[Ldsoss] Ward Website Email Broadcasting

[Greg Hart]

As previously mentioned, the two biggest factors in my ward that cause
ward leaders to dismiss the usefulness of the ward website are 1) Lack of
support in MLS and the Ward Websites for *personal* phone numbers (cell,
work, etc..) and 2) Lack of user-friendly email lists.

Regarding Email Broadcasting:  First, share email addresses between MLS
and the Ward Website.  It's a real problem that they're not synced
crrently.  Second, allow web admins the ability to subscribe/unsubscribe
users from ward email lists. Third, allow ward leaders listed on the
Leadership Directory (non-web admins) unmoderated posting rights to the
email list.  These would break down some major barriers.

After that I would list the difficulty members have of registering.

> 3) Could a member ask the clerk to send an 'invitation' to subscribe to a
> member's personal e-mail account?  This could then be authenticated by the
> user via their personal e-mail -- kind of like subscribing to the LDSOSS
> and other news lists.

This is the solution I support the most.  It is essentially what my ward
does right now, albeit a custom perl script that parses Membership.csv
(exported from MLS), and email's the members their digits accompanied by
some simple instructions.  Just imagine if the clerk could enter a new
member's email address in MLS, subscribe him immediately to the ward email
list, see if the member is registered on the Ward Website, and if not,
click "Invite to Ward Website" which sends a helpful email with very
simple instructions.  How easy.

more of my 2 bits.

-Greg