BROADCAST COMMUNICATION: Additional Guidelines (Letter from H. David Lambert)





	HOME » BROADCAST COMMUNICATIONS BROADCAST COMMUNICATION: Additional Guidelines (Letter from H. David Lambert) To: Vice Presidents Deans System Stewards From: H. David Lambert Vice President for Information Services and Chief Information Officer Date: October 15, 2004 Re: Broadcast Emails Broadcast e-mail communications (messages sent to a large segment of the university community at one time) have become an important part of the way the university conducts its business. Early investments in infrastructure have enabled us to support the use of many tools to enhance communications. However, during the 2003-2004 academic year, the volume of broadcast e-mail increased dramatically. In March and April, over 110 broadcast messages per month were sent--an average of three to five a day--often each to a population of 20,000 people! The Hoya even carried an editorial "GU E-Mail Inundated with Spam" on April 16, 2004, complaining that the university was a major source of SPAM to students. This perception is very important. We must work to ensure that we are making the best use of the medium. Mass communications, both voice mail and e-mail, fall under the "Transmission of Messages via Broadcast Communications" policy. A copy is enclosed for your convenience. You will also find the policy on-line at http://policies.georgetown.edu/32326.html. In light of concerns that had been raised about overuse, the working group that developed the policy reconvened to establish better procedures for those using broadcast mailing lists. The group was co-chaired by Ardoth Hassler, Associate Vice President for University Information Services, and John Pierce, University Registrar and Assistant Provost. We ask those posting messages, and those responsible for approving the posting of messages, to adhere to the guidelines set forth in the policy and the following practices and procedures: Please keep messages short and, if possible, text only. It generally works better to send a link to a web site rather than send longer messages or messages with graphics. Please do not send attachments with mass mailings. If you need assistance with your message, you may contact the UIS Help Desk during university business hours. The sender of the message needs to be identified in the body of the text. Effective immediately, the Vice President under whose authority the message is being posted will be listed at the bottom of a posting. [e.g., "this message is posted by Mary Doe under the authority of the Provost", or "this message is sent from the Office of the Dean of Medicine"] If at all possible, please batch messages and send them once a week. Messages may be queued for sending at anytime, however, they will only be released for distribution after 6:00pm and prior to 7:00am on business days, or on weekends. Any message received by 5:00pm on a business day should be posted that evening. However, the process of releasing queued messages is a manual one. UIS staff does not read messages prior to releasing them for posting. They do check to ensure that the sender of the message and the person under whose authority it is being sent are listed in the message. Any broadcast message requiring immediate posting between 9am and 5pm will require specific approval of the cognizant Vice President or the Vice President for University Information Services. This authority may not be delegated. We ask those who review and authorize messages to work with the sender to advise them on how to narrow the audience to those most interested, that is, not use broadcast e-mail to the whole university. They should also review the text using the following criteria: ensure the accuracy of the material and that the message is concise encourage the sender to remove graphics and link the message to a web page ensure there are no attached files disallow reminders about events previously broadcast ensure there are good, catchy subject lines, tagged appropriately ensure that the orientation of the message is specific to the audience of the Vice President?s constituency ensure that the message is "signed" by the sender and the authorizing administrator is identified. I will also take this opportunity to remind the university community that the policy states that broadcast mail cannot be used for commercial purposes, lobbying, soliciting support (financial or otherwise) for charity or special causes not connected with a Georgetown University effort, or for partisan political activities. For e-mail list criteria and more information on how to send broadcast communications, visit http://broadcast.georgetown.edu/. Thank you for your cooperation.