"What More Can A Body Do?"
I have to be honest. I am PERPLEXED! As a staff we discussed this issue at length today. No matter how hard we try, it seems that nothing we do helkps the situation. What am I talking about? Well--it's communicating the life and work of the Association to our member churches, pastors, church contacts, and Associational leaders.
I send out a weekly e-zine to pastors detailing events relevant to their work. Liz sends a "Mid-Stream" e-zine to almost 600 people around the 15th of each month to update known events in the life and work of the Association. Toward the end of each month, we e-mail the Currents of the Tar to 600 people and send about 750 out in the mail. Throughout the month we send emails with important information and we keep the website as up-to-date as we can. My grandmother used to have a saying, "What more can a body do?"
This was her way of saying, I have tried all that I can and I simply do not know what else I can do. That's the way we often feel after HOURS of work as staff members. We try to get information out in a timely fashion, but it appears that many do not read anything that we send out and many others fail to read through everything.
Think with me for a minute. Let's say we plan a major Sunday School training event. For MONTHS we have it on the calendar; at every meeting of the Association we publish it and/or speak of it and ask messengers to share with our member churches; we send out email reminders and updates; we place articles in the newsletter and/or inserts as reminders; we spend hundreds of man hours publicizing and bring in quality trainers to assist our member churches. We may or may not have good attendance - and that is irrelevant to the point I am attempting to make. Then--the next morning when we get into the office we check messages or get an email and it reads, "When is the Association going to offer some Sunday School training?"
The truth of the matter is---at least 4 or 5 people in EVERY TRBA church have received information and been asked to share with their church. We need your help in getting the word out. PLEASE help us!
Before I started this blog I checked the last 10 association-wide e-mails that have been sent out by Constant Contact. In not one email that was sent did more than 44% of the recipients open the emails. 56% never opened an email from TRBA.
One of our neighboring Associational Missionaries became so tired of hearing church leaders say that they had not received email and mail about events in his association that he began to send mail through certified mail/receipt returned. That is an expensive proposition when emails are free, but I understand his frustration.
I know we get a lot of junk mail (both hard copy and email), but the information TRBA sends out to you is information that people in your church need to hear about. We are asking you to help.
If you have ideas as to how we can more effectiveky get information to you and others in TRBA so that we can more effectively serve you, please let us know. And again I ask you--please get the information we share with you to your church.
I send out a weekly e-zine to pastors detailing events relevant to their work. Liz sends a "Mid-Stream" e-zine to almost 600 people around the 15th of each month to update known events in the life and work of the Association. Toward the end of each month, we e-mail the Currents of the Tar to 600 people and send about 750 out in the mail. Throughout the month we send emails with important information and we keep the website as up-to-date as we can. My grandmother used to have a saying, "What more can a body do?"
This was her way of saying, I have tried all that I can and I simply do not know what else I can do. That's the way we often feel after HOURS of work as staff members. We try to get information out in a timely fashion, but it appears that many do not read anything that we send out and many others fail to read through everything.
Think with me for a minute. Let's say we plan a major Sunday School training event. For MONTHS we have it on the calendar; at every meeting of the Association we publish it and/or speak of it and ask messengers to share with our member churches; we send out email reminders and updates; we place articles in the newsletter and/or inserts as reminders; we spend hundreds of man hours publicizing and bring in quality trainers to assist our member churches. We may or may not have good attendance - and that is irrelevant to the point I am attempting to make. Then--the next morning when we get into the office we check messages or get an email and it reads, "When is the Association going to offer some Sunday School training?"
The truth of the matter is---at least 4 or 5 people in EVERY TRBA church have received information and been asked to share with their church. We need your help in getting the word out. PLEASE help us!
Before I started this blog I checked the last 10 association-wide e-mails that have been sent out by Constant Contact. In not one email that was sent did more than 44% of the recipients open the emails. 56% never opened an email from TRBA.
One of our neighboring Associational Missionaries became so tired of hearing church leaders say that they had not received email and mail about events in his association that he began to send mail through certified mail/receipt returned. That is an expensive proposition when emails are free, but I understand his frustration.
I know we get a lot of junk mail (both hard copy and email), but the information TRBA sends out to you is information that people in your church need to hear about. We are asking you to help.
If you have ideas as to how we can more effectiveky get information to you and others in TRBA so that we can more effectively serve you, please let us know. And again I ask you--please get the information we share with you to your church.
Labels: Commitment, Communication, Cooperation, E-zines, Emails, Encouragement
posted by Dougald McLaurin at
9:44 PM
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