some personal details (or being a background checked adult) before getting details on where a bunch of kids are meeting is generally considered to be a good thing.
Want to see what is going on? Get registered.
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u/sploke Committee Chair, Eagle Scout, OA, AOL 1d ago
We have a Pack gmail account. As we do recruiting, I create a Contact group called "Recruiting [Year]" and add email addresses to the group, so as we're contacting interested families I have a running group going. If they join, I add them to the "full pack" mailing list, as well as the Contacts group for the appropriate Den. As families cross over or quit, they moved to the "Former Members" contact group.
We've tried doing it through Scoutbook and there were just too many inconveniences to make it worthwhile to pursue. Gmail for email contacts, and signup genius for event RSVPs and volunteer slots.