Top 10 Tips for Managing Congregational Email
Posted by Anna Belle on 10 May 2007 at 05:40 pm | Tagged as: Email
As a church webmaster, I’m often asked to help with congregational email issues. We’ve had our share of sticky wickets to deal with, so when our Director of Religious Education recently sent me an article on the subject, it struck a chord with me. I think there’s a good deal of wisdom and some great advice in it, and commend it to those of you responsible for church-related email: Email Caution Helps Avoid Damaging Situations, InterConnections (a quarterly publication of the Unitarian Universalist Association).
Using this article as a starting point, I’ve distilled a list of tips and added a couple of my own.
An Ounce of Prevention: General Rules for One and All
- Never say anything about someone in an email that you wouldn’t want that person to see.
- If someone wants to have an email conversation about either another person or a complicated issue, suggest meeting in person.
For Potentially Emotional Situations:
- Let your email sit overnight before sending it.
- Adopt a measured tone.
- Don’t forward emails of others without their permission.
- Remember that once you send an email you lose control of it; it can be copied, sent to others, and quoted out of context, even years later.
When Conflict Arises
- Stop the email.
For Official Congregational Email
- Establish congregational policies about email.
- For the congregation-wide list, limit access to certain leaders, and designate an editor.
- Don’t overuse it. Our church does a weekly email blast, and maybe once a month (for a major occasion), will send out a second short email.
Do you have other tips? I’d love to hear them.
Subscribe in a reader
(More) Official Email
11. If using a third-party service, such as Google Groups, register with an email from your own domain. This makes it easier to transfer or to share administrative rights than if it’s done through someone’s personal address. A general alias such as news@yourchurchsite.org is even better than one belonging to a particular staff member.
12. Make it clear how to discuss political issues without jeopardizing your not-for-profit status. You can advocate on behalf of (or against) particular issues and legislation, but not for (or against) particular candidates/elected officials.
Formatting
13. Don’t use ALL CAPS, which is like shouting
14. Large fonts and bright colors don’t add much to your message. Choose vivid words instead.
15. One exclamation point is more than enough.
Subject Lines
16. Use clear ones, not cutesy or teaser ones.
17. If you have a short message (e.g., yes, no, 7:30 PM, Chris is Speaker), put it directly it directly in the subject line instead of making the recipient(s) open and read the body. Add [NIM] or [EOM] in the subject line as well for No Inside Message or End of Message, respectively, or come up with your own shorthand.
These are great additions. Our editor, if she read blogs, would thank you profusely for the exclamation point limit. I tend to over-use them in private correspondence, and need people like you to keep me in check.