Text (SMS) Messaging at the Church

This topic is to generate discussion about what units of the church are currently doing in the area of text messaging. Please post your experiences, the tools you use, your objectives, the effectiveness of your methods, who the primary audience is, etc.
Thank you!

capelrd wrote:This topic is to generate discussion about what units of the church are currently doing in the area of text messaging. Please post your experiences, the tools you use, your objectives, the effectiveness of your methods, who the primary audience is, etc.
Thank you!

Perhaps you could clarify what it is you're looking for here. I wouldn't expect church units to be involved in text messaging. Members, however, would be. Can you be a little more clear on how this would apply to the technology efforts of the church, aside from an individual member using text messaging?

Techgy wrote:I wouldn't expect church units to be involved in text messaging.

Text messaging is used in church units quite a lot in my area. For example:

• Our YM president may text the members of the Priests Quorum to remind them of an activity.
• Our local YSA ward uses text messaging for lots of different communication.
• For the recent Draper Temple Celebration, the youth could request e-mail reminders and other notices from the Celebration committee. Leaders in our ward and stake also sent reminders to youth in our ward via SMS.

I also know someone serving in the bishopric of a student ward who uses text messaging even more than phone calls just to connect with members to set up appointments.

Except for the Draper Temple Celebration, as far as I know most of these usages are simply from cell phone to cell phone, so they don't use any other technologies. I think in at least one case a local leader used e-mail to send text messages to a group of youth.

Our Exececutive Secretary has found people won't pick up phone calls or return voice mails nearly as often as text messages. In fact, the responses to text messages is nearly always immediate. Our demographics consist of a higher than average number of young couples and families.

I've found it very nice to connect my Nokia XpressMusic to my laptop with the cable that it came with when I got it, run the Nokia software, and send mass SMS about Temple trips, Ward activities, etc. It saves time (of calling everyone, visiting everyone) and money (designing paper flyers and making copies, and taping them to peoples doors)

other than that, there really isnt much benefit to SMS that people dont already do in there every day life

One of our prior YW leaders sent texts to her class regularly. They were typically to everyone, such as:
-HS back to school on Tu, so YW on Wed (Since our chapel is next door to the high school, we have absolutely *no* use of our own parking lot on back to school nights.)
-Tu 6:30 @ Central Park wear gym clothes
-Anna: paper plates, Mary: cups, . . .

Our YW secretary also sends email frequently, which some youth now access from their phones.

Our YM prefer google calendars, which I love!

Most of our youth have their own cell phones.

I haven't noticed much usage by the YSA ward, though.

When I was in a YSA I got text messages almost daily from one bishop, and the bishop after that. He would send uplifting messages, reminders about activities, and everything in between. He also responded to texts very quickly. It was so awesome! He would text me on occasion after I left the ward as well.

I also know a bishop that uses it to send personal uplifting messages to members he knows are struggling. I know some of the people who received them really appreciated that.

As a YW secretary I will send texts to the girls to talk to them about activities.

Nothing out of the ordinary, but still pretty astounding how effective it can be.

Techgy wrote:Perhaps you could clarify what it is you're looking for here. I wouldn't expect church units to be involved in text messaging. Members, however, would be. Can you be a little more clear on how this would apply to the technology efforts of the church, aside from an individual member using text messaging?

As a Program Manager in the ICS department at church headquarters, I'm exploring how text messaging technologies are being utilized in church organizations. I know of several units that are using this technology, either experimentally, or as a regular part of their communications methodology. I would like to reach out to a larger technical audience and solicit more information to learn what works and see if there are cost effective ways the church could support this communication method.
Church HQ is currently using text messaging on several fronts. The Public Affairs department and PEF program are two prime examples. You may be aware that if you text "ldsnews" to 29222 (or 447624805710 outside the US), you will be subscribed to LDS news bulletins published by the Public Affairs department (for more information, browse to http://newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/news-releases-stories/sign-up-for-breaking-news-text-message-alerts). Also, the Perpetual Education Fund program sends out thousands of text messages each month to participants. In many parts of the world, text messaging is the most reliable and cheapest way to contact people.
Some potential scenarios might include:

1. A Relief Society President finds out that a sister needs to go to the hospital to visit her relative who has suddenly taken ill. The President sends out the following message to the RS members: "Is anyone available to watch Sis Smith's kids for an hour so she can check on her mother at the hospital?"
2. The Stake President sends a message to the members of the High Council on Sunday morning to remind them to sustain a new stake clerk in meetings that day.
3. A Sunday School Teacher sends a reminder to her 16-year-old class members to bring their scriptures to class.

If this capability were available through the Ward Web Site, leveraging the membership and calling information, would that be useful and cost effective?
One can imagine many other potential applications: surveys, emergency communications, notices, etc.
Text messaging is growing in popularity, it's easy to use, and cheap in bulk purchases. Outside the US, there are many locations where it is the primary means of electronic communications.
How does your organization use it, or plan to use it? What has your experience been? What works, and what doesn't work? What are your "big ideas"?

