# Composing emails

> Send email to members using Quick Compose for fast messages or the Full Editor for attachments, scheduling, and email types.

Canonical: https://www.clubpal.app/docs/emails/composing
Section: Emails

Administrators and coaches can send emails to members from several places in the platform. There are two tools available: a Quick Compose form for fast messages, and a Full Editor for more advanced options.

## Launching Quick Compose

The Quick Compose form can be opened from the following locations:

**Members list**  
From **Admin > Membership > Members**, you can compose an email to every member currently shown in the active filter. This gives you a quick way to message all Active members, Lapsed members, Administrators, Coaches, or any other filtered group.

**Session page**  
A coach or administrator can email all members booked on to a session from the session details page. The email option appears under the **...** menu in the session header.

**Member profile**  
From an individual member's profile page you can quickly compose an email to that member directly from the header area.

## Quick Compose form

The Quick Compose form lets you send an email to one or more members without leaving your current context. In many cases the form will be pre-populated with recipients based on where it was launched from. For example, when opened from a session page it will include all booked members.

**To**  
Recipients can be added by searching for members by name. You can also use Smart Groups: enter values such as **Active Members**, **Lapsed Members**, **Administrators**, or **Coaches** to target those groups. Your own [groups](https://www.clubpal.app/docs/membership/member-groups) and membership package names can also be entered to reach specific audiences.

**Subject**  
When launched from a session page, the subject is pre-populated with the session name and date. Otherwise, enter a subject for your email.

**Body**  
The main content of the email. Supports basic text formatting and image insertion.

**Attachment**  
Optionally attach a single file up to 5 MB.

**Open in full editor**  
Transfers the draft to the Full Editor for additional options.

> **Note: GDPR and email types**
>
> Emails sent using the Quick Compose form are sent as **Club Communications** and are delivered regardless of recipients' contact preferences. See the [Email Type](#email-type) section below for details on how to respect member preferences for non-essential communications.

## Full Editor

The Full Editor is available at **Admin > Emails > Compose** or by clicking **Open in full editor** from the Quick Compose form. It offers all the options of Quick Compose plus the following additional settings.

### Email Type
The email type determines whether a member's contact preferences are respected when deciding whether to send the email.

- **Club Communication**: sent to all recipients in the **To** field regardless of their contact preferences. Use this for important club communications where you have a lawful basis under GDPR to contact members.
- **Newsletter**: respects each member's contact preferences. Members who have opted out of general updates will not receive emails sent under this type. Use this for newsletters and non-essential communications.

### Recipient count

Below the **To** field, ClubPal shows how many members will actually receive the email. The count is displayed as **X of Y members selected**, where:

- **Y** is the total number of members in the selected groups or Smart Groups.
- **X** is the number who will actually receive the email after the following filters are applied:
  - Members with **email notifications disabled** on their profile are excluded.
  - Members with **no email address on file** are excluded.
  - If the same email address appears more than once across the selected groups, it is counted only once.
  - For **Newsletter** type emails, members who have **opted out of contact** are also excluded. The opted-out count is shown separately alongside the recipient count.

For example, if you select a Smart Group containing 291 members, but 10 have email disabled and 16 share a duplicate address with another member in the group, the count will show **265 of 291 members selected**. If you then switch to Newsletter type and 11 of those members have opted out, the count updates to **254 of 291 members selected  11 members opted out**.

The count updates automatically whenever you change the **To** field or switch the email type.

> **Tip: Why does the count differ from the group size?**
>
> Smart Groups such as **Active Members** include every member that matches the group criteria. The recipient count shown on the Compose page reflects a filtered subset: members who are reachable by email, deduped, and (for Newsletters) have consented to contact. This gives you a more accurate picture of how many emails will actually be sent before you click Send.

### Schedule sending

You can optionally configure the email to be sent at a specific date and time in the future rather than immediately.