Mass Communication

[jsto03]

My stake president has asked that I send out an email to all those in the stake that have an email address uploaded into LDS tools. I have never done this before and wondered if anyone has any ideas on this? Is there somewhere to go that I can just send 1 email and make it come from an account that shows it is from the church and not my personal gmail email?

Thanks!

[russellhltn]

Only certain callings have that ability in LCR. I'd think you'd have to be in the stake presidency, clerk, or secretary to do that.

[lajackson]

I think there should be some effort on the part of the Church to figure it out, since it was suggested this morning that we will be sending an email to all ward members each week beginning in January.

[russellhltn]

since it was suggested this morning that we will be sending an email to all ward members each week beginning in January.

That should be interesting. I'll bet enough members flag it as spam such that it will have trouble getting to the faithful. The church is going to need a "Tier 1" game plan to make this work.

[davesudweeks]

If I recall correctly, it was "highly suggested" but not required. It may be left to each bishop/branch president to sort out the best way to communicate given their unit's specific situation.

This might be a compelling reason to have a unit social media page where they could post information on the lessons (we used this method in a serviceman's branch I was deployed to with the military).

[jsto03]

Thank you everyone for your responses. We are still looking into what our best option would be. I am our Stake Technology Specialist so I am able to see email addresses in LDS tools. We recently had someone move into our stake that told us of a service their old stake and ward used. It is signupgenius.com. Is anyone familiar with it? If so, what do you use it for? By what I have been able to find, it looks like it would work great for ward relief society presidencies to send out requests for certain items to be brought to a funeral luncheon, or bishops to use for tithing settlement sign ups, etc. However, I get worried that a) not everyone has an email address. b) If you do have an email address and it's not your work address, how many times per week do you check it. c) I really worry about the widows, widowers, etc that have no clue how to run a computer. Thoughts?

[jsto03]

If I recall correctly, it was "highly suggested" but not required. It may be left to each bishop/branch president to sort out the best way to communicate given their unit's specific situation.

This might be a compelling reason to have a unit social media page where they could post information on the lessons (we used this method in a serviceman's branch I was deployed to with the military).

Our stake has a Facebook page which I monitor and post to multiple times per week. We have also instructed each auxiliary (stake and ward), and each ward on how to create and properly monitor Facebook pages. But the stake president also wants an option that we can send out a mass email, etc if needs be.

[lajackson]

Our ward Sunday School announced this week that they will be using WhatsApp to provide lesson schedule and topic reminders, and that they would show us how to use it next Sunday. I have heard of the app but never used it. Any thoughts?

And as STS, I wonder what that will do to our WiFi load on Sundays.

[russellhltn]

I really worry about the widows, widowers, etc that have no clue how to run a computer. Thoughts?

This points to a non-electronic solution. I'm remembering a time many years ago, back when only a few geeks had emails, when things were announced in the Sunday program or on the bulletin board. Events would have to be announced at least 1 (if not 2) Sundays in advance. Somehow, even before folks had word processors and fast printers, this got done. This does require a certain amount of planning ahead by the leaders, but it certainly seems do-able (because it was how it was done).

[scgallafent]

Our ward Sunday School announced this week that they will be using WhatsApp to provide lesson schedule and topic reminders, and that they would show us how to use it next Sunday. I have heard of the app but never used it. Any thoughts?

In that scenario, I would remain blissfully disconnected from the reminders. If someone asks me to install a new app so that they can communicate with me in their preferred way, there has to be enough benefit to me to overcome my resistance to installing Yet Another Messaging App.