Communications Fatigue

[flickchick75]

First-time poster on this tech forum. I am a stake organization president but have been a ward organization president several times and one of the most burdensome aspects of these callings is communication fatigue. We have SO many activities and, on top of that, there are regional, Church-wide, and even private events we are asked to get the word out about. Right now we need a digital flyer, I need to post it on our unofficial website, the Stake Calendar, our facebook group page, our instagram account, copy the Stake general instagram account, send out an email or text to ward presidencies, send a separate one to parents, send Circles message, ask Bishoprics to announce it in Sunday meetings, send out multiple reminder communications on all platforms, and then I still have people complain that they "didn't hear about it" or "I may have heard about it but there are too many communications," or "you should send personal calendar invites," or "you should write a newsletter" or "I don't do technology, we prefer phone calls or visits, it's more personal." I don't think "going after the one" means "thou shalt open a new TikTok account if the one has decided she doesn't like Instagram anymore."

I am old enough to remember the pre-technology days where we showed up on Sunday, heard activities announced, maybe they were posted in the ward bulletin, and at that point, it was the members' responsibility to remember them, write them down, calendar them, etc. rather than rely on constant reminders or information coming through various sources. I know a return to such days is impossible, but is it possible to have a bulletin-board type section of Tools or ward/stake websites (other than the calendar) where all events, announcements, flyers, instructions, signups, etc. for a particular organization are posted and make it clear that it is up to the members to access such information there rather than expect it to be delivered through several different channels? For presidencies, it would make doing substantive work (rather than merely running a PR agency) much easier. In addition, in the US at least, it would reduce reliance on third-party platforms that don't always align with member principles.

[BrianEdwards]

First-time poster on this tech forum. I am a stake organization president but have been a ward organization president several times and one of the most burdensome aspects of these callings is communication fatigue..... but is it possible to have a bulletin-board type section of Tools or ward/stake websites (other than the calendar) where all events, announcements, flyers, instructions, signups, etc. for a particular organization are posted and make it clear that it is up to the members to access such information there rather than expect it to be delivered through several different channels?

Welcome to the Tech Forum! A couple of thoughts:

1) The Forum primarily serves as a location for user-to-user discussion and self-help, and is not connected to the Church Support teams. Almost all participants are members like yourself with regular callings, and so we don't have insight into internal Church plans. The Church may have valid reasons for not providing a one-stop-shop solution, or maybe it simply hasn't been prioritized against other important improvements. So while I imagine your feelings might be widely shared by others here in the Forum, the only way to get this into the Church's system for consideration, is via the Feedback tool located at the bottom of most Church webpages, or inside Church apps.

2) This week the Church News had an article about What the Sunday second-hour changes mean for Relief Society, and a portion of the article talks about "Announcements in different ways". So with respect to your observations, my takeaway is that while the Church recognizes that effective communication of announcements will soon become even more challenging than it currently is, there is no (known) effort by the Church to provide relief via any Church tech improvement. As stated in the article, "presidencies should find communication channels that work for their sisters so that there is more time on Sunday".

[ambldsorg]

I know a return to such days is impossible,

No need to "return" per se, however, I believe that a simple flyer with important information for that week (or month) handed out by door greeters in Sacrament meeting is still one of the most effective means of communicating upcoming events in the ward.

See St. Luke, 1:37 about impossible...