Messages Page Guide

Why this exists

Subscribing to texts is voluntary, and not everyone does. A companionship with a member who hasn't subscribed — or has texted STOP — can't be scheduled by text alone. Rather than leave those members out entirely, the system still writes the message they would have received and holds a set of proposed times for them, and lets you relay that by hand and log what they say back. Their reply then goes through the same scheduling logic a text reply would — it can confirm a visit, ask for different times, or need a follow-up — so a member who never subscribes still gets scheduled, just with you as the messenger.

Where to find it

Open Messages from the top navigation bar (https://ministering.beaconpointe2nd.org/admin/messages).

The page lists every companionship member who currently can't be texted — Pending (never subscribed) or Opted out (texted STOP) — alongside the message that's waiting for them. This includes members of otherwise-normal companionships: if two of three companionship members are subscribed and texting fine, the one holdout still shows up here so you only have to manually cover the gap, not the whole companionship.

Each row shows:

The member's name and phone number — enough to call or text them yourself.
Who their leader is (or "Unassigned"). Use the Leader filter above the list to narrow the page to one leader's companionships.
The latest message — the actual proposal text, exactly as it would have gone out by SMS.
Full thread (click to expand) — the whole conversation so far, useful if you're picking this up partway through.

Two tabs:

Active — still waiting on a reply. This is where you log one.
Archived — anything no longer active: resolved, closed out at quarter's end, or paused for escalation. A resolved or quarter-ended row needs nothing further — but a paused one still needs a leader's follow-up; check Escalations for those rather than assuming everything here is done.

Relaying a message and logging the reply

Read the row's message, then reach the member however you normally would — a phone call, a personal text, in person. This is not automated; you're standing in for the text the system couldn't send.
Ask what they'd like to do, in their own words — agree to one of the offered times, ask for something different, or say it doesn't work at all.
Back on the Messages page, type what they said into the Log reply box under their row, in their own words (e.g. "she said Tuesday at 2 works"), and press Log reply.

That's it — you don't need to figure out which slot number they meant or whether the reply "counts." The system reads it the same way it reads a real text reply and figures out what to do next:

They agreed to a time — the visit is confirmed, the leader gets reminders just like any other confirmed visit, and a confirmation text goes out to any companionship-mates who are subscribed. (The member you're relaying for doesn't get one — that's the whole reason you're on this page.)
They want a different time — the system looks for other openings with that leader. If it finds one, it posts a fresh proposal, which shows up on this page (and goes out by text to subscribed companionship-mates) for you to relay again. If nothing else is open, the thread pauses right away and shows up on Escalations — there's nothing left to offer, so it needs a leader's direct follow-up.
Nothing usable came through — a "could you try again?" text goes out to subscribed companionship-mates, and after three unparseable replies in a row the thread pauses and shows up on Escalations instead, the same as a stalled text conversation. At that point it needs a leader's direct follow-up rather than another logged reply.

A few things worth knowing

A companionship with no subscribed members still gets scheduled. Subscription status alone never blocks a proposal — the system just can't text the result to someone who hasn't opted in, which is exactly the gap this page covers. (A companionship can still go unscheduled for an unrelated reason, like having no assignable leader — that shows up on Coverage, not here.)
Retired members and retired companionships never show up here. If someone's gone, there's nothing to relay.
Everything you log is attributed to you. Logging a reply on someone's behalf is recorded in the audit trail alongside the message itself, so there's a record of who relayed what.
Archiving is automatic. When the quarter ends, whatever's still open here closes out the same way an open text conversation does — you don't need to clean anything up yourself.
Logging a reply can trigger a real text — just never to the member you're relaying for. A confirmation, a fresh proposal, or a "try again" nudge can all go out to the rest of the companionship as a normal part of processing what you logged, exactly as they would if that reply had arrived by SMS. The member you're standing in for stays off every send path — that's the gap this page exists to cover — so the actual conversation with them still happens by phone call, personal text, or in person.

For everything else about running the roster and getting members subscribed in the first place, see the Administrator Guide — subscribing is still the better outcome whenever a member is willing.