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Emailing the ward - easy way to get email addresses without exporting them out of MLS

Posted: Wed Sep 01, 2010 2:25 pm
by coloradotechie-p40
So far the old LUWS hasn't really been adopted by our ward and thus not many people have have registered.

Since they haven't registered, using the Email Broadcast feature on LUWS isn't something we normally do.

Instead I've created a Custom Report in MLS which outputs everyone's individual and household email address. I export it to a file, open it in excel, combine the columns, and remove duplicates.

I can then import the addresses into a gmail account as a group... and then I can send an email to the ward.

The problem I'm having is that I don't always remember to get an updated copy of the email addresses every Sunday... we don't send an email to the ward every week, but once and awhile the bishop wants to send an email to everyone and I don't have an updated list.

I don't mind driving over to the church and getting an updated list out of MLS, but I was wondering if there was a better way.

I suppose I could do the same thing using https://new.lds.org/directory/ ? Just export to CSV, then combine columns D, H, K?

Wow, I think I just answered my own question... I'll probably still post this so others can see (and provide feedback if this is a reasonable method).

Thanks!

Posted: Wed Sep 01, 2010 2:38 pm
by techgy
coloradotechie wrote:So far the old LUWS hasn't really been adopted by our ward and thus not many people have have registered.

Since they haven't registered, using the Email Broadcast feature on LUWS isn't something we normally do.

Instead I've created a Custom Report in MLS which outputs everyone's individual and household email address. I export it to a file, open it in excel, combine the columns, and remove duplicates.

I can then import the addresses into a gmail account as a group... and then I can send an email to the ward.

The problem I'm having is that I don't always remember to get an updated copy of the email addresses every Sunday... we don't send an email to the ward every week, but once and awhile the bishop wants to send an email to everyone and I don't have an updated list.

I don't mind driving over to the church and getting an updated list out of MLS, but I was wondering if there was a better way.

I suppose I could do the same thing using https://new.lds.org/directory/ ? Just export to CSV, then combine columns D, H, K?

Wow, I think I just answered my own question... I'll probably still post this so others can see (and provide feedback if this is a reasonable method).

Thanks!
This is certainly a workable solution.
I would recommend two things though;

1) Be sure you have everyone's permission before you add them to a distribution listing for the ward.

2) Always use the BCC field to put everyone's Email into. This protects each mail from being exposed to the entire group.

Posted: Wed Sep 01, 2010 9:59 pm
by crislapi
It's been a while since I've played in the LUWS, but I was under the impression that email now synced with it. If I update an email address in MLS, the email address on the LUWS will update as well. Vice-versa as well. If the member updates their profile email address on the LUWS, the email address in MLS would update with the new address as well.

From this, though, it sounds like it's just with beta.lds.org/directory?

Posted: Thu Sep 02, 2010 5:50 am
by aebrown
crislapi wrote:It's been a while since I've played in the LUWS, but I was under the impression that email now synced with it. If I update an email address in MLS, the email address on the LUWS will update as well. Vice-versa as well. If the member updates their profile email address on the LUWS, the email address in MLS would update with the new address as well.
It's true that the LUWS email addresses are synced with the LDS Account (which is also synced with MLS). But the collection of email addresses in LUWS is limited because of two factors:
  • It only contains email addresses for those members who have actually registered on the LUWS site. So this may well exclude many members who have info in MLS / LDS Account
  • The email addresses will only be updated for those members who have created an LDS Account. So this members who registered with LUWS long ago but haven't logged in since the switch to LDS Account and have not created an LDS Account will still have their old email address.
Note that LUWS syncs email addresses via LDS Account, not from MLS directly, so having an LDS Account is an essential step here.

But fortunately the new Directory handles all this much more straightforwardly than LUWS, so we shouldn't have to worry about all this much longer. The post that began this thread concluded that the new Directory was a better source for email addresses, which was definitely a good conclusion.

