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Ok, so I’m sorry that this installment doesn’t have any cool downloads associated with it, but this is just a tip that I have for those running the Primary. I hate calling people. Like really, really, really hate it. I always feel like I get flustered or call at the wrong time and they’re eating dinner or whatever. I just don’t like doing it. So I decided early on in my secretarial career that I would just email my weekly reminders out to people. Personally, I like getting emails better too because I’m reading them at a time when I have access to my calendar and no one else is vying for my attention and it’s more likely to be remembered.
So, since I was sending out 6 emails every week with the same information I found an easier way to do it. I looked for a little while to see if I could find an automated emailing system that would just automatically blast out my reminder emails on Sunday night for me without my having to think about it, but no such luck. What I did come up with was that I could create canned responses in GMail and just fill in the blanks each week. At the beginning of each month I have to remember to replace the text in the scripture and the talk email with the new scripture and theme for the month, but that’s really not that big of a deal. Instead of having to think of what to say each week I just pop in my canned responses and I can send out all 6 emails in about 5 minutes.
I was going to include a tutorial for how to do this in GMail, but I decided to Google it and WikiHow had already put together a much better tutorial than I could, so I’ll just direct you there 🙂 But I will include below the canned responses that I have so that if you want to copy them verbatim and use them for yourself, or use them as a baseline for what you want to put in your emails you can feel free. The only caution I have with using these is to make sure that if you’re emailing a single parent I always try to be careful about making sure that it doesn’t still say “Brother & Sister”. Anyways, without further ado, here are my canned responses:
Primary Talk
Hi Brother & Sister ___,
Just wanted to send you a quick reminder that _______ is assigned to give a talk in Primary on Sunday. This month’s theme is We Are to Thank God in All Things.
Please help your child to be prepared to fulfill this assignment. We always welcome the parents of kids who are participating in sharing time to come and assist their child or be there to watch. If you won’t be there on Sunday or if you have any questions, please let me know!
Thanks,
-Brittny
Primary Scripture
Hi Brother & Sister ___,
Just wanted to send you a quick reminder that ___ was assigned to give our scripture in Primary on Sunday. This month’s scripture is “He commanded them that . . . every day they should give thanks to the Lord their God” (Mosiah 18:23).. Your child does not need to have the scripture memorized, just be willing to read or repeat the scripture at the front of the room, and then lead the rest of the primary in reciting it together.
Please help your child be prepared to fulfill this assignment. We always welcome the parents of kids who are participating in sharing time to come and assist their child or be there to watch. If you won’t be there on Sunday or if you have any questions, please let me know!
Thanks,
-Brittny Hansen
801.851.0250
Primary Prayer
Hi Brother & Sister ___,
Just wanted to send you a quick reminder that ___ is assigned to give our prayer in Primary on Sunday. Please help your child be prepared to fulfill this assignment. We always welcome the parents of kids who are participating in sharing time to come and assist their child or be there to watch. If you won’t be there on Sunday or if you have any questions, please let me know!
Thanks,
-Brittny
So, that’s it! Hopefully someone finds this tip useful 🙂
This is really helpful thanks for sharing. When I send out emails I will address it like this: “Dear “name of the ward” Family,”.
That way you do not have to worry about single parent families. Another thing that I have done is create a basic spreadsheet to mimic a calendar of sorts (dates are listed vertically on the left side and along the top horizontally looks like this: Sr. talk, Sr. scripture & prayer, Jr. talk, Jr. scripture & prayer) . A week or so before the new month I will assign talks and prayer for both Junior and Senior primary and email the spreadsheet to the parents to review and mark their calendars. This way they have a heads up two to four weeks in advance. The children get a reminder wristband the week before along with a reminder email. This seems to work well and has really cut down on children not having talks.