Who receives the rota communications I send?

ChurchSuite has incredibly sophisticated rota functionality, enabling you to set up ministries and publish rotas for services and events. Rotas can include your regular ministry members and also ad-hoc non-ministry members, asked to serve one-off but who don't otherwise belong to the rota's underlying ministry. Therefore, it may be helpful to clarify exactly who receives the rota-related communications you send. In this article, we'll explore each of the areas from where you might initiate communication.

Communications sent to a rota

From the Rotas section of the module, clicking through to a rota "View", you can Communicate with rota members using the Send email and Send SMS options. Rota members are:

• All members of the rota's ministry, even if not currently serving on the rota and even if the ministry is archived
• All rota members, including those who have been added ad hoc to the rota and who still have future dates to serve on the rota. Once an ad hoc rota member has served their last date on a rota, however, they cease to be known as a rota member so will no longer receive these communications
• Designated ministry overseers

The Send rota recipient list is different. It is specifically those people assigned to rota dates within the rota date range selected.

On the Send rota pop-up, select the range of rota Dates to be sent. The Recipients will be all rota members set to serve on those dates, with one email sent per member and each containing a curated list of just their serving dates within the date range. If 'accept/decline' is enabled for the rota, the recipient list can be further filtered to send to just those who have not responded or those to whom rota dates have not yet been sent. See the related support article for further information about Rota accept/decline.

Communication sent for a service

From the Services section of the module, clicking through to a service "View", you can Communicate with all the rota members serving for the service date being viewed using the Send email, Send SMS and Send rotas options. In this context, ministry overseers are not included in the recipient list.

On the Send rotas pop-up, the Date is preset to the service date being viewed. The Recipients will be all rota members set to serve on the service date. If 'accept/decline' is enabled for the rota, the recipient list can be further filtered to send to just those who have not responded or those to whom the service date rota has not yet been sent. See the related support article for further information about Rota accept/decline.

Communications sent to a ministry

From the Ministries section of the module, clicking through to the Ministry "View" page, you can Communicate with the ministry's members using the Send email and Send SMS options. Communications originated here are only sent to ministry members, whether or not they are set to serve on active or future rotas. Ministry overseers are also considered ministry members and will therefore receive ministry communications.

Rota group emails sent from within My ChurchSuite

The My Rotas section includes closed-group Email functionality enabling rota members and ministry overseers to communicate with one another, perhaps to organise rota swaps or share pertinent rota-related information. The originator of the group email can choose whether replies are sent to just themselves (the default) or all rota members.

The rota Group Email recipient list is determined by a module setting on the My ChurchSuite Options tab.

Click Edit to customise the rota group email recipient list - either Rota members or Ministry members.

Rota members are:

• All members of the rota's underlying ministry, as shown on the Teams tab in My Rotas and on the Ministry Members list in ChurchSuite, whether scheduled to serve on the rota or not
• All rota members, including those who have been added ad hoc to the rota and who still have future dates to serve on the rota. Once an ad hoc rota member has served their last date on a rota they cease to be known as a rota member
• Designated ministry overseers

Ministry members are:

• All members of the rota's underlying ministry, as shown on the Teams tab in My Rotas and on the Ministry Members list in ChurchSuite, whether scheduled to serve on the rota or not
• Designated ministry overseers

Rota reminders

If enabled, email and SMS rota reminders are sent automatically in respect of each rota date based on the sending schedule set for the rota, with the sending time set in the module's settings (default 8 am). Therefore, bear in mind that if you have set a rota's reminders to be sent "on the day" and the rota serves before the Rota Reminder Time, no reminder will be sent!

Rota reminders are only sent to rota members scheduled to serve on the rota date being sent. Ministry overseers do not receive the rota reminder. You can configure one email and one SMS 'default' rota reminder per ministry - the ministry default reminder settings are applied to all new rotas subsequently added for the ministry. In this way, added rotas inherit the default reminder settings of the ministry but you can also enable, disable or further customise reminders on a per-rota basis. Reminders are only sent for published rotas and are not sent while a rota has a draft status. For more detailed information, see our related support article on Sending rota reminders.

Children on rotas

Children and young people can be assigned to ministry teams and rotas, and they too will receive all the same rota communications and rota reminders described in this article. Communications are sent to the child's Email address (or Mobile for SMS), as set in the child's profile in the Children module. If no email address or mobile number has been specified, the child will not receive the rota communication. Where a child doesn't have their own email address and/or mobile number, you can enter a parent/carer email address or mobile number, meaning that the child's rota communications will be delivered to their parent/carer email or mobile.