Who this is for: coaches, team managers and communications volunteers at clubs with junior athletes, and anyone who needs to reach people outside the rowing roster. Features involved: Stakeholders, Groups, Communications, Practices, Org Settings, Surveys
For the season as a whole, see How clubs use Boathouse Connect.
The problem
Parents drive to the boathouse, pay the dues and book the hotel for the regatta, but most of them never row. The coach keeps a separate parents' email list, which is out of date by October. Practice moves because of wind and half the parents are already in the car park. A message from the coach's personal address lands in spam.
When the board wants to know what families thought of the season, it sends a form link and gets twelve replies out of eighty.
How it works in Boathouse Connect
There is no shared family login: every person who signs in has their own account. You choose between three ways to reach a parent, and can mix them:
- Stakeholders — a name and email attached to a group, copied on that group's emails when the sender chooses. No account. Standard and Professional plans.
- Additional contacts — an email or phone number the athlete adds to their own profile, which gets every email and text sent to that athlete. No account.
- A parent's own account in a Parents group, for parents who volunteer, sign up for things or need to see the schedule themselves.
Everything is sent from Communications → Send Message to groups, so the lists maintain themselves as athletes join and leave.
| Step | Where | Who does it |
|---|---|---|
| Add parents as stakeholders on each group | Groups → Stakeholders | Administrator (Manage Groups) |
| Or create a Parents group for parents with accounts | Groups → Manage Groups | Administrator (Manage Groups) |
| Athletes add a parent as an additional contact | My Profile → My Profile → Contact Info | Athlete |
| Send from the club's own domain | Communications → Settings | Administrator (Manage Communications) |
| Email groups and copy stakeholders | Communications → Send Message | Coach (Send Communications to Allowed Groups or higher) |
| Message today's practice | Practices → Lineups | Coach (Practice Communications) |
| Let parent volunteers draft messages | Communications → Pending Review | Approver (Approve Communications) |
| Check delivery and opens | Communications → Analytics | Manage Communications or Approve Communications |
| Publish the schedule on the club website | Org Settings → General | Administrator (Manage Organization Settings) |
| Survey families | Tasks → Surveys | Organizer (Manage Surveys) |
Step by step
Decide how each parent is reached
- Stakeholders for a parents' list. On Groups → Stakeholders, add each parent to the group their athlete is in, for example "Jane Smith (parent of Alex Smith)". Stakeholders only receive emails, never texts or chat, and can unsubscribe. See Stakeholders (parents & guardians).
- Additional contacts for everything. If a parent should receive everything their athlete gets, including texts, the athlete adds the parent's email or phone on their profile. See My Profile, Preferences & Notifications.
- Accounts for involved parents. Parents who volunteer or need to sign in create their own account and join a Parents group with Basic Access. They must not use the athlete's login. See Roles & permissions and Groups.
Make your mail trustworthy
- Send from your domain. On Communications → Settings, add your club's domain and the DNS records (DKIM and Return-Path) so messages arrive from your club's address instead of a generic one. See Sender signatures & custom domains.
Send the right message to the right people
- Announcements. On Communications → Send Message, pick the athletes' groups and tick their stakeholders under Which group stakeholders should also receive this message? (Email only). Send to the Parents group too if you have one. See Sending email & text.
- Practice changes. For a change to one session, use Email or Text in the Send Message column on Practices → Lineups. It reaches athletes marked Attending, plus the additional contacts on their profiles. Stakeholders are not included. See Sending email & text.
- Weather. Athletes and coaches can set personal weather alerts on Practices → Weather Alerts to get a text 55 to 60 minutes before a practice they are attending if the forecast crosses their limits. Alerts are personal; parents without their own attendance do not receive them, so pass weather cancellations on with a message. See Attendance.
- Regatta information. Planner messages go to attending athletes only. Copy parents with a group message from Send Message. See Running a regatta weekend.
Share the work
- Let parent volunteers draft. Any member can write a message; if they lack sending permission it waits in Communications → Pending Review until someone with Approve Communications or Manage Communications approves it. See Message review.
Check and listen
- Confirm delivery. Communications → Analytics shows sends, opens and clicks per message and per person. Members can turn tracking off, so treat a missing open as unknown, not unread. See Email analytics.
- Publish the schedule. Copy the External Calendar Widget code from Org Settings → General onto your club website so families can see practices and events without signing in. See Calendar.
- Ask families. On Tasks → Surveys, use Add Group with Include stakeholders to send a survey to a group's members and its stakeholders. See Surveys.
What each person sees
| Person | What they see |
|---|---|
| Administrator | Stakeholder lists, communication settings, analytics and survey results. |
| Coach | Send Message for their groups, practice messaging and their own My Messages. |
| Athlete | Messages in their inbox and My Messages, and the contacts on their own profile. |
| Parent with an account | Messages sent to the Parents group, and whatever that group's permissions allow. |
| Stakeholder | Only the emails and surveys sent to them. They cannot sign in. |
Tips
- Pick one route per family and say which one in your welcome email, so parents know where club mail will come from.
- Use text for urgent practice changes. Stakeholders cannot receive texts, so families who need them should be additional contacts.
- Set up your custom domain before the season starts; DNS changes can take a while to spread.
- Do not put private details in custom calendar events; the embedded calendar is public.
FAQ
Can parents subscribe to the club calendar in Google or Apple Calendar? No. There is no calendar feed. Embed the public calendar on your website instead.
Can we sync our parents' list with Mailchimp? Not directly. Mailchimp can only be connected through Zapier. See Zapier.
What if we are on the Small Teams plan? Stakeholders are a Standard and Professional feature. Without them, ask athletes to add a parent as an additional contact, or give parents their own accounts. See pricing.
Can a parent see their child's schedule? Not by signing in as the child. Practice messages reach them as an additional contact, and the public calendar widget shows the club schedule.