News & Info: Include Details in Text of Email

We are trying to use lds.org to deliver all stake/ward news via e-mail, as opposed to using email lists. One of the biggest complaints is that lds.org merely sends out a notice of new news, rather than including the news in the e-mail. Thus:

[INDENT]New news and information titled, 'Details on Varsity/Venturing Basketball Tourney and Request for Preferred Date' has recently been approved.

URL for the information:
https://secure.lds.org/rest_of_url_link_deleted.html[/INDENT]

This mandates that a person have web access to view the news. The email is not sufficient to tell the person what is happening. Members are complaining that it's a two-step process, and a hassle. Is there any way to send out the actual news to those who have requested to stay informed of news, rather than merely sending out a link to the news?

One option is not checking the "send email" option with the event, but make a separate email broadcast. The admin who approves the event can do that.

Thank so much for the prompt reply.

RussellHltn wrote:The admin who approves the event can do that.

Generally, these are non-calendar items. Not sure if in using the term "event" you are referring solely to calendar items or not.

And please bear with me since I've never seen the administration screen (I'm Stake YM Pres), but am working with a tech savvy member of the Stake Presidency to get this done. What we WANT is an easy way for the Stake YM Presidency (eventually YW will use this as well, once that we see this works) to send out email messages via lds.org, as opposed to privately maintained e-mail lists. We want to use lds.org, as opposed to a private listserv, or Google/Yahoo groups method for communicating.

We rely on people (leaders req'd, others optional) checking the "YM" box in the individual's lds.org profile. So if we want to send out the news item details to anyone who checked the "YM" box, is this possible?

If so, what is the best way for a non-administrator to submit this item to a stake administrator for sending this e-mail out? Sounds like it's NOT via the news/notice option on the site (since that sends out a link only).

I need to make this easy for the stake administrator, as well as providing useful information (not links) to the recipients. We like using the "YM" box as it allows parents/youth to opt into the notices as well.

tortdog wrote:What we WANT is an easy way for the Stake YM Presidency (eventually YW will use this as well, once that we see this works) to send out email messages via lds.org, as opposed to privately maintained e-mail lists. We want to use lds.org, as opposed to a private listserv, or Google/Yahoo groups method for communicating.

We rely on people (leaders req'd, others optional) checking the "YM" box in the individual's lds.org profile. So if we want to send out the news item details to anyone who checked the "YM" box, is this possible?

If so, what is the best way for a non-administrator to submit this item to a stake administrator for sending this e-mail out? Sounds like it's NOT via the news/notice option on the site (since that sends out a link only).

I need to make this easy for the stake administrator, as well as providing useful information (not links) to the recipients. We like using the "YM" box as it allows parents/youth to opt into the notices as well.

The administrator can send a broadcast message to everyone who subscribed to YM notifications. This can be completely independent of any event or news and information item. The message can contain as much detail as you would like.

To request that the stake administrator send such a message, I would think it would be most straightforward to just send an e-mail, although you can use the Feedback link on the stake portion of the site as well. A regular user can't send out such messages, but it seems like it wouldn't be too difficult to set up a standard way to request that the stake administrator do this for you.

While waiting for your response, my member of the stake presidency and I came up with the same conclusion as you: manually email the administrator and request the message to be sent. He pointed out issues that he had with this (but it's the only way so grin and bear it for now):

* He doesn't like the stake administrator always appearing as the author of the email. He would rather the author of the notice be listed as the author in the email, so that a reply to a message initiated by the Stake YM President go back to him and not back to the stake administrator

* He REALLY, REALLY wishes that you could assign different levels of administration to users, thus authorizing members of a stake YM presidency to do these emails themselves, but not have full administration (as apparently it's an all or nothing deal)

* It would be best if this could be handled from the inception via lds.org, as opposed to relying on e-mail requests to do something.

Any suggestions on whom we address these requests to? We WANT to use lds.org as much as possible, and some little changes would go a long way to making it more useful as a communication tool.

tortdog wrote:* It would be best if this could be handled from the inception via lds.org, as opposed to relying on e-mail requests to do something.

You can initiate the process on the web site by using the Feedback link to send the request to the stake administrator, but that will just end up sending an e-mail to him. I don't know if this addresses your concern, but it can be done without you needing to send e-mail.

tortdog wrote:Any suggestions on whom we address these requests to? We WANT to use lds.org as much as possible, and some little changes would go a long way to making it more useful as a communication tool.

You can make suggestions on the LUWS: Feedback and Suggestions wiki page, or the stake administrator can use his Feedback link to pass on these excellent suggestions to the Church.

tortdog wrote:* He doesn't like the stake administrator always appearing as the author of the email. He would rather the author of the notice be listed as the author in the email, so that a reply to a message initiated by the Stake YM President go back to him and not back to the stake administrator

In my own personal situation I have concluded that I should create a generic administrator e-mail account on a free e-mail service; something like "my_ward_administrator@e-mail-service.com." The administrator should assign this as his/her e-mail account and then all the broadcasts will come from the administrator.

