3 Reasons Your Region Should Have a Newsletter!

How many times in a season do you get the same question from dozens of parents? How about the early-morning phone calls about whether the game is still on? Here are three big reasons why your Region should have a newsletter. 

1. Communication: Having a newsletter allows you to keep communication open with parents and volunteers. It helps you answer questions before they are even asked! Whether your Region is big or small, having a newsletter will help you stay connected and keep everyone in-the-know. 
2. Sell Ad Space: When you have a strong newsletter going out consistently to an engaged audience, you can sell ad space to local businesses or show love to your current sponsors. 
3. A Place for Content: Your newsletter is a place to publicize early-bird pricing, registration dates, meeting info, volunteer openings, upcoming tournaments, the list goes on! Have a good time using your creative juices, but remember that the most successful newsletters are the clean and consistent ones. 

Do's and Dont's of HTML Email Blasts.

Hey everyone, after a week off we are back with more helpful hints.

With the proliferation of email-blast software and websites all over the internet, its becoming increasingly popular for people to turn to these avenues in order to drive sign ups, direct to seasonal events, and really reach out and impress where a regular email would fall short.

One of the best aspects of these sites is their ability to let you craft a beautiful email-blast whether you have skills in HTML or not. Many people though can sometimes be a little to ambitious when diving into the HTML editors as they tend to carry their skill sets in designing websites into crafting their email blasts and they can be frustrated when the results do not match their efforts

Email clients such as Hotmail, Yahoo, Outlook, Gmail, etc., can render your emails in different ways. What looks one way in Yahoo or Outlook 2003 may appear very different in Gmail or Entourage.
The root of this problem is the variance among email clients in the level of support for CSS (Cascading Style Sheets).

There is no real standard for what an email client should support and how it should go about supporting it. Every email client takes its own approach to rendering HTML and CSS – which is why an email that looks fine in one email client can look different in another.

So how can you or your designer ensure an email design remains consistent and looks great across all these different email clients? Here's a helpful list of "Do's and Dont's" on email blasts and HTML.

Make the Most of Registration Email Campaigns

Email campaigns are a great way to get information out to your membership. As as webmaster, these duties may cross over onto your task list. We have some tools available to help make it easier to send out registration emails.

Tips for Creating HTML Emails

As the webmaster for your Region, there is a likelihood that you’ll be asked to create HTML emails to be sent to the parents. HTML emails can be tricky because they don’t always display the same in every email client (similar to how an HTML page can display differently in different browers).

Here are some things to keep in mind when creating an HTML email:

Layout with Tables
Your email should be programmed in a table layout to make sure that everything displays the way it should. DIVs are not recommended because of the limits that certain email clients put on the use of style sheets.

Use Inline Styles Style sheets placed in the headers of an HTML email don’t always work, since some email clients (mainly Gmail) limit the types of style sheets accepted. DO NOT use an external style sheet. It won’t work. The best way to use styles is inline in the HTML. Stick with simpler styles, as some email clients are very restrictive. CSS Support: The Ultimate Guide is a good reference of which CSS styles will work with various email clients.

How to Make Your Online Community a Safe Haven

Did you know Safe Haven has an Online and Social Media Policy? It covers everything from Facebook and Twitter use to email communication. Here are two important highlights from the policy:

Never post team rosters with names, jersey numbers and/or contact info. While some families may think this is useful, it is very dangerous to have this information posted in a public place (Region website, social media page). If that information lands in the wrong hands, they will have access to important details about minor children – allowing them to attempt to contact that child if they so choose.