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#Post#: 29889--------------------------------------------------
At a loss
By: baritone108 Date: April 25, 2019, 2:53 pm
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My church has been hosting two large events, 1 at the church and
1 a week later at an event center. The event at the church was
catered by the event center so we needed an accurate count of
people attending.
An invitation was mailed out which covered both events with an
rsvp card listing both events. People could respond by mail, by
dropping off the card at church, or via email to the church. I
was stunned at how many people emailed the church with responses
such as "Thank you for the kind invitation" or "We are coming".
No mention of which event they were attending or how many were
coming. It made me wonder whether we should go back to the days
when basic etiquette was taught in elementary school.
Another issue which came up was people not involved with
organizing the event contacting the event center to make
arrangements for things. Thankfully, the event center contacted
me each time before responding to the person. What makes people
think this is o.k.?
Everything has been handled but it was still depressing. Stuff
like this is what made this website necessary.
#Post#: 29895--------------------------------------------------
Re: At a loss
By: Pattycake Date: April 25, 2019, 5:59 pm
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[quote]Stuff like this is what made this website
necessary.[/quote]
Unfortunately, most of the people who need to learn etiquette
aren't the ones looking for it.
#Post#: 29897--------------------------------------------------
Re: At a loss
By: Luci Date: April 25, 2019, 6:56 pm
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I hope it’s a small church! You said the issues have been
handled. We just had an issue in our family. A couple in their
80s would not tell our 26 year old Easter dinner hosts whether
they planned to attend until the day before. I had the same
problem with them for 25 years, so it’s been like this forever.
We just sigh and deal with it and a couple os other families,
too.
#Post#: 29907--------------------------------------------------
Re: At a loss
By: HenrysMom Date: April 25, 2019, 11:07 pm
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I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s isn’t some confusion about
the events - perhaps they think it’s only one event held over
two weeks instead of two separate events.
#Post#: 29917--------------------------------------------------
Re: At a loss - edited response
By: baritone108 Date: April 26, 2019, 8:32 am
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The invitation was very explicit about the fact that there were
two events. They were are two different times and locations as
well as dates.
I think the problem with the rsvps is that people are rushed.
They are wanting to do the right thing and respond in time but
in their hurry they don't realize they are leaving out important
information. Another example of this happened with my
daughter's graduation party. Several whole families (5 to 8
people per family) were invited who left telephone responses
that they were attending. When the event happened 1 person from
the family attended.
#Post#: 29947--------------------------------------------------
Re: At a loss
By: GardenGal Date: April 26, 2019, 1:46 pm
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[quote author=baritone108 link=topic=1103.msg29917#msg29917
date=1556285550]
The invitation was very explicit about the fact that there were
two events. They were are two different times and locations as
well as dates.
I think the problem with the rsvps is that people are rushed.
They are wanting to do the right thing and respond in time but
in their hurry they don't realize they are leaving out important
information. Another example of this happened with my
daughter's graduation party. Several whole families were
invited who left telephone responses that they were attending.
When the event happened 1 person out of the 5 to 8 invited
attended.
[/quote]
I'd be furious about this rudeness, not just because of the
wasted expense of having food for all those people. We used to
host a big party twice a year, and would invite 100 or so people
to each party. After a while, it was clear that some people
never bothered to reply or show up, so we dropped them from the
invitation list. Other people would say they were coming and
not show up, and if they did this several times in a row I'd
drop them, too. Much less stressful for me to know that I
wouldn't be left wondering about how much food to prepare.
#Post#: 29959--------------------------------------------------
Re: At a loss
By: lowspark Date: April 26, 2019, 3:03 pm
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[quote author=GardenGal link=topic=1103.msg29947#msg29947
date=1556304386]
[quote author=baritone108 link=topic=1103.msg29917#msg29917
date=1556285550]
The invitation was very explicit about the fact that there were
two events. They were are two different times and locations as
well as dates.
I think the problem with the rsvps is that people are rushed.
They are wanting to do the right thing and respond in time but
in their hurry they don't realize they are leaving out important
information. Another example of this happened with my
daughter's graduation party. Several whole families were
invited who left telephone responses that they were attending.
When the event happened 1 person out of the 5 to 8 invited
attended.
[/quote]
I'd be furious about this rudeness, not just because of the
wasted expense of having food for all those people. We used to
host a big party twice a year, and would invite 100 or so people
to each party. After a while, it was clear that some people
never bothered to reply or show up, so we dropped them from the
invitation list. Other people would say they were coming and
not show up, and if they did this several times in a row I'd
drop them, too. Much less stressful for me to know that I
wouldn't be left wondering about how much food to prepare.
[/quote]
Yup. I have very little tolerance for people who can't be
bothered to give me the courtesy of a reply. When I send an
invitation, I ask for people to reply either way. When people
don't, I quit inviting them. And yeah, those people who say they
are coming and then don't? They get scratched off my list too.
There are people who do that all the time. It shows a complete
lack of respect for the host.
#Post#: 30188--------------------------------------------------
Re: At a loss
By: Victoria Date: April 30, 2019, 1:25 pm
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I think that people who get heavily involved in church sometimes
get too "familiar" or "comfortable" and no longer think that
certain formalities apply to them. My church is working on a
project and we solicited certain email input from the members.
We told them explicitly (in person, in the bulletin, on the
website, in the program, on a separate handout) that if they
didn't send us their email by a certain date and time (the day
and time of our meeting) their input would not be included.
Naturally we received a flood of messages at or after the
cutoff, as the meeting was taking place. A lot of them were
"Sorry this is late, but..." or "I know you asked for this by X
time, but..." and "I hope you can include this..." and the like.
Our pastor has also expressed frustration that he can give very
explicit directions like "RSVP to this particular email address"
and people will still think it's okay for them to text, call, or
stop him in the hall after the sermon to say they'll be there.
#Post#: 30219--------------------------------------------------
Re: At a loss
By: wolfie Date: April 30, 2019, 8:01 pm
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Make the rsvp webpage a bunch of buttons where they have to
select which events they are attending and a line under it to
say how many will be coming. If a large percentage of people are
rsvping wrong it is too complicated and you need to simplify it
for them.
#Post#: 32811--------------------------------------------------
Re: At a loss
By: bopper Date: June 13, 2019, 1:05 pm
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If you are emailing about two events in one email, then i think
it is on you to use technology to have the RSVPs be clear for
each event.
Like use Sign up Genius or the like.
You are also aware of the two events, but others might not be as
clued in.
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