If the e-mail is signed by the requester of the e-mail, all will know who sent the e-mail.

The signature should also state: "Please do not reply directly to this e-mail sent from the administrator account. Instead, if you have any replies please reply to 'REQUESTER@REQUESTERS-EMAIL-ADDRESS"

I think that would be a suitable way to handle this concern given the current status of LUWS and given that you need and want to use it now.

Thanks,
Dennis

dmaynes wrote:In my own personal situation I have concluded that I should create a generic administrator e-mail account on a free e-mail service; something like "my_ward_administrator@e-mail-service.com." The administrator should assign this as his/her e-mail account and then all the broadcasts will come from the administrator.

I don't think it will work. If the admin's name is "Joe Brown" the email that the broadcast will be sent from will be "Joe Brown <my_ward_administrator@e-mail-service.com>" which will show up in everyone's in-box as "Joe Brown".

tortdog wrote:* He REALLY, REALLY wishes that you could assign different levels of administration to users, thus authorizing members of a stake YM presidency to do these emails themselves, but not have full administration (as apparently it's an all or nothing deal)

Having multiple administrator levels is an interesting thought but if the sole purpose is to provide an e-mail capability, a better solution might be a "REQUEST E-MAIL BROADCAST" function.

As I envision it, this function would mimic all of the current administrator e-mail broadcast capability with two or three main exceptions:
1- E-mail addresses of recipients would not be shown.
2- Instead of a "SEND" button, there would be a "SUBMIT" button.

The administrator would receive notice that an e-mail broadcast was requested. The recipient lists, sender, and content of the e-mail would be visible to the administrator who would then "ACCEPT" the broadcast or "REJECT" the broadcast in a manner that is very similar to submitted news/information items. If the broadcast is accepted, then the e-mail would be sent on behalf of the original requester. Additionally, the administrator would receive confirmation and a copy of the e-mail. (This last step is important because the current system does not reliably send out e-mail broadcasts. A method would be needed to resend the broadcast should it fail.)

I can see one issue with the above suggestion. If e-mails are bounced back they will be visible to the e-mail requester. This could violate the confidentiality and privacy functionality that is built into the current system.

I think functionality that is similar to the above would be within the spirit of the design of the current system and it would prevent the proliferation of website administrators.

Thanks,
Dennis

RussellHltn wrote:I don't think it will work. If the admin's name is "Joe Brown" the email that the broadcast will be sent from will be "Joe Brown <my_ward_administrator@e-mail-service.com>" which will show up in everyone's in-box as "Joe Brown".

You're right. I just tried it. It won't work.

dmaynes wrote:Having multiple administrator levels is an interesting thought but if the sole purpose is to provide an e-mail capability, a better solution might be a "REQUEST E-MAIL BROADCAST" function.

Yes. If we could do this already without forcing the introduction of a middle man, it would be wonderful. The function that we are looking for as stake leaders is that stake leaders of auxiliaries be authorized to use the e-mail broadcast function of lds.org w/o necessitating a third party to intervene, e.g., a Stake RS President could directly issue an e-mail broadcast via lds.org to those stake members who have chosen to be notified of RS news, a Stake YM President directly issuing an e-mail broadcast via lds.org to those stake members who have chosen to be notified of YM news.

Using the current system, our "workaround" is as follows (in the example of the Stake YM in our unit):

* Stake YM Presidency approves news item for YM
* Stake YM Presidency member requests via e-mail for Stake administrator (Stake Exec Sec) to send e-mail to all Stake members with YM news updates selected on lds.org
* Stake administrator acts on request w/o requiring individual approval from Stake Presidency

Thus the Stake Presidency is not burdened with approving each request, but we still have a middle man who has to do the work for the auxiliary, when this step should be cut out entirely to be more efficient. In essence, we are lucky to have a patient Stake Exec Sec to muddle with these routine tasks. But if he is out on business, a Stake Presidency member has to be notified to issue the e-mail broadcast.

I will suggest our Stake Presidency make the recommendations for changes to lds.org via the administrator function, as suggested.

I've recorded these requests. Much is being done towards providing role/calling based rights to send messages to groups of members. Look for it later this year or in 2010 along with the new LDS.org tools. Thanks - Chad Fullmer, product manager fullmercb@ldschurch.org

tortdog wrote:While waiting for your response, my member of the stake presidency and I came up with the same conclusion as you: manually email the administrator and request the message to be sent. He pointed out issues that he had with this (but it's the only way so grin and bear it for now):

* He doesn't like the stake administrator always appearing as the author of the email. He would rather the author of the notice be listed as the author in the email, so that a reply to a message initiated by the Stake YM President go back to him and not back to the stake administrator

* He REALLY, REALLY wishes that you could assign different levels of administration to users, thus authorizing members of a stake YM presidency to do these emails themselves, but not have full administration (as apparently it's an all or nothing deal)

* It would be best if this could be handled from the inception via lds.org, as opposed to relying on e-mail requests to do something.

Any suggestions on whom we address these requests to? We WANT to use lds.org as much as possible, and some little changes would go a long way to making it more useful as a communication tool.