Ward Website Admin - Email Broadcast Function

[deanphillips]

As our Ward Website Admin I have been asked to send out ward wide email reminders for calendar events. I've been doing this for over 2 years now and am pretty up to date on all the changes that have taken place over the last 18 months. Sometimes these emails are to be directed to only certain auxiliaries. (Primary, Relief Society, Youth Organizations etc) I have been receiving complaints over the past few months that the appropriate leaders are not receiving their messages.

See screen shot of Classic Email Broadcast screen:



Example:

Young Mens Presidency and Assistant Advisors who are accurately set up in MLS are not receiving emails. They are apparently going to the OLD YM Presidency that was release over 2 months ago.

I have confirmed over a month ago that MLS is up to date and accurate but yet the Email Broadcast function on the Classic Website is not being updated with current MLS information.

Is there someone who is supposed to be updating these tables so this functionality will work as it was intended? Is there a hidden Website Admin function I am missing on the new site? I know you can send emails to small groups as there is no "All Ward Members" button.

Any insight is appreciated.

Dean

[russellhltn]

Example:

Young Mens Presidency and Assistant Advisors who are accurately set up in MLS are not receiving emails. They are apparently going to the OLD YM Presidency that was release over 2 months ago.

I have confirmed over a month ago that MLS is up to date and accurate but yet the Email Broadcast function on the Classic Website is not being updated with current MLS information.

Is there someone who is supposed to be updating these tables so this functionality will work as it was intended? Is there a hidden Website Admin function I am missing on the new site? I know you can send emails to small groups as there is no "All Ward Members" button.

Any insight is appreciated.

I would imagine that it's selecting the ward leaders based on what callings have been entered into the classic site itself. Classic never did get caling information from MLS.

[lajackson]

As our Ward Website Admin I have been asked to send out ward wide email reminders for calendar events. . . . I have been receiving complaints over the past few months that the appropriate leaders are not receiving their messages.

Is there someone who is supposed to be updating these tables so this functionality will work as it was intended?

As RussellHltn said, MLS never fed calling information to the Classic site. If you still are using that site to send out messages, an Admin needs to keep the calling information manually updated as it changes.

Obviously, you are an admin, so you could do it, unless the stake has turned off the Classic directory and everyone is sent to the LDS.org site for directory information.

And if the latter is the case, you are out of luck. You will always be sending e-mails to the last individuals who were loaded in the Classic site at the time the stake turned off the Classic directory function, unless you can work out a deal with the stake to unlock that section for an update and then redirect it again.

[deanphillips]

Thanks for the insight. Can you help me understand how the subscriptions by ward members works via the classic site? My understanding is that any calendars that were subscribed to would put you on distribution of any emails sent to that calendar group.

Does anyone have any insight on how I can use the new site to send out a single email to all members who have subscribed to a particular calendar regardless if they physically belong to that group? Example: Mom subscribes to Deacons calendar to stay on top of her son's activities. The new site only sends emails to members of that group.

Dean

[russellhltn]

Thanks for the insight. Can you help me understand how the subscriptions by ward members works via the classic site? My understanding is that any calendars that were subscribed to would put you on distribution of any emails sent to that calendar group.

I don't understand the question. In the first sentence you refer to the classic site, but in the second, you refer to a feature that's only found in the new site. Keep in mind the two sites do NOT work together. They are with only minimal interaction.

Does anyone have any insight on how I can use the new site to send out a single email to all members who have subscribed to a particular calendar regardless if they physically belong to that group? Example: Mom subscribes to Deacons calendar to stay on top of her son's activities. The new site only sends emails to members of that group.

I'm not sure which feature you are referring to. The calendar has the ability to send a notification email for any changes to anyone subscribed to the calender who as also checked off as wishing to receive emails.

There is a feature in the new directory for emailing to groups, but it's based on "rules" and the data in the membership record (not the actual assignments in MLS) and it has nothing to do with what calendars anyone is subscribed to.

[jdlessley]

Thanks for the insight. Can you help me understand how the subscriptions by ward members works via the classic site? My understanding is that any calendars that were subscribed to would put you on distribution of any emails sent to that calendar group.

