It's Not My Fault!

I ended up in trouble with Tami last week because of not paying attention, and it made me wonder how often the same happens to each of us. One of my weekly tasks at the office is to send out Enews. Every Wednesday morning, I put together the items that are going to be promoted for that week along with a link to my blog. One of the spots is reserved for what’s happening that evening at the church so that people know how to plan.
 
Wednesday was the kickoff for Evolve and Empower, which are groups for women who attend ALC. Tami is over the women’s ministry and emailed me a reminder that they were having their Fall kickoff. I really liked what I read and decided to use it as a blurb in Enews. That’s where the problem occurred, because I didn’t read the whole thing. After she explained what was happening, she gave detailed instructions on what tasks needed to be done to prepare the rooms for the night. Those instructions were meant for the staff, not all of the church. 

I simply cut and pasted the whole paragraph in Enews. I finished getting it ready and proudly hit the “Send” button, and off it went out to the more than 300 families that receive our weekly mailing. Fewer than five minutes later, I received an email from Tami with the words, “You put the email that I sent you in the MAILCHIMP!!!!!!” I can hear her screaming those words even now as I’m writing.

My first thought was, Yes, I did. I thought it sounded really nice. But I knew I had missed something so I quickly went to my email trash folder because I had already deleted her email. I read the whole email that time. Once finished, I laughed and thought, What’s the big deal? This will be a true test to see who really reads Enews and who just glances at it. After calming Tami down – through email because I didn’t think it was the best time to talk in person – I told her that it was going to be fine and not to stress out about it.

A short time later, she received a text from someone asking if she needed to get to church early to turn on the coffee and air conditioning for the ladies, as had been mentioned in the not-for-the-church portion of the item. After I emailed Tami off the ledge a second time, she forgave me and I was able to go home to a loving wife.
 
The lesson is that if sending out an email to 300-plus people, either delete your wife from the recipients or make sure everything is proper. Tami had a good laugh and made sure all the ladies heard about it that evening.