About BPN Newsletters

Posting to the Newsletters

Receiving & Reading the Newsletters

What is the deadline for posting?

The deadline for posting is 24 hours before the newsletter will be mailed (see days above), so get your post in no later than the day before, in the morning.  However, keep in mind that all posts must be approved by the moderator first, so to be on the safe side, post 4-5 days earlier so there is enough time for you to make corrections if the moderator returns your post.


How do I subscribe to or unsubscribe from the newsletters?

Login to the BPN website and go to your account page by clicking "my account" in the upper right corner. Click the tab that says "Edit my account."  Scroll down until you see the section called "BPN Newsletters."  Check each newsletter you want to subscribe to, or uncheck the ones you don't want to receive.


I am unable to subscribe to the newsletters

If you are trying to subscribe to newsletters on your account page, and currently none of the newsletters are checked, you might get an error "There was a problem with your newsletter signup."  when you try to change your settings.  This might have happened if you clicked MailChimp's Unsubscribe link on a BPN newsletter you received in the past, or it might just be an error condition.   Please contact us and we'll give you instructions about how to sign up again for BPN newsletters. 


How do I post to the newsletters?

Click "Post a Message" either in the main menu or on your account page. You will be taken to a page that displays the listings that you have access to post to. Note that not all subscribers can post to all newsletters.  See Why can't I post to all the newsletters?


Why isn't my post in the newsletter?

First, check the status of your post on your account page to confirm when you posted and whether your post was approved.  (Click 'my account' in the upper right corner of the BPN website to go to your account page.)  Don't see your post on your account page?  That means your post was not submitted to BPN and you need to submit it again.

Here are some of the reasons why your post might not be in the current newsletter:

  1. You posted more than 7 days ago. The newsletters are a summary of the most recent posts only (past 7 days), not all the posts that are currently active on the website. See Listings & Postings in the main menu to view all active posts.
  2. You posted about an event is more than 10 days in the future. The Announcements newsletter contains only events coming up in the next 10 days.
  3. Your post was not approved by the moderator. Check your account page for the reason. 
  4. You filled out the posting form but you did not complete the submission all the way to the "Save" button. Post again.

Why can't I post to all the newsletters?

Different subscribers have different access. Only parent subscribers can post a question or response to Parent Q&A (see Why only parents can post reviews and advice) .  Only parents can post to the parent sections of Childcare.  Only nannies and babysitters can post to the nanny sections of Childcare. Only tutors can post to the Tutor Listing. And only schools, classes, camps, businesses, and organizations can post to Announcements (see Why can't parents post announcements?   

See Where Can I Post? for details about which subscribers can post to which listings.


Why do I have to login to the website each time I want to read a post?

Two of the newsletters - Parent Q&A and Parents of Teens - publish posts in full, and these posts are publicly available, so you can read these posts in the newsletters. The other newsletters (Announcements, Childcare, and Marketplace) publish only the title of each post in the newsletter. If you want to read a post, you click a title in the newsletter, which is a link to the full post on the website. Whether you have to login when you do that depends on whether the post is public or subscribers-only.  Announcements and events are publicly available - you do not need to be a BPN subscriber to read them, so you don't have to be logged in on the website. However, posts in the Childcare and Marketplace newsletters can be viewed only by BPN subscribers. Therefore, if you click a link in either the Childcare or Marketplace newsletter, and you are not already logged in to the BPN website, you will get an "Access Denied" error.


Why are my BPN newsletters going to my Spam folder?

You might have a filter on your email account that is moving BPN to Spam or Trash.

Instructions for Gmail accounts:

Check your filters: Login to gmail.com and click the gear icon in the upper right corner and then choose Settings. Click "Filters and Blocked Addresses" at the top. If you have inadvertently set up a filter, you'll see it here. We recommend getting rid of all filters until you can figure out what the problem is.

How to make sure gmail never puts BPN mail in your Spam folder:  Login at gmail.com and find a BPN newsletter - you might need to look in Spam or Trash. Click on the newsletter to select it. Then click More at the top and choose "Filter messages like these". You'll get a pop-up box that has BPN's email address in "From." At the bottom of that box, click "Create filter with this search." Now make sure no boxes are checked EXCEPT "Never sent to Spam" and click Create filter. That should do it.