Create and Manage Mailing Lists

A mailing list is a set of members that you choose yourself. You can email those same people or print labels for them again and again. It suits people the ready-made recipient types don't cover, such as a building committee.

This guide is for secretaries and other officers who look after a local group (the individual unit of your organization, such as a chapter or council).

Who can use mailing lists

A mailing list belongs to one local group. A member of two local groups can be on a list at each, and each local group sees only its own lists.

Your organization decides which local group roles can manage mailing lists. If you need this permission, see "I don't see Mailing Lists in the Mailing menu," below.

Any local group role that can open the Email Members or Labels, Envelopes, Mail Merge, and Export window can pick a list there, even if the role can't manage lists. See "Use a mailing list for an email or labels."

Find your mailing lists

1. From the main menu, click Mailing.
2. Click Mailing Lists.

The table lists your lists in order by name. The Members column shows how many people are on each list. Click a name to open that list. If you have no lists yet, the page says "You do not have any mailing lists yet. Use the plus button above to create one."

Rest your pointer on most icons and a short label appears. This guide shows it in bold.

Your browser asks you to confirm each removal or deletion. Click OK to go ahead, or Cancel to stop.

Create a mailing list

1. Open the Mailing Lists page.
2. Click the green plus icon at the top right (Add Mailing List).
3. Type a name in the Name box.
4. Click Save.

The new list appears in the table with no message. It starts empty. To fill it, see "Add people to a list," below.

If you leave the Name box empty, M2 shows "can't be blank" under the box and doesn't save the list.

M2 lets you save two lists with the same name. If the name matches a list you already have, M2 warns you under the box as you type: "You already have a mailing list with this name. You can still save it if you meant to create a second one." The email and label windows show only the name, so give each list a name you can tell apart.

Rename a mailing list

1. Open the Mailing Lists page.
2. Click the pencil icon at the end of the list's row (Rename Mailing List).
3. Change the name in the Name box.
4. Click Save.

The table shows the new name. The people on the list stay on it.

Open a list to see who is on it

1. Open the Mailing Lists page.
2. Click the name of the list.

Under the list's name, a sentence says "Everyone on this mailing list. Members who are inactive or deceased stay on the list, but they will not receive mailings." If nobody is on the list, the page says "No one is on this mailing list yet. Use the plus button above to add someone."

Otherwise a table shows each person's Name (last name first; click it to open their record), Member Number, and Status. For the Status column, see "Inactive and deceased members on a list," below.

People appear in order by last name. Click a column heading to sort, or use the search box to find someone. The table shows 10 people at a time. Use the page buttons below it to see more, or the menu above it to show 20 people or everyone. The Copy, Excel, CSV, PDF, and Print buttons below the table use everyone on every page, or only your search matches.

To go back to the Mailing Lists page, click the back arrow to the left of the list's name.

Add people to a list

You can add anyone who has an affiliation with your local group (their membership in it). You add one person at a time.

1. Open the list.
2. Click the green plus icon at the top right (Add Member To Mailing List).
3. Click in the Member box. It starts with the words Search By Member Name Or Number.

4. Type at least three characters of the person's first name, last name, or member number. After a short pause, a list of people opens under the box.

   

5. Click the person you want. This only picks them. Nothing is added yet.

6. Click Add.

The table shows the new person. M2 shows a message such as "Jane Smith was added to Building Committee. Only the mailing list changed." If the person is already on the list, M2 says so and nothing changes.

If you click Add before you choose a person, M2 says the member has no affiliation with your local group. Choose a person from the results, then click Add.

How the search works

• M2 ignores any word shorter than three characters, so Jo Smith searches for Smith only.
• M2 finds names that contain what you typed, so part of a name or number works. With more than one word, every word has to match the same person.
• Active Members lists up to 10 people who are active at your local group and in your parent group. If the person you want isn't there, type more of the name or number.
• Others lists everyone else, including inactive and deceased members. You can add them. See "Inactive and deceased members on a list," below.
• M2 doesn't list people who aren't affiliated with your local group, or whose membership there has no status.

Remove people from a list

Taking someone off a list never changes their membership, and you can add them back at any time.