The classic calendar site does not use subscriptions. That is a feature of the new calendar. The classic calendar was only one calendar. Actually there were two independent calendars, an event calendar and a resources calendar. Neither was linked to the other. The classic calendar did not have e-mail functionality tied to it except to give notice to one administrator of a newly submitted event. Only the classic directory had broadcast e-mail capability.

Does anyone have any insight on how I can use the new site to send out a single email to all members who have subscribed to a particular calendar regardless if they physically belong to that group? Example: Mom subscribes to Deacons calendar to stay on top of her son's activities. The new site only sends emails to members of that group.

The new calendar has the ability for an editor to send a reminder e-mail when the event is created or edited. Only those who have subscribed to that particular calendar as well as having enabled e-mail notifications in their preferences will receive such reminders. There is no capability to broadcast to a particular group as you describe. The directory can broadcast to groups. But those groups are predefined groups that have nothing to do with calendar subscription groups.

[kisaac]

Does anyone have any insight on how I can use the new site to send out a single email to all members who have subscribed to a particular calendar regardless if they physically belong to that group? Example: Mom subscribes to Deacons calendar to stay on top of her son's activities. The new site only sends emails to members of that group.

Not that I know of specifically, but you can use the calendars' event notifications feature "creatively" to accomplish what you want- which is to send emails to those subscribed to a certain calendar. Just change the event description in the calendar to add the new information you wish to email to the calendar subscribers, and choose "send an email now."

For example, your YM-YW calendar has contained an event about the Youth bishops bar-b-que for the past month, and it's this week, so you want to send an email reminder to all those subscribed to the YM YW calendar, in the hopes of reminding parents as well. So, change the event description to convey your reminder. "Bishops Bar-b-que is tomorrow! Meet at...." and choose "send an email reminder now," and it will send out the calendar event notification that contains your new reminder message as the event description in an email to everyone subscribed to to that calendar who has allowed email notifications.

[mwgbell]

I am confused by something. The original post referred to the ability on the "classic" web site to send a broadcast e-mail to various subgroups / all subscribed members (I am a Stake admin and can apparently send a broadcast to all Stake members).

Does anyone know if this functionality uses the "new" directory? Or does it just link to the classic directory? And (if as I suspect it only uses the classic directory -- which, for our stake is likely very outdated) is there a similar option in the new directory? I see an export function -- but that only works on a by-ward basis (i.e. I think you would have to export for each ward in the Stake; then combine the exports; filter out the e-mail addresses, and then send the bulk e-mail. Not impossible, but not very user friendly...)

Kisaac mentions that you could use the calendar feature to "creatively" notify people -- I suppose that would work as long as you were able to figure out which calendars all stake members were subscribed to; and that also assumes that the recipients haven't turned off "notifications".

Any thoughts or suggestions?

[aebrown]

Does anyone know if this functionality uses the "new" directory? Or does it just link to the classic directory?

I don't see how it makes sense to ask if the classic site uses the new directory. The classic site's broadcast uses the ward list, just like the new directory's list of members does. By ward list, I mean the list of those people whose membership records are in the ward. There's no reason to think that the classic directory is outdated -- it still adjusts as members move in and out of the ward.

is there a similar option in the new directory?

The new Directory has options for sending emails to groups of people by selecting "Ward Organizations" on the left. Then one of the options will be "Adults", which is the closest thing to a broadcast available on the new Directory. The Clerk and Leader Resources site also has a Send Message capability; your access to that site, and also the groups you can send to, are controlled by your calling.

[russellhltn]

I am confused by something. The original post referred to the ability on the "classic" web site to send a broadcast e-mail to various subgroups / all subscribed members (I am a Stake admin and can apparently send a broadcast to all Stake members).

It sends to "Add Ward Users" and "Auxiliary" based on the membership records which should be up to date. (However, I think it will send only to the Household email as I don't think it supported individual emails.)

But the "Ward Leaders" broadcast would be based on the callings recorded in the classic which may well be very out of date.