Greetings e-Review subscribers and AOL users:

Over the past several years e-Review and the Florida Conference office have increasingly had problems successfully e-mailing to e-Review subscribers and conference leaders who use AOL as their e-mail provider.

AOL periodically designates all e-mail coming from the conference server as spam. The conference's information technology staff have isolated the problem to individuals not related to the conference spoofing conference e-mail addresses to send mass e-mails. When that occurs AOL designates any e-mails sent from the conference office as spam.

It is very difficult to identify the individuals causing the problem, and it is unlikely the situation will be resolved on a long-term basis. It's a problem many organizations face, specifically with AOL.

AOL's efforts to keep spam from reaching its customers is commendable, but in the process legitimate e-mails are not getting through. Mail from e-Review and the conference office often falls into this category unfortunately.

Previously, e-Review has advised correcting this problem by adding the e-Review e-mail address (e-review@flumc.info)  and managing editor's e-mail address (tparham@flumc.org) to your address book so that AOL recognizes mail coming from those addresses as legitimate (see the steps below). In many cases, however, when AOL designates all e-mail with an flumc.org extension as spam, that solution will not work. The only option that will address the problem is to set up a non-AOL account that can receive e-Review and conference e-mails. Yahoo and others offer free e-mail accounts that enable the user to decide which e-mails are spam — they do not set up automatic blocks.

We strongly encourage you to consider switching to another e-mail provider or setting up an account with a new provider and designating that account as the primary one to receive e-mails from the conference office. This is the only way to ensure you will receive the weekly digests from e-Review.

Adding Addresses to Your Address Book

For those who are more familiar with AOL's e-mail function, simply add e-review@flumc.info and tparham@flumc.org to your Address Book.

Another way to do this (as shared by one AOL user):
1. Open your mailbox which shows a list of all the e-mails received.
2. On the right side of the window just above the e-mail list are the words "Show Me Mail From" and a drop-down menu. The menu selections are Everyone, People I Know, Bulk Senders, Unknown Senders.
3. Select "Unknown Senders" to see the e-Review messages you have already received.
4. Open any one of them. Right click on the e-Review address and select the option "Add To My Address Book."

Once you've done that, e-Review stories should start appearing in your in box on a regular basis.

If you need further assistance with this, please contact AOL customer support. The e-Review staff will not be able to provide detailed AOL support.