title: “artMail”

This guide covers the Org-mail module. If your gallery has not switched it on (the Owner does that in Settings → Extensions), this page will not match what you see — skip it for now.

artMail

For gallery staff. artMail is a way for the gallery to send a message to its members and have it land in the member portal, with a record of who opened it, who acknowledged it and who replied. It is the same extension that other organizations call opsMail; in a gallery it is called artMail.

What to know first: with artMail on, you get an artMail item in the sidebar (Owners, Admins and anyone you let send it) with four tabs: Compose, Sent, Replies and Report. Each member gets an artMail page in the member portal, under Me (the guide for them is artMail: messages from your gallery). A message you send cannot be edited or deleted, so check who it goes to before you send. While someone has not read it yet you can Recall it from their inbox, or Recall and replace it with a corrected version (see below).

Before you start

artMail is an extension, offered on both Studio plans. The Owner or an Admin switches it on:

1. Go to Settings → Extensions.
2. Find Member Mail.
3. Press Enable.

Anyone else sees the card but cannot switch it on. To switch it off again, press Disable on the same card; mail already sent is kept.

Who can send

Sending is its own setting on the Roles page, under Website & messages: “can: Send artMail”. It is the Member Mail line of the role, and it also gives the role the artMail item in the sidebar.

• It is on for the Owner and Admins.
• It is off for every other role.
• The Owner or an Admin can switch it on for one person with Just for that person.

Someone without it does not see artMail in the sidebar, and the server refuses anything they try to send.

Who will receive a message

Only your gallery’s own current members who have a member portal login. Archived members and former members never receive one. Guest artists receive messages only if you open artMail to guests: in the sidebar click Artists, press Guest portal and tick artMail (Owners and Admins; it starts off). CartonCrew works the list out itself; nothing typed about a person decides who gets a message.

Send a message

1. In the sidebar click artMail. It opens on Compose.
2. Under To, choose who it goes to:
   • All members: everyone above.
   • A segment: members narrowed by what they are (see Send to a segment).
   • Board Members: the members on your board today, the whole board or some roles (see Send to the board). Shown only when your gallery has the Board Portal on and at least one seat counts today.
   • A distribution list: a named list of members your senders keep (see Distribution lists).
   • People I pick: type in Find a member and tick each person.
3. Below that, the box says Goes to and the number of people. Click it to show the list: these are exactly the people the message will reach. For Board Members or A distribution list, anyone it will not reach is listed under Not sent to, with why and what to do about it.
4. Type the Subject.
5. Write the Message. You can use bold, italics, headings, lists and links; a link opens in a new tab for the member.
6. To add a file, use Files (up to 10 files, 10 MB each). The line under Files says what can be attached: PDF, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, text/CSV or a picture (PNG, JPEG, WebP, GIF), up to 10 MB each. The file picker offers only those types. Any other file (a web page, a program, a zip) is refused as soon as you choose it, with a message naming the file and the types allowed, and nothing is uploaded. Each file is stored privately; members download it through the portal. To take a file off again, press Remove beside it.
7. Tick any of:
   • Urgent: the member sees an Urgent marker on it.
   • Also email it to everyone, including members who have not turned on email copies: shown once Urgent is ticked. Every member the message goes to also gets it by email, whatever their own setting (see Email copies and text nudges). Use it for what cannot wait, such as a closure.
   • Requires acknowledgement: the member gets an Acknowledge button, and you see who pressed it.
   • Send later: choose the date and time in Send at.
8. Press Send to and the number of people (or Schedule), then confirm.

The message opens once it is sent, with its numbers. A sent message cannot be edited or deleted. To correct one while some members have not read it, use Recall and replace (below); after everyone has read it, send a new message.

Send to a segment

A segment narrows your members by any of these (all of them together, if you choose more than one):

• Membership type: Members, Show artists or Guest artists (their type on the Artists page).
• Member or guest: members only, guests only, or both.
• In a show: the artists with a work in the show or featured in it.
• Dues this month: Paid, Due, Overdue, Declined, On an arrangement or Not set, as the dues board shows them. Only people who can see the dues board see this choice.
• Board Members only: the members on your board today, with Board roles to narrow it to some roles (none ticked is the whole board). Offered when Board Members is (see Send to the board).

