Messages to your team
Messages is one conversation per team. You post, and each player’s guardian, or the player where there is no guardian, reads it and can reply.
Where it is
Messages holds every conversation you have in the Team Hub, like a messaging app: your team’s thread at the top, then your groups and direct messages. On a computer the list is on the left and the open conversation on the right; on a phone, tap one to open it and Back to return to the list.
Each conversation shows how many messages you haven’t read, the same number the menu adds up. Those with something unread come first, in a highlighted Unread box with that total, then the rest, latest first.
Pin a conversation to the top with the pin on its row; tap it again to unpin. Pinned ones sit above everything else except the Unread box; a pinned conversation with something new leads that box. Your pins are yours: nobody else’s list moves. You can pin up to five.
Posting
Tap Messages in the menu and open your team at the top of the list. Press the button in the bottom corner and choose Write a message, write it, and tap Post. Inside a conversation that button offers just two things, Write a message and New poll; starting a group or a direct message is done from the list. Everyone in the team is told by email that you’ve posted, without what you said: they read it on LEKKIN. Anyone who has turned on notifications gets a buzz on their phone too, saying who posted and where.
Only the team’s coaches can start a post. Everyone else replies under it. A reply doesn’t email anybody, so a thread of “thanks” doesn’t fill thirty inboxes.
Asking the squad a poll
Need a quick answer from everyone, like which day suits an extra session? Ask a poll. In the team’s messages, press the button in the bottom corner and choose New poll, write your question, and add between two and ten answers. Then choose:
- People can choose more than one, or leave it as one answer each;
- Hide who answered what: you’ll see how many chose each answer, but not who;
- Let everyone see the results: the squad sees how many chose each answer, never who;
- a closing time, if you want one.
Tap Ask. Each player answers, or their guardian answers for them, and they can change their answer until the poll closes. Everyone in the squad is told by email that there’s a poll to answer.
Under the poll you’ll see how many chose each answer, who answered what (unless you hid it), and who still hasn’t answered. Remind them sends one reminder to everyone who hasn’t answered; a poll only gets one, so nobody is chased twice. Close poll stops any more answers; the results stay. Every poll is listed on the Polls tab beside the team’s messages.
Only the team’s coaches can ask a poll.
Pinning a message
Something everyone needs to find again, like the kit list or the season’s dates? Pin it. Tap the pin beside the message. It stays where it is in the thread, marked with a pin, and it also shows at the top of the conversation, where a tap takes you straight to it. Pin as many as you need (up to ten); with more than one, the top says 1 of 3, and each tap moves on to the next. Tap the pin on the message again to unpin it.
Only staff can pin a message: in the team’s thread, its managers and the club’s admins and team management; in a group, the people who run it. Everyone in the conversation sees what’s pinned. A message the Welfare Officer hides is unpinned.
Who is in it
- The team’s managers, and anyone with team management at the club.
- From the squad, each player’s guardians, or the player where no guardian is recorded.
- On a youth team, a player with no guardian recorded is left out until the club records one. A team counts as youth when its age group is a junior one (Under 18s and younger, the Bee Netball stages, netball’s Under 19s and rugby’s Colts), unless the club has said otherwise on the team.
The club’s Welfare Officer can read every team’s messages without being in them, and so can the club’s admins.
Who’s in it lists them: the staff, then each player with who reads for them, and any youth player left out, so you can see who it doesn’t reach. On a computer it’s beside the messages; on a phone, press Who’s in it above them. Players and guardians see the same list, without the players it leaves out.
Things to know
- The team’s thread is said to the whole team. For a word with one colleague use a direct message; for a smaller set of people, a group.
- Nothing can be edited or deleted once it’s posted, by you or anyone else. Read it through before you post.
- Anyone can report a post. The club’s Welfare Officer is told, and can hide it with a reason. Everybody then sees that something was hidden, not what it said.
- Messages are kept for two years, or six where something in the thread was reported or hidden.
When someone replies, the Messages tab shows how many you haven’t read.