By way of update, several more of the items mentioned in various posts above are going into production this week:

1. A widget to allow you to get automatic sign-ups from your own website.

2. Membershiop management views so you can much more easily look-up and eidt various members and permissions.

3. Integration with PTO Manager for those PTO Manager groups that want to send the more customizable (html, images, etc.) through PEX.

We do appreciate the feedback and the patience. Our partners (the developers at Groupvine) are really committed to making this a great free tool for PTOs and PTAs. It's way better today than it was two months ago. And it will be way better again two months from now.

Tim

Do we have to swith to Groupvine? We have constant contact now that hosts our school news letter. It still works... so, we have to merge it with Groupvine to continue our service???

I have just joined into the PEX email/newsletter program and I am just thrilled with the results! I have been able to communicate with teachers and parents all at the same time with a phenomonal looking email! It makes my PTO looks very savvy!

Granted there are a few bugs, but it is working alot better than my cutting & pasting a message 15 times to 90 different emails via hotmail.

Yes I'm a high end user (database programmer/graphic designer) and I was using Firefox. I'm not expecting bells and whistles, and would be okay with the way that the current emails are put together since I can get in a mess with the html, but didn't like the final output.

Will stick around for a bit, but I can't hand enter every single signup and I really don't want to manipulate the database each time either so it transfers properly. I'm new to this school, but the PTA hasn't done much to promote itself and I was shocked at how few members it had. When we told them that they could have a ton of volunteers we received the standard "nobody volunteers here" and a month into the school year we've already proved them wrong.

At any rate, everything I already listed are my main problems and it sounds like things you are working on changing. I'll wait for a bit.

Really appreciate the feedback.

For Jewel -- yeah, no html in Manager emails, but we will likely build a connection between PEX and Manager which will allow for the nice formatting of Manager emails. Hopefully next 6-8 weeks on that.

AZ -- on the newsletter, were you working in IE8? We have identified a formatting issue with IE8. It's being worked on. Beyond that, the preview and the end result should be identical.

Several changes went live today, including better looks at and management of SubLists. Summary of today's changes = support.groupvine.com/groupvine/topics/p..._of_september_9_2010

And a better signup form is on the list for upcoming release.

Please do give it the month. It's getting better and better every week.

It will not have all the bells and whistles of the Constant Contact solution and it you're a techy or a high-end emailer you may really miss those pieces and choose to pay for them.

Our goal is to create a great, simple free tool (the best free email tool for PTOs and PTAs) that works great for the most typical PTO and PTA uses. We're getting there.... and your feedback is helping us get there faster.

Much appreciated.

Tim