Got spam?

[Wingnut]

Ugh. I really need to vent. And I can't do it on Facebook, because the person I need to vent about is in my ward, and is my neighbor.

Do you ever get email spam from church? We have a very enthusiastic ward mission leader (WML). Yes, I applaud him for magnifying his calling. But, allow me to set the scene a little bit:

• My ward has three sets of missionaries. There's barely enough work happening to justify two sets. We're geographically on the big side, but two sets could easily handle it (particularly since none of our missionaries are full-time -- two sets are visitors center sisters who only proselyte a few days a week, and the one set of elders are zone leaders, which involves travel and training).
  
• Each week, a clipboard is passed around in RS...with two calendars per companionship, and a "go on visits with the missionaries" sign-up sheet...for each companionship (nine sheets of paper). This is passed around each week, and an announcement that lasts 2-3 minutes long accompanies it, despite its being the same announcement and sign-up sheet each week. Maybe this part is fairly normal, though.
  
• Every Sunday evening or Monday morning, the WML sends an email, with the same information as on the sign-up sheets, as well as an embedded Google Form, asking everyone to sign up for when they are available to go out with the missionaries, and reminding us all of the "ward goal" (that has been set for us).
  
• One to two days later, the WML sends another email, thanking everyone who has responded so far, and asking if we haven't yet, to please fill out the form.
  
• Sometime later in the week, there's another email about some announcement or other -- fireside with the mission president, pray for someone who's being taught by the missionaries, and elder or sister who are going home this week want to be fed, etc.
  
• Spread out by days, it's been annoying, but manageable. Until this week. I received four emails from the WML on Sunday. I received three more tonight. The last line of the last one was "I know I send a ton of emails, but you gotta know what is happening!"
  
• Not only does the WML not use the email function through lds.org (which I know he knows about because he is formerly a bishopric counselor and has used it frequently before), he doesn't even use the BCC function when sending an email. So privacy is non-existant, communications aren't "official," and when reading email on a mobile device, it takes a lot of scrolling to get to the actual email.

This brother has been the WML for over six months, but this has just started happening in the last two months, and increased exponentially in the last week.

[MarginOfError]

Sounds like Spam is a good place to redirect his email address.

[Wingnut]

Oh, and I've also received multiple text messages from the missionaries asking if they can come practice teaching by sharing a 20 minute message with my family. We've told them that we can't (my husband is only home from work for an hour and a half before our kids go to bed, and that includes dinner and playing). The fact that they're repeatedly asking to come teach us tells me that they don't have enough work to do.

[Str8Shooter]

Wow. That's a lot of email.

[Maureen]

Could you come right out and tell the WML that multiple emails do not really help?

M.

[Guest]

I'm with Maureen.

[notquiteperfect]

No one likes to be nagged and that's how this comes across so if I was getting all of that, this over-zealous approach would backfire. Actually, it may have and the wml doesn't realize it so I'd consider it the neighborly thing to do and fill him in.

[Rice]

It annoys me too when someone sends out repetitive emails.

I agree with the others. You could kindly explain that having these emails being sent several times isn't working for you and you'd appreciate less.

[Wingnut]

I'm not sure how well that would work, to be honest. The WML is the same person as the dad from this thread (which is an issue that has since dissipated, and tensions are not what they used to be, but I still have a really tenuous relationship with the dad).

I suspect that the fact that he specifically mentioned that he knows he sends a lot of emails means that someone has said something to him about it already.

[Wingnut]

I sent the following email to a bishopric counselor with whom I have a good working and personal relationship, and who I knew would understand where I was coming from:

Hi [Counselor],

So, I'm wondering if something can be addressed in ward council. It's a two-parter, really.

(1) If organization leaders aren't going to send emails through LDS.org, can they at least please use the "BCC" function when they send emails?

(2) Can we limit emails to 1 per day per organization (or even less frequent than that)?

I've been feeling spammed and overwhelmed lately, not just by one person, and I'd like to avoid my husband's approach of just placing people on his spam list. :)

Thanks,

Wingnut

I never heard back from the counselor, but in the next mass email I received from the WML, I noticed that he actually did use the BCC field. Then yesterday, the bishop came up to me at church and thanked me for my email about the emails. He said, "we're working on it, especially consolidating the message. It's been bothering me for awhile, too."

[Palerider]

Oh, and I've also received multiple text messages from the missionaries asking if they can come practice teaching by sharing a 20 minute message with my family. We've told them that we can't (my husband is only home from work for an hour and a half before our kids go to bed, and that includes dinner and playing). The fact that they're repeatedly asking to come teach us tells me that they don't have enough work to do.

Not sure if missionaries coming over to share a message is a church wide thing......however I do know in the St Louis Missouri Mission the President here encourages the missionaries to call on members and ask to share a message.....such as a discussion message so they can practice or a message to encourage us or help us become better member missionaries. Having said all that they are suppose to ask if they can. I wouldn't feel bad if I couldn't have them over.

