Looking for peanut gallery opinion

[Murphy101]

So if you enrolled in an in person non-college paid for class that was on Monday evenings and …

The first thing the instructor did was schedule an orientation session via zoom on Saturday afternoon….

and then sent the link to the zoom in group text with every participant’s phone numbers available…

how cranky would you be?

I was mildly annoyed with the mode and the date of this bc to MY mind at the least it should have been scheduled for the same time as the classes bc the odds are that is a time people expected to have available. My first thought was this is setting up for a class that fails due to poor instructor planning.

No surprise that shortly after this text went out I have ding after ding notifications of “can’t make it”.  Truth be known we can’t make it either.  I will be listening (ish) only without video bc I have to be somewhere else.

But I am far more irked that 14 people I’ve never met before now have my phone number and also my 16 year olds number.  Seriously.  If you want to use tech professionally then do it professionally bc this is probably a 7 on a scale of 1-10 for unprofessional things that irritate me. 

Am I alone in this? I’m not mad and not canceling the class bc of this. Just irked and curious about other opinions. 

[Hannah]

This would annoy me too. Both the time of the orientation session and especially the sharing of private information.

[Rebel]

I find it unprofessional and would be annoyed.

[Katy]

I’d complain to whoever organized the class. And to the instructor. 

[Kassia]

12 minutes ago, Hannah said:

This would annoy me too. Both the time of the orientation session and especially the sharing of private information.

exactly.  I'd be stewing about it.

[Kidlit]

I'd be mostly annoyed at the time the zoom is scheduled.   But I'm in all kinds of group text threads with people I don't know due to kids' activities, etc.   I don't think much about it. 

[SKL]

It's sloppy.  I don't think I'd be super annoyed, just warned that this person isn't very professional.

[footballmom]

Ducking before anyone throws tomatoes, but I wouldn’t be irked.

I can understand that maybe they don’t want to lose class / instruction time for an orientation. I might be disappointed if it fell on a day / time I couldn’t make it.

I also wouldn’t think twice about the group text. It’s just the main mode people choose to communicate these days. Unless they sent out a directory of which number belonged to each person, I would shrug it off.

Now, the first person to use that group text to blanket invite everyone to their MLM party would be on my naughty list…

[Catwoman]

My biggest issue is with the sharing of personal information. There is no reason why everyone in the class needs everyone else's phone number!

I also wouldn't be happy with the orientation for a Monday class being schedule for a Saturday.

I wonder if this instructor is brand new or something, because these are rookie mistakes.

[Catwoman]

15 minutes ago, footballmom said:

Now, the first person to use that group text to blanket invite everyone to their MLM party would be on my naughty list…

😂😂😂

[Pawz4me]

The Saturday scheduling would irritate me. That seems super weird to me.

I don't think I'd much care about others seeing my phone number.

[Toocrazy!!]

I would be annoyed the orientation was on a Saturday for a Monday class. 
I think it is odd they are communicating by group text, but those don’t bother me because it’s so easy to turn off notifications for those.  

[catz]

Assuming this is a paid class, I think it is super unprofessional to use a texting list.  I would expect that in an email.  

I have complained before about signing my kids up for stuff that then schedules important things off the set schedule.  She could have done orientation on a private youtube and just shared the link to watch at your leisure and welcomed questions via email or text.

That said, I just block numbers immediately if they aren't numbers I'd put in my contact list.  So I guess I'm not overly paranoid about my number getting out to a very small group of like minded people like that.  In fact I like it when teachers ask if they can share a roster w/contact info because sometimes it makes sense to carpool, connect outside of a class setting, etc.  

[Wheres Toto]

Both would annoy me.  If I need to have an orientation/informational meeting for a class or one of my 4H clubs, I have it at the same time that the class or group will meet if I need people to actually attend.   If it's completely optional and I don't really care if everyone is able to make it then fine, but if that's the case, why have a meeting?  Send the required information over an email and call it done.  