To keep a segment for next time:

1. In Compose, under To, choose A segment and set it up.
2. Type a name in Save this segment as (for example, Spring show artists).
3. Press Save segment.

Next time, pick it from A saved segment. A saved segment remembers what to narrow by, not who: it is worked out again from your current members every time you use it. To remove one, pick it and press Delete this segment. Messages already sent are not changed.

Send to the board

Board Members sends to the people on your board, read from the roster in the Board Portal (in the sidebar click Board, then Members). That is where an Owner or Admin sets who is on the board and their seat; see Board Portal.

A seat counts when it is active and today is within its term: no term start, or a start today or earlier, and no term end, or an end today or later (today in your gallery’s time zone). An inactive seat, a term that has ended and a term that has not started yet are left out.

1. In Compose, under To, choose Board Members. The choice is only there when your gallery has the Board Portal on and at least one seat counts today.
2. To send to some roles only, tick them under Board roles (for example Chair and Treasurer). Each role shows how many seats hold it today. With none ticked, it goes to the whole board.
3. Check the Goes to box, then write and send as usual.

A message reaches a board member through their member record (their entry on the Artists page) and its member-portal login, the same way every artMail reaches a member. Someone on the board twice (two seats) gets one copy. A seat that cannot be reached is listed under Not sent to, with what to do:

• no member record: the seat is held by a staff login that has no member record at your gallery. Add them on the Artists page as a member with a member-portal login on the same account, or in Board → Members remove the seat and add it again choosing their member record.
• cannot receive mail here: the seat names a member record with no member-portal login, or a member who is archived or no longer current. Invite them to the member portal from the Artists page (or restore their membership).

Nothing is sent or emailed to a seat on the Not sent to list. A board roster is only ever your own gallery’s: another organization’s board members are never included.

To keep a board audience for next time, use A segment, tick Board Members only and any roles, and save it like any segment. It is worked out again from the roster each time.

Distribution lists

A distribution list is a named list of members you choose by hand, for example Hanging committee, kept for the next message. Lists are shared by everyone at your gallery who can send artMail, and each shows who changed it last and when.

Make a list:

1. In Compose, under To, choose A distribution list.
2. Type a name in New list name and press Create list. Names are 1 to 80 characters and must differ from your other lists’ names.
3. Pick people in Add a member and press Add, one at a time. Only your gallery’s current members who can receive artMail can be added; anyone else is refused and nothing is saved.

Change a list: choose it under Distribution list. Press Remove beside a member to take them off, Add to add one, or change List name and press Rename. Delete this list removes it. Every change records who made it and when.

Send to a list: choose it under Distribution list, check the Goes to box and send. A list is worked out again each time you send: anyone on it who has since left, been archived or lost their member-portal login is shown under Not sent to (no longer a live member) and is not sent to. A member on several lists gets one copy of each message. Deleting a list never changes a message already sent to it.

Scheduled messages

A message sent with Send later waits until its time. Members cannot see it until then. CartonCrew releases scheduled messages every 5 minutes during the day (up to 30 minutes late overnight), checks them again for private numbers, and delivers them. Until its time it is listed in Sent as Scheduled.

The Sent folder

In the sidebar click artMail, then Sent. Every message you sent or scheduled is listed newest first, with whether it is Sent, Scheduled or Not sent (and Recalled, Replaced or Corrected version after a recall), and its numbers: how many it was sent to, opened, acknowledged, replied and unread.

Who has read a message

1. In artMail click Sent.
2. Click the message’s subject.
3. Who has read it shows each number: Sent, Delivered, Opened, Acknowledged, Replied and Not read yet. Click a number to see the names behind it.

A message counts as read when the member opens it in the member portal. Opening the email does not count.

Who downloaded the files

When a message has files attached, the message’s page also shows Who downloaded the files:

1. In artMail click Sent.
2. Click the message’s subject.
3. Under Who downloaded the files, each file shows how many of the members it was sent to have downloaded it, for example “price-list.pdf: downloaded by 3 of 12 recipients”.
4. The table below shows each member and each file sent to them: Downloaded (Yes or No), First downloaded (the date and time of their first download, in your gallery’s time zone from Settings), and Downloads (how many times they downloaded it).

