Sending announcements

This guide is for leaders who share news with families: writing an announcement, choosing who gets it, publishing it, and following up. Announcements appear only if your pack uses them.

Who can send announcements

• Adults whose role includes Send announcements can write to the whole pack, to any den, or to anyone in it.
• Adults whose role includes Send required-action announcements can also mark an announcement as a Required action.
• Den leaders and assistant den leaders can write to the families in their own dens. See Leading a den.

All of these come from roles and den positions on the Roles page. See Adults, roles, and permissions.

Write an announcement

1. Open Announcements in the leader menu and select Write announcement. The editor opens in a panel over your announcements list.
2. Enter a Title and write your Message. Open Message preview to see how it will look.
3. Choose the audience (see below).
4. Under Delivery, check Email to also send an email copy. Every announcement is always in the portal.
5. Select Save draft.

The draft stays open in the editor, so you can add files and choose when to publish. If you close the editor with unsaved changes, ScoutKeep asks before discarding them. Preview recipients shows who would get it; the list is checked again when it's sent.

Announce something about an event

If the announcement is about one event, such as a campout or a pack meeting, find it under About an event: type part of its name or date in Search events, then choose Select. Leave it on Not about a specific event otherwise, or choose Not about an event to clear an event you picked. You can also select Send announcement in the Announcements panel on the event's page in Events, and the event is already picked.

When you pick an event before choosing anything else, ScoutKeep fills in:

• the audience: Event participants for that event, with RSVP yes checked. Change the audience as usual if you want to reach other people too.
• the Slack channel: the event's own Slack channel, if it has one and it's a channel you can post in. If you can't post there, ScoutKeep says so and leaves the channel unpicked.

The announcement then shows in the event's Announcements panel. Families who got it also see it on the event's page. Once it's published, the announcement stays about that event.

If the event is canceled before a scheduled announcement about it goes out, ScoutKeep doesn't send it. The announcement is marked Needs attention, and you get a notification. Open it and publish it now or schedule it again if it should still go out, or archive it.

Choose the audience

Use Send to to pick who gets the announcement:

• Everyone in your pack (only if you can send pack-wide).
• Dens, Families, or Individual adults, then search and check each one you want.
• Event participants, then type part of an event's name or date in Search events and choose Add. Under each event, check which people to include: RSVP yes, RSVP maybe, RSVP no, Not responded, or Actually attended. Search again to add more events, or use Remove event audience to drop one.
• Combine audiences to mix any of the above.

For the whole pack or dens, families who haven't joined yet are left out unless you check Include prospective families.

Once published, the audience can't change; write a new announcement to reach different people.

Post to Slack

If your pack has connected Slack, Delivery also has a Slack area.

• For dens, families, events, or the whole pack, choose a channel from Post in a Slack channel, or leave it on Don't post to Slack. ScoutKeep tells you how well the channel's members match the announcement's audience.
• For individual adults, check Send each person a Slack direct message instead. It reaches people who linked Slack and chose Slack notifications.

If you've connected your own Slack account, the post comes from you. Otherwise ScoutKeep posts under your name. See Connecting Slack.

Ask people to acknowledge

Check Ask recipients to acknowledge to have recipients select I've read this, and optionally set an Acknowledge by (optional) due date. For a family, one adult can acknowledge for everyone; adults you picked by name each acknowledge on their own.

Under Advanced options, you can also:

• Set Message type to Required action, if your role allows it. Required-action announcements still follow each person's notification settings, so someone who turned off email won't get an email copy.
• Link a survey so recipients see a Take survey button. Check Only families / adults with incomplete survey responses to send it only to people who haven't finished. This appears only if your pack uses surveys.

Attach files

Open Attachments and use Upload file to add documents or PNG, JPEG, or WebP images under 5 MB. On a new announcement, the files upload when you select Save draft. Uncheck a file to leave it off. Email copies don't include attachments; recipients open them in the portal.

Publish now or schedule it

Selecting a draft in your announcements list opens it in the editor. Close the editor to see the draft the way recipients will, then select Edit draft to go back to it.

On a saved draft, select Publish now, or pick a Publication date and time (in your pack's time zone) and select Schedule publication. Use Cancel schedule to stop it.

If a scheduled announcement can't go out on time, for example because the sender lost permission or a Slack channel can't be used, it's marked Needs attention. Review the audience, permissions, and channels, then publish again. A scheduled announcement about an event that was canceled is held the same way; see Announce something about an event above.

Follow up after sending

Open a sent announcement to see how many recipients opened it, acknowledged, or finished a linked survey, and whether email and Slack copies were delivered. Select Retry if any copies failed. View as recipient shows what families see.

The Recipients table lists everyone; filter it with Needs response or Responded.

To nudge people who still owe an acknowledgment or a survey, select the button that reads, for example, Remind the 4 people who haven't responded, then Send reminder. Only they get the announcement again, marked as a reminder: by email if it was emailed and by Slack direct message if it used Slack, following each person's notification settings. Reminders are never automatic, you can send one at most once every 24 hours, and a portal-only announcement can't be reminded.

Edit or archive

Select Edit announcement to fix a sent announcement, optionally checking Notify recipients of this update and Require acknowledgment again, then select Save changes. The editor closes and you're back on the announcement's responses. Earlier versions and acknowledgments are kept, and copies already sent aren't changed.

Select Archive announcement when it's no longer current. Recipients can still read it, but you can't edit it or send reminders. Find it later on the Archived tab.

For what families see, read Announcements and notifications.