What would you like to know more about?

Show Page Sections

Event Registrant Message Notification

The Registrant Message Notification sends to participants registered for an event.

  • Frequency: Every 15 minutes, depending on how you set up your individual schedule during Implementation. Some are set to run from 8 AM to 6 PM daily from Sunday to Saturday, while others may run 24 hours. To check this schedule on your server or to change the schedule, contact Support.
  • Recipients: Any Event Participant with a status of 02-Registered and with the Registrant Message Sent field set to No or left blank.
    • For paid events, Registrant Messages only send if the participant has paid at least part of the invoice.
    • The message sends to the email address that the participant used to register for the event. This email address is recorded in Event Participant Notes.
      Note: It doesn't matter how the participant was added to the event. They will receive an email if there is an email address on file.
    • Select Send to Parents to send the message to the parents in the Event Participant's household. A "parent" is any household member with the Household Position of "Head of Household" who has a valid email address and is not inactive or deceased, as well as any heads associated via Other Households for non-custodial parents.
      Note: The message automatically adjusts to say "Parents Of" the Event Participant. This is designed specifically for registering children for the event.
    • If you select Send to Heads and the registrant is not a Head of Household, the message sends to the registrant and their household's head. If the registrant is a Head of Household, only they receive the message.
      Important: If you select Send to Heads, the message sends to any Heads of Household associated through Other Households with the Non-Custodial Parents Household Type unless that relationship has expired.
  • From/Reply To: The Contact(s) identified in the email template.
  • Contents: An event-specific email giving registrants additional information.
  • How to Stop: Remove the message from the Registrant Message field in the Event record.
  • Method for Sending: Platform.
  • Logging in Messages: Daily, the email template message is copied. Recipients are logged. The Registrant Message Sent field is set to Yes in the Event Participant record.
  • Configuration Settings: None.
  • Merge Fields Supported:
    • Subject & Body - [Nickname], [Event_Title].
    • Body only - [Notes], [Email_Address], [Mobile_Phone], [Event_Title], [Meeting_Instructions], [Congregation_Name], [Location_Name], [Event_Start_Date], [Group_Name], [Domain_GUID], [Contact_GUID], [Option_Title_Qty], [Option_Title]. The Option_Title token lists all of the options chosen, separated by a comma. The Notes merge field displays notes from the Invoice.
    • If you have locations in multiple time zones - The [Event_Start_Date] merge field displays the Event start date and time using the Domain's time zone, not the registrant's time zone.
  • Initial Configuration: Create an email template and set it as the Registrant Message on the Event record.
  • Optional Configuration: None.
  • Other Considerations:​
    • Email snippets are only valid for registrants that match and are assigned to the Default Contact.
    • Messages are sent as people register until the Event's Registration End date. If there is no Registration End date, the messages will send until the Event End Date.

Other Notes

  • Event Series: Each Event is separate and each Event can have its own Registrant Message.
    • A Registrant Message is sent for each event in the series with a Registrant Message set on the specific Event record.
    • If you allow registration on any event in a series, have Register into Series set to Yes, and you don't want to send multiple Registrant Messages, set the Registration Message value only on the last event in the series.
  • Message Templates: You can use the same email template for various events. Each event does not have to have its own template, although it can if you want.
    • Event Registrant Messages and optional reminder messages only facilitate email templates. They don't currently support SMS templates.
    • Attachments cannot be sent with the template, but you can send links to publicly downloadable files.
  • Default Contact: If the Registrant is assigned to the Default Contact, the message sends to the email they provided during registration. This displays in the Notes field of the Event Participant record when there is information in the Email and Address1 fields.
    • If Send to Heads is set to Yes and the Event Participant record is assigned to the Default Contact, the system can't identify a Head of Household so it doesn't send a Head-of-Household email.
    • If the email template uses the [Nickname] merge field, the Default Contact nickname displays as "Friend".
    • We recommend reviewing and cleaning up and clearing out the Event Participant > 1. Check the Reassign Participant view daily. Or, to reduce records being assigned to the Default Contact, require registrants to log in before registering by setting Force Login to Yes on the Event record.
  • No Email: Messages do not send unless there is an email address entered on the Event Participant's Contact record. If the registrant didn't provide an email during registration, they will not receive a message.

Event Fields for Notification Settings

The Event record has a section for Notification Settings. See Registrant Message and Event Reminder.

Also note:
  • The reminder will not send if the Registrant is assigned to the Default Contact.
  • The reminder will not send if the Registrant has a status other than "02-Registered".
  • For the [Group_Assignment] token, the Group information that merges is from the Group that corresponds with the Group Participant record indicated on the Event Participant record.
  • If you select Send to Heads, the reminder sends to Heads even if the Registrant does not have an email address on their Contact record. If not used with the [Group_Assignment] token, the reminder goes to Registrants and Heads with valid email addresses.
  • If you select Send to Heads with the [Group_Assignment] token, the reminder sends parents one email listing all household registered group assignments related to an Event (for example, multiple children registered for VBS, Missions, and so on). The reminder will not send to the registrant.
  • Reminders only send for current or future Events. They do not send for past events.
  • The Days Out calculation is based on the Event Start Date. When your church's notifications are scheduled to run, MinistryPlatform compares the Date on the server to the Event Start Date minus the Days Out to Remind. Reminders are only sent if these match.
  • The notification routine runs once during your nightly routine, so it must have at least a one-day lead time.
  • If you change the Days Out value to a lower value after sending a reminder, another reminder sends.
  • Canceling the Event prevents the Event Reminder from sending.

Resend a Notification

Send a previous notification to an individual who didn't receive it the first time around.

You may need to resend the Registrant Message to an individual, for example, if the individual used the wrong email address or reports don't receive the email.

  1. Open the Event Participant record for the individual (either in the Participant sub-page of the event or the Event Participant page).
  2. Click Edit.
  3. Set Registrant Message Sent to No.
  4. In the Notes field, change the email to the correct email address.
  5. Click Save.

The Registrant Message resends when the Notification runs again.