A handbook for appropriate and effective communication through e-mail

E-Mail Handbook

Falls Church City Publ ic Schools E-Mail Handbook

F C C P S T e c h n o l o g y & C o m m u n i c a t i o n

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C o n t a c t I n f o

Contact these people for more information and support.

Chief Technology Director Rik Jowers— rjowers@fccps.org

George Mason High School Steven Knight—knights@fccps.org

Mary Ellen Henderson Middle School

Brett Sparrgrove—sparrgroveb@fccps.org

Thomas Jefferson Elementary School

TBD

Mount Daniel School John Pitas— pitasj@fccps.org

Communications John Brett — jwbrett@fccps.org

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FALLS CHURCH CITY PUBLIC SCHOOLS Operational Procedure

EMAIL PURPOSES: E-mail is a powerful communication tool when used effectively. It is a part of our daily lives and that makes it easy to overlook some of the basics. There are rules and courtesies for sending e-mails, just as there are with talking. Utilizing e-mail etiquette is an expectation of FCCPS staff.

Staff e-mail is an open record in regards to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). All e-mail traffic must be pulled when a formal request is made. Your e-mail is not private.

THE PROCESS:

SENDING

• All e-mail sent by an FCCPS staff member shall be respectful to the receiver.

• The content of messages is expected to be professional. • Large e-mail distributions must go through the site principal or office

administrator. • E-mail should not be used for promotion of personal products and sales. RECIEVING • E-mails received by a staff member which are not written in a courteous and

respectful manner do not require a response. However, such e-mails should be forwarded to the staff members’ supervisor with the “subject: Not Responding”

• All staff is expected to respond to e-mails in a timely manner. A response

should be given within 24 hours when possible. • Staff members are expected to check e-mail in the morning and in the

afternoon. • If a large volume of e-mail is arriving from a vendor, community member,

student, or parent; the staff member receiving the emails should alert the building principal so that the issue can be addressed and a new system can be put in place for communication.

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All e-mail that is generated by employees is the property of Falls Church City Public Schools (“The district reserves the right to access stored records in cases where there is reasonable cause to expect wrong-doing or misuse of the system.” School Board Policy 8.32). E-mails are forms of public information subject to open record laws.

E - m a i l C o n t e n t

E-mail is not confidential. FCCPS may review e-mails sent by employees (Policy 8.32). E-mails can also be forwarded without the consent of the sender.

Employee e-mail is the property of Falls Church City Public Schools.

All Staff (includes all FCCPS employees) e-mails must go through the Communications Office first, di-rected to John Brett: jwbrett@fccps.org

Keep the format simple and professional. The use of boldface fonts, italics, colored text, and background images can make it difficult for others to open or read your message.

Review your message for clarity, grammar, spelling, and punctuation prior to sending. Educational institu-tions are held to a higher standard than other organiza-tions.

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F i l e M a n a g e m e n t

Create contacts in address book for people you intend to e-mail regularly.*

Create distribution lists for specific groups with whom you regularly communicate.*

Delete old messages.

Create subfolders in your Inbox to organize e-mails

* Directions at the end of the booklet.

E - M a i l R e p l i e s

You do not have to reply to every e-mail. However if a question is posed within the e-mail, please re-spond promptly within 24 hours. If more time is needed for a response, let the sender know.

E-mail should not be the only means of communi-cation. If there is a chance that an e-mail message can not properly convey the information, use other means of communicating.

Use ‘reply all’ only if everyone on the list needs the information.

Indicate if you are expecting a reply to an e-mail (What do you think?: Let me know).

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F i l e M a n a g e m e n t

Check your e-mail at least twice daily (morning and afternoon) and respond within 24 hours of when the message was sent.

Use the “out of office assistant” when you are off for more than one school day.*

When you provide your e-mail to parents be sure to let them know how frequently you check your mes-sages and when they can expect a response.

Prioritize the way you read your e-mails.

Never open an attachment unless it has come from a credible source.

Rather then printing e-mail messages, store them in your Inbox or Inbox subfolder.

Create contacts in an address book for people you intend to e-mail regularly*

Create distribution lists for specific groups you regularly communicate with.*

Delete messages in Sent folder.

Delete old messages and empty deleted items often.

* Directions at the end of the booklet.

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E - M a i l S t y l e

Write in normal upper case and lower case, not in all CAPS. (Use of capital letters is the equivalent of shouting).

Avoid the use of underlining because this generally implies a hyperlink.

Choose your words carefully. The recipient of your e-mail can not read your body language, facial expres-sion, or tone of voice when interpreting your message.

Be careful with humor, which may not read as intended.

Identify yourself and offer alternative means of contact (in message signature).

Use meaningful subject lines in your messages.

Keep messages simple. Be brief. If you find you self typing several paragraphs, another means of communi-cation may be necessary.

Use white space to break up content.

Send messages “To” individuals who need to take action. Copy “Cc” individuals who need to be in-formed. Please limit “Ccs”.

