I continue to be amazed at the ability of one hastily written email message to tear apart relationships in a community. In fact, I recently watched in dismay as a member of one Christian organization distributed a message that included references to another member as being like a “Nazi” and went into great detail over their frustrations with a decision they opposed.
While the “Nazi” references may have been intended to be humorous (compliments of the Seinfeld “Soup” episode), most folks found the reference more offensive than any decision this person opposed. The message was sent from a well-intending individual, but it came across wrong. Amplifying this fact, it was sent to a large distribution list - all of whom were taken aback.
In the business world, organizations setup policies to mitigate the risks of an incident like this. I believe churches and other Christian communities can learn from this practice. If your church or other Christian organization has email distribution lists or an online community, consider requiring members to read and agree to email policies before they send their first message. Many community sites today offer this functionality and if yours does not, you can simply distribute the policy to all new members.
These policies should address common areas of risk such as:
1. Make sure you review your message before sending
2. Consider your audience; put yourself in their shoes - how will they view the message when they read it?
3. Avoid using any terms the community may find offensive, even if intended as humorous
4. Consider the distribution list, should everyone be receiving this message?
You can also get more specific with suggestions such as:
1. Avoid using CAPS (it is equivalent to “yelling” in person).
2. Do not reflect negatively on any other communities of faith
3. Never email financial or other sensitive information
4. Do not use the community for forwarding messages (aka no email forwards of jokes, etc…)
5. Do not use the community for solicitation
To get you started, there are many resources on the net. Here are a couple that you may find particularly useful:
Peace,
- An IT Servant