The other day, one of our interns mentioned something about how she had been signed up to attend one of our seminars a couple months ago. When I expressed surprise, she brought it my attention that we had in fact been in email contact about it.
Whoops.
Much to my distaste, I've realized that I've become a sort of automated response system. I spend time almost every day responding to people interested in the work of pbi, either providing them with more information about our volunteer program or turning them down because they don't meet our qualifications. In either case, I use one of several pre-written letters, taking the time only to change the name following the "Dear..." I'm fairly certain that one of these days I will in fact forget to the change the name and will mortally offend some lady named Lena because I addressed her as Ralf.
Sure, it is not practical for me to take the time to learn the life story of everyone who sends me an email (and if I did, it would probably just creep them out); I just wish there was an efficient way to provide information that didn't leave me feeling like a robot.
I deal with this daily, as well. I answer emails from random people all the time, because they're interested in volunteering. Maybe 10% of the calls, emails, etc turn in to actual volunteers at orientation.
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