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If you subscribe to a Phone Tree™ service, you can select the Phone Tree file item on the Output Forms drop-down menu on the Print Control page of Print Names to prepare the file you will need to use with Phone Tree. It's likely that the same file that is generated by this Output Form will work with other mass calling services should you use one other than Phone Tree.

Phone Tree, and similar services, generally operate either with a hardware based solution that resides in your office and uses your phone lines to do the calling, or a web-based solution, which makes the calls from their location. Either way, you will need to provide the service with a list of names who are to be called (or e-mailed, if you subscribe for that service, too).

The file that CMD generates is a comma delimited text file that exports three fields: Name, E-Mail Address, and Home Phone number. Future versions of CMD will allow you to specify which phone number is to be used as the preferred notification number for these calls. For now, it's the home phone number.

Since Phone Tree will call whatever list you provide, you can create a new list whenever one is needed. For example, if you wish to have the service call board members to remind them of an upcoming meeting, then use the Selection page of Print Names to specify board members and only those names will appear on the call list. If you want to notify each household in your church of an important all-church business meeting, then you can select Member Households and Newsletter List together to get a members-only call list for each family.

Once you've selected the group who will make up the call list on the Selection page, then go to Print Control, select Phone Tree File from the Output Forms menu, and click Begin Printing. Within a few seconds the standard Windows Save dialog will appear. Use it to place the call list file where you can easily find it for use by Phone Tree. The .csv file extension is important, and will be added automatically by CMD when you save the file.

While it is beyond the scope of CMD to specifically support these call services, all that remains now is for you to tell the call service, either the hardware-based or web-based about the call list you've just generated. Once the device or service has the call list, the calling can commence as scheduled.