Announcements, chat, articles or newsletter?

Tounes has four ways to tell members something. They don't reach the same people, and they don't last the same time.

Who can do it

• Announcements: the Director and the Tenant Admin send to the whole choir, a section or a group. A Section Leader sends to their own section, a Group Leader to their own group. Always there, no feature to switch on. Sending announcements is enough to open Manage › Announcements, even with no other power.
• Chat: every active member writes. Leaders moderate. Needs the Chat feature.
• Articles: the Director and the Tenant Admin, and a Section Leader for their own section. Needs the Articles feature.
• Newsletter: the Director and the Tenant Admin, in the founding choir only: no other choir has the Newsletter feature.

Features are switched on in Manage › Settings › Features. Your choir may also have its own roles, under other names, that allow the same things.

How to

Pick the right one

1. Something everyone must know now (rehearsal moved, room changed): an announcement. A title and a short message, sent at once as a notification in the app and, for those who allow it, a banner on their phone. Members can't reply.
2. A conversation (a quick question, carpool plans, a cheer after the concert): chat. Everyone in the channel reads and replies. Make a channel read-only to keep it for leaders' messages. See Chat.
3. Something to keep and find again (a guide, a news story, a video, an FAQ): an article. It stays in Resources › Articles and in Home's Announcements, can go live later, and sends one notification when it does. See Choir articles.
4. A round-up of the coming rehearsals, activities and articles in one PDF: the newsletter, built for the founding choir alone. See Write the newsletter. In any other choir, an announcement or an article does this job.

Send an announcement

1. In Manage › Announcements, tap New announcement.
2. Type a Title and the Message, and choose who it is Sent to. For the whole choir, choose whether to Include staff, such as accompanists.
3. Tap Send. Members find it under the bell. See Send announcements.

Know who it reaches

1. Announcements, chat and article notices reach active members only. Prospective members, members on leave and alumni get none of them.
2. Staff members get announcements (unless you leave them out) and chat, but not the "New article" notice.
3. Each member chooses their phone banners in Settings: Announcements, New articles, Chat messages. Announcements and article notices still land under the bell.
4. Home's Announcements section shows articles, not the messages sent from Manage › Announcements. Tell members where to look.

Get the newsletter out (founding choir)

1. In Manage › Newsletter, tap New edition. Tounes suggests the rehearsals, the upcoming activities and the articles of the period; tap Refresh suggestions after a change.
2. Tap Preview, then Generate. Each version stays under Generated versions, where you download the PDF.
3. Tounes doesn't send the newsletter to members. Share the PDF yourself, for example in a folder of the Document library, then send an announcement.