Posted: Thu Sep 02, 2010 8:28 pm
by kisaac
techgy wrote: 2) Always use the BCC field to put everyone's Email into. This protects each mail from being exposed to the entire group.

Interstingly, neither the LUWS or the new "leadership tools" emailing feature of New.lds.org does BCC. I've already sent feedback...this is critical if we intend to keep those emails private that want them kept private.

Posted: Thu Sep 02, 2010 10:57 pm
by russellhltn
kisaac wrote:Interstingly, neither the LUWS or the new "leadership tools" emailing feature of New.lds.org does BCC. I've already sent feedback...this is critical if we intend to keep those emails private that want them kept private.
I can't think of any key words to search for a broadcast, but does LUWS list everyone in the "to"field? I thought it sent a series of individual emails such that it didn't revel emails to third parties.

Posted: Fri Sep 03, 2010 4:57 pm
by kisaac
RussellHltn wrote:I can't think of any key words to search for a broadcast, but does LUWS list everyone in the "to"field? I thought it sent a serious of individual emails such that it didn't revel emails to third parties.
You may be right on LUWS sending out a personal email, thus protecting everyone's address as a permanent BCC feature. I can't find any now that I'm using the "leader tools" to do my emailing. I know the new "leader and clerk" app gives away the addresses on the top of each email, even those that it "instructs" me not to share.

thanks for the clarification.

Posted: Sat Sep 04, 2010 3:51 pm
by PNMarkW2
Alan_Brown wrote:
  • It only contains email addresses for those members who have actually registered on the LUWS site. So this may well exclude many members who have info in MLS / LDS Account
  • The email addresses will only be updated for those members who have created an LDS Account. So this members who registered with LUWS long ago but haven't logged in since the switch to LDS Account and have not created an LDS Account will still have their old email address.
While I know this was true, this does not appear to be the case now. I have entered email addresses into MLS, and watched them appear in the old LUWS, even for those who, to be best of my knowledge, have never accessed the LUWS, and therefore have no LDS Account. I know they had no email listed on the LUWS directory prior to my entering it in MLS.

A question about the new system, which I among many are looking forward to. We've recently issued a calling to a sister as our Ward Communication Specialist. In that calling we have added her as an Admin to the LUWS for the express purpose of her being able to send emails to the ward. Hence my updating of email addresses in MLS, and verifying that they are, in fact, propagating to the LUWS. I know my access to various tools on the new.lds.org is linked to my calling. Her calling is not exactly standard, will we be able to grant her access to continue in her calling? I have not seen anything that would suggest that we could, or couldn't, I just curious if anyone has more information.

Posted: Sat Sep 04, 2010 4:50 pm
by techgy
PNMarkW2 wrote:A question about the new system, which I among many are looking forward to. We've recently issued a calling to a sister as our Ward Communication Specialist. In that calling we have added her as an Admin to the LUWS for the express purpose of her being able to send emails to the ward. Hence my updating of email addresses in MLS, and verifying that they are, in fact, propagating to the LUWS. I know my access to various tools on the new.lds.org is linked to my calling. Her calling is not exactly standard, will we be able to grant her access to continue in her calling? I have not seen anything that would suggest that we could, or couldn't, I just curious if anyone has more information.
With the use of the LDS account, there's no method of adding additional access rights to a members "calling". The only way around this would be to change her calling to something that grants her the access required and of course this would be a decision up to the ward leadership.

Custom callings do not grant any special access as far as I know.

Posted: Sat Sep 04, 2010 6:01 pm
by jdlessley
PNMarkW2 wrote:Her calling is not exactly standard, will we be able to grant her access to continue in her calling? I have not seen anything that would suggest that we could, or couldn't, I just curious if anyone has more information.
For the Directory, the access is calling based. Non standard callings are not provided any access beyond their normal unit membership access. For the Calendar, a member with a standard position giving them status as an approver can add her as an approver. She would have the same priveleges in the Calendar app as any other approver except she will not be able to add or remove other approvers.