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St. John's Congaree's Telecommunications

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I know most persons at St. John’s are familiar with the Call Multiplier calls and texts I make periodically. I cannot
imagine a church being an effective communicator with its congregation without having such a system. The system
is commonly referred to as the ROBO calls and was put into place several years ago by John Clarkson. This system
allows for the instantaneous broadcasting of information to the membership of the church. Virtually every
household is enrolled to receive messages by voice, text, or both. The messages sent by text have the ability for
the receiving person to respond to the sender. Text messages can be no greater than 160 characters and may be
written in advance and sent later at a pre-designated time and date although I have not used this feature. Voice
messages are either called in to the Call Multiplier system, recorded, and either modified or accepted as recorded
and sent out; or I can have the system to call me for the voice messages. The Call Multiplier System provides a
means for messages sent out to be saved as Campaign Reports for both voice and text showing how many were
successfully received. The system will try three times to deliver messages to a receiving person. In addition to
having the ability to reach the entire congregation by voice and text message, the congregation’s members can be
divided into subgroups by activity participated in. The Call Multiplier system has the ability to be custom tailored to
send messages to one or several subgroups at church outside of the entire congregation. These subgroups are the
vestry, ECW, Ladies’ Bible Study, Men’s Bible Study, and search committee. There is the ability to add subgroups as
needed as we go forward.
The church has a land line telephone, 803-776-9292, and has had it for as long as I have been attending St. John’s.
Several years ago John Clarkson realized the need at St. John’s for a system of retrieving telephone voice messages
left on the message machine in the church office, as so often there was no one in the office to access the message.
He found a telephone system from Vonage that allowed recorded messages left at church to be transcribed into an
email and sent along with the voice message itself to a designated person. Of late, that person is me, and, like the
Call Multiplier System, it is a slick and invaluable means for church communications. Should someone leave a
message it comes at once to my email and I have the ability to answer the caller or advise someone in the church if
they are the party being called.
From my perspective, St. John’s is very up to date with our communications thanks to John Clarkson.

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Written by: Van Lott

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