A download counts when the member downloads the file from the member portal, including downloads made before this was added. When staff view a member’s portal, nothing they download counts.

Print a message

1. In the sidebar click artMail, then Sent.
2. Click the message’s subject.
3. Click Print, next to the subject.
4. Your browser’s print window opens. Choose your printer, or Save as PDF.

The printout is the message only, laid out the way your members see theirs: your gallery’s logo and name, artMail, the subject, the words Urgent, Corrected or Recalled where they apply, From your gallery, To the number of recipients (for example To: 12 recipients, never their names), and when it was Sent. Then the message with its pictures, and every reply in order (members’ replies and your one-to-one answers), each under a line saying who wrote it and when. A link prints its web address after the link text. Files are listed by name and size with Not printed. Open in artMail to download.

It never prints Who has read it, the numbers, Who downloaded the files, Recall or the reply boxes. The foot says Printed by your name and the date; Chrome and Edge also number each page (Page 1 of 2), other browsers leave the page numbers out.

Every time in the Sent and Replies lists, on the message page and on the printout is your gallery’s time zone (set in Settings), with the zone named (for example Oct 21, 2026, 3:05 PM EDT), so a message shows the same time wherever you look at it. When no time zone is set, it is your computer’s, still named.

Resend to the members who have not read it

1. Open the message from Sent.
2. Under Who has read it, press the button that says “Resend to the 4 who have not read it” (with your own number), then confirm.

This sends a new message, with the same subject, text, files and flags, to exactly the members who have not opened the original, and logs it with a link to the original. The original is not changed. Someone who has left the gallery since is skipped, and so is anyone it was recalled from.

Recall a message

If you sent something by mistake, or to the wrong people, you can take it back from everyone who has not read it yet. There is no time limit: you can recall it for as long as at least one member has not opened it. Anyone who has already read it keeps it.

1. In artMail click Sent.
2. Click the message’s subject.
3. Under Who has read it, press Recall, then confirm.

The message disappears from the inbox of every member who had not opened it: it is no longer listed, it no longer counts in their unread number, and it and its files cannot be opened, even from a link they saved. You are told the result, for example “Recalled from 12; 5 had already read it and keep it.”

Email copies and texts. Any email copy or text about the message that had not gone out yet is cancelled for the members it was recalled from. An email copy that had already been sent cannot be pulled back out of their email: you are told how many had gone and to whom, so you can contact them yourself if it matters. artMail never sends a “please disregard” email.

When everybody has read a message, Recall is not offered any more.

Recall and replace

Use this to correct a message (a wrong date, a missing file) for the members who have not read it yet, and to tell those who have read it.

1. Open the message from Sent.
2. Under Who has read it, press Recall and replace.
3. Change the Subject and the Corrected message. Under Keep these files, untick any file of the original you do not want to send again, and add new files if you need to (up to 10 in all, 10 MB each, the same kinds as a new message).
4. Press Recall and send the corrected version, then confirm.

The corrected version is checked exactly like a new message: a private number in it is refused (see below) and nothing changes, the original stays where it was. Who it goes to, Urgent and Requires acknowledgement are kept from the original.

What members see:

• A member who had not read the original gets the corrected version in its place: one unread message, not two.
• A member who had read the original keeps it, and gets the corrected version as a new message marked Corrected.
• Email copies follow the usual rule: members who turned email copies on (or everyone, if the original was an urgent message emailed to everyone) are emailed the corrected version, including those whose copy of the original had already gone out. Queued copies and texts of the original are cancelled as with Recall.

What is kept after a recall

The recalled message is kept in the gallery’s own record for the usual 7 years (and removed by the 7-year clean-up and a member’s erasure, as any message is), so you can still open it from Sent. The message’s page shows Recalled or Replaced, when and by whom, how many inboxes it was taken back from, and a link between the original and its corrected version. The members it was recalled from never see it again. Replies that members had already sent stay in Replies.

Replies

When a member replies, it comes to your staff only.