Thank you Bob for posting that. There are quite a number of church units using texting. Many have been outlined above. We are working closely with a company that provides this service and to see if it can be done in a cost effective way that we could roll out and make available to all the units who might be interested.

Due to current policies it would not be appropriate for me to mention this companies name here. But if you are seriously going to move forward with this technology feel free to PM me and we can talk.
Troy

Kind of late to the thread, but I saw this while surfing the forum and thought it was interesting...

A few more things come to mind:

Our stake president is famous for sending a text message to all of the youth in his address book on random Friday nights. Something to the effect of "Have fun & remember who you are..." It's done with love and a sense of humor, and believe it or not the kids really like it.

Also, like it or not, it has become a more efficient way of communicating important messages to someone up on the stand during a meeting. While I'm sure some would argue that this may be inappropriate, it is certainly less distracting than the usual walk up to the stand to pass a handwritten note...

During our multi-building stake conference broadcasts, the presiding leadership at the remote locations text back the results of sustainings in real-time, and the clerks text the attendance counts so the information can be immediately confirmed and recorded.

In general though, we haven't implemented any organized programs. It just happens to be how people communicate now. But I can guarantee our members would welcome and use any church tools that would facilitate text communications with ward members.

Not sure if the late post adds anything helpful to the topic, but I thought I'd pass it along FWIW.

I am the ward clerk and have been contemplating the use of texting for the ward (most especially for emergencies) but I have some questions...

Not everyone has free / unlimited texting, right? How is information collected about whether people use texts? As a clerk I could use a custom field, but it seems that everyone here that has talked about using it, uses it more as an individual basis? Or is it assumed that if people have a cell phone they text?

crisa wrote:Not everyone has free / unlimited texting, right?

Correct. And it some cases it may be turned off.

And with smart phones, they may have just a good a access to email.

The use of texting for emergencies would have a limited success, depending upon the type of emergency. In most emergencies the cell phone and land-line networks become so crowded with calls that the systems are unavailable. So getting through in an emergency would be difficult and often delayed.

On the other hand, using texting as another means of communication in the ward would be helpful, but it should be used in conjunction with other methods. I would also have to believe that a fair percentage of cell phone users do not use texting or even have it enabled. Personally I can get much more information across in a 60 second phone call, than I can in texting

Techgy wrote:The use of texting for emergencies would have a limited success, depending upon the type of emergency. In most emergencies the cell phone and land-line networks become so crowded with calls that the systems are unavailable.

Well, that's true of most any mode of communication. But texting will typically get though on a overloaded network when a phone call will not. Think of it as the difference between sending a short email vs trying to do a skype call. In addition to the smaller bandwidth, the phone will do some of the work of getting the message though while most any disruption will kill a phone call. And that's ignoring the logistics of trying to get two people available and with working phones at the same time.

If the phone system is completely out, then nothing cell will work.

crisa wrote:Not everyone has free / unlimited texting, right?.....Or is it assumed that if people have a cell phone they text?

I have a limited amount of txts on my cell plan, shared amoungst my wife and teenage daughter. So, if ward members just assume I've got an unlimited plan, or one of us started receiving "bulk" msgs, it could cost me a lot of money! How would I tell church members that although our phones will receive the messages, I may be paying dearly for them? My mother-in-law got a surprise 200$ over-charge for a daughters over-use of txt one month.

a neighboring wards exec sec notifies his bishop via txt of ward members birthdays with phone number so the bishop is reminded and gives them a quick personal call on their special day.

We've contemplated automating a similar process, setting up a google calendar with each event being a ward members birthday, or important event, and setting up txt notifications to txt the bishops phone automatically on each ward members birthday.

(technical process: convert birthday list to csv, modify for importing to google calendar as events with name and phone number as event description or title, set up bishopric account/calendar with google so the bishops phone gets the sms txt notification....it could work)

It's a pity the new lds beta calendar doesn't support notifications...yet. How about lds beta calendar giving automatic txt notification reminders about interviews or tithing settlement sign-ups to members?

kisaac wrote:I have a limited amount of txts on my cell plan, shared amoungst my wife and teenage daughter. So, if ward members just assume I've got an unlimited plan, or one of us started receiving "bulk" msgs, it could cost me a lot of money! How would I tell church members that although our phones will receive the messages, I may be paying dearly for them?

Are you saying that there are mobile phone plans where it cost you to receive messages too?

dkjorgi wrote:Are you saying that there are mobile phone plans where it cost you to receive messages too?

I have a old plan like that.

dkjorgi wrote:Are you saying that there are mobile phone plans where it cost you to receive messages too?

Yup. I'm with AT&T and unless you prepay for a block of messages (or unlimited) it's 10¢ a pop to send or receive a text message. There are exceptions, like AT&T billing reminders and I believe public safety messages you subscribe to, like Amber Alerts.

Obviously, like everything, this will change over time as companies struggle to compete with each other, but that's what it is today.

Mikerowaved wrote:Yup. I'm with AT&T and unless you prepay for a block of messages (or unlimited) it's 10¢ a pop to send or receive a text message....

