Email for neighbourhood and residents' associations: notices every household receives

GetCommunityMail is an email announcement service built for residents' and neighbourhood associations: the committee sends to one list address from their normal inboxes, and every household on the list receives its own copy. Roadworks notices, planning applications, street party invitations and AGM papers reach residents directly, with a record the committee can point to.

The problems every residents' association knows

The list lives in a long-departed chair's Hotmail contacts. Notices go out in BCC and half land in spam. The residents most affected by the planning application are the ones not on the Facebook group. And when a resident insists they were never told about the parking consultation, there is nothing to show either way.

An association's authority rests on being able to say every member was properly notified. That is a channel and record-keeping problem, and it is the problem this service exists to solve.

How it works

Your association gets its own address, like elmstreet@lists.getcommunitymail.com. A committee member writes a normal email to that address, approves the preview that comes back, and every subscribed resident receives an individual copy. The planning PDF becomes a secure link automatically. New residents join through a signup page with confirm-by-email, so the list grows without anyone maintaining a spreadsheet.

Consultations, street parties and the AGM

Event invitations collect RSVPs with one click, so the street party knows its numbers. When the association ballots its members (contested committee elections, a levy, a response to a planning matter), each member receives a unique one-time voting link, secret ballots keep identity and choice separate by design, and the result comes with turnout figures for the minutes.

Common questions

Do residents need accounts? No. Residents receive email and click links; joining is a one-click confirmation from their own inbox.

One vote per household? Yes: households can be grouped so that ballots count one vote per household rather than per address on the list, matching most associations' rules.

Is this GDPR-compliant for a volunteer-run group? The mechanics the law expects are built in: recorded consent for every address, individual copies so addresses are never disclosed, immediate unsubscribes, and a list the committee controls rather than a personal account. Our GDPR guide for community groups covers the committee's side of the obligations.

What does it cost? The core service is free. Larger features (capacity, reminders, formal ballots, exports) are part of paid plans; see pricing.