Set Up YOUR Yale Group Email on Yale1969.org
OK, you are part of a group of Yalies, and you want to help them stay in touch. The group might be composed of your roommates and neighbors from “back in the day.” It might be your spook. Or your sports team or another extracurricular activity.
It could even be a “shared interest group” of classmates that you’d like to organize now, like Doug Leonard recently did.
Your goal: to have an easy way for each person in the group to share something with everyone else in that group.
The solution: A “group email” address that you can use to communicate, privately, to the group.
If you want, I’ll set up an account and make you “Moderator” (duties defined below). The account will be in the form of YourGroupName@yale1969.org.
When any member of this group sends an email to YourGroupName@yale1969.org, the mail server will re-broadcast that message to EACH member of the group at their personal email address. In order to guard against spam, any email sent to this address by a non-member will be held, pending your OK as Moderator.
Email Is The Universal Communications Medium
You won’t need to train anyone, as even “old dogs” like us can use email. Everyone already knows how to use it.
Everyone knows how to copy/paste some text, add a link to something of interest or attach a picture or document. No “customer support” will be required.
Everyone knows how to get and read email. Reply and reply-all work the way you’d expect — the former going back to the original sender only and the latter to the entire group.
Each group email has its own dynamics. Two Yale ’69 groups I’ve joined share differently. One is very active … often a few messages a week, sharing question (“what do you think of the stock market?”) or opinions (mainly reacting to news events). The other has a monthly cadence … mainly pre- and post-Zoom meeting messages. (We are meeting monthly on Zoom.). See separate post regarding “Using Our Yale 1969 Zoom Account” which you are welcome to use for any Yale-affiliated meeting.
The Role of Moderator
- Who. You do not need to be the team captain, the college’s Social Committee chairman or other formal leader. “Moderator” is an anodyne term which is agnostic as to authority: You can be “staff support” to the formal leader of the group. Or you can “facilitate” things, asserting a bit of leadership to help guide others toward using the group email or to join a Zoom meeting of the group. That said, someone needs to be the organizer, and it’s gonna have to be you (or someone you recruit).Brewster and Inky Clark chose you as one of the “1,000 leaders” of our generation. So, …. start leading! Reach out. Encourage others to “join” the “mailing list” and participate in Zoom meetings of the group, if. you are doing that, too. (Zoom is totally optional.)
- Training. As moderator, you’ll spend 20-30 minutes on the phone with me, and I’ll show you the webpage that “administers” the group. I will set everything up. You just tell me who to add. I will answer all your questions about how you can best get people started / interested. Ping me at support@Yale1969.org to get started.
- Manage Members. Every so often, you’ll get an email from the system saying if someone wants to join your group email list. You will approve (or deny) them.
That’s all! That is, from a technical point of view, there is essentially nothing to do, and it’s VERY simple. The real core of the role is helping members get comfortable getting back in touch and helping the group build usage and trust. When we talk in step 2, I’ll suggest some ideas for you based on the nature of your group.