In our first installment of Masonic Technology we will be looking at group messaging. Group messaging is the act of sending a message to multiple people at the same time through email, SMS, or a phone call. This is done by logging into a service, creating a message and hitting send. The service will then mass disseminate the message to all of the people on the group list.
One such service is Group2Call. Group2Call will send emails, text messages, videos, and even make an automated phone call with one simple process. The free version will allow 50 messages sent a day, with emails being free and not counting against the 50 message limit. If your organization is in need of more than 50 messages a day there is a premium option that allows you to pick a monthly payment based on how many extra contacts you need or a $0.06 per message pay as you go plan. The pay as you go plan works by assigning each message a certain number of credits. Currently voice calls are 1 credit, standard text messages are a 1/2 credit, with email and voice messages being worth zero credits. Thus, for 50 credits you could send 100 text messages and unlimited emails, or any combination of the four ways.
Once you register with Group2Call, the first thing you will want to do is enter the contact information for each person that will be a member of the group. Fortunately, for those users comfortable with technology you can import a formatted data file of your current contacts. For those people who may not have the skills, as of yet, to do an import, you will need to enter each contact by hand.
To send a message you can use the web-based message center, or you can phone in the message using the instructions provided on the Group2Call website. As the owner of the group you will be able to select how each member will receive the message. This ensures that all members can get the message delivered to them in the appropriate manner.
For example, Joe wants a text, John wants an email, and Hiram wants a phone call. When I create and send my message, it will be sent as a text and email to the appropriate addresses, and Group2Call will automatically convert my typed message into an automated voice (you have a choice of voices…I always went with the woman) and phone the voice message to the telephone number associated with Hiram.
As owner, you will be able to track messages throughout the entire process. In the History tab you will see the date and time the message was delivered, and if it was a phone call it will even show you if the person answered or if the message was left on an answering machine.
There are many ways a lodge could use this service; as an announcement of a specially called meeting, to inform the brothers of an event, or to notify the lodge of a passing of a member. District Associations, Grand Lodges, or any group or team within the brotherhood could benefit from utilizing this service.
I have personally used this service with my current place of employment, and have found it to be very reliable. My colleagues informed me that they were receiving the text messages within five minutes of me hitting the send button on the web center. The only issue that ever appeared was with messages I attempted to send before 6am eastern time. These messages would be queued sometimes up to a couple of hours. This NEVER happened with a message sent any other time of the day.
The overall Masonic rating for Group2Call would be a 4 out of 5 Stars
- 5 out of 5 Stars for Masonic usefullness
- 3 out of 5 Stars for ease of use for those brothers with less technology experience but willing to try
Brother Shane,
I would just like to thank you for this post. My lodge has used this a ton since I set it up. We never would have found out about it if it wasn’t for you. It works really well with the older guys, who don’t check their email more than once a week. Looking forward to your future posts.