You can send an emergency message if you need to quickly create and immediately deliver a message to students, messenger contacts, and/or staff.
| What can I do? | What do I need to know? |
|---|---|
Important Information about Emergency Messages
- Unlike other Campus messages, an emergency message does not have a scheduled delivery window. All messages are delivered immediately or as quickly as possible.
- Emergency messages are NOT limited to the dialing window established by the District Start Time and District End Time fields of the Voice Settings tool (System Administration > Messenger > Messenger Preferences > Voice Settings).
- The Emergency Messenger sends messages to contacts based on the contact phone numbers and email addresses marked to receive emergency messages on the Demographics tool. The Emergency checkbox on the Demographics tab must be marked by the phone number or email address. Phone numbers and email addresses that do not have the Emergency checkbox marked do not receive an emergency message.
- Emergency Messenger also relies on proper designation of a person as a Messenger contact on the Relationships tool.
- Sending out MASS Emails using Freeware like Google as Your Email Server
- Emails exceeding the amount set by the email service provider may fail due to controls set by the provider to prevent SPAM.
- Free email service providers also typically set maximum allowed emails sent per day. After that limit is reached, usually in a 24 hour rolling period, additional emails won't be sent until the time passes.
- For more information about Google's sending limits, see the following articles:
Phone Recipient Confirmation
When voice messages are delivered, Shoutpoint may attempt to reach a recipient at multiple phone numbers. Shoutpoint continues to call recipient phone numbers until the recipient confirms message receipt or until the maximum number of redials is met as allowed by the district (configured in System Administration > Messenger > Messenger Preferences > Voice Settings).
To confirm delivery of a message, a recipient must press 0 at the end of a voice message. This cancels all additional delivery and/or redial attempts for recipients with non-shared numbers or non-extension numbers.
Confirming and cancelling calls to other phone numbers works in the following way:
- Recipients can confirm calls on any phone number, even those shared with any other recipient in Campus.
- If a phone number contains an extension, recipients are not be able to confirm the call.
- Confirming calls to phone numbers for the same recipient does not cancel calls to any phone numbers which contain extensions.
- If a multiple recipients share a phone number but have different Delivery Devices selected for the same Messenger tool (Voice/Text), Voice call confirmation does not cancel the Text message from going out for the other recipient.
To stop additional calls, a recipient should always press 0 to confirm receipt of messages. If a recipient listens to a message but does not confirm its receipt by pressing 0, they may continue to receive call and redial attempts.
Send an Emergency Message
The procedures in this section describe how to send an emergency message via inbox, email, voice or text to students, messenger contacts, and/or staff. For detailed descriptions of each field in the message builder, see the Messenger Field Descriptions article.
To begin, choose one of the following options.
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Create a new message |  |
| Use an existing template | Click Select Template > Emergency then select the template you want to use. |
| Step 1. Recipients |
- Select General or Priority.
Result: Step 1 Recipients displays. - Select the Delivery Mode: Inbox, Email, Voice, and/or Text.
- Select a School Year.
Tip: The default selection is the current school year. - Select Select Calendars.
Result: The Calendars panel displays. Use the + (plus) and - (minus) buttons to view or hide additional calendars.
- Select a Preferred Language preference. (Optional)
- Select at least one recipient group from Add Recipients:
Messenger Contacts are filtered by the student list.
Option | Description |
Send to Students | Includes students in the selected calendar(s). Student Custom Selection: Includes all active students by default with the ability to filter the student list with the following options: Grade Level, Ad Hoc, and Transportation Filter. The Transportation Filter allows for sending messages directly to students on buses and Messenger Contacts based on which bus the student rides. Click Update when you are done.
|
Send to Messenger Contacts | Messenger Contacts are filtered by the student list. |
Send to Staff | Includes staff in the selected calendar(s). Staff Custom Selection: Includes all current school staff, including those with a future start date, at schools of the selected calendar(s). From here you can select specific Staff Roles, mark the checkbox to Include District Staff, and/or select predefined Ad Hoc filters. Click Update when you are done.  |
| Add Individual Recipients | To add individuals who are not filtered by Calendars, School Year, or Preferred Language, click Add Individual Recipients. Choose from the available filters or enter a name. Select the desired recipients and click Add Recipients. Fields and/or Sub-Reports cannot to be added to the message bodies on Step 2 when using Add Individual Recipients.
