Mailing to members that have moved

Hello Everyone,

I am a newly called Assistant Ward Clerk for membership (called and sustained on Sunday).

I have searched the wiki and the forum for something similar but have not been able to find what I am looking for.

My ward has over 600 members with only about 230 attending Sacrament.

There is a large push to find members that are less activate and to fellowship them within the ward. As part of this process I have received lists of members that have moved and are no longer at the address that is listed on the records.

I am looking for a letter that I can send to the address that we have have on file in MLS and to see if I can get a forwarding address from the post office. I am looking to do this in addition to the missionaries, priesthood visits to the address, and searching the sites listed in the wiki.

I would appreciate if anyone has a letter that they use in their ward for this process that would be willing to share.

Thank you very much in advance,

Robbie

If your envelopes are marked "Address Correction Requested" you will likely get some back with corrected addresses (or at least returned undeliverable so you know they are no longer there). You may have to pay the return postage, however.

Hopefully the letters you mail will simply come back, and many of them will have some useful information from the post office. With the ancillary endorsement "Return Service Requested" the letter should not be forwarded, but rather be returned to sender with the forwarding information.

I don't think you need to worry much about the text of the letter (since most if not all of the letters will come back). I'd just do something simple like:

Dear Brother and Sister Smith,

We in the XXX Ward are trying to update our records and make sure we have correct addresses for all of our members, and that each record is in the correct ward. If you are no longer at the address this letter was mailed to, could you please send your new address to:

Bishop YYY
<address>

Or if it is more convenient, you may email this information to yyy@sample.org or call (555) 555-5555.

If you are still living at the same address, we'd also appreciate hearing from you.

Thank you for your assistance,

Brother ZZZ
Membership Clerk
XXX Ward


That way, if a letter does accidentally get forwarded by the post office, or if the people really haven't moved, you have some hope of hearing back from them

davesudweeks wrote:If your envelopes are marked "Address Correction Requested"

I think that's the old phraseology. The current one is "Return Service Requested". You can find details in the Wiki under Locating members

Now is a good time to include in the letter a request from the bishop to schedule time for tithing settlement. You may get a couple extra donations that way.

Since you think the member has moved and you just want the forwarding address, you can put one of the following USPS "endorsements" on the envelope:

Return Service Requested - the USPS will NOT forward the mail even if it is forwardable: it is either delivered to the address or returned to you with the forwarding address attached.

Change Service Requested - the USPS will discard the mail if it cannot be delivered as addressed but will send you a separate card with the forwarding address.

There is no charge for either of these services if it is first class mail.

Technically, you wouldn't have to put anything in the envelope! However, just in case the letter is delivered to the member, I usually put in something like a half-sheet with some upcoming events. This time of year, a brief reminder about the ward Christmas party, First Presidency devotional and any other seasonal events works well--and then can also be used for members who may or may not be at their current addresses.

visick wrote:Since you think the member has moved and you just want the forwarding address, you can put one of the following USPS "endorsements" on the envelope:

Return Service Requested

If you use a standard envelope ordered through Distribution Services with the unit name and bishop's address on it, it will already have the Return Service Requested endorsement on it.

visick wrote: Technically, you wouldn't have to put anything in the envelope! However, just in case the letter is delivered to the member, I usually put in something like a half-sheet with some upcoming events. This time of year, a brief reminder about the ward Christmas party, First Presidency devotional and any other seasonal events works well--and then can also be used for members who may or may not be at their current addresses.

Absolutely. You can be open about the address correction being one reason for the letter, but you'd do even better to make this an opportunity to fellowship those who do receive the letter. Activities (especially at Christmas) are a wonderful chance to let people know that they can find new and rekindle existing friendships within their ward family and we can use this as an opportunity to help fellowship those members. Even if they don't come, at least they know that they still have friends at church and people to turn to in need. Ideally, not a single person has left and you can get them all to come back to activity.

Throw a 1/4 page insert with an attractive flyer to your next event, pop a pass along card or two in there. It would be insulting to receive solely a "we did the minimum we had to see if you're still around" letter -- make it worthwhile to the recipient.