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How to send automatic emails when games are changed or canceled

  • Updated

Set On Game Change to Yes for a division, and TeamSideline emails the teams a few minutes after the division's schedule changes: games added, removed or canceled, and games with a new date, time, location or opponent. On Practice Change does the same for the division's practices.

Applies to: Admins · Enhanced, Elite and Enterprise plans (Schedule Change Comm) · League and tournament divisions with a visible schedule

Where: Schedules > Leagues & Divisions > (division) > More Options > 1 Configuration > Communication

Turn on game change emails for a division

  1. Go to Schedules > Leagues & Divisions. On the division's row, click More Options and choose 1 Configuration, then open Communication.
  2. Set On Game Change to Yes ("For visible game schedules, communications to be sent"). The settings below it become available.
  3. In Send To, choose All Teams or Impacted Teams (see Who gets the email, below).
  4. In Include Rosters, choose Yes to email each team's roster as well, or No for the team contacts only.
  5. If they're shown, set Include Officials (organizations with the Officials module) and Include Location Contacts to Yes or No.
  6. To email practice changes too, set On Practice Change to Yes.
  7. Click Save.

What you'll see: "Division configuration updated." Changes saved from now on are emailed; changes saved before aren't.

Turn it on for many divisions at once

  1. Go to Schedules > Leagues & Divisions and click Update Multiple Divisions.
  2. In Step 1, set Update Type to Configuration.
  3. In Step 2, tick the divisions you want, or All Divisions.
  4. In Step 3, under Communication Configurations, set On Game Change to Yes and choose the other settings. A setting left at Select keeps each division's own value.
  5. Click Update.

What you'll see: "Multiple divisions have been updated." This page doesn't show the divisions' current settings, so check a division's Communication page to see them. Update Multiple Divisions is part of the Enhanced, Elite and Enterprise plans.

To give new divisions these settings from the start, set them under Communication Configurations on Schedules > Configurations > Sport Defaults. Sport Defaults applies only to divisions created after you save it.

Who gets the email

Setting Who gets it
On Game Change: Yes The Primary Email and Alternate Email of the teams on the division's 2 Teams page. A team contact whose phone number there has opted in to your organization's text messages also gets a short text ("Schedule Updated" and a link).
Send To: All Teams Every team in the division, with every change listed.
Send To: Impacted Teams Only the teams in a changed game, each with its own games' changes.
Include Rosters: Yes Each team's roster too: the members of its published Team Site and their Family & Friends, or, for a team without a published Team Site, the staff, parents and adult players on its registration roster (without one, the players with an email address on the team's roster in the division). Team Sites that link the division's schedule get it as well. Roster members get the email, not a text.
Include Officials: Yes Officials with a Pending or Confirmed assignment to a game whose date, time, location or teams changed get an email listing their games, and a text if their phone has opted in. Every email also shows the officials' names after each of those games.
Include Location Contacts: Yes The contacts on your location contact lists for the changed games' locations get the email, and a text if their phone has opted in.

When the email goes out and what it says

  • TeamSideline waits until the schedule has gone 5 minutes without another change, then sends one email covering every change since the previous email, usually within 10 minutes of your last save. Several quick edits become one email.
  • Only games dated from 2 days ago onward are listed. If none of the changes is for such a game, no email is sent.
  • The subject is "Schedule Update Notification | (your organization's name)". The email says when the schedule was updated, links to it ("Click here to view the updated schedule"), and lists each change under "Recent or upcoming changes include:", for example a game that "was added to the schedule", "was removed from the schedule" or "was canceled", or whose date, time, location or teams changed.
  • Replies go to the Email Address on Communications > Configurations > Contact Us.
  • Practice change emails go only to the teams whose practices changed, with the subject "Practice Schedule Update Notification | (team name)": the team's contacts (and a text to an opted-in phone) and, with Include Rosters, its roster. Send To, Include Officials and Include Location Contacts don't apply to practices.

What sends an email

With On Game Change set to Yes, any saved change to the division's visible schedule sends one, wherever it's made:

  • 4 Create Schedule, after Calc & Save (edited, swapped, added, deleted or rescheduled games)
  • The Multi Location Calendar
  • Multi Game Cancel
  • A game set to Canceled on Edit Scores
  • A coach's change in the Schedule Changes section of Coach Sign-In

Scores and other game results don't send one. A visible schedule means its eye icon on Schedules > Leagues & Divisions is green (the 2nd half has its own eye icon), in a league that isn't archived. Playoff schedules also need Show Playoff Brackets or Show Playoff Grid set to Yes on 1 Configuration > Display.

If it doesn't work

  • On Game Change, On Practice Change, Send To and Include Rosters are grayed out with an upgrade icon ("This feature is part of an upgraded package."). Your plan doesn't include Schedule Change Comm, which is part of the Enhanced, Elite and Enterprise plans.
  • There's no Include Officials or Include Location Contacts setting. Include Officials appears only with the Officials module, and Include Location Contacts only with location contact lists (Enhanced, Elite and Enterprise plans).
  • No email went out. Check that On Game Change is Yes, that the schedule is visible (for playoffs, with Show Playoff Brackets or Show Playoff Grid), and that the changed games are dated from 2 days ago onward. A brand-new schedule doesn't send one, and neither do changes saved before On Game Change was set to Yes. To see what was sent, open Communications > Communication Logs > System Log and choose the Schedule Change (or Practice Change) message type.
  • A team didn't get it. Check the team's Primary Email and Alternate Email on 2 Teams. With Impacted Teams, a team gets an email only when one of its own games changed.

Good to know

  • Saving the Communication page with On Game Change set to Yes starts the emails from that moment, so changes saved just before, including any still waiting to go out, aren't emailed.
  • When you replace a whole schedule (Delete, then Create or an import), set On Game Change to No first and back to Yes once the new schedule is saved, so the replacement isn't emailed as a list of changes.
  • Game change emails are separate from the reminder emails sent before games and practices.

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