Committee role mailboxes and inbox notifications

The recommended way to run committee email is the shared inbox.

Mail sent to a role address (for example walks@your-group.org.uk) is delivered into Admin → Inbox. The committee reads and replies there. Replies go out from the role address, and the conversation stays with the role when the person holding it changes. Several people can be notified that new mail has arrived, without copying the message into personal inboxes.

The older Email Forwarding guide uses a Cloudflare worker to copy role mail on to personal inboxes. That is still supported if a site already uses it. It is not the path to choose for a new setup.

If the shared inbox is not connected yet, set that up first:

This page is what you do after that: several addresses on one role, and several people notified when mail arrives.

Where to configure it

What Where
Role addresses and Brevo senders Admin → Committee Settings → edit a role → Outbound Email
Who is notified when new mail arrives Admin → Mail Settings → Inbox → Role mailboxes
Your own notify choice Profile → Email Subscriptions → Inbox notifications
Read and reply Admin → Inbox

Several addresses on one role

One role can have more than one address on your group's domain. Mail to any of them arrives in the same inbox for that role. When you send, you can choose any of them as From.

Open Admin → Committee Settings, edit the role, and open Outbound Email.

Committee Settings → Outbound Email: generated role and name addresses, default sender, extra local-part field, and the Brevo senders list for this role.

Addresses that appear automatically

NGX creates two addresses for you when it can:

They use the group's domain. You do not type the @domain part.

If the role already had a stored address that is neither of those (a leftover such as walks@), that stays in the list until you remove it.

Extra addresses

Type only the local part (the bit before @) and choose Add. NGX rejects an @ in that field. Every address on the list uses the group's domain.

Pick the default sender with the radio button. That is the From address when this role sends mail, unless you choose a different one in the composer.

Save the role (and Committee Settings) so extras persist. You do not have to create Brevo senders in order to save the addresses.

Register the addresses in Brevo

Mail cannot be sent from an address until it is a Brevo sender.

  1. Use Create Senders for any role address that is not registered yet.
  2. View senders opens the Brevo senders list on this page (it does not take you to Mail Settings).
  3. This role (the default) shows senders for this role. All senders shows every sender in the Brevo account.
  4. Mapped means the address is on this role's mailbox list. If you remove an address from the list above, the Brevo sender stays. Mapped switches to a cross: it still exists in Brevo, it is just not attached to the role. Delete it with the bin if you no longer want it.
  5. If two Brevo records share the same address (an old name and a new name), a Duplicate Brevo senders warning lists the address. Keep the one named like Role (Person) and delete the extra.

The sender Name in Brevo is set when the sender is created, as role description (full name). Older records may show only the person's name. Update Sender Name renames a record. It does not merge two records for the same address.

View senders on the role, defaulting to This role. Mapped means the address is on this role's list.

Several people notified for one role

The shared inbox is one mailbox per role. Notification is separate: an email (and optional browser notification) that says new mail has arrived. More than one person can be notified for the same role, including a role that has no assigned member.

This applies however the shared inbox receives mail: direct delivery through Cloudflare, or a connected Gmail account.

In Mail Settings (the full list)

Open Admin → Mail Settings, Inbox tab, and scroll to Role mailboxes.

Each role address is a row. Extra addresses for that role are listed under it. For Notify, choose one of:

Changes here save as you go (you will see Saved). You do not need to open Committee Settings to add a second person.

Roles and who holds them are still set in Committee Settings. This list only decides who is notified.

Mail Settings → Inbox → Role mailboxes: extra addresses listed under each role, and the notify choice (none, chosen people, or the same list as another role).

In your profile (your own choice)

Profile → Email Subscriptions → Inbox notifications lists the role addresses assigned to you.

For each one, choose:

You also see who else is assigned to that role. Use Save on the profile page. That change stays in step with the Mail Settings list.

Profile → Email Subscriptions → Inbox notifications: your own notify choice for a role address assigned to you.

What stays the same

Common scenarios

"Two people share Walks and both need to know when mail arrives"

Keep one Walks role and one shared inbox. On Mail Settings → Inbox → Role mailboxes, set Walks to Chosen members or addresses and add both people. They both open Admin → Inbox for that role. Each can turn their own notify email on or off in Profile → Email Subscriptions.

"We want walks@ and jane.doe@ to be the same mailbox"

On the Walks role, keep the generated role address, add jane.doe as an extra (or use the generated full-name address), set the default sender, Create Senders, and Save.

"I removed an extra address and it vanished from the mailbox list, but it is still in Brevo"

That is expected. Open View senders, stay on This role, and you should still see it with Mapped as a cross. Delete it from Brevo if you do not need it.

"We still forward role mail to personal inboxes"

See Email Forwarding. That is the older worker path and is not recommended for new setup.

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