1. In the sidebar click artMail, then Replies. Each reply shows the member’s name, the message it answers and when; Answered shows you have replied to it.
2. Click the message’s subject to open the conversation.
3. Under the member’s reply, type in Reply to and the member’s name, then press Send reply.

Your answer goes to that member only: nobody else who got the message sees it or their reply. To get back to the list, press Back to Sent.

Email copies and text nudges

Members read artMail in the member portal. Two things can tell them a message has arrived:

• An email copy. A member who ticks Email me a copy of each artMail message on their artMail tab gets each message you send them by email too: the subject, the whole message text and a Reply in the portal button that opens it in the portal. Formatting and files stay in the portal; the email says how many files there are. Every member starts with this off; only the member can turn it on, and they can turn it off again there or with the unsubscribe link in any copy (which turns it off for your gallery only).
• No text nudge for now. artMail sends no text when a message arrives. On a member’s artMail page, Text me when I have new artMail is shown off and greyed out with the note Text reminders for artMail are set in the Text Alerts section of My Profile. (a link to the Text Alerts section of their My Profile), and it cannot be turned on. This holds even for members who had it on before, and even if your gallery has Text Alerts on. Your other Text Alerts messages are not affected.
• The unread reminder is a Text Alerts category instead. If your gallery switches on artMail notifications, such as unread messages in Settings → Text Alerts (only after its Campaign covers them), a member who agreed to that wording and has not opened a message for four hours gets at most one text a day, between 9 AM and 8 PM, saying how many messages are unread. They manage it in the Text Alerts section of their My Profile (they press Me, then My Profile, then scroll to Text Alerts), with the artMail notifications switch there; that switch is the only thing a member sets that decides it. What a member’s greyed-out Text me when I have new artMail switch held before does not matter.

When you tick Urgent you can also tick Also email it to everyone, including members who have not turned on email copies. Every member the message goes to then gets the email copy, whatever their setting, and the Sent folder shows Emailed to everyone on that message.

Good to know:

• Read still means opened in the portal. Reading the email copy, or clicking its button, does not count as reading the message. Only opening it in the portal does.
• Members should reply in the portal, so the reply reaches you with the message.
• A scheduled message is emailed when it is sent, not when you schedule it.
• Your replies to one member are emailed to that member only, the same way.
• If the email service is down, the message still lands in every member’s portal; the copy that failed is not sent again.
• Every email copy is logged, with who sent the message and whether it went.

The Report

The Report shows who has and has not read your mail, so you can show what members were told and whether they read it. Anyone who can send artMail can open it; members and staff without that setting cannot.

1. In the sidebar click artMail, then Report.
2. To look at part of the year, choose dates in From and To and press Show. Press All time to clear them. Dates are your gallery’s own (the time zone in Settings).
3. Read the tables:
   • Read rate by message: each message you sent, when, how many it reached, how many opened it, the read rate and how many acknowledged it, plus Files (how many files were attached) and Downloaded a file (how many members downloaded at least one of them), Status (Sent, Recalled, Replaced or Correction) and Recalled from (how many unread inboxes it was taken back from).
   • Read rate by member: for each member, how many messages they received, how many they opened, their read rate and when they last opened one.
   • Read rate by month: messages delivered and opened each month. This table needs your gallery’s time zone; until it is set in Settings, the table asks you to set it.
   • Never read: the members who received mail in the period and opened none of it, with how many they received and when the last one was sent.
   • Blocked sends: each message that was not sent because it held a private number (see below): the date, who tried to send it, at which step (sending, scheduling, a scheduled send, a reply), which part of the message, what kind of number and how many. The number itself is never shown.
   • Attachment downloads: one row for each member and each file sent to them: the message, the member, the file, Downloaded (Yes or No), First downloaded (date and time in your gallery’s time zone) and Downloads (how many times).
4. To keep a copy, press Export CSV beside a table. The file has exactly the rows and columns on the screen for the same dates, plus an id column for each row. A subject or name that begins with =, +, - or @ is saved with an apostrophe in front, so a spreadsheet shows it as text instead of running it.

A message counts as read when the member opens it in the member portal. Opening an email copy does not count. A member erased at their request shows as Erased member. The report only ever shows your own gallery’s mail.

