Email addresses and "professional" appearance

[MakeItRight]

Thanks! very good points.

[Eclipse]

Agree.  It's treating the information and access professionally and understanding it is now need by CAP, not the user,
just like any other large organization.

Also. NO ADS.

[Stonewall]

FLWG has flwg.us (for general use) and flwg.gov (for more formal use with external partners/agencies, etc). 

I absolutely believe that use of professional email addresses establishes a more professional image.

This!

Just make sure you check your organizational email.

[jimmydeanno]

WIWASC,  we registered a domain for our unit.  The domain wasn't the units name, but rather the general location that we served with a .org.  It is much like Mr. Keiloch's "oswegocap.org."

We set up email for the officers using just a first.last@unit.org setup.  We also setup "info@unit.org" and had it forward to whomever we wanted.  This way, we weren't having to switch the letterhead every time the recruiting guy changed.

[SimpleCM]

We adopted GMail and Google Apps in NJ Wing using firstname.lastname@njwg.cap.gov almost 6 years ago.  There was some resistance and adoption issues with our membership, but it has become pretty universal.  It's free, easy, ubiquitous, flexible.  The Google Apps for Education is free for non-profits, and provides about 85% of the features in the premium edition.  It also offers each individual twice as much storage (30 GB) as a personal GMail account (15 GB).

With the recent transition from "Google Apps" to "Google Drive", it's also much easier to store CAP documents of any format, which is fantastic for transitions, departing members, etc.  When you delete an account, it identifies documents owned by that account and prompts you for a user to transfer them to.  It's probably the best feature besides a professional, consistent addressing scheme (that the WING owns, BTW, not the individual user).

I can't say enough good things about it, I think every Wing should look at it seriously.


Lt Col Bob Jennings

[JeffDG]

FLWG has flwg.us (for general use) and flwg.gov (for more formal use with external partners/agencies, etc). 

I absolutely believe that use of professional email addresses establishes a more professional image.

Tennessee wing has similar.  Everyone in the wing has a @tncap.us E-mail for use for CAP business (not monitored in any way, but woe be it to the person who draws negative attention with something non-CAP business related on one of those accounts!)

[JeffDG]

Managing who has access to what is a crap shoot, as you can't do it by groups easily, and would have to be done individually for every single thing. Keeping the accounts "yours" is impossible, as they could set the recovery address something different and Google is not going to help you.

We've scripted it within TNWG with Google Apps.  We pull the data out of CAPWATCH, and provision access based upon unit and/or duty positions.  If a commander wants one of his folks to have access to ES stuff, he appoints them as an ESO...done (OK, not instant, but within 24 hours it's done).

[Pylon]

FWIW, I applied for a squadron-level subdomain of the cap.gov through all the proper channels (Wing through NHQ), got approved, applied for Google Nonprofit Status (got approved) and setup Google Apps email using the cap.gov email, adding accounts for all the senior members in the unit.


So now everybody has a firstname.lastname@408.nywg.cap.gov email address.  It's standardized and professional enough.


Takes a little bit to get setup, but since doing that about 5 or 6 years ago, I think, it's now been operating (free) seamlessly for all those years without any upkeep necessary (other than adding/removing accounts as needed).

[Eclipse]

Yep, no fuss, no muss, and if you're using the CAP domain, not even any renewals.

It just keeps working. 

And when people leave, voluntarily or otherwise, you just turn off that ID, transfer ownership of the docs,
and move on.  No need to worry about something that was "under Jim's desk" or "only something Jim knew how to update".

[Slim]

I've had my own web domain and email address since the late 90s/early 00s (eurekaville.com). It's a great domain for my business as a freelance graphic designer & photographer. However, I got an email today from NHQ that a prospective member had asked for info about our local unit. As I responded to him, I got thinking about the impression my personal email might make.

Anyone thought about this before? Is it better to create an email just for CAP that has a more "military" feel to it or am I over analizing things?

I remember a thread a long time about about getting some sort of cap.gov email address, but I couldn't find it in a search. Any one know anything about this?

I don't know if they still do, but MIWG used to provide email addresses for all squadron and group commanders, and made them available for other members with a need or want.  I first got mine when I was appointed encampment commander in 2008, and kept it ever since.  It's nothing fancy, firstinitiallastname@miwg.cap.gov, and it forwards to either your email address listed in eServices or the one you specify.  But, when coordinating things like support for encampment, or contacting a school about making a recruiting visit, an email address reflecting the organization you're from lends you a little bit of credibility.  Much more credibility than the email addresses I've seen some of our cadets using, some of which decorum prevents me from repeating here.

