Any send Text through their computer for Horse Group messages

[Bopper]

I am trying to improve communications for a local horse association. Does anyone use a program to send texts through their computer? The association membership changes so setting up a group text may be a problem with membership changes. Right now, I use email but not everyone checks their email regularly and the emails get flagged as junk because they go out to so many people.

We encourage members to check out Facebook page but not everyone is on that platform.

Any suggestions to improve communication are welcome.

[2DogsFarm]

My Driving Club members’ average age is 60+
Not only do some not check email, or even have email, many don’t do SM either.
If they do use platforms like FB, they’re not fluent enough to check PMs or even the Club page for info.
I edited the newsletter for 3yrs. Of some 50 members, almost 1/2 accepted only hardcopy versions. Even if they had email, they wanted it mailed.
Aggravating when some of those always ended up calling me for info that was in the newsletter.
One particularly asshatish member insisted on getting both email & hardcopy.
I confess… Sometimes his hardcopy didn’t get sent. Darned USPS

BUT! They all have cellphones.
One member suggested using Group Text to get info out to all, but that idea never got off the ground.
Instead, the 83yo Club President makes phone calls - from his landline - when changes affect a Club event like a Drive or meeting

[SolarFlare]

Our provincial eventing association created a WhatsApp group to communicate with members. It’s not a group chat - members can’t respond, they can only view information that’s been sent by a group admin.

I had never been a WhatsApp user but I did download it and only use it for this group, plus one person who has a US cell number that would cost $ for me to text (I’m in Canada)

I’m not sure how tech-savvy your group members are but this did not take any deep IT knowledge to join. The association even had a QR code that could be scanned to join directly, or just search in the app.

Doing this would mean no issues with membership changes because users could remove themselves if they wanted (although they would still need to add themselves).

I don’t think you’re going to find any application that handles everything perfectly - you’ll always have people who don’t check email, or don’t want to download anything, or don’t check their junk mail, etc. If you share info via a couple different methods then your users can decide how they want to receive it. For example: post on your group FB page, send an email, send via WhatsApp group. Let everyone know what methods you’re using for communication and they can choose.

There are companies who can help with text notifications, etc but not sure how big your association is and if you want to pay for it.

[mmeqcenter]

Group texts are the spawn of satan and I would be ANGRY if an organization I was in used them for communication.

As said above, there’s no one perfect solution, someone always won’t check whichever you use. The WhatsApp group idea seems pretty good. But I would plan on always having two or three different communication methods to relay the information.

[Paint_Party]

Yeah, I would not be happy with group texts, either. But then, I also keep the ringer turned off on my cell phone most of the time because I don’t want to communicate that much with the outside world.

The competitive associations and riding groups I belong to maintain a Facebook page, a web site that’s easy to navigate, and they send out emails. All three. The way I look at it, at some point if you belong to a group you have to take on some of the responsibility to be informed.

[Zevida]

I don’t think the OP wants to do a group text. She wants to be able to send a text message to a bunch of different phone numbers.

Text messages are actually expensive per message so there aren’t any free/cheap solutions out there for scaled texting like there are for email. You could check something like MailChimp but my guess is the cost will be much higher than you are willing to pay.

SMS Marketing: Send Customers SMS Messages | Mailchimp | Mailchimp

[Grey623]

At work we use an app called Emitrr to send and receive test messages with our main phone number. You can create a list for a group/mass message but each number will get an individual text so not a ‘group text.’ New lists are easy to upload through Excel or other csv file. There is another app called TextEmAll but it didn’t suit us. I don’t know the cost, we use ours for business so it might be $$ for a small organization.

Grey

[clanter]

I know it can be done as my little city sends out emailed weather alerts and other public need information such as water main breaks affecting such and such streets/area