Village Signal
Learn More
So you're interested in Village Signal? Here's what you should know.
Who Runs It?
That would be me, Tobias! Although now I live in a bigger town (Omaha, almost a million people!) my love for small villages comes from years of living outside a rural village of 245 people. My own mother lives in a village of 109 people, and I made Village Signal to help small communities like hers.
As a person with village roots, I know how important it is to know you can
connect with people. That's why you can always email me directly and personally
at hello@davistobias.com at any time,
whether you are a paying customer or not. I'm always happy to help!
How Does it Work?
As a leader of a community (member of the Board of Trustees, village council, and so on) you would add your village to Village Signal. You would be the person in charge of sending out messages to your community, and these messages would go out to anyone who signed up to receive them, either by email or by text. Like the radio in your truck it's a one-way broadcast.
Once you have your account set up, you'll need to let your community know how to sign up. A good way to do that is to post flyers at the local gas station, bar and grill, and other local meeting place might be. (Inside your "My Village" dashboard, there is sample flyer page, ready for you.)
People in your community sign up by visiting a website with a special link that's in your "My Village" dashboard, and when they visit that page, they can add their email address, or phone number to get texts.
You can also use that same special link to add people manually, if they don't have a smart phone or don't have internet access right away.
How Private is It?
The broadcast messages are meant to be for everyone in your village, small town, or other rural community. Anyone who has the special link can sign up to get messages, so you should not broadcast private information.
How Much Does it Cost?
This is a "labor of love" for the small villages that I love, so I've tried to keep costs as low as I can, especially knowing how tight money is these days. On the other hand I need to pay for the technical stuff, and keep the lights on in case disaster strikes and you need to communicate emergency plans.
To add your community costs $8 a month, and this covers adding up to 2,000 people to your broadcast list. If you need more it costs another $6 per month, per 5,000 people. Most small communities send only a few messages per month, but in case of an emergency I want you to be able to send as many as you need. I put a limit of 30 messages per month, which would be one per day, but if you end up sending more let me know and I can increase it.
What About Emergencies?
If your community is impacted by a disaster of any kind, please let me know! I will temporarily lift message limits, people limits, or whatever else I can do to help. We're all in this together, as Uncle Red says.
How to Pay?
In the age of the internet everything is through credit card. I am using "Stripe", a very reputable finance company, to handle transactions so I never even see your credit card details. If you want to pay by check that's okay too, but you will need to pay for a full year at a time. There's more information on the "My Village" dashboard after you sign up.
If you have more questions, don't hesitate to reach out to my personal email
hello@davistobias.com at any time.
I'll keep this page updated as common questions come up. —Tobias
If you are ready to sign up, start here by adding your village: