Pauline,
Nice to see a new team starting in that area. I taught at El Rancho HS up the street from Santa Fe Springs for 8 years, and mentored a team there for 2. Getting a company to allow the team to work off campus is a HUGE plus, and having tools available is a HUGE ++.
For our team we have been using google groups to email students. I am going to start using Remind to send texts too. Here is our general process:
- Google form to collect Name, Email, and Grade level (also do this for mentors and for parents)
- Make Google Group for each grade level (I do this to allow for targeted emails). I give them names like "viking-robotics-co2016" (for the class of 2016) so students keep the same group throughout HS.
- I then make sure the posting preferences for the groups allow anyone to send an email to it, thus avoiding most spam filter issues.
- And new for this year I sent out a Remind.com invite to those student groups. Now I can send a quick text to everyone about meetings, etc.
A couple of issues with google groups is you can only add 10 users at a time, and sometimes a non-member of a group, like a parent, will have their message send to spam regardless of my settings.
Hope this helps. Any questions, ask me or Madhav.