Updates are everything in the software world, and without quality updates and timely information your awesome software product could be yesterday’s wasted effort. From time to time, users of Arena “need” to be informed. How do you keep up with the latest trends, newest Arena modules, and how can you vote on someone’s great idea if you have never seen it? Well, I thought I would share one the ways I keep up with the constant flow of information that comes from the Community - I subscribe to the Arena Community forums and read them in my e-mail client.

I use Microsoft Outlook as my e-mail client, but you could do the same thing in Google Gmail or any email client that provides rules or filtering.  

Start by going into the Community website and subscribe to your choice of forums:

1. Log on to community.arenachms.com.

2. Go to your settings by clicking your username in the top right-hand corner. Click the Email Tab and choose the type of emails you wish to receive.

3. Click the “Forums” tab.  On the far right hand side of the navigation bar you will see a “Forum Subscriptions” hyperlink. Click the link and check “Subscribe” on all of the forums that you would like to monitor.

4. Scroll down to the bottom and click the “Save” button.

In your e-mail client, create rules to filter e-mail from the Community:

5.  In Microsoft Outlook, right-click a message in your Inbox from the Community and select “Create rule…”. In Gmail, check on the message and click on “Create a filter”.

6. Configure the conditions and actions to fit your needs… redirect to subfolders, forward to other users,  mark with a label, etc.

Encourage everyone in your ministry team to subscribe to the forums in their areas of interest.  Share these e-mail filtering tips to keep them informed with minimal effort. It’s a great way to help them see what other churches are discussing, creating, and voting for.

Hopefully this is something that will help you stay up to speed with this ever growing product. It certainly helps me!  


Chris Rivers