Trail, facility and event tools

These tools were built for trail networks, but nothing about them is trail-only. A park can put a report keyword on a sign, a facility can let anyone text in a broken light, a club can log volunteer hours, and a race organizer can text one race's starters without bothering everyone else. Any RallyText team can turn them on.

Every tool starts switched off. Nothing changes for your members until a leader turns it on. Texted commands (reports, R-code replies, STATUS, HOURS, event keywords) need a two-way plan, because Pay As You Go numbers can't receive texts. Role names below are the defaults; your dashboard uses the labels for your organization type.

1. Report lines (per group)

A report line lets anyone, on your roster or not, text your team number to report something. Each group can have its own report keyword, so "TRAIL" reports go to the trail crew and "FIELD" reports go to the facilities group.

Where: Groups → open a group → Report line. Tick Turn on this group's report line, type a Report keyword (it has to be unique across your team's keywords), and pick a Kind.

• Maintenance (issues, damage) is the default. Use it for downed trees, washouts, broken lights.
• Help / urgent (lost, stuck, injured) marks every report URGENT. It goes to the group's leads and your head coach, assistant coach and team director, with no daily cap, even if billing is paused. The reporter's reply starts with "If anyone is hurt or in danger, call 911." RallyText passes the message to your people. It does not dispatch anyone.
• Lead: tick the Lead box next to a group member. Leads get that group's report texts. A group with no verified lead falls back to your head coach, assistant coach and team director.
• Map link: Include a "pin the exact spot" map link in the reply is on by default.
• Issue types (maintenance only): choose a preset (General, Trails & parks, or Fields & facilities) or type your own, one per line, up to 8. "I need help" is always added.

Texts with no keyword. Settings → Audience → Who can join by text → Public report line turns every text from a number not on your roster into a report. The Default report group for texts without a keyword picks whose leads get them; "Team leaders (default)" sends them to your head coach, assistant coach and team director. With the switch off, unknown numbers get the usual "not on the roster" reply, unless they sent a report in the last 7 days. Roster members' texts are routed as usual.

Who can change it: report line settings, the Lead box and the Public report line switch are head coach or team director only.

2. Pin the exact spot

When the map link is on, the reply carries a link to a pin page (rallytext.app/r/…). The reporter taps Use my location (on help lines, Share my location), then drags the pin or taps the map to fix it, adds an optional note and a what3words address if one is posted, and sends. The link works for 48 hours.

No data? Share from Messages. Out on a trail, GPS often works when mobile data doesn't, and a plain text often gets through on a weak signal. So the reply also says:

RallyText reads a location out of the report text, or a follow-up text sent within 7 days, and puts it on the report. It works with the common formats:

• Google Maps and Apple Maps links, including the short maps.app.goo.gl and maps.apple share links
• the location card an iPhone sends with Send Pin
• geo: links
• typed coordinates, like 46.5321, -87.4210, 46.5321° N, 87.4210° W or degrees-minutes-seconds

Be aware of the limits. Phones don't document what they send to a plain SMS number, and we haven't yet tested every phone and messaging app end to end. Some Android "place" links carry only a name, with no coordinates, and those can't be pinned. A what3words address is shown on the report, but it isn't converted to a map pin. When a help report's location can't be read, the reporter is asked to describe where they are. Typed coordinates need at least three decimal places, so phone numbers and prices aren't mistaken for locations.

If anyone is hurt or in danger, call 911. A report line is for getting a message to your crew. It is not an emergency service.

3. Leads answer by text

Every report gets a number, like report #7, and the text a lead gets says how to answer it. Leads work it from their own phone, without logging in:

• Report leads and your head coach, assistant coach and team director can use these. Start with # and the number. The older R7 style still works, but a plain number, like "5 people coming", is never read as a report number. If exactly one report reached a lead in the last 4 hours, they can reply without the number. DONE and ASSIGN always need it.
• An assigned member who isn't a lead only works the reports handed to them. They can reply to those or mark them DONE, but they can't reassign them, and UPDATE doesn't list other reports for them.
• Reports older than 7 days are answered from the dashboard inbox instead. Reopening a report is done in the dashboard.
• Safe Sport: an athlete is never sent a report, made a recipient or assigned one, even if they are ticked as a lead. The only exception is a team that support has approved as an adults-only organization.

4. The Reports page

Where: Reports in the Communication part of the sidebar. It appears once any report line is on, and you can hide or show it in Settings → Team → Sidebar Sections.

• List and Map views. The map uses OpenStreetMap and marks pins that were shared from a phone.
• Filter by status (Open + assigned, Open, Assigned, Done, All), group, and kind (Maintenance or Help / urgent), and sort newest or oldest first.
• On each report: Assign…, Mark done, Reopen, and Reply / open conversation. A reply from the dashboard is copied to the report's recipients, the same as a #7 text.
• Your head coach, assistant coach and team director can all use the page.

5. Public known-issues map

Show riders and visitors what is already reported, so you get fewer duplicate reports. The map is at rallytext.app/issues/<your team code>, and you can embed it on your own website.

