dlf,
Have you ever tried creating a distribution list for your e-mail addresses? I use them at work for reports that I have to send to a number of people. You give the list a name, add the names and e-mail addresses of the contacts, and then you can send to everyone at once.
You know--while it is labor intense initially, setting up the old fashion email list on outlook works just fine. We established an email address for the pto and then put all the addresses on a word document. You then just write the email, and cut and past a batch of addresses (up to 50) and send out 3/4 times (we have 250 email addresses we send to routinely). It creates a wonderful intimacy with folks and I've gotten many, many notes of thanks for doing the weekly emails...good luck...d
We have been using Google Groups for over a year now groups-beta.google.com
and it has worked wonderful for us. You can select the option of adding people to the list yourself. This was one of the main reasons I went with them. There are a bunch of options you can choose with them, including whether or not everyone can post or who can post. Check them out.
we are trying to start a mass email to assist with communicating with parents on a regular basis. Has anyone done this before? Through who? I have found yahoo groups to be easy to use, but completely dependant on the end user to pull emails and/or agree to receive emails. I am looking for a way to reach 200 families quickly. We intend to manage the emails through a site manager to make certain that it is not abused in any way. We intend also to add wording to our bylaws to insure that other parents do not use it for any communications other than what it is inteded to do for our parent group.