In this modern age, a large fraction of the communications within The Augustan Society, Inc., and between the Society's various officers and the world at large, are conducted by Email. This requires both a physical system for sending and receiving email, and the policies and procedures needed to keep it all working as intended.
Email Address Conventions
Society email addresses are a desirable feature, but for maximum clarity and efficiency, they need to be assigned in a logical and consistent manner.
- Officers — <title@augustansociety.org>, with most multi-word titles condensed to a single word where not confusing. Where a title is duplicated (as with Dean), words or acronyms are added for clarification.
- Committee Chairmen — <name@augustansociety.org>, exceptions existing for chairmen with unique titles.
- Committees — <name.comm@augustansociety.org>, but a few exceptions exist, such as <finance@augustansociety.org> for the Finance Committee. These should probably be eliminated over time.
- Individuals — <firstname.lastname@augustansociety.net>. Hypenated names use the hyphen; apostrophes and spaces are dropped. For compound surnames without a hyphen, only the first is used.
- Outside agencies — <acronym.c-o@augustansociety.com>, though this may soon be discontinued for lack of use.
- Lower case characters are to be used in all cases, and no punctuation other than periods and hyphens, and those only as described above. Compound names are concatenated (Von Leden becomes vonleden), and punctuation is omitted (O'Shea becomes oshea). Diacritical marks are omitted.
Email Forwarding
Email to <augustansociety.org>, <augustansociety.net>, and <augustansociety.com> are forwarded by a mail server located on the Society's virtual server at RimuHosting in their Dallas data center.
To view or edit the forwarding list, edit the table at </etc/postfix/virtual> on that machine. Examination of the format already present should provide adequate instruction for maintenance of the list.
After editing the table, run <postmap /etc/postfix/virtual> to effect the changes.
Access to the server is presently the same for all functions. Access is presently provided to:
- Webmaster*
- Assistant Webmaster for the Store
- Assistant Webmaster for Koha
- Assistant Webmaster for the Wiki
- Postmaster*
The two posts marked with asterisks are the only ones that would be expected to have access once access is compartmentalized (a task not presently contemplated since all work is being done by one person).
Content Policies
In order that communications from officers of The Augustan Society, Inc., be properly identified, the following policies have been adopted by the Board:
It is the Policy of the Society that public communications must include the officer’s full name, the relevant title of the officer, and the words “The Augustan Society, Inc.” in paper letterhead or email signature.
It is the Policy of the Society that public communications would be constrained to use only honorifics that were currently recognized by the Society, but private communications may continue to employ all honorifics previously recognized by the Society that have not been specifically revoked.
For the sake of these policies, “public communications” would include web sites, The Augustan Omnibus, Augustæum, and correspondence with non-members. “Private communications” would include correspondence with members (with no non-member recipients), and certificates.
While it is strongly preferred that email be sent from Society addresses, it is understood that some officers may not have the technical skills needed to so configure their email accounts, and some email systems may not permit this. The Postmaster will provide technical support as his skills may permit.
Email Etiquette
This section offers advice, not admonitions. It should be adhered to by Headquarters Staff, and is recommended for officers and chairmen.
- Use Society email addresses where possible. (thus <webmaster@augustansociety.org> rather than <bruce.metcalf@augustansociety.net>, but either is preferable to use of a personal address.
- Use “Reply All” sparingly.
- If you feel you must send a message saying “thanks” or “understood”, limit that reply to the individual, not to a group or list.
- Use a salutation at the top.
- Do not start the message in the subject line and continue in the body.
- Except when writing to current members, identify yourself by full name, title, and the phrase “The Augustan Society, Inc.” in each email thread.
- If you want to confirm that the message has been seen, use the “read receipt” function; do not demand that your readers respond.
- The exception to the above is when official notice is being given and a reply is required. Use this only if a failure to respond would require a phone call or letter to be sent.
