Steve Leveen, Levenger's co-founder, recently published an article on his blog about the value of hand written notes. Actually, he referred to the rewards of writing your own handwritten notes. An interesting read and something I've long agreed with, but haven't practiced very well. He sort of shot down most of my old excuses. (Here's another related item on note cards)
I had a very practical experience of receiving just such a note recently. I've been visiting a church for a while, but not really doing anything more than sitting there and receiving. I decided to step that up a notch by sending a check (a very small check, by the way) to the church. It was an electronic check, mailed to them.
A brief digression: quite a few of the people at this church kinda/sorta know me, but they just know me as "Tony." Probably very few know my last name. Of course, Tony isn't my real name, it's just what I go by. So, when the check arrived at the church (with no note from me, of course), it was from Harold A. Dye, Jr. The person processing the check might have figured out Tony Dye, but for sure didn't figure out my real name. (no fault on her part, of course)
So, back to the story. This church, or this person in particular, took the "above and beyond" action. She wrote me a very nice short note, personally thanking me. Receiving that note absolutely made my day. Since she didn't know who I was, that actually added meaning. I think she does this for EVERY gift received from anyone who's not a member or regular attender!
That would be a good place to end this story, but there's actually one more detail worth mentioning. This sweet person who volunteers to handle the contributions is also a busy, high-level, executive with a local manufacturing firm. If she's not too busy to hand write a note, well, that doesn't leave much excuse, does it?
Thanks so much for the hand written thank you note!