Using the same format through google apps would be better, and probably a little easier to manage, but that decision is well beyond my pay grade.  It would be nice if the powers that be could somehow incorporate email into eServices similar to what the services do with theirs.  Set up your eServices account, and it generates an email address automatically, and the interface could be web based through eServices, or set up through a client like Outlook or Thunderbird.  Do it the same way the AF does it; the first John Smith is john.smith@cap.gov, the second is john.smith.1@.  This would eliminate the need for a member to physically enter an email address when they set up an account, wings can use them to create email lists, etc.  When the membership expires, so does the email address.

[Storm Chaser]

So Google Apps is free for CAP? And we can use our own domain? How about Google Chat? How many subscribers can use the video conference feature for meetings? Our Group is considering WebEx, which is used by our Wing HQ, but we're also looking for other less expensive alternatives. Any suggestions?

[Eclipse]

Yes, including all Apps services and using your own domain. They have very clear and easy instructions
for changing MX and WWW records, even more simple if you're using GoDaddy which is Google's Registrar of choice.

Person to person video works with the Chrome plugin.  More then one person requires enabling Google+ (a decision which should be made by the respective commander) and using Hangouts which works well once you get past the usual "I don't know how to work my webcam, etc."  Hangouts is free as well.

The entire Apps suite is free to 501c(3).  Just FYI - you might need to rounds of contact, because when you indicate what
we are (i.e pseudo government), it usually flags somewhere.  You call or email with explanation, done.  You'll need to substantiate the 501c(3) status - I don't remember how we did that, tax ID, maybe?

Either way, no biggie.

[Storm Chaser]

How many people can log in to a video chat using Google+/Hangouts? If we go this route, we'll be using this for large staff meetings.

[Eclipse]

How many people can log in to a video chat using Google+/Hangouts? If we go this route, we'll be using this for large staff meetings.

Up to 10 with the basic Hangouts included.

https://support.google.com/a/answer/1261833?hl=en

I've done testing with about 4 people at once, at it worked pretty well.

[Storm Chaser]

Thank you.

[JeffDG]

Yes, including all Apps services and using your own domain. They have very clear and easy instructions
for changing MX and WWW records, even more simple if you're using GoDaddy which is Google's Registrar of choice.

The one problem with using GoDaddy for Google Apps is they lack one feature you can use:  Wildcard CNAMEs

I initially set up my group with Google Apps with a different registrar that supported Wildcard CNAMEs.  Worked great.  Need a new "Site" for an event, just put it in the Google Apps control panel, and *.mydomain.org was pointed to ghs.googlehosted.com and voila, it just worked.

Wing took my idea and ran with it, but registered with GoDaddy...no wildcard CNAMEs, so in addition to setting up the site, someone has to hit the GoDaddy control panel and add a new CNAME for the new event site as well...PITA.

[JeffDG]

You can also do "Hangouts On Air" for "live" streaming meetings or conferences...streams out via a YouTube feed.

Beware...it's called "live", but there's an incredibly annoying lag time if the meeting is somehow interactive (ie. people can enter questions) of close to a minute.

[a2capt]

The tax letter is all I use, works every time, without debate.

[Eclipse]

Wing took my idea and ran with it, but registered with GoDaddy...no wildcard CNAMEs, so in addition to setting up the site, someone has to hit the GoDaddy control panel and add a new CNAME for the new event site as well...PITA.

It depends where your website is hosted, if you're using sites, you create address translations though the
GApps control panel - works the same, just a different place to set them up.

And of course if you're using Sites and a cname isn't critical, then the URL is created with the site as whatever you want.

http://www.wing.cap.gov/encampment
http://www.wing.cap.gov/comms
http://www.wing.cap.gov/dos

etc, etc.

[JeffDG]

Wing took my idea and ran with it, but registered with GoDaddy...no wildcard CNAMEs, so in addition to setting up the site, someone has to hit the GoDaddy control panel and add a new CNAME for the new event site as well...PITA.

It depends where your website is hosted, if you're using sites, you create address translations though the
GApps control panel - works the same, just a different place to set them up.

And of course if you're using Sites and a cname isn't critical, then the URL is created with the site as whatever you want.

http://www.wing.cap.gov/encampment
http://www.wing.cap.gov/comms
http://www.wing.cap.gov/dos

etc, etc.

We use sites, but prefer to put them on the front, so es.tncap.us