DutyMan Administrators' Guide

CONTENTS

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Personal Duty Reminders

Personal reminders let members set their own duty reminder schedule. Then have those reminders delivered by phone-friendly technology – push notifications and text messages.

Push Notifications

Pros
  • Immediate yet not too intrusive
  • Controllable – can be turned on and off
  • End-to-end encrypted
  • Free!
Cons
  • Not available on all devices, notably older iPhones
  • Young technology, still evolving so may not always work as expected

Text Messages

Pros
  • Immediate yet not too intrusive
  • Controllable – can be turned on and off
  • Established, familiar technology
  • Available on all devices
Cons
  • Either a cost per message, or ‘free’ but with volume, rate or reliability limitations
  • Not encrypted

Delivery Schedule

Members can set

  • the number of days prior to a duty that a reminder is sent. The number of days is in the range zero to seven.
  • The time of day that the reminder is sent.
Examples for a duty on a Saturday

Zero days before at 9am – the reminder is sent at 09:00 on Saturday morning.

Four days before at 7pm – the reminder is sent at 19:00 on Wednesday evening.

The default is the day before at noon (12:00)

The Personal Reminder App

Members use the app to

  • subscribe to push notifications and/or text messages
  • Set up their reminder schedule

When logged into DutyMan as a member, the >Reminders page provides instructions for installing and using the app. This page also has information about standard emailed reminders and calendar feeds.

SMS Gateways

To offer text message reminders to members, your club or organisation must subscribe to an SMS gateway – a service that DutyMan can use to send reminders via the Short Messaging Service.

There are essentially two options:

Commercial providers

You open an account and buy credits. Usually 1 message = 1 credit. The cost of a credit varies with time and provider. Provider websites usually offer a cost calculator.

Use a mobile phone

Apps are available that turn a phone into an SMS gateway by using spare text capacity in the phone’s plan. Restrictions in transmission volume and rate may be applied by both the app and the phone. Think carefully about whether this is a viable option.

To set up an SMS gateway, go to >Set Up >SMS Gateway from the DutyMan administrator’s menu.