Getting AI Help Writing an Email

The email to parents is usually the last job of the evening, and it is the one everybody reads. The writing bar sits at the top of the email composer and can draft one for you, tidy up what you have written, or read it back and tell you what is missing.

Nothing is ever sent for you. Everything it does lands in the composer as an ordinary draft, and you still press Send.

Where to find it#

Open the composer any of the usual ways — Email → Email Actions → New Email, or Message Parents from a member list. The writing bar is the strip just below the Subject line, above the formatting buttons.

The three things it does#

The big button changes to suit what you are doing. On an empty email it reads Write draft; once there is a message it reads Polish.

Asking for a change in your own words#

The box is the main control, and plain English works best. Things leaders actually type:

• make it shorter
• mention that the deposit is non-refundable
• friendlier, and say the coach leaves at 8am sharp
• add a line asking parents to reply by Friday

You can go round again as many times as you like. Ask for one change, read it, then ask for another.

The three-dot menu holds a few ready-made ones — Make it warmer, Make it shorter, More formal, and Fix spelling and grammar only. That last one is the most cautious of the lot: it corrects mistakes and changes nothing else.

Check, for a second pair of eyes#

Check is the one to use if you would rather write the email yourself. It reads what you have written and gives you notes on the things parents most often get stuck on:

• A request to reply, with no date to reply by
• A cost mentioned, with no way to pay it
• Kit to bring, with no list or link
• Nobody named to ask a question
• A date or a venue that does not match the event the email is linked to

Each note tells you what is missing and what to do about it. Your message is not touched — the panel says so every time, and it is true: Check has no way to edit your email at all.

Changing your mind#

Anything applied to your email goes in as a single edit, so one undo puts your exact wording back. Use the arrow in the writing bar, or press Ctrl+Z (Cmd+Z on a Mac).

After a change lands you get a short line underneath telling you what happened, with its own Undo next to it. That line stays until you start typing again.

Your merge fields are safe#

If your email uses merge fields like {{parent_first_name}} or {{child_first_name}}, they always come back. Scoutworks checks every rewrite before it reaches you and asks again if one has gone missing. On the rare occasion one still cannot be recovered, you get an amber line naming the exact field that went, so you can put it back before you send — you are never left to spot it yourself.

The line after a successful change names the fields that survived, for the same reason.

What is sent, and what is not#

Scoutworks sends your subject, your message, whether the email is going to parents, leaders or the waiting list, the list of merge fields you can use, and — if the email is linked to an event — that event's date, venue, cost and kit list.

It never sends a parent's name, a child's name, an email address, a phone number, or any medical or dietary information. Not even when you have a hundred recipients in the To field. You can read the same summary at any time from What gets sent to AI in the three-dot menu.

Nothing reaches a parent until you press Send.

How much you can use#

Every group gets a set number of AI uses each month, shared across all the AI features. The writing bar only shows a count when you are down to your last ten; otherwise you can see where you are in the three-dot menu, or in Settings. A Check counts the same as a rewrite.

If the month runs out, the bar tells you when it resets. Group admins also get the option to connect the group's own AI account under Settings → Integrations → AI provider, which removes the monthly limit and lets you choose which company handles your group's text.

Turning it on#

This feature is currently in beta. A group admin can switch it on under Settings → Beta Programme. Once it is on, the writing bar appears for every leader, group admin and trustee who opens the composer.

What's next#

• Sending Emails to Parents — the composer, recipients, and the quicker ways in
• Email Templates — save an email you will send again. Rewriting an email that started from a template only changes that email, never the template
• Branding Your Group's Emails — your logo, colours, and signature