I don't ever send group texts.  If I need to send a message to a specific group of parents/students/members, I send it by email with everyone BCC'd.   IF it's a general message that can be public, I'll put it on the Facebook group (private for my 4H clubs).  

I don't mind my phone number being shared because it's the public phone number for my business, but I'm not going to share other people's numbers without them giving permission first.

[Elizabeth86]

I’d be annoyed 

[Pam in CT]

Mildly annoyed re group text -- class communications would be better in email IMO, where the sender can do the recipients bcc such that everyone gets it but can't see one another's info.  But, as pp said, it IS the way lots of sport parent groups function; and increasingly the Youngs seem only to check email once a week (?? dunno what's up with that, but empirically seems common), so I'm likely out of touch.  I'd be mildly annoyed but wouldn't say anything.

More more irritated about  unplanned time slot. Its one thing to schedule a special event weeks out, but to just assume availability at such short notice... no.   On this point, I wouldn't stew; I WOULD say something. Folks can't do better if they don't get feedback.

 

[Murphy101]

This is a paid course for mostly adults and some minors.

I wish I’d skipped the entire thing. What a cotton picking waste of 45 minutes where the only details I needed were to show up 15 minutes early the first day to get books.  Sigh. 

[SKL]

I will say it's pretty common for everyone's phone numbers to be on a group text or other message app when they are in an activity together.

My kids' and my info is known to every other family in each of their school sports, their volunteer gigs, and probably tons of others.

That said, I think the teacher should have warned or asked first before spreading the info around.

[SKL]

I find it more annoying that people insist on talking (in real time) when a brief written message would be so much easier (for me at least).

[regentrude]

I would be annoyed because I would be 99.9% sure that the information from the orientation would easily fit on a one-page document they could simply send out. I am literate. Don't waste my time on a meeting that should have been an email.

Yes, I also hate group texts and find them intrusive. Especially since I don't need to see everyone's response to everything.

[easypeasy]

I'd feel like I probably should be annoyed, but it's happened so many times over the past many years, I would just mute the convo and forget about it almost immediately. I would also forget about the Saturday orientation bc we never had classes on Saturday so it wouldn't be on my radar whatsoever.

[LauraClark]

I teach a local homeschool art class and send group texts weekly-even I (knowing that the other moms will probably want each other's phone numbers eventually anyway) make sure everyone is ok with a group text. I would be annoyed. 

[Murphy101]

15 hours ago, SKL said:

I find it more annoying that people insist on talking (in real time) when a brief written message would be so much easier (for me at least).

Ugh. Amen. But you know what I’ve learned? No one else is literate. And or bc these group texts are so annoying and full of 90% stuff individuals don’t need to know, like responses of “okay!” - it gets muted. And the 10% they need to know from the actual facilitator gets muted too.

[Carol in Cal.]

Seems pretty amateur to me.  Brace yourself for more weird random stuff all semester.

[Clarita]

20 hours ago, Kidlit said:

I'd be mostly annoyed at the time the zoom is scheduled.   But I'm in all kinds of group text threads with people I don't know due to kids' activities, etc.

I'd be irked in this instance, even though I'm also on several group text threads that are all the people in a class/activity. Every time my permission has been asked if I want to be in that group text. 

[ktgrok]

It depends, I think?

If the zoom orientation was being recorded so that anyone who can't make it or doesn't want to make it live can watch at their own leisure, I'd be okay with it being scheduled on a different day. As long as there was no expectation I'd actually have to attend, and I could get the material shared in another way, either watching later and/or documents shared emailed to me. 

As for the group text...if it is a group of people from say, a local homeschool group, I wouldn't be super annoyed. As in, if I already know these people from a group and they have my social media, etc already. What WOULD annoy me is if people keep using that group text because I HATE group texts. Or if anyone actually contacted me after getting my number that way. But I wouldn't even think about that happening unless it actually happened. I'd just be annoyed that my phone was constantly pinging with stuff. 

I would kindly suggest to the leader that group emails, which can be sent blind CC, etc, would be a safer way to do this since there are minors in the group and said leader I'm sure wants to protect that minor's privacy/phone number, etc.