It's the same thing with Verizon. You pay as you go or else pay the $5/month to have unlimited texting. Personally, I seldom ever use it.

Techgy wrote:It's the same thing with Verizon. You pay as you go or else pay the $5/month to have unlimited texting.

I'm also on Verizon. I think it's something like 5¢ to receive and 10¢ to send. I know Verizon used to have a $5 unlimited, but last I looked, I couldn't find it.

For my YSA Region (I'm a co-chair on the regional YSA committee), I've set up a google voice (GV) account. I use that to send mass texts (for free) about upcoming activities.

When someone wants to receive texts about the monthly regional activities (ie two texts per month, the week before, and the day of), they text "Activities" to the GV number that we are putting on our flyers.

When GV gets the text, its forwarded as an email to the associated gmail account.
In gmail I have a filter setup that automatically labels the message as "activities" (or as "stop" if they asked to be removed).
I go through each of the emails and add them to the activities group in my contacts list. Once I do that, I reply back saying basically, "ok, you are set up to receive texts about region activities - text stop to cancel".

To send out the mass text, I compose an email with the "activities" group of contacts in the TO field. I make the msg is under 160 characters (people hate getting lengthy texts, or multiple texts), and then I send it.

I always append " - Text STOP to cancel" to each message.

With this system, I have no idea who is subscribed. The only thing I can see is that such and such a phone number subscribed.

Surely any kind of church-maintained text messaging program or database would be on an "opt-in" basis. So I don't think concerns about cost, or people receiving unwanted texts would be an issue.

dkjorgi wrote:Are you saying that there are mobile phone plans where it cost you to receive messages too?

This is standard for the US, the only place where you pay for incoming calls and incoming texts.

root wrote:This is standard for the US, the only place where you pay for incoming calls and incoming texts.

Thanks, I didnt know plans like that existed.

techgurufloyd wrote:For my YSA Region (I'm a co-chair on the regional YSA committee), I've set up a google voice (GV) account. I use that to send mass texts (for free) about upcoming activities.

When someone wants to receive texts about the monthly regional activities (ie two texts per month, the week before, and the day of), they text "Activities" to the GV number that we are putting on our flyers.

When GV gets the text, its forwarded as an email to the associated gmail account.
In gmail I have a filter setup that automatically labels the message as "activities" (or as "stop" if they asked to be removed).
I go through each of the emails and add them to the activities group in my contacts list. Once I do that, I reply back saying basically, "ok, you are set up to receive texts about region activities - text stop to cancel".

To send out the mass text, I compose an email with the "activities" group of contacts in the TO field. I make the msg is under 160 characters (people hate getting lengthy texts, or multiple texts), and then I send it.

I always append " - Text STOP to cancel" to each message.

With this system, I have no idea who is subscribed. The only thing I can see is that such and such a phone number subscribed.

Wow. You've got s system! And for YSA's who are text friendly it probably is immediate and very effective. So, can you estimate a percentage, based on "such and such a phone number" of how many people out of your total potential membership is actually subscribed-those using your "system?" I know you probably can't "count" because you don't know whose phone number belongs to who...

I can definitely see the value of being able to send a mass text message to all subscribed members of the ward, or Auxiliaries with one simple text message.

Something like sendding a message to the Elder's Quorum Group that says "Service Opportinuty - Jone's need help moving at 7:00am tomorrow morning"

I have used and i know that there are many wards/stakes that have contacted the company that is helping with the Newsroom text service on lds.org and are using them. We use texting in our ward a fair amount. Mainly in communication with the youth as has been mentioned before in this thread. I know that I get faster responses from them when I text as apposed to calling and leaving a voice mail. If you want contact info PM me.
Troy

I'm wondering if there's has been any direction given by the church about the appropriateness of adult youth leaders sending direct text messages to youth without parental consent. Anyone here heard anything good, bad or ugly about this kind of thing?

ddunn68 wrote: Wed Oct 18, 2023 4:49 pm I'm wondering if there's has been any direction given by the church about the appropriateness of adult youth leaders sending direct text messages to youth without parental consent. Anyone here heard anything good, bad or ugly about this kind of thing?

General Handbook 10.8.1 (Young Men) and 11.6.1 (Young Women) says "When adults are interacting with youth in Church settings, at least two responsible adults should be present." This could be interpreted narrowly to mean when interacting in person, but I think it's wise for adult leaders to follow this guideline for all interactions with youth, except for authorized exceptions (the only two I'm aware of are ministering companions (21.2.2) and biannual meetings with a member of the bishopric (31.3.1)).

It would probably be best to include one (or both if applicable) of their parents in a group chat with the youth.

Absolutely. We never text a youth without at least one other adult on copy.

As a follow-on to 31.3.1, section 31.1.4 states that when meeting with a youth (or child, or member of opposite sex), another adult must be present. The member being interviewed can decide if the other adult joins the interview or remains outside, but they must be present. Just another reference to how seriously the Church takes one-on-one interactions, and while the Handbook won't enumerate guidance for every scenario, the principle is clear.