OK, I know this sounds like a silly thing, a blog all about having an e-mail address. Yes, I know it is the 21st century and my children do not know a world with out computers, internet, and e-mail. However, as our summer helpers are working on compiling information for various databases, they have fully realized how many organizations do not have e-mail. I understand that many organizations are run by volunteers, and not all volunteers are comfortable with e-mail. However, I believe it is vital for any organization to sustain and grow to have one set e-mail account and not change for each new primary contact or president.
1. I already have a couple between work, school, and personal, why do I want to have another one?
- Don’t look at it like you have another e-mail address; it is the organization’s e-mail. It is not something you need or have to be checking every 10 minutes on your phone.
- Even some companies have one general e-mail so people do not have to try and figure out which department they really should be contacting.
- Many universities have a simple e-mail for the departments or organizations.
2. Why not just use my personal one for the organizations? I will check it more regularly, making my response time more effective.
- What happens when you are not the primary contact any more? (I have received some very upset e-mails for contacting the past president because that was the only e-mail I had.) With one set e-mail for the organization, it does not matter who the primary contact is.
- You don’t have to let everyone know the new e-mails to contact after each switch of officers. I am not talking about just your members, but other organizations you work or have membership with will need to know the new e-mails.
- It is easier for someone to remember myorganization@yahoo.com that doesn’t change than each officers’ personal address that may change on a yearly basis. (Plus, some personal e-mails are very hard to remember with their crazy spellings and random numbers.)
3. What about all the contacts I already have?
- This is time consuming, but enter them all into the new account. (There are ways to speed it up with inputting and exporting the information, but I am not going to go into how to do that in this blog.) Once it is entered, you just have to keep it up dated.
- Yes you will probably have some members who you contact personally on a regular basis. But there are many more that you need to send information/newsletters/minutes/etc to that you don’t need their contact information filling up your personal e-mail.
Do I have you convinced yet? If not, take a minute and think about how often you change officers, yearly for most organizations. Now think about all the places you have to change the new primary e-mail to: website, brochures, newsletters, all your members, the bank, membership organizations, office supply stores you have "membership" cards with, etc... Yes you will have to do this one more time if you set up a general e-mail, but you won't have to do it again.
If you are thinking that it is time to get a general e-mail set up, keep a few things in mind when getting started.
1. Decide what server you want to use. There are many free e-mail sites available. Yahoo!, Gmail, and Hotmail are some of the popular ones. While your cable and phone companies do offer free e-mail with your internet, I would not recommend them if you are relying on an officer's internet service. Remember, you will most likely lose the e-mail account if you no longer have their internet services.
2. Decide on the e-mail name. Keep it simple. Use the name of your organization or a shortened version. You want people to remember it and be able to share it.
3. Know who is going to check it. If more than one of you is going to check it, have a system so you know what is taken care of. You don’t want to double respond or worse, not respond at all.
4. Make sure more than one of you knows the password. Even if only your secretary is going to check it, someone else should know the password so they can get in if they need to. Remember to pass on the password if you change it. E-mail does you no good if no one can access it.
5. Check it regularly. Regularly does not have to be hourly or even daily. Checking it once a week, even if it is to make sure it is still empty, will work.
6. Don’t have it forwarded to your personal e-mail. I know, I know, it is a more effective response time to have it forwarded to the e-mail you check all the time. But some e-mails you need to keep for historical and record keeping. If they are in your personal e-mail, the organization doesn’t have them.
7. Use a web based system. Using a web based system allows you to check the e-mail anywhere and access all the e-mails you have saved. I love all the Outlook can do, but it will keep all your e-mails on that computer. And again, some e-mails you need to keep for historical and record keeping. If they are on your personal computer, the organization doesn’t have them.
I know it sounds like one more thing to do, but it really will make everything much easier in the long run.
If you have or are just starting to use a general e-mail for your organization, do you have any tips that helped you? Anything you have tried that didn't work?
