GroupWise "Everyone Mail" a Problem

By Sandy Burke, Computing Center Support Services Manager

Every semester, as people are rushing to complete classes and end-of-semester activities increase, there is a corresponding increase in the use of GroupWise to send mail to "everyone." This frequently leads to hostile responses from some recipients and even MORE "everyone mail." Due to this ongoing problem we thought it would be a good idea to reprint this article that originally appeared in the April 1998 Benchmarks Online. Please see the text box at the bottom of this page to find out ways to better manage your GroupWise mail.

Please review the following guidelines for using the group setup for "everyone" mail. There are special provisions you need to make before sending out a message, as well as considering if this IS really important enough to send out to all mailboxes using GroupWise. I received one message 3 times!

Complaints are coming in from all over campus about the proliferation of messages, and even though we all have a delete button, there is a responsibility of the sender to make sure those receiving the message are really interested. Is this of enough interest campus wide to pay for postage? to pay for printing costs? to pay for employees to fold, label, and put in campus mail? If not, then THIS IS THE WRONG WAY TO DISTRIBUTE YOUR MESSAGE ELECTRONICALLY.

Please read the following guidelines as set out by the Vice Presidents and Provost last year. They are still meaningful and should be followed.

Large Group E-mail Guidelines- 2/17/97:

The Provost and all Vice Presidents recommend the following guidelines for using large E-mail groups:

1. Departments and individuals should be judicious in sending E-mail to all faculty and staff. Many recipients may consider the message to be annoying "junk mail," especially if "everyone" messages continue to proliferate at the current rate. As a general guideline, the message should be of sufficient general value that it would justify being sent as a memorandum if E-mail were not available. In other words, is the message important enough to justify sending to virtually every University employee? Campus-wide discussions should use Usenet news groups, not E-mail.
   
2. All large group mailings should use appropriate mail groups. A public group will be maintained in the GroupWise (GW) address directory that will include all UNT faculty and staff in the GW directory, as well as more limited groups such as department heads and account holders. Offices or individuals that make frequent or regular large group mailings, that are not official notifications to all faculty and staff, are encouraged to maintain their own groups. Messages to these groups should have an introduction indicating willingness to remove an individual from the group if requested by return E-mail.
   
3. Anyone sending mail to large groups should use the GroupWise send options to conserve system resources. In the "Mail To" screen, select "send" and then "send options." For the current mail message, these options will override the typical preferences. Generally, the following send options should be selected:

• no status information
• low priority
• expiration date set to delete unopened messages in two work days
• do not notify recipients unless it is an urgent official message
• no return notification
• no reply requested

Also, from the main GW screen, select "file" and "preferences" to confirm that the "advanced" send option is set to "insert in out box." Then, if a mistake is made, the out box message may be used to "delete" the message from all "in boxes," correct it, and resend. Take care to delete from in boxes, not the out box.