Personal E-Mail Address vs. Role E-mail Address on LUWS

[luminae-p40]

Hello All,

My ward submits many calendar events and news items for our local unit web site. When I approve them, the system uses my personal e-mail address to broadcast e-mails out to the ward or auxilliary.

This results in two things:

1. Members of the ward receive multiple e-mails from me almost everyday, which turns me into a spammer. I get complaints from people all the time. Sure I can tell them "change your e-mail settings in your profile", but that doesn't really address the issue of surfacing and using my name and personal e-mail address to send mass e-mails that are really from other members of the ward.

2. My personal e-mailbox just gets SWAPMED with bounced e-mails and the aforementioned complaints. Every e-mail broadcast. Every single one.

I'm sure I can't be the only one who has an issue with this.

My Proposed Solution:
It seems like a best practice is for the system to use a role-based e-mail address when sending an e-mail broadcast. For example, use a generic admin.leesburgward@lds.org or even simply let the submitter of the event or news item be the sender of the e-mail since they are the one really sending it.

[aebrown]

My ward submits many calendar events and news items for our local unit web site. When I approve them, the system uses my personal e-mail address to broadcast e-mails out to the ward or auxilliary.

This results in two things:

1. Members of the ward receive multiple e-mails from me almost everyday, which turns me into a spammer. I get complaints from people all the time. Sure I can tell them "change your e-mail settings in your profile", but that doesn't really address the issue of surfacing and using my name and personal e-mail address to send mass e-mails that are really from other members of the ward.

2. My personal e-mailbox just gets SWAPMED with bounced e-mails and the aforementioned complaints. Every e-mail broadcast. Every single one.

I'm sure I can't be the only one who has an issue with this.

My Proposed Solution:
It seems like a best practice is for the system to use a role-based e-mail address when sending an e-mail broadcast. For example, use a generic admin.leesburgward@lds.org or even simply let the submitter of the event or news item be the sender of the e-mail since they are the one really sending it.

Some local unit web site (LUWS) administrators choose to do almost exactly what you suggest. They create a new e-mail address using a free service such as GMail with a name similar to your suggestion. Then they monitor that account separately for all LUWS communications.

This has all the advantages of your suggestion, plus the virtue that it can be implemented right now, without the Church needing to set up a separate account. It also makes it easy to pass the calling on to your successor as web site administrator -- you just let them take over that special administration e-mail account.

The one negative of this technique is that such an account has to be connected to your personal LUWS profile, so any mail sent to you as a ward or stake member through LUWS will also go to that account. But that's not a big problem, since you're monitoring that e-mail address anyway. When you pass the calling on to someone else, you just change your LUWS user profile to have your personal e-mail address again.

Anyway, that's an idea you might consider. You are certainly not alone; others have made this same suggestion, such as in this post.

[luminae-p40]

Thanks for your speedy reply. It is appreciated.

Yes, I have previously tried exactly as you suggest, and it is a viable workaround for the bounced e-mails issues.

Yet my name is still displayed as the sender regardless of the e-mail address I use. So I still get complaints at church each week, and even phone calls.

[zaneclark]

Thanks for your speedy reply. It is appreciated.

Yes, I have previously tried exactly as you suggest, and it is a viable workaround for the bounced e-mails issues.

Yet my name is still displayed as the sender regardless of the e-mail address I use. So I still get complaints at church each week, and even phone calls.

My solution to this is to very seldom check any boxes under Calendar Notification. I do this for the reasons you named, as I get some complaints even for the one or two notices I do send out. I know the usefulness of the calendar is diminished somewhat by this but it also might encourage members to log on to the website to check the calendar periodically.

[dmaynes]

My solution to this is to very seldom check any boxes under Calendar Notification. I do this for the reasons you named, as I get some complaints even for the one or two notices I do send out. I know the usefulness of the calendar is diminished somewhat by this but it also might encourage members to log on to the website to check the calendar periodically.

I agree with this suggestion. I have adopted the policy of sending one e-mail broadcast per week. That broadcast will include all the calendar items coming up. I never use the Calendar Notification or any Notification for a specific News/Information Item. Occasionally, I will send out an e-mail on a specific calendar event to a specific group (like the Young Single Adult activity). But, even then I send the reminder e-mail at the timing that I feel is appropriate (like two or three days before), instead of when the calendar item is added to the calendar.

I don't think notification of the update is useful and it leads to the problems that have been described.

Thanks,
Dennis

[AileneRHerrick]

Thanks for your speedy reply. It is appreciated.

Yes, I have previously tried exactly as you suggest, and it is a viable workaround for the bounced e-mails issues.

Yet my name is still displayed as the sender regardless of the e-mail address I use. So I still get complaints at church each week, and even phone calls.

Sorry to hear that you are having so much trouble! I would definitely suggest telling the members who are complaining to change the settings in their profile. If they don't want to receive emails for a particular auxilliary then they shouldn't have it checked in their profile. Also, as mentioned before, you can try reducing the number of emails sent out. For example... if a regular Young Men's activity is submitted a month ahead of time, then I don't see a reason why an email should go out.

Or... the next time someone complains, politely let let them know that you could deactivate their account for them if they like. They won't be able to access the website, but they won't receive emails anymore either!

That being said, be GRATEFUL that your ward actively participates in submitting their events to the site. There are many administrators here who envy you...

Ailene