Newsletters are an excellent way to keep members informed, involved, and motivated. Plan to send out a newsletter on a set schedule with details of upcoming events, relevant articles, and write-ups of past events. The most cost-effective way of distributing club news is via email. Some clubs print newsletters for those members who do not have access to email; with the cost of postage your club may want to request additional dues to defray this expense.
It’s best to use one a bulk email service in order to comply with anti-SPAM legislation. One of the most popular is MailChimp, as it is free of charge for organizations sending less than 12,000 messages per month. Constant Contact and Vertical Response are good alternatives.
<aside> <img src="https://i1.wp.com/www.demclubs.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/cropped-sdcdplogo400x400-1.png?w=190&ssl=1" alt="https://i1.wp.com/www.demclubs.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/cropped-sdcdplogo400x400-1.png?w=190&ssl=1" width="40px" /> Clubs must subscribe [email protected] to their newsletter.
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For a nominal annual fee to a Registrar (roughly $10/year), clubs can own their own unique domain name (e.g., ourclub.com) for their website, email and other tools. Domains can be purchased at Wordpress, NameCheap, GoDaddy, for example.
Clubs are encouraged to maintain a website that includes a calendar listing of future meetings and other events of potential interest to members, updates on club activities or issues of public interest in the community, and contact information for club officers and public officials. Highlighting local Democratic candidates, club enodorsements and outstanding club members can increase interest and involvement.
Once a domain is secured, the club must decide on hosting to put their own content on the Internet. For security reasons it is recommended clubs use an established web publishing service rather than a small company and self-hosting. Wordpress.com offers free website hosting at no cost (and a club can use their own domain and remove advertising at minimal cost). Other services to consider are Squarespace, Weebly and Nationbuilder.
Consider configuring a RSS newsfeed from your website as this will allow your articles to be easily shared to other news services such as Apple’s News App.
All clubs are recommended to setup an Eventbrite.com web page (when just starting out this can also serve as the club's website). Events entered into tool can also be pushed directly to Facebook Events and to a Google Calendar and can automagically update the Party's calendar (as well as providing greater visibility to a club's events to every Evenbrite user in San Diego). Eventbrite is free for meetings your club doesn't charge for. If you want to sell tickets to special events, then you can use Eventbrite for online payments for which a small fee is charged.
Meetup.com is another tool that help publicize club events to a wider audience, and is free until you exceed 50 members.
Each club should have a non-personal club email address that is either forwarded to or checked by the President or other club officers so that the club has a permanent email address that doesn’t change with the election of new club officers. Most clubs set up email accounts using their own domain name or a standalone Gmail account. SDCDP will include one address on the SDCDP website and on the printable directory of clubs. The main email address, or another non-personal address specified by the club during annual chartering, will be used for Council of Clubs communications.
Suggested email addresses:
