Who Is On The List?

by Jane Hines

If you received this copy of the VOICE in your mailbox, it is probably because someone at your church sent us the church directory and you haven’t moved or changed churches lately. It is the intention of the Synod to have the VOICE delivered to the mailbox of every Presbyterian home within our bounds. We have 64,923 names on the VOICE mailing list. Some of those names or addresses are out of date. Some churches send us new directories every time they publish a new one, and some churches have not sent one in five or ten years. The way people move around nowadays, a 5- year-old list is just barely worth keeping. Last month we got a list from a 60- member church that hadn’t been updated since 2000. Only three names on that list were still the same.

Since we mail the VOICE at the third class non-profit rate to save money, the post office does not forward it to a new address. One day I got a call from a postman who said, “Lady, I just hate to see you wasting money on the newspapers I have to throw away because the name or address has changed.”

We keep trying to improve our system. A few months ago, we changed our data base from DOS to Microsoft Word and that was a good move. But in the process, we lost nearly a thousand names. Somehow. If you know of anyone who isn’t getting the VOICE anymore, tell them to get in touch with us. We didn’t remove their names deliberately and would like to have them back.

If you are reading this, please make yourself responsible to check with someone at your church (the administrative assistant, the pastor, the clerk of session) and find out when they last sent us a new directory. The Synod’s bookkeeper is also the VOICE circulation manager, and we like to keep him busy. Church directories should be sent to: VOICE Circulation Manager, 318 Seaboard Lane, Suite 205, Franklin, TN 37067. He will take care of the additions and corrections and deletions. If you prefer to have us send a copy of your church list as we now have it so that it can be corrected at the church, use this form. If you have questions or comments, send those to me also. The phone number here at the Synod office is 615/261-4008.

The Synod has always had a strict policy of never sharing the VOICE mailing list with anyone. Help us to share the good news about Presbyterians and help us to be good stewards with the postage money by keeping out data base up-to-date.

Jane Hines, Editor