Tech Forum

We would like to be able to share our newsletter with non-members in our ward boundaries, or anyone for that matter. Is this possible? If not, is this function being considered?

No and probably not. Given the different privacy laws in different countries and people's sensitivity to being highlighted, I doubt if it will happen. Currently there's no real way to limit anything on the web to ward boundaries except by membership record.

What are your suggestions for inviting the community to a ward sponsored activity?
Is a ward permitted to use social media to spread the word?

That would be the role of the Public Affairs person. I'm not sure what they're allowed to do, but all wards have to abide by Handbook 2: 21.1.22.

So this may come down to urging members to share the information on their pages. That and placing events in the local newspaper calendar would be the most effective.

martybdye wrote:What are your suggestions for inviting the community to a ward sponsored activity?
Is a ward permitted to use social media to spread the word?

But up a flyer have members pass out invites.

I would also like open access for our Newsletter. I think there's a possibility some may think it's kind of hassle to login to just see the newsletter.

strj500 wrote:I would also like open access for our Newsletter. I think there's a possibility some may think it's kind of hassle to login to just see the newsletter.

As already mentioned, the possibility for open access is slim due to privacy issues and privacy laws in different countries. As long as information controlled by privacy laws can be posted in a newsletter article then the distribution of that article needs to be controlled to protect the Church and unit members, whose privacy is at risk.

Personally, I'd like to see the idea of "push" explored, be it email or LDS Tools. The idea of having a web site that people have to visit to see something new doesn't work all that well. There's not enough content for daily visits, so it becomes "never visit".

I think

share newsletter with non-members

and

inviting the community to a ward sponsored activity

are very separate communications and the audience for each will be vastly different. To invite your community to an event, your ward newsletter probably isn't what you would use.

Look at your typical ward newsletter- it's made for a specific audience- your ward. It's full of what we might call private information; names, phone numbers, emails and pictures. Do you include a birthday list? You can see the problem: People don't really expect all that stuff to be thrown up on the web for the world to see- and in some countries the privacy laws prevent you from doing so anyway without obtaining consent from everybody included in it.

This is far different from having an event at the church, and inviting the community to it through facebook, newspapers, flyers to neighbors houses, lawn signs, etc.
So, determine your ultimate goal, and proceed from there.

russellhltn wrote:Personally, I'd like to see the idea of "push" explored, be it email or LDS Tools. The idea of having a web site that people have to visit to see something new doesn't work all that well. There's not enough content for daily visits, so it becomes "never visit".

I agree. Push is probably the only way people will ever read the newsletter. It needs to have an email push and also appear in LDS Tools.