[MarginOfError]

Not sure if missionaries coming over to share a message is a church wide thing......however I do know in the St Louis Missouri Mission the President here encourages the missionaries to call on members and ask to share a message.....such as a discussion message so they can practice or a message to encourage us or help us become better member missionaries. Having said all that they are suppose to ask if they can. I wouldn't feel bad if I couldn't have them over.

My understanding is that this is a symptom of having such a huge influx of missionaries with nothing for them to do.

[NeuroTypical]

I have two email addresses. One I give out to people I don't trust, the other one I use for stuff I actually want to hear about. It's not a perfect system, but going to my "spam and junk email account" to go sort through the crap to find one or two good things is ok, because I've resigned myself to the experience.

The failure to BCC bugs me. A lot. I try.

Hi Guys,

When sending out distribution emails to lots of addresses like this, folks tell me it's important to stick email addresses in the BCC (Blind Carbon Copy) line, and not the TO line. Not everybody wants their emails made public and distributed to large groups. We probably don't have anyone in this list that cares, but every now and then you'll hear about someone getting upset. If that happens here, I'm worried the net culture police will come and beat us with their high-tech nanotechnology-infused batons.

They say "oh absolutely! I totally understand and agree!" Then a new counselor gets called and the bcc line stops being used. Or they start forgetting.

Honestly, it takes the threat of a lawsuit or an offended person blaming their lost testimony on you, or a big honkin public display of anger to make the point stick with some people. It's just part of doing business on planet earth.

[Palerider]

My understanding is that this is a symptom of having such a huge influx of missionaries with nothing for them to do.

Here in our Mission they have been done this with other Presidents assigned in to this area.

Perhaps it's caught on and they are doing it like you mentioned.

[Jenamarie]

They're doing the same thing here, and explicitly said that it was to keep the missionaries' teaching abilities sharp when there weren't enough investigators to teach.

It also means the hubs and I don't need to come up with our own FHE lesson.

[Wingnut]

They're doing the same thing here, and explicitly said that it was to keep the missionaries' teaching abilities sharp when there weren't enough investigators to teach.

You would think that the zone leaders (the elders in my area) would have other administrative things to do to fill their time as well.

And even though member referrals are preferred, what's wrong with spending non-teaching time finding instead?

[MarginOfError]

You would think that the zone leaders (the elders in my area) would have other administrative things to do to fill their time as well.

And even though member referrals are preferred, what's wrong with spending non-teaching time finding instead?

Or volunteering at homeless shelters, soup kitchens, after school programs, parks and rec, or working with other community and religious outreach programs.

There's a host of other things that could be done if there were organizational interest and support for coordinating it.

[Guest]

My understanding is that this is a symptom of having such a huge influx of missionaries with nothing for them to do.

They're doing the same thing here, and explicitly said that it was to keep the missionaries' teaching abilities sharp when there weren't enough investigators to teach.

It also means the hubs and I don't need to come up with our own FHE lesson.

You would think that the zone leaders (the elders in my area) would have other administrative things to do to fill their time as well.

And even though member referrals are preferred, what's wrong with spending non-teaching time finding instead?

Or volunteering at homeless shelters, soup kitchens, after school programs, parks and rec, or working with other community and religious outreach programs.

There's a host of other things that could be done if there were organizational interest and support for coordinating it.

We have 3, about to be 4, sets of missionaries. I'm a ward missionary - there are 8 of us as well, 2 for each region of our ward. Our ward mission leader assigned one set of missionaries per region crossing over only for cases when sister/elder missionaries are more suited for the investigator.

So far, in my region, there are 52 families. Only 16 of which are active. Out of the 16, 6 are part member families. Out of the inactives, 8 families are on the Do Not Call list. So, right there, we have 28 inactive families and 6 part members that we are asking the missionaries to help fellowship and teach. That's only in 1/4 of the ward boundaries. In addition to this, we have several referrals. We have a lot of referrals several weeks old that are waiting a response. And then there's tracking.

And then there's the preparation for baptisms, etc., that have been keeping them busy (we've had 7 baptisms this year).

But even with all these going on, our missionaries still get scheduled at least 1 hour of service work everyday except for Sunday and Pday.

I have to be careful not to run the missionaries ragged with all the work that needs to be done. So yeah, I don't know how other wards do it, but I can't imagine a missionary having nothing to do...

Edited March 18, 2014 by anatess

[Meerkatarmy]

If he has suddenly started like this perhaps he was chastised for not doing a great job before. Reading the other thread and their extreme reaction sounds like they need to find the middle gorund.

[dahlia]

No one likes to be nagged and that's how this comes across so if I was getting all of that, this over-zealous approach would backfire. Actually, it may have and the wml doesn't realize it so I'd consider it the neighborly thing to do and fill him in.

Yup re the nagging. This is the kind of thing I touched on in another thread in which someone stated that the church was taking up all of their time.

Yeah, I'd start sending this stuff straight to the spam folder. And double yeah, your missionaries don't have enough to do if they want to come over and practice.