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| Add Non-Campus Recipients | Click the Add Non-Campus Recipients and enter one or more email addresses/phone numbers of non-Campus recipients. Click Add Recipients after they have been entered. These email addresses and phone numbers will be contacted via the delivery mode selected between Email, Voice, and Text. Email addresses and phone numbers will be saved to Messenger Templates and Scheduled Messages, as well as recorded in the Sent Message Log. Fields and/or Sub-Reports cannot to be added to the message bodies on Step 2 when using Add Non-Campus Recipients.  To remove non-Campus recipients:
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- Click the Recipients button to display a side panel to review the recipient list. If necessary, exclude recipients and click the Update button on the panel when you are done. You may also click the down arrow next to Update to select Update and Generate CSV. This will create a CSV report that contains data related to the message and each of the recipients. For more information, review Recipient Report. (Optional)By default, all recipients are automatically selected to receive the message. Click the person's name to exclude them as a message recipient. A checkmark next to the person's name means they will receive the message. No checkmark next to the person's name means they will not receive the message. In the following example, the person will receive the message.
- Select Next.
Result: Step 2 Content displays.
| Step 2. Content |
- Enter the subject of the message in Message Subject.
- Complete the following Inbox, Email, Voice, and/or Text options.
Option Description Inbox Compose the body of the message in the Message Body.
Attachments are not sent with Inbox messages.
Email - Enter or confirm the correct email is showing in the Reply to Email field.
Tip: This Field is only editable if the Allow Custom Sender’s Email Address checkbox is marked in the Email Settings tab of Messenger Admin. - Enter a Sender Display Name. (Optional)
- Compose the body of the message in the Message Body.
- Click the Select File button to attach a file to the email. (Optional)
Voice Select one of the following options: - Upload - Use this option to attach a pre-recorded .WAV file.
- Text-to-Speech - Use this option to have Campus convert text from the Voice Message Body field on this screen to a voice message. If you are also sending an Email message the Voice Message Body field is not available and the Message Body from the Email card will be converted instead.
Text Compose the body of the message in Text Message Body. - Enter or confirm the correct email is showing in the Reply to Email field.
- Optional: To view a message in the manner it will be delivered to recipients, enter a valid email address in the Email field and click Send Test Email. Up to five email addresses can be entered and email addresses must be separated by a comma.Infinite Campus strongly recommends testing messages before delivering them.
- Select Next.
Result: Step 3. Send displays.
| Step 3. Send |
- Select Send Now or Schedule One-Time.
Option Description Send Now Deliver the message as soon as the Send step is completed. Schedule One-Time Schedule a message to be sent in the future. Once created, these messages can be edited/viewed within Scheduled Messages in Messenger 2.0.
- Enter the Date the message will be sent.
- Enter the Send Time the message will be sent.
- Confirm you would like to receive a confirmation email that the message was successfully sent by marking the Confirmation Email checkbox. Clear the checkbox if you do not want to receive a message sent successfully email.
- Select Send.
Result: A confirmation displays and the Message Processing Results display. From here you can see how many messages were sent and you have the option to send the message again.
Recipient Report
After Students, Messenger Contacts, or Staff have been selected under Send To, a report can be generated to preview:
- Total and Distinct recipient counts.
- Full recipient list and the delivery modes they are eligible to be contacted at.
- A list of recipients who do not have an eligible delivery mode to be contacted at.
- A list of excluded recipients.
Generating Recipient Report
- Click the Recipients button.
- Click the down arrow next to Update.
- Click Update and Generate CSV. The report will then download to your computer.
Recipient Report Definitions
| Term | Definition |
| Total People | Total number of distinct people pulled into the recipient list. |
| Total Eligible Recipients | Total number of distinct people eligible to receive a message. Excludes: missing devices, contact preferences, excluded people. |
| Distinct Inbox | Total number of people eligible to receive a process inbox message. |
| Distinct Email | Total number of people eligible to receive email message. |
| Distinct Voice | Total number of people eligible to receive a voice call. |
| Distinct Text | Total number of people eligible to receive a text message. Note: If a recipient confirms the voice call they will not receive a text message |
| Excluded Recipients | Number of recipients that were excluded. Note: Messenger contacts must be excluded from receiving a message from all students to be counted. |
| No Device | Number of people who do not have an eligible device to receive a message. |
