"Send a Message" Function on LCR

[pogden]

My stake presidency would like to send email with the from field specifying that it is from the "Stake Presidency". Is there a way to send a message with a customized from? Or, if not, a statement that reads "on behalf of the stake presidency"? Thanks

[russellhltn]

I don't think there's any flexibility in the "from" field. There will be a footer that says "You received this email because you made your email address available to your local Church leaders. It was sent by {name of individual}, whose calling is {calling}."

[lajackson]

I occasionally send message on behalf of other ward members. They all include the footer that the message has been sent by me "whose calling is" etc.

I always make it a point to include the real author at the bottom of the email message itself. So the email body will end with Brother Wizard, Church Calling, and the footer will show that I was the one who actually flung the message out into the wild.

If I really want to emphasize who is sending the real message, and it is not me, I will start the body of the message with something like, A Message from the Stake Presidency. At that point, readers should know who is speaking, whether or not they ever get to the bottom of the page.

[russellhltn]

I suspect at issue here is making sure the members recognize who is sending the message even before they open it. If they don't know who it is, they're likely to delete it or at least skip over it.

I think the key here is the subject line.

[bradyork]

I am the 1st Counselor in the Bishopric. We have been sending weekly email messages to all Ward Members during COVID19 shut down. Several members are not getting the emails from within Send a Message function in LCR. Interestingly, most of those not getting the messages are using EMBARQ or Centurylink email addressess. Is this a common problem and what is the fix?

[davesudweeks]

I am the 1st Counselor in the Bishopric. We have been sending weekly email messages to all Ward Members during COVID19 shut down. Several members are not getting the emails from within Send a Message function in LCR. Interestingly, most of those not getting the messages are using EMBARQ or Centurylink email addressess. Is this a common problem and what is the fix?

I previously confirmed that any company using the Yahoo mail service (like US Cellular) is at high risk of being blocked. This is due to the fact that the church spoofs your email address to make it appear to be coming from you when it is actually coming from a church server. While this is a legitimate use of the feature, it can also be used by hackers attempting to gain access to their intended victims. Some mail services have taken the hard line that they block all spoofed emails, period. Short of convincing their mail provider to change their stance, I think there is nothing end users can do short of changing email addresses. When our bishopric member changed the email on his church account from a US Cellular to a Gmail email, his problems receiving them went away.

I don't know what the EMBARQ or Centurylink problems are, but you might look into how they handle spoofed emails first. If they block them outright, that will likely be the reason those members are not receiving those emails.

[russellhltn]

This is due to the fact that the church spoofs your email address to make it appear to be coming from you when it is actually coming from a church server.

This is what I've been getting:

from: John Smith <noreply@churchofjesuschrist.org>
reply-to: JohnSmith@someisp.com
mailed-by: churchofjesuschrist.org
signed-by: churchofjesuschrist.org

[esmeet]

As a bishopric member, I have been sending weekly emails to "All Members" for the past 12+ months. We just called an Email Communication Specialist, and when she went to send the message this week, she encountered two/three issues with "Send a Message": (1) She could not select "All Members." It told her there were no matching records when she would select that option. (She could, however, send to "All Adults" and "All Youth," so I asked her to send a copy to each. (2) She received a confirmation message that her message sent, but none of the recipients received the message. This morning, when we followed up and learned she had received this confirmation, she tried sending again, and (3) the "All Youth" option was no longer available to her. She tried "All Adults" a second time this morning, and it successfully sent.

To verify, I went in and was still able to select "All Members" and send a message, like usual. It's not clear to me why these "glitches" would occur for her account and not for mine. Any ideas on how she can get the full functionality here?

[casper684]

Would appreciate some clarification on callings with relation to "Send" a Message..
1, Ward Email Communication Specialist renamed from Ward Website Administrator. . (Something I was not aware of nor anyone else in my stake holding this calling).
With this calling did it become a default action being using LCR to send emails to ward members or did an administrator need to put that in?
What happens with Ward Website Administrator previous rights of overseeing and maintaining ward calendars?
It is difficult to determine "rights" associated with each calling I have as mine previously have required no LCR access. Would I need to ask both Stake and Ward Administrators for my access granted?

[lajackson]

Ward Email Communication Specialist renamed from Ward Website Administrator. . (Something I was not aware of nor anyone else in my stake holding this calling).

The Church changed the Ward Website Administrator and Stake Website Administrator callings to Ward Communication Specialist and Stake Communications Specialist, respectively. This change was announced in a Notice dated June 4, 2020, that was sent to Stake Presidents, Bishops, Branch Presidents, and Clerks. Someone here at the Forum has since reported that the ward calling was changed to Ward Email Communication Specialist. As to that, I have not seen anything official.

Based on my own experimentation and experience, Communication Specialists were given access by the Church to Leader and Clerk Resources and the Send a Message Function. According to the LCR Access Table, that is the only LCR function they received.

As a Stake Communication Specialist, I have access in Send a Message to send to anyone in the stake. I assume that a Ward Communication Specialist would be able to send to anyone in the ward.

My Calendar rights did not change. I have the same Calendar access I had as the Stake Website Administrator. Therefore, I would again assume that a former Ward Website Administrator, now a Ward Communication Specialist, would have administrator access to all ward calendars.