The service used is Postmarketer and is a product of Stanton Street Technology in El Paso.

The writing is done directly into the program.

I can write in Word and copy it in, but generally I just do it in Postmarketer.

If you want to see how it works, check: http://www.postmarketer.com

I like it -- it's easy to work with. Easy to enter names and email addresses, set up delivery options, and provide copy.However, the copy can't get real fancy. It allows for bold, italic, and underline -- not much else. It also takes pictures, but I have no options on sizing. Since this is used simply to communicate with our members in the easiest way possible, I like it.

Need a more effective way to communicate with your membership?

Here’s a service you might want to check out – Constant Contact.

Constant Contact is an e-mail and survey provider. The products they provide are very user-friendly and, more importantly, very affordable. They have many templates to create very professional looking e-mail newsletters, postcards, surveys, etc. I highly recommend visiting www.constantcontact.com and touring their website, products, and services. They offer a free 60 day trial for both the e-mail and survey services. If you decide you like the service, the fees are based on how many e-mail addresses you use in your contact list. Here’s a quick breakdown of the fees for a contact list that is less than 500 e-mail addresses. They do have fees for higher contact levels.

The District has been using the service for several months. My first encounter with e-mails generated using Constant Contact came from the Junior League of Albuquerque. They really knocked my socks off! I’ve been using the service for about a month, while it doesn’t do everything I would like it to, I’m learning more about its capabilities every time I use it.

I’ve received only positive response from our membership.

Our President-Elect has asked me to look into using Constant Contact to generate our bi-weekly newsletter. Currently, I use Microsoft Publisher to generate our award-winning newsletter. You can insert your own logo, photos, and graphics into your e-mails to make it more personal. It is very easy add e-mail addresses to your contacts list – you can import Excel files, Comma Separated Values Files, or .TXT files. You can even set-up different contacts lists! You can schedule a day for your e-mails to be delivered.

Another one of the great features of using Constant Contact, is you can actually see who is opening your e-mails! Think of the fines your Sergeant-at-Arms could institute!!! Maybe enough to pay for the monthly service fee… I haven’t used the survey service yet, but I imagine it is just as easy as the e-mail service. Think of how nice it would be to e-mail a short survey out to your membership to see how they feel about the programs over the last quarter? Or, what they think about your newsletter? Again the service tracks who has and has not responded to the survey.

Take a look at www.constantcontact.com and take a tour. Try the 60 trial service. They do not even require a credit card to enroll in the trial service. The only limitations they have on the free trial is a limit of 100 contacts and the inability to set the time of day you want an e-mail sent out.