Remove one person

1. Open the list.
2. Click the red trash can icon at the end of the person's row (Remove From This Mailing List).
3. Your browser asks 'Remove Jane Smith from this mailing list? This only takes them off the mailing list. Their membership is not changed.' Click OK.

The row disappears and M2 shows a message that the person was removed.

Remove everyone

Use this to empty a list before you delete it, or to start over.

Don't use the table's three-line icon at its top left. It only shows or hides columns. The menu icon you need has no label when you rest your pointer on it.

1. Open the list.

2. Click the menu icon (three short lines) in the list's heading, just right of the green plus icon.

   

3. Click Remove Everyone From This List.

4. Your browser asks 'Remove everyone from "Building Committee"? This empties the mailing list only. No memberships are changed, and this cannot be undone.' Click OK.

M2 reports how many people it removed, and the list is empty.

Delete a mailing list

Only an empty list can be deleted. Remove everyone first, including people who are inactive or deceased. See "Remove everyone," above.

1. Open the Mailing Lists page.
2. Click the trash can icon at the end of the list's row (Delete Mailing List).
3. Your browser asks 'Delete the mailing list "Building Committee"? This cannot be undone.' Click OK.

The list disappears from the table, with no message.

M2 shows that box before it checks whether the list is empty. If anyone is still on it, an error stays on the screen until you close it: "Building Committee cannot be deleted because it still has 3 members on it. Open the list, remove everyone from it, and then delete it."

If you delete a list by mistake, create a new list with the same name and add the people again.

Inactive and deceased members on a list

M2 never removes anyone from a list on its own, whatever happens to their status. A suspended member who is later reinstated is still on the list. Each time you send an email or print labels, M2 mails only people who are active at both your local group and your parent group, so a reinstated member is included again automatically.

The counts of people on a list (the Members number and the number tags) include inactive and deceased people. They can be higher than the number of emails or labels you produce.

Use a mailing list for an email or labels

You pick a list in two windows. Open them from the Email Members and Labels, Envelopes, Mail Merge, and Export shortcuts on the Overview and Communications tabs of your local group's page, or from the Mailing menu. For the rest of each window, see Email Members Shortcut and Labels, Envelopes, Mail Merge, and Export Shortcut.

The shortcuts and the menu items can depend on different settings in your role, so you may see one and not the other. The Mailing Lists heading in a window appears only if your local group has at least one list.

If you check Single Member, the Mailing Lists boxes slide out of view. M2 then uses the single member only, even if a list is still checked.

1. Open the window you want.
2. In the Recipient Types card (a boxed section of a page with a heading), find the Mailing Lists heading. It comes after the Affiliation Types check boxes.

3. Check the box beside each list you want.

   

4. Fill in the rest of the window. Then click Send in the email window, or Submit in the labels window.

If you check nothing at all, M2 shows "Please select at least one recipient type."

What M2 does with a list

• M2 uses only the lists you checked, and counts someone on several lists once. It ignores any Affiliation Types boxes you also check, without a message.
• The Exclude Members With No Solicitations and Only Members With No Solicitations boxes still apply to the list.
• M2 leaves out anyone who has turned off Allow Email (for an email) or Allow Postal Mail (for labels, envelopes, and exports) in the Connect Preferences on their record. The Transactional Communication box skips this check. Use it only for legal or transactional messages, such as receipts, as the hint under the box explains.
• M2 marks a person with no email address undeliverable for that email.
• Envelopes, labels, and the Mail Merge List leave out people with no usable postal address. The Excel export keeps them, with blank address columns.
• You also receive a copy of the email, so you may get two if you are on the list.
• Skip Emailable Members in the labels window makes no difference when you use a list.

After you click Send

M2 works out who would get labels. That is every active person on the list who hasn't turned off Allow Postal Mail and isn't left out by a solicitation box you checked. If you checked Transactional Communication, M2 skips the Allow Postal Mail check.

If nobody would get labels, M2 shows "Your email has been queued for delivery." and closes the window after a moment.

