The following progress report from the PYM Communications Committee is addressed to all PYM committee clerks, officers, representatives and staff. We are seeking feedback specifically from those “office holders” within PYM. But others may wish to know this information as well, so we post the report here as well.
Dear Pacific Yearly Meeting Committee Clerks, Officers, Reps and Staff,
PYM Communications Committee is writing to report on our progress towards reinstating role-based email addresses for PYM positions such as yours and to solicit your timely feedback before we move too far along.
If you could send your feedback by Feb 11 to pym.website@gmail.com, that would be much appreciated. Note, that’s the same deadline as for submitting reports to RepCom 2018.
A word of background: Many of you will remember that there used to be a “Contact Us” form on the PYM website (pacificyearlymeeting.org). The form could be used to dispatch email to PYM officers and committees using role-based email addresses such as
- unitywithnature@pacificyearlymeeting.org,
- treasurer@pacificyearlymeeting.org,
and so forth. The addresses could also be used independently of the form. We took the Contact form down and disabled the addresses a couple of years ago when we discovered that they weren’t working due to some security issues. We are planning to reinstate these services with improved security, but there are some roadblocks so it will take time – several months more at least, perhaps up to a year or more.
One decision we will have to make when we finally do reinstate addresses is: Which PYM positions should get role-based email addresses? We would like your feedback on one question in particular: Do you feel that YOUR position
(a) definitely should,
(b) maybe should or
(c) definitely does not need to
have a role-based email address? You can also opine on other positions if you wish, or share any other thoughts with us. But please do answer at least this one question about the position (or positions) you are responsible for.
Some PYM officers and clerks have felt the need to set up ad hoc addresses/accounts on their own. The ones we know about are (… and note the inconsistent styles of these addresses):
- pymsecretariat@gmail.com (Raph Levien, George Mills)
- pymassistanttotheclerk@gmail.com (Sharon Gates, also used to reach the Clerk)
- pym.youthcoordinator@gmail.com (Alyssa Nelson)
- pacificyearlymeetingregistrar@gmail.com (Heather Levien, Joe Magruder, Rick Altherr)
- pacym.yafclerks@gmail.com (Rebekah Percy)
- pym.website@gmail.com (Roger Price)
If you feel that your position within PYM needs an ad hoc dedicated email address before we can provide a corporate one, please consult with us before creating one. We won’t say you can’t do it, but we’d like a voice in how you do it, since we’ve been thinking a lot about this. (Or if you’ve already created one that we don’t yet know about, please let us know.)
Advantages in creating email addresses corporately rather than individually include unified administration, consistent addresses for end users, and institutional memory. The previous email addresses were just “aliases” that forwarded emails to the personal account of the appropriate clerk or officer. Our plan for the future is to create corporate accounts which can be passed from one office holder to his or her successor, along with an archive of messages sent and received. PYM will bear the responsibility for maintaining the history and message archive. Individuals will still have the option to forward copies of incoming messages to their personal email accounts if they wish, but the original messages will still be archived in the corporate account.
We’ve been discussing this and other issues for many months now. If you’d like to know more about our deliberations, we’d be happy to share more background with you. If you’re a glutton for detail you might even enjoy wading through a spreadsheet we maintain on the web — very much a work in progress — where we’ve been tracking some of the issues and options. Just ask me for the link. Whatever your level of masochism, we’d be happy to hear your thoughts if you have particular concerns or insights you’d like to share with us.
Use “Reply” (NOT Reply-all) to send your answer to the question in red above and any additional feedback to the Website Working Group (pym.website (at) gmail.com). And thank you for your patience as we grind through the process of reinstating role-based email addresses for PYM.
For the PYM Communications Committee,
— George Mills (clerk of the Secretariat and Website working groups)