3/20/2024
Some volunteers using Hotmail, Outlook, Live, and MSN email accounts are not receiving messages from SignUp Genius
No invites on Thursday or Sundays.
No messages about new volunteer activities or education events.
No reminders about events that you already signed up for.
If it sounds like you, you're not alone.
For the past year, we have known that emails from SignUp Genius are not reaching some of our RCMG volunteers, specifically those volunteers using Hotmail, Outlook, Live, and MSN email addresses. This accounts for about 10% of Master Gardener volunteers all over the state and probably the country.
What is Happening
First, this isn't anything YOU did. This was caused by a change made by the owner of all of these email domains— Microsoft. The Microsoft corporation enabled more stringent spam filters and security measures to protect users like you from getting unwanted message. Unfortunately, these protections can also sometimes affect the deliverability of legitimate emails that you want—like the RCMG messages from SignUp Genius.
How to Fix the Problem
We've been working closely with the tech support folks at SignUp Genius and these are the steps that they recommend to fix the situation. If you find yourself not receiving messages, please try these first before contact Brianna or Darren.
Check Spam/Junk Folders Please check your spam or junk folders within your Hotmail, Outlook, Live, or MSN email accounts. Sometimes, the missing emails are automatically redirected to these folders. If you find the missing emails, sometimes moving it to the inbox and making a note within your email tool to mark info@signupgenius.com as a trusted sender will fix the issue.
Whitelist The SignUp Genius Domain To ensure the successful delivery of emails, consider adding the SignUp Genius contact information— info@signupgenius.com—to your email whitelist or safe sender list. This helps your email provider recognize these emails as legitimate and desirable, preventing them from being marked as spam. If you are not sure how to do this, you can look up instructions for "how to whitelist an email" for your specific email provider, Hotmail, Outlook, Live, MSN, or any other email provider.
Contact your Microsoft Email Service ProvidedIf you find that the SignUp Genius emails are not reaching your inbox or spam folder, you can try contacting Microsoft's customer support team to alert them that emails need to be delivered correctly. Please let the team at Microsoft know about this issue, and they might be able to help you adjust the settings to receive emails from our domain.
Use a Different Email Address If the issue continues and you still don't emails from SignUpGenius on your Hotmail, Outlook, Live, or MSN account, we recommend using an alternative email address for receiving SignUp Genius messages. If you have a different email, please let Brianna or Darren know so we can make that change to the RCMG mailing list for SignUp Genius. Note: So far, this has been the most successful option for other volunteers.
What If This Doesn't Work
We are keeping an eye on this situation and are actively looking for solutions that work for everyone. Unfortunately, there aren't any good options right now. For the time being, you will probably have to be more proactive when it comes to SignUp Genius.
Log in and check out the SignUp Genius Calendar to see upcoming events
Add events to your personal calendar to get automatic reminders
Make sure your email and phone number are added to your SignUp Genius account to make it easier for Project Leads to contact you in case of emergency changes to an activity (e.g. cancelation, new times, etc)
We all hope that there is a better solution forthcoming but it's not here yet. We very much appreciate your patience with RCMG and SignUp Genius as we try to figure out what to do next.
If you have questions (suggestions!) or need additional help, please contact Brianna or Darren.
Brianna Gohde
Assistant Program Coordinator / RCMG Volunteer