ICH Allusers emails guidelines

All ICH e-mail protocol

(developed from UCL guidelines)

Introduction

Email is used as one of the primary forms of communication within ICH. One of the benefits of email is that it enables broadcast messaging allowing individuals to contact groups of recipients with a single message, enabling the communication of consistent information.

The misuse of all staff / student emails can lead to important information being ignored or deleted without being processed and puts an unnecessary strain on the critical messaging infrastructure.

There are instances when all staff / student e-mail is the most appropriate form of communication and should be used. To help manage the frequency, and content of the all staff e-mail channel and maximise the effectiveness of ICH-wide communication, a specific process has been created. This process is detailed below.

ICH Allusers e-mail process

Only authorised requests formally submitted via the ICH Allusers email address will be reviewed for publication. The Internal Communications Manager in conjunction with the Head of Communications / Director of Communications will decide whether the message is appropriate and will arrange for the message to be issued.

All ICH staff and students can send out messages to the ICH-Allusers mailing list

New ICH staff and students are automatically subscribed to the mailing list. ICH staff and students cannot opt out of this subscription.

The mailing list is managed by IT for SLMS.

Any message intended for distribution to all ICH staff / students will be reviewed and approved by ICH IT for SLMS supports). They may refer the final decision as to whether to send the message or whether there is a more suitable internal communications channel available to the Senior Administrator or Institute Manager

They will do this by ensuring that the message satisfies - the following criteria. It must:

• Be a business critical message
• Be relevant to the majority of ICH staff / students
• Have no attached files. Additional information or context to the all ICH e-mail message should be included in a link to further information
• Not be a duplicate of a message previously sent to all staff / students

Any staff writing a message to go out via  the ICH Allusers email will also ensure that the message conforms to the following formatting and style guidelines. The message will:

• Contain clear contact information for replies and responses
• Have a clear and concise title/subject heading
• Will follow the UCL house style and be written in plain English, (avoiding jargon or overly formal language)

Appropriate content for all ICH e-mails

Content for all staff e-mails should include 'business critical' information of a 'urgent need to know now' nature. Examples could include:

• Urgent Estates information
• Urgent IT information
• Urgent HR information
• Urgent internal information that affects ICH
• Urgent external information that affects ICH

Inappropriate content for all ICH e-mails

Generally, ICH Allusers emails should be fairly brief messages of interest to a large proportion of ICH staff and students.

Mail which falls into the following categories will not be accepted:

• Accommodation offered / wanted
• Virus alerts (unless from IT for SLMS)
• Mail intended for specific groups *
• Mail with attached documents, other than PDF or Microsoft Office
• Mail with no subject heading
• Mail not related to the business of the Institute
• Mail that is inflammatory
• General items for sale / offered / wanted / lost / found **
• Employment wanted / external employment offered

If you have any questions further questions, please contact IT for SLMS.

* For example, any lab-related messages, should be emailed to the relevant Lab Mailing List.

For example, any messages specific to administrators, should be send to ich-administrators@ucl.ac.uk instead.

• Link to ICH mailing lists

 ** for lost property, contact ICH reception.

For those advertising seminar and events, rather than emailing ich-allusers@ucl.ac.uk, please email your events details to ich.comms@ucl.ac.uk by 9.00am on Fridays if you wish this to be included in the Seminars & Events Bulletin scheduled for the following Monday. This can include events/seminars that are coming up later in the month/year and it will also appear on the Intranet homepage.

Sending a message to ICH Allusers

Any message intended for distribution to all ICH staff / students will be reviewed and approved by at least one of the authorised senders. They also have the responsibility for making the final decision as to whether to send the message or whether there is a more suitable internal communications channel available.

All requests for an all ICH e-mail should be sent to the ich-allusers@ucl.ac.uk e-mail Inbox.

Further information and other internal communication channels

For further information about the use of the ICH-Allusers mailing list please contact Nicole Hofmans or IT for SLMS.

Other channels for 'need to know' and 'nice to know' information are detailed below.

• ICH Bulletins:

• Seminars and internal events will be advertised on the Intranet listing and send out via a weekly bulletin: Seminars and events listing on Intranet homepage.

• Mailing lists: information to smaller groups e.g. laboratory or programme matters, should be sent to the relevant lab mailing list, see mailing lists.