Where: Reports → Public issues map panel at the top. Switch on Public issues map. The panel shows your link and an Embed on your website snippet with a Copy embed code button.

• Auto-publish maintenance reports (off by default) adds new reports once they have a location. Otherwise, switch on Show on public map for each report you want public, from the report card, the map popup or the inbox. You can also give it a public title, like "Tree down past 2nd bridge".
• Pin accuracy: "Approximate (about 110 m)" is the default, and coordinates are rounded. Or choose "Exact (as reported)".
• Keep fixed issues visible for (days): 0 to 30, 3 by default. Fixed issues show as "Fixed" for that long.
• What the public sees: the title (or the issue type), the group name, the status (Open, Crew assigned or Fixed) and when it was reported. Never shown: the reporter's number, their message, photos, notes or names.
• Help reports are never public. No setting changes that.
• The page says "If anyone is hurt or in danger, call 911" and "See a problem? Text" your number.

Who can change it: the map settings are head coach or team director. Any staff member can show, hide or title a single report.

6. Events and race communications

An event gets its own keyword and an optional list of races, so a 5K runner hears about the 5K and not the kids' race.

Where: Events in the Planning & Tools part of the sidebar, shown to staff. A head coach or team director creates, edits and ends events. Going live needs a team number.

• Text to join: the event keyword, optionally with a pick (MTF 2). 0 or ALL means all updates, and MTF RACES changes your picks later.
• Web sign-up with double opt-in: the event page at rallytext.app/e/<team code>/<keyword> takes a name, number and race picks. We then text them, and they're only added once they reply MTF YES within 24 hours.
• Per-race sends: send to everyone following, specific races (with or without all-updates followers), racers only, or all-updates followers only. Texts start with MTF: or MTF 25K:.
• Staff shortcut by text: MTF 25K Aid station 3 is out of water texts one race, and MTF <message> texts everyone following the event. This works for head coaches, assistant coaches and team directors with send permission. Big sends still follow your broadcast-approval rules.
• Scheduled timeline: schedule announcements in the composer (Schedule for (team time)), then see and cancel them in the Scheduled timeline.
• Urgent alerts with ACK: choose "Urgent alert (weather hold, course change)" and type SEND EMERGENCY to confirm. Each text asks people to reply ACK with a code, and you can track who acknowledged in the Emergency communications card under Messages. Urgent alerts are sent right away, never scheduled. By default only a head coach or team director can send one. If anyone is hurt or in danger, call 911.
• "Results are posted": add a results link to the event, and a Results are posted button fills in a message with a tracked link. The event shows how many clicks it got.
• Auto-expire and STAY: people who joined only for the event stop getting texts a set number of days after it ends (7 by default, 1 to 60). If you pick a group and leave Send the one-time STAY prompt on, they get one text the day before, and replying STAY keeps them in that group. People already on your roster stay on it.

7. Trail status and grooming

Where: Settings → Team → Trail status & volunteer hours → switch on Trail status. Trail Status then appears in the Planning & Tools part of the sidebar. Settings and trail systems need settings permission, and setting a status needs send permission (head coach, assistant coach and team director by default).

• Trail systems: add each one with a name and an optional keyword. Leave Create a subscriber group people can join by texting the keyword ticked, and RallyText makes a "<Name> updates" group.
• Status changes: OPEN, CLOSED, CAUTION or GROOMED, with a note. Text subscribers sends the change to that system's group through your normal broadcast rules.
• Subscribing: a roster member who texts the keyword is added straight away. A new number can only join by keyword once Group auto-join is on (Settings → Audience → Who can join by text). It's off by default, and the Trail Status page warns you while it is.

• External status pages (e.g. Nordic Pulse): on a system, Status page link → Status / grooming page link. Texts carry a tracked short link instead of the raw address, and each system card shows how many clicks the link got.
• Hosted status page: Host a public status page on RallyText is on by default once trail status is on. It publishes rallytext.app/status/<team code> and an embed code. Texts link to it when a system has no external link. Turn on Let search engines list the status page if you want it in search results.

8. Volunteer hours

Where: Settings → Team → Trail status & volunteer hours → switch on Volunteer hours. Volunteer Hours then appears in the Planning & Tools part of the sidebar.

• Any roster member can text HOURS. Each entry is 0.25 to 24 hours, with no future dates.
• Totals count approved hours from the first day of the month set in Season starts in (January by default).
• Staff approve hours (off by default) holds texted hours as pending until staff approve or reject them on the Volunteer Hours page. Hours that staff add in the dashboard count right away.
• The Volunteer Hours page shows totals by person, by activity and by month. Download CSV exports name, date, hours, activity and status for the dates you've filtered.

9. Turning it on: checklist

A head coach or team director can change who holds which permissions, so your team may differ from these defaults. The coach keywords cheatsheet and the docs list every texted command. The trail organizations page shows how a trail crew puts it all together.

Other guides: How to text youth athletes safely · Practice reminder text templates · Back to all guides