Email Bounces

I recently put some effort into eliminating the large number of Email bounces that I get with each Email Broadcast through the stake. In the hope of reducing the number of bounces I created a set of master lists by using the Administrator feature of listing the "Registered Users". I then pasted that list into an Excel spreadsheet so that I had one spreadsheet for each ward.

I then sent a test message through the stake which briefly explained what I was doing.
After the bounces had stopped I took the name of each person who had a bounce, found them on their respective spreadsheet and made a note of it. When all the lists were updated I Emailed each ward administrator a copy of the report and asked that they contact the members with bounces and ask them to update their Email address.

This has dramatically reduced the number of Email bounces I receive, which has resulted in more members of the stake receiving news items that are broadcast.

Techgy
Fullerton California Stake Technical Specialist

That is a good idea. I like how you got the ward admins involved. I am going to try that in our stake.

Tom

Here is a variation on the same idea.

I created a master list of all stake LUWS registered users from the individual ward registered users lists. This list is maintained in table form in MS Word. There are four columns; user name, e-mail address, ward, and number of times e-mail has bounced. I include the letter 'D' with the number in the bounced column to help track those accounts that are disabled.

After three e-mails bounce I disable the user's account and notify the ward web administrators and the bishopric. I ask the administrators to notify the user of this action. I also provide instructions to the administrators how to enable the account as well as the suggested procedure to ensure the user's e-mail is either updated or removed from their profile. Because the account must be enabled to allow the user to update their profile, the instructions recommend that the user promises to update their profile immediately after it is enabled.

I use MS Word to track the registered user accounts because I can sort on e-mail address to quickly find the person's name and their ward. I can then sort on ward to identify all the disabled accounts for that ward before sending the notice to the administrators and bishopric. I'm sure this tracking and sorting can be done in MS Excel as well. I notify the bishopric because they usually are the first to hear from the users that they cannot log onto the ward web site. Most people do not know who their ward web site administrator is. With their accounts disabled it is not easy to find out who it is or to send a message to them.

Following this procedure the number of bounced e-mails have dropped to less than a third of what we had before. This number is dropping even more as time goes by. It is labor intensive at first but is worth the effort. I update the list once a month to include the changes that occur in the ward registered users lists.

This procedure has worked well enough that a few of the ward web site administrators are doing the same thing for bounced messages from their e-mail broadcasts and calendar notification broadcasts. This takes a load off the stake web site administrators.

Your suggestion IS similar with the exception of the disabling of the members account.
I reserve that measure for someone who may be misusing the privilege of having an account, which would be an extreme case. I would suggest that an attempt be made to first contact the member and ask that they update their account. Almost all of those whom the ward administrator contacted were unaware that their Email was invalid and were happy to update it.

However, you can't deny that you were successful

The idea of disabling an account was garnered from other threads that addressed the topic of bounced emails. I discussed this with the stake presidency and they agreed that disabling an account was the best approach to get a user to update their profile. This method makes them (those who have out of date profiles with problem e-mail addresses) realize they are causing problems for others when they do not take responsibility for keeping their profile up to date.

Since we started this five months ago I have found that a good majority of accounts disabled have remained that way because the users have not been using their account, or logging into their LUWS. For many who did notice their account had been disabled did not know there was such a thing as a user profile or that they could change some preferrences. It is an education process. Other methods such as making announcements or posting notices in bulletins and so on just did not work. People just assumed the problem did not apply to them - until their account was disabled.

We, the stake presidency and I, have not received any complaints about the procedure. We have 100% support from the Bishoprics and Branch Presidencies.

jdlessley wrote:The idea of disabling an account was garnered from other threads that addressed the topic of bounced emails. I discussed this with the stake presidency and they agreed that disabling an account was the best approach to get a user to update their profile. This method makes them (those who have out of date profiles with problem e-mail addresses) realize they are causing problems for others when they do not take responsibility for keeping their profile up to date.

Since we started this five months ago I have found that a good majority of accounts disabled have remained that way because the users have not been using their account, or logging into their LUWS. For many who did notice their account had been disabled did not know there was such a thing as a user profile or that they could change some preferrences. It is an education process. Other methods such as making announcements or posting notices in bulletins and so on just did not work. People just assumed the problem did not apply to them - until their account was disabled.

We, the stake presidency and I, have not received any complaints about the procedure. We have 100% support from the Bishoprics and Branch Presidencies.

I really like this approach, however I have one concern. What will happen when the member with the disabled e-mail account moves? Is the account re-enabled? If not, how can the member request that the account be enabled? The usual way to submit such a request would be through the Feedback link, but that option is not available after the e-mail account is disabled.

Thanks,
Dennis

I haven't found out what happens to the disabled account when a member moves. I would assume that it would remain disabled until a web administrator enables it.