If at least one person would get labels, the email window turns into the labels window, even if that person has no address. It doesn't say "Your email has been queued for delivery," but your email is already queued. Close the window if you don't need labels. The labels window keeps the lists you checked, and keeps Transactional Communication checked if you checked it. It covers everyone who would get labels, including people who already received your email.

Use a mailing list in the Advanced Audience Builder

If you use a local group role and your Mailing menu shows Advanced Audience Builder, you can use a list there too. Under Local Information, choose one or more lists in the Mailing List box. Choosing a list finds everyone on it, including inactive and deceased members. To leave them out, also choose the active statuses in both Group Status and Local Status under Member Info. For the rest of the tool, see Advanced Audience Builder.

The Mailing Lists card on a member's record

The Mailing Lists card on a member's record shows which of your lists the member is on, and lets you add or remove them without leaving the record. To open the record, click the person's name on a list, or search for them in the Search by name, number, phone or email box at the top of M2. The card is below the Subscriptions card.

The card appears only when all of these are true. Otherwise M2 hides it and shows no message.

• You are using a local group role that can manage mailing lists.
• Your role can see the member's full record.
• Your local group has at least one list.
• The member has at least one affiliation.

The card covers the member's affiliation with your local group only. The Mailing List column shows each list the member is on. If the member is on none, the card says None. The card doesn't show the member's status.

Add a member to a list on the card

If the member isn't affiliated with your local group, the card shows None and you can't add them to a list. Clicking the plus icon only shows a message that the member has no affiliation with your local group.

1. Click the green plus icon in the heading of the Mailing Lists card.
2. In the Add Member To Mailing List window, open the Mailing List drop-down. Lists the member is already on are grayed out and can't be chosen.
3. Choose a list.
4. Click Save.

The card shows the list. If you click Save without choosing a list, M2 shows "must exist" under the drop-down.

Remove a member from a list on the card

1. In the Mailing Lists card, find the list.
2. Click the red trash can icon at the end of its row (Delete Record).
3. Your browser asks 'Are you sure you want to delete this?' Click OK.

This removes the member from that one list. If the card still shows the list afterward, reload the page.

See your lists on the Communications tab

The Communications tab on your local group's page shows your lists in two places. To open it:

1. If you use a local group role, click Home in the main menu to open your local group's page. If you use a district, region, or parent group role, open the local group's page instead.
2. Click the Communications tab. It is the second tab, after Overview.

The Mailing Lists card on the left

This card sits below Recent Emails. It appears only if your local group has at least one list.

• Each list name has a number tag showing how many people are on it. Click a name to show its people on the right. The first list opens on its own.
• If your role can manage mailing lists, you also see the green plus icon (Add Member To Mailing List) and a trash can icon at the end of each row (Remove From This Mailing List). They work as they do on the list's own page. Otherwise you see the people but no icons.
• If a list is empty, every role sees the empty-list message described in "Open a list to see who is on it," above. A role that can't manage lists has no plus button.
• Renaming, deleting, and Remove Everyone From This List are on the Mailing Lists page only.
• After you add or remove someone, the people table updates, but the number tags and the Members number in the card on the right don't change until you reload the page.

The Mailing Lists card on the right

This card has a Name column and a Members column. If your local group has no lists, it says "No mailing lists have been created."

Each name links to that list's own page, which is for roles that can manage mailing lists. If your role can't, M2 takes you back to Home with a message saying you don't have permission. You can still see each list's people in the card on the left.

I don't see Mailing Lists in the Mailing menu

1. Make sure you are using a local group role. The district, region, and parent group roles don't show Mailing Lists in the menu.
2. If you don't see Mailing at all, your role doesn't have access to the Mailing menu.
3. If you see Mailing but not Mailing Lists, your local group role can't manage mailing lists.

For the last two, ask someone with administrator access at your parent group. They click Admin in the main menu, then User Role Definitions, and click the pencil icon on your role's row (Edit User Role Definition). In the window, they check Audience builder access in the Audience Builder section for the Mailing menu, or Member manage mailing list memberships in the Members section for mailing lists. Then they click Save. This changes the role for everyone in your organization who has it.

Related guides

Emails, Labels, and Mailing Lists: Start Here links to all the email and label guides, sorted by role.