Step by step

1. Open Send a message from the left-hand nav

   In the left-hand navigation, find the Communications group and click Send a message. This entry is present for every organisation kind that has not explicitly omitted it.

2. Wait for the screen to load your drafts

   Daviah checks your sign-in and your selected organisation, then fetches up to 50 of your draft messages, newest first. If you have any messages already scheduled to go out, a notice appears on the screen.

3. Create a draft first if none exist

   If you have no drafts, the screen tells you so and gives you a link to write one. Any already-scheduled messages are still shown above as a notice. Come back here once your draft is saved.

4. Choose a draft and click Who would get it?

   A drop-down lists each draft by its subject line and the date it was created. Select the one you want to send, then click Who would get it? to see the audience before committing.

5. Daviah works out who is in the audience

   Daviah reads the audience setting on your draft — for example, all members, officers, a committee, event attendees, members with unpaid dues, a hand-picked selection, or newsletter subscribers. It queries those records live right now, so the list reflects any changes made since the draft was written. It returns each person's name and email address, or flags them if no address is on file.

6. Review who will receive the message

   The screen shows the message subject, a count of recipients who have an email address, and a count of those who do not — the screen says they are yours to telephone. A scrollable list shows every person and their address or the note 'no address'. Members with no email on file are listed here so you know who to contact by other means. The send button shows the exact number it will email and stays disabled if that number is zero.

7. Click Send it to N to dispatch the message

   Clicking the send button submits your choice. Daviah records the current time as the scheduled send time, using your own account so the tenancy boundary is respected throughout.

8. Daviah arms the message and records who authorised it

   As the record is saved, a background check confirms it is still a draft — only a draft can be armed. The message status moves to scheduled, and your user account is recorded as the person who authorised the send. This all happens automatically before the save completes.

9. The minute sweep claims the message and sends it

   Every minute, Daviah looks for scheduled messages whose send time has passed. It locks each one in a single atomic database step so no message can ever be sent twice. It then rebuilds the audience list one final time and hands the message to the delivery process.

10. Each recipient receives a personalised copy

    Daviah sends one email per recipient. Each copy is built from your rich-text body and gains a personalised footer — members see a note explaining why they received it, and newsletter subscribers receive an unsubscribe link. Anyone without an address is recorded as skipped. After the last email the message is marked sent, with counts of delivered, failed, and skipped recipients saved to the record.

11. The screen confirms the message is on its way

    The screen shows a confirmation that the message goes out within the minute. The draft list refreshes automatically and no longer includes the message you just sent.

What happens next

Within one minute every resolved recipient with an email address receives their own personalised copy of the message, addressed to them alone. The message record moves from scheduled to sent and stores the full recipient list with the outcome for each address — delivered, failed, or skipped.

Anyone in the audience who had no email address on file was listed in the preview before you sent, so you know who to contact by other means.

Good to know

The audience is resolved twice — once when you click Who would get it? to give you a preview, and again at the moment of sending. If a member joins, leaves, or pays a due between those two moments, the final send reflects the very latest state of your records.

Daviah uses an atomic database lock when it picks up a scheduled message, so even if two sweeps overlap, each message is only ever sent once. A draft that has already been scheduled cannot be scheduled again — only records still in draft status can be armed.