Our expected outcome of disabling the account would be that the member would eventually try to access the LUWS and recieve an error message. They would then complain (using some communication method not associated with the LUWS) either to the web administrator, a member of the bishopric, or a ward clerk. A member of the bishopric or a ward clerk should be familiar enought with the system to refer them to a ward administrator to have their account enabled. In my stake at least one member of the bishopric is a web administrator and many wards one or all of the clerks are web administrators.

My experience has been that a large percentage of the accounts disabled are for members who seldom, if ever, access the LUWS. They initially registered when there was a push in their unit to get members to register but then found no reason to return. The other small percentage of people do as we anticipated and contact a leadership member or a web administrator outside the LUWS system.

dmaynes wrote:I really like this approach, however I have one concern. What will happen when the member with the disabled e-mail account moves? Is the account re-enabled? If not, how can the member request that the account be enabled? The usual way to submit such a request would be through the Feedback link, but that option is not available after the e-mail account is disabled.

Thanks,
Dennis

I recently had an occasion to ask this same question of Church HQ. The following is their response to my question;

Question: "What happens to a members account on LUWS when the member moves out of their current stake? Does the account move with the member? Also, if a members account is disabled and they subsequently move to another ward outside of their current stake does the account move and remain disabled?"

Response: "The account moves with them, and the disabling moves with them."

I thought I would try a different tactic than disabling the e-mail account. I have an older couple in my ward who no longer have the energy to deal with minutiae like e-mail addresses, but I still want them to be able to log in to the website. I figured changing the password, but leaving the account enabled would be good. That way, if they decide to access the site, they can reset their password. I changed the password and then I attempted to delete their e-mail address.

Even though the registration screens indicate the the e-mail address is optional, this is not true. You cannot finalize the registration without providing an e-mail address. You cannot delete the e-mail address.

So, I decided the only option available is to disable the accounts.

Thanks,
Dennis

Is there a better way to handle bounced e-mails

Did an “Email Broadcast “ to one ward at at time, with a unit code in the Subject and body of the e-mail, to all of the units in our Stake and when the bounced e-mails were returned for each unit, I sent the following email to the Bishopric of each unit:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Updated: 29Mar2009

Dear Bishopric,

Attached you will find a list of your Ward member's e-mail addresses fromwww.lds.org that appears to have had a challenge and were returned for various reasons
Please work with your unit's Web Administrator to work with members to update their e-mail address at www.lds.org
When members have an issue with their e-mail address they are prevented from receiving e-mails, calendar events and other notifications (etc.)
This could be critical during an emergency or a disaster when the Stake and Wards are planning and notify members about preparedness. In the event that a disaster occurred in or near our stake, then members would not receive information provided about where to meet or report to another church location or to be part of a work party (etc.)
Also, please encourage all members of your ward's leadership to have a current e-mail address at www.lds.org

Notes:
1) The Church is in the process of moving from various user id and passwords to a single account for various church web sites
2)Older Sign In – the older method to accesswww.lds.org , an Official Church Web site that is accessible by members at the ward and stake level that contains information about their units.
3) LDS Account - the newer method to access various Official Church Web sites, such as LUWS (www.lds.org) and others using the same user id and password
4) Members are the only ones who can update their e-mail address
Ward's Web Administrators need to do the following to find members who had issues with their e-mail address:
1) Sign In at www.lds.org
2) click on "Administrator Options" and this will open the “Web Admin” page
3) on the "Ward Admin Home" page
a) click "Search for a Member", option on the lower left hand side of the page
b) click the “Email” radio button
c) Enter their members e-mail address
d) click the Search button
e) the system will search for the e-mail address that matches your entry and will return the members information
f) notify the member and ask them to update their e-mail address
======================================================
Members are the only ones who can update their e-mail address atwww.lds.org

The following is a summary of what they may need to do:
If they try to sign In atwww.lds.org and receive the following message:
“The user name or password you have provided has not been registered.”
Then they will need to do the following:
1) create a newer LDS Account
a) go to www.lds.org
b) click "Obtain an LDS Account" or click on if they forgot their newer LDS Account, then click "Retrieve your user name or password."
c) they will need their "Membership Record Number" and "Confirmation Date"
d) follow the instruction on the web page
If they are still allowed to use the older User Id and password:
2) older non LDS Account users who still have access
a) If they need to "Retrieve your user name or password."
b) they will need their "Membership Record Number" and "Confirmation Date"
c) then click on "Retrieve your user name or password."
d) follow the instruction on the web page

3) Once they have signed into www.lds.org
a) click "Update Profile", upper right hand side of the web page
b) update their "E-mail Address" and any other information
c) click "Submit" at the bottom of the page

Also posted at: http://tech.lds.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1533
and http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ldsclerks/

Sounds like a good plan.

Your first 'posted at' link is to the new reply page while you were composing your post.