I was sitting in a coffee shop when my phone buzzed. Another notification. Then another. And another.

I'd just joined the local photography club's WhatsApp group, and within minutes, I was drowning in messages. Someone shared a photo, three people reacted with emojis, then a side conversation about camera settings spawned a ten-message thread. Buried somewhere in there was an actual announcement about next month's meeting time.

This is the curse of modern communication: we have all these tools, but none of them are quite right for what clubs and organizations actually need.

The Communication Problem

Let's be honest about the options most groups rely on:

Email newsletters feel formal and stale. By the time you write, format, and send one, the moment has passed. And if you need to update something? Good luck reaching everyone who already read the old version. Plus, newsletters live in the inbox graveyard where nothing is ever found again.

Social media groups are chaos. Great for discussions and community building, sure—but terrible for actual announcements. Important updates get lost in the feed within hours. The algorithm (or just sheer message volume) buries what matters. And everything feels rushed and informal.

Dedicated Slack or Discord servers are overkill unless your organization is already built around real-time chat. It becomes just another app tab to monitor.

What's missing is something simple: a calm, organized channel where club leaders can post updates, members can find them easily, and nothing important ever disappears into the void.

Why a Microblog Works for Organizations

This is exactly why I've started thinking about Jottings differently—not just as a personal blogging platform, but as a tool for clubs, organizations, and communities.

A microblog sits in the perfect middle ground. It's:

Chronological and clear. Updates appear in order, newest first. No algorithm trying to be clever, no side threads pulling attention away. Members know where to look and know they'll see everything that's been posted.

Permanent. Unlike a chat message that scrolls away, updates stay on your site indefinitely. Want to reference something from three months ago? It's right there in the archive. This becomes your organization's institutional memory.

Accessible. A simple website is accessible to everyone, even members who aren't tech-savvy. No app to download, no account to create if you don't want one. Anyone can visit and read the latest updates.

Professional without being formal. You're not writing a quarterly report or a stiff email. You're just sharing what's happening, in your own voice. It feels human.

Flexible with tags. Running multiple committees or interest areas? Use tags to organize updates. Members following photography outings can filter just those. Event announcements get their own tag. Budget reports another. Everyone sees what's relevant to them without drowning in noise.

How Organizations Are Using It

Let me paint a picture of what this looks like in practice:

A book club posts an update about next month's selection with a cover image. Members see it immediately. They can comment, ask questions, or just quietly add it to their reading list.

A volunteer organization posts a quick update: "We'll be at the park cleanup this Saturday at 9 AM. Bring gloves!" Boom. Clear, simple, hard to miss.

A homeowners association posts minutes from the meeting, along with photos from the walkthrough. Every resident can see what was discussed, what's happening next, and there's no "did you see the update?" confusion.

A student club announces a guest speaker visit. Members can visit the site on their own time and see the details. No frantic group messages asking when it is.

The key is that everything is on one, quiet, trustworthy platform. Not scattered across emails, texts, and social media. Not buried under noise.

RSS Feeds Are a Bonus

Here's something most people forget: not everyone wants to visit your site regularly. Some members would rather get updates delivered to them, but they still want it organized and not invasive.

That's where RSS comes in. Any member can subscribe to your club's RSS feed in their email client, news aggregator, or reader app. Updates come to them automatically, but they're batched, organized, and not trying to interrupt everything else they're doing.

Want updates on just the photography outings? Subscribe to the photography tag's feed. Easy.

Building Institutional Memory

Over time, something magical happens. Your site becomes a searchable record of everything your organization has done. Want to know when you last did a beach cleanup? Search the archive. What was decided about the budget three years ago? It's all there.

This is invaluable. Current members get context. New members can read through the history and understand how things work. And if there's ever a dispute about "wait, didn't we already try this?" you have the receipts.

No more "I'll send you that email from... whenever... let me dig through my inbox."

Getting Started

Setting up a club site with Jottings is straightforward. You pick a subdomain (like photography-club.jottings.me), set up basic info about your organization, create tags for different areas, and start posting.

New members just need to know the URL. No friction. No account required to read. They can check in whenever they want and see everything that's happened since the last time they looked.

If you want to get fancy, you can customize the author information, add social links, and set up an RSS feed that members can subscribe to. But you don't have to. The simplest version—just a clean site with your updates—works beautifully.

The Calm Alternative

What I love about this approach is that it respects everyone's attention. You're not pinging people with notifications. You're not flooding a group chat. You're just maintaining a simple, public record that members can visit on their own time.

It's the opposite of the modern communication industrial complex. No algorithms. No ads. No time wasted scrolling through irrelevant posts or side threads.

Just your club, your updates, and your members who care.

If you're running any kind of organization—a club, a community group, a hobby circle, a volunteer organization—I'd love to see you try this. Not instead of everything else you're doing, but as the calm center where the important stuff lives.

Jottings makes it really easy to get started. Give it a shot and see if it helps your group communicate more clearly.

Your members' inboxes (and sanity) will thank you.