how do i send a mass email

how do you send a mass email?

Go to admin panel->general->newsletter. Just remember that users can turn off the option to accept newsletters, so it won't get sent to those people, but most people probably have left that on.

IF they did disable it....how do you get the message to them? Is there a back up way to do this other than sending each member a PM??

You can always go into their profile and enable it again, but they will probably disable it again. There isn't a good way to send a mass email that will get to everybody, but for the most part people don't disable that setting, they probably don't even know they can. For the few who do disable it, you'll just have to send them the email on your own.