Using email accounts in small organisations.

We look after the email systems for a number of small / volunteer organisations. And we know that lots of them take the 'easy' option when it comes to setting it all up for use. Which was OK(ish) in the past. But doesn't cut it in today's climate

Let me explain by way of an example.

Take a fictitious organisation "Grass Growers of Worcester". And let's say they have the domain name grassgrowersworc.org, and their secretary is Fredd Bloggs who has a private email of fredd.bloggs22@talktalk.co.uk

The "quick and easy" way to handle this would be to set up the email secretary@grassgrowersworc.org and have it forward all mail to fredd.bloggs22@talktalk.co.uk And, to be sure, that works. The issue here is that Fredd can only send emails as fredd.bloggs22@talktalk.co.uk, so will answer incoming emails from his TalkTalk account. And, in not too long, world+dog will think the correct address for The Secretary is fredd.bloggs22@talktalk.com, and send email accordingly. Again, this appears to be OK. Until something changes.

First  - and most importantly - let's consider what happens when Fredd leaves his post. Because you can bet world+dog will continue sending 'Secretary' emails to fredd.bloggs22@talktalk.co.uk. And no, it doesn't matter that the forward for secretary@grassgrowersworc.org has been changed to the new incumbent. Because the core of this problem is that the outsiders are now in the habit of not using that address.

This is, at best, annoying. Fredd will get annoyed at these emails turning up. The sender will be annoyed because their emails aren't being acted upon. Grass Growers will be annoyed because there's an apparent lack of communication from the outside world.

But it gets so much worse. What happens if the emails erroneously arriving with the ex-secretary are confidential? What if Fredd left under a cloud? What if the outside world is so used to taking instructions from fredd.bloggs22@talktalk.co.uk that they continue to supply him goods after he has left his post? What if (heaven help us) it's a child welfare issue? At the extreme you could be looking at criminal offences.

But you don't have to go to these extremes to add to the list of problems. What if Fredd changes his broadband provider to Virgin? His new address will be something like freddbloggs91@virgin.net, and emails subsequently sent to his old TalkTalk address will vanish into the ether. Forever. What about reputation? As a recipient, an email from an organisation - using what is clearly a person email address - goes straight into my bin (assuming it got past the spam defences in the first place). "Hi, am the Web Services Manager for Big Corp Marketing, and my email is billy.the.kid@gmail.com" Really? I don't think so. And we know plenty of households where spouses share one email account. I'm sure Mrs. Bloggs is a fine, upstanding pillar of the community. But she shouldn't be reading official emails - that's almost guaranteed to drive a coach & horses through GDPR.

And then there's the communication history. In these litigious times, it's important to be able to prove who said what to whom. If your email history is dispersed across the private mailboxes of a selection of ex-secretaries, lost forever in cancelled broadband accounts, or permanently destroyed when someone's laptop gets scrapped off - then you have no chance. And that could be a problem.

The solution to most - if not all - of these problems is to make better use of the 'proper' email address secretary@grassgrowersworc.org. There's almost certain to be a webmail portal to allow Fredd to log into the Secretary email account. It'll work pretty much like all the other webmail systems (Gmail, Yahoo etc.). Or, for the more tech-savvy, it's pretty easy to add the account to your existing mail software. And immediately nearly all the above problems disappear, as Fredd is sending emails as secretary@grassgrowersworc.org. And, if there's a problem - or a new Secretary takes over - you simply change the password and give it to the new guy. Simples.