Household vs Household Member email address

[jdlessley]

On the old ward website, there was more flexibility as to who could post emails to the ward. The RS Pres could send a note to all sisters, the primary pres could send a note to all parents, etc. On the new site, only the bishopric or ward clerk can send a note.

Actually anyone can send messages to groups listed in the directory. By selecting Ward Organizations in the left column pane and one of the ten organizations listed in the middle, "Filter Results, column pane there will be an "Email all <group name>" group e-mail link. The same can be done for "Ward Leaders" groups.

There are some groups to which only the bishop and clerk can send messages. For example only the bishop and clerk can send a message to every ward member with a registered e-mail address.

Unfortunately there is no "Primary Parents" e-mail group list.

[russellhltn]

Actually anyone can send messages to groups listed in the directory.

And the groups are the system's "best guess" based on the age and gender of the person, not the actual groups in MLS. So using the directory will likely reach the 18yo High School senior, but miss the 17yo who has graduated.

[sasgrw]

There appears to be one difference. If I use the ward organization and 'email all', if an individual doesn't have a personal email address but does have a household address, the household address is *not* used. That is, that person won't get the email.

On the other hand, if I use the clerk resources > send a message > members > relief society members, it *does* use a person's household address if they don't have a personal address.

[russellhltn]

On the old ward website, there was more flexibility as to who could post emails to the ward. The RS Pres could send a note to all sisters, the primary pres could send a note to all parents, etc.

They could? All I see in the classic LUWS is the ability to email all leaders of a given group. The broadcast abilities were limited to the website admins.

[sasgrw]

They could? All I see in the classic LUWS is the ability to email all leaders of a given group. The broadcast abilities were limited to the website admins.

Don't forget to include my original caveat

Caveat, I'm a new ward clerk (3 weeks) and haven't held this calling before, so I may not be absolutely correct in my statement above, but I think it's pretty close.

[sasgrw]

There are some groups to which only the bishop and clerk can send messages. For example only the bishop and clerk can send a message to every ward member with a registered e-mail address.

One of the organizations is 'Adults'. Does that category only show up for me because I'm a ward clerk? Will the RS Pres not see that category?

[aebrown]

One of the organizations is 'Adults'. Does that category only show up for me because I'm a ward clerk? Will the RS Pres not see that category?

Every member of the ward (actually the stake) will see the category under Ward Organizations called "Adults".

[sasgrw]

There are a few limitations of the 'mail all' feature available to everyone compared to the 'send a message' on the clerk's resource. Will any of these issues be resolved in the new 'send a message' interface?

1. 'mail all' uses your default mail client. If you are a yahoo, hotmail, gmail, etc user, then clicking on 'mail all' won't bring up the related browser based mail program. It will bring up outlook express (or some such thing on a PC) with the BCC field filled in. Not everyone is computer savvy enough to know to copy/paste the BCC line to their browser's mail program.

2. receiving a message from 'mail all' will look like 'regular' email from someone. It won't contain the footer stating:[INDENT]You have received this email because you have made your email address available to your local Church leaders.
It was sent from: Brother John Doe
Whose calling is: Ward Clerk

To un-subscribe from future email messages from ward or stake members follow https://lds.org/directory
click on "My Family" then click on "Edit Profile" and remove your email address from your profile.
If you are not a head of household you may ask your parent/guardian to edit your profile or
you may also contact your ward clerk and ask him to remove your email address from MLS
[/INDENT]3. There are only a limited number of categories available to 'mail all'. For example, if I want to send a note to all Elders and Prospective Elders (since our PEs usually meet with EQ), I have no way of doing that with 'mail all'. Only 'Elders' is available.

Thanks for letting me post my ideas on this forum. Hopefully it can make it to the developers. In general, it would be nice to have the 'send a message' features available to more than just the bishopric and clerks. Other leaders would find it useful too.

Is the 'send a message' redesign part of a community effort? That is, as a web developer myself, can I help with the project? I helped with the iphone development work in the past. I looked at the projects on tech.lds.org and didn't see anything related to the redesign other than possibly the Interaction Framework project.

[russellhltn]

1. 'mail all' uses your default mail client. If you are a yahoo, hotmail, gmail, etc user, then clicking on 'mail all' won't bring up the related browser based mail program. It will bring up outlook express (or some such thing on a PC) with the BCC field filled in. Not everyone is computer savvy enough to know to copy/paste the BCC line to their browser's mail program.

Also, once the mail client is used, the member now has a mail list they can continue to use. If it went through the church mail system, then local leaders would have a shot at cutting the member off from future emailings.

Also, having all those addresses in the local user's email system means that it could get stolen by malware.