What your members see

• An artMail page in the member portal, under Me next to My Profile, with a red count of the messages they have not opened. The same count shows on the Me button.
• An Inbox, newest first, and Archived beside it.
• Each message with its formatting and its files, which they download through the portal (a file is never sent to them as a public link).
• Reply to the gallery: the reply comes to staff only.
• Acknowledge, only on a message you marked Requires acknowledgement.
• Archive and Move back to the inbox. Nothing is deleted.
• Email copies: while artMail is on, a copy of each email CartonCrew sends a member for your gallery (a piece sold, an updated sale, a payout, their week of shifts, a shift that needs somebody, a change to their shifts, a gallery notice, an invitation) is kept and listed in their inbox, read only, with its links working. Only that member can read their copies, not you and not other members. Emails sent before you turned artMail on are not added. A copy of an invitation links to your portal, not to the one-time invitation link.

While you view a member’s portal to help them, you see their artMail as they do, but you cannot reply, acknowledge or archive for them, and your looking does not count as them opening a message.

The rules it follows

• Replies come to gallery staff only. There is no reply-all and members cannot message each other.
• A message counts as read when the member opens it in the member portal. Opening the email does not count.
• You can mark a message Requires acknowledgement.
• A sent message cannot be edited or deleted. While at least one member has not read it, you can recall it from the unread inboxes, or recall it and send a corrected version; members who read it keep it. An email copy already sent cannot be pulled back.
• Messages can be scheduled to send later.
• Attachments can be up to 10 MB each and are stored privately.
• Members can archive a message but never delete it.
• Email copies are off for every member until they turn them on; an urgent message can be emailed to everyone. artMail sends no text nudge for now.
• Every send, schedule, open, acknowledgement, reply, archive, email copy and text nudge is logged.
• Mail and its log are kept for 7 years. Each night CartonCrew deletes a conversation (with its files) 7 years after anything last happened on it, and a member’s stored copy of a platform email (a sale, a payout, a notice) 7 years after it was sent. The log of what was sent, opened and acknowledged is never deleted.
• If a member asks for erasure, ask ChAImp support to erase their mail. The messages that were theirs alone (what they wrote, what was sent to them alone) lose their text and files, their name and email on each message are removed, and their email copies are deleted. A message sent to several members keeps its text and files for everyone else. The log keeps each event with the person’s identity replaced by a placeholder, and the Report shows them as Erased member.
• When you erase a patron (on Patrons), their name and email in your members’ copies of the sold and payout emails are replaced by “Patron details removed for compliance reasons”. The rest of the email is unchanged.
• Your gallery’s mail is completely separate. No other organization can address or read your members or your mail, and you cannot reach theirs.

Private numbers are blocked

artMail will not send a message that contains a private number. If CartonCrew finds one, the message is not sent, nothing is saved, and you see what to fix under the message: which part of the message (the subject, the message text, or an attached file by its name) and what kind of number it looks like. The number itself is never shown back, saved or written to any log. There is no “send anyway”: take the number out and send again.

What it looks for:

• Social Security numbers, written 123-45-6789, 123 45 6789 or as nine digits together.
• Payment card numbers (Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover and other card networks), with or without spaces or dashes. Only real card numbers are caught, so an order number or a long SKU goes through.
• Bank routing and account numbers: a routing number together with an account number, or with a word such as routing, account or ABA nearby.
• Driver’s license and passport numbers, when the words driver’s license, license number, DL or passport come just before the number. The same code on its own, with no such word, goes through.

Prices, dates, phone numbers such as (555) 123-4567, ZIP codes and SKUs are not blocked.

Attachments. PDF, Word (.docx) and text files are read too, and the message is blocked if one of them contains a private number. Pictures are not read. A PDF or Word file that cannot be read, such as one with a password to open it or a damaged file, is not sent either: attach a copy without the password.

Scheduled messages are checked when you schedule them and again just before they go out. If a scheduled message contains a private number when its time comes, it is not delivered, and its text is removed.

Members’ replies follow the same rule: a reply with a private number is not sent, and the member is told which kind of number to take out.

Each blocked message is recorded in the artMail log with who tried to send it, which part of the message held the number and what kind it was. You see them under Blocked sends on the Report tab.