Mission Calls to be Sent Online

[SilentOne]

https://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/latter-day-saint-missionary-assignments-go-online

"The Church is rolling out a new initiative in which missionary candidates receive their assignments online instead of in the mail. This process has been tested in various parts of the world for the past several months and will now be expanded to all of Utah and Idaho. By the end of 2018, it is anticipated that nearly all missionaries around the world with reliable internet access will receive their calls online to serve in one of the Church’s 407 missions in more than 150 countries."

Someone somewhere online (Deseret News article comments, maybe?) seemed to think this would eliminate the call opening parties, but I'm not sure about that. Even if the missionaries are more likely to view the call without waiting for everybody to gather, people who like the drama might still have big announcement parties.

[Chilean]

I'm assuming the calls would come in a PDF file, so the future missionary can always just "try" to open the file without reading it and then print it, and still have all the excitement and announcement party. Just need to not succumb to the temptation to read it. LOL

[Vort]

I wonder if at least a part of the reason for the change is the Church's desire to do away with some of the silliness and misfocus of mission-discovery parties. Where one serves his/her mission will naturally always be a primary point of concern, but it should never be the focus.

[Fether]

2 minutes ago, Vort said:

I wonder if at least a part of the reason for the change is the Church's desire to do away with some of the silliness and misfocus of mission-discovery parties. Where one serves his/her mission will naturally always be a primary point of concern, but it should never be the focus.

*gasp*

[JohnsonJones]

46 minutes ago, Vort said:

I wonder if at least a part of the reason for the change is the Church's desire to do away with some of the silliness and misfocus of mission-discovery parties. Where one serves his/her mission will naturally always be a primary point of concern, but it should never be the focus.

No.  At least not in my opinion.

It is an attempt to reduce costs. 

Time to fill up and address 35,000 envelopes at 30 seconds per envelope - 291 hours - a little over 7 weeks

Printing out the letters by an employee at 30 seconds per letter - a little over 7 weeks

Time to input addresses in computer database, print them on envelopes and ensure they are accurate - 14 weeks

Making this a full time job for one individual (who is assisted by others) - 32 K

Paper costs per letter - 3.5K

Ink to print each letter and envelope - 3.5K

Mailing costs (this is another biggie) at 50 cents each (more for international) - 17.5K

Total 54 - 55K

Though I was high on some estimates, this is probably actually pretty low compared to the actual REAL costs which have other factors in dealing with the mailing.  Also...other factors come in such as lost mail...etc.

Vs.

Copy pasta from application of email addess, name on a form letter and send link on email...

Total time perhaps 30 seconds - 291 hours - a little over 7 weeks.

Lay off prior full time employee or redirect them to do other things and use a mere quarter of their time doing this = 8K

Savings = 46K

Savings = costs are about 1/5 to 1/6 the costs of mailing.

 

Just some speculation on my part.

Plus, as long as people send in the right email address (or however it is sent) you don't have to worry about the lost mail aspect.

 

[Jane_Doe]

1 hour ago, JohnsonJones said:

No.  At least not in my opinion.

It is an attempt to reduce costs. 

Adding to your lists of costs--- mailing international is painful in a lot of places.   For example, in Brazil it's super expensive and it's extremely common to have things just never arrive (either through error or theft).  When an American to Brazil letter does arrive, it takes ~2 months to the civilized parts of Brazil.   More remote is so much worse for time and chance of disappearing.

Doing things digitally simplifies everything for everyone-- in regards to hassle, time, money, reliability, etc.

[Guest MormonGator]

It's just the natural evolution of technology. 

[Fether]

On 9/5/2018 at 3:43 PM, MormonGator said:

It's just the natural evolution of technology. 

We don’t believe in evolution around these parts