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Outlook has a great feature for when you know ahead of time that you will be out, it is the Out Of Office Reply. Here is an example:

. Out of Office AutoReply Message Directions: 1. Open Outlook. 2. Click on the Tools menu (your menu may look different than

this picture) and towards the middle of the menu you will see Out of Office Assistant.

3. Once the Out of Office Assistant window opens, select the, "I am currently out of the office" option (click on the white circle be-fore this phrase) and type a statement that you would want everyone who e-mails you to see.

O u t o f O f f i c e A s s i s t a n t

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4. Click on OK and the AutoReply is on. 5. ***Important***When you return to the office the AutoReply

must be set to “I am currently in my office” in order for the AutoReply to stop.

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A d d i n g I n d i v i d u a l C o n t a c t s

1. Double-click on the Microsoft Outlook ( ) icon.

2. Click on the Address Book ( ) icon on the toolbar. 3. In the field after “Show Names from the:” click on the downward arrow in the pop-up menu and click on Outlook Address Book.

4. Click on the New Entry ( ) icon. 5. In the New Entry window select New Contact and change the “Put this entry field: in the Contacts.

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Note: Be careful, you may see Outlook Address Book

at the top of the pop-up menu. 6. The amount of information that you type into the different fields in the Untitled Contact window is your choice.

Note: We recommend that the Full Name and E-mail Address fields be filled in.

7. Click Save and Close ( ) icon.

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A d d i n g E - M a i l S i g n a t u r e

To add an email signature in Outlook 2003, go to Tools > Options to open the Options dialog. Now click on the Mail Format tab: under the third section of settings labeled Signatures, click the Signatures button. This will open Outlook's Create Signature dialog, which contains a listing of all the email signatures you may have setup in the past. To add your signature, click the New button to open Outlook's Create New Signature dialog. In the Enter a name for your new signature, Outlook collects the name by which it will refer to the email signature in other parts of the application: make sure to type a memorable signature name, and click Next.

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The next screen Outlook 2003 displays actually collects the content of the email signature you want to add: type the signature text on one or more lines.

· Font — This button opens the font dialog, which lets you customize the font family, style (bold, italic…), font size, and color of your email signature text.

· Paragraph — This button lets you configure the alignment of paragraphs in your email signature.

· Clear — This button simply erases the current text of your signature (which cannot be undone unless the signature was previously saved, in which case you can hit Cancel and start over).

Advanced Edit — This button will launch your default HTML editor from Outlook, to let you edit more advanced email signature options. For most users who have Microsoft Office installed on their computer, Microsoft Word will be the application Outlook launches from the Advanced Edit button.

Once done editing, click the OK button to save your email signature: you will re-turn to the Create Signature dialog, which now lists the email signature you just created, saved under the name you initially picked (in the screenshot, called "My Business Signa-ture"). Now, look at the Create Signature dialog: • the top portion, labeled Signature, lists all the email signatures you have ever created in Out-look; • the bottom portion, "Preview", lets you pre-view the content of the currently selected signa-ture.

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C r e a t i n g E - M a i l G r o u p s

1. Double-click on the Microsoft Outlook ( ) icon.

2. Click on the Address Book ( ) icon on the toolbar. 3. In the field after “Show Names from the:” click on the downward arrow in the pop-up menu and click on Outlook Address Book.

4. Click on the New Entry ( ) icon. 5. In the New Entry window change the “Put this entry in the: to Contacts. Note: Be careful, you may see Outlook Address Book at the top of the pop-up menu. 6. In the New Entry window select New Distribution Lists and Click on OK. 7. In the Untitled Distribution List window Name the Group (ex.

Grade 4 Teachers).

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8. Click on the Select Members… ( ) button to choose from the Global Address book (all FCCPS Staff). 9. Highlight a name and click the Members button to add the name to the list. Note: If a member is not part of the Global Address Book a New Member can be added by clicking on the Add New… ( ) button . 10. After all members are added click on OK 11. Each Member should appear listed in the titled Distribution List Window.

12. Click on the Save and Close ( ) button to add the Group the Address Book.

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S e n d i n g A t t a c h m e n t s

• Position your cursor after the body of text you have typed within the message field, leaving some extra space after your text for the attachment icon.

• Click the Attach icon ( ) on the toolbar.

• See the Insert File window. • Use the downward arrow of the pop up menu in the Look in field to click through your folders until you’ve found the file you want to attach.

• Highlight the file you want to attach and click the Insert button. You should see an icon with the file name appear in your mail message. • Send the message.

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O r g a n i z i n g E - M a i l s i n F o l d e r s

The best way to store e-mails you may want to refer to in the future is to create folders within your Inbox. Begin by right clicking on your Inbox and select New Folder.

Name the folder and select where to place the folder. Inbox is recommended.

Once folders are created you can store both read and unread messages in the folders. To Delete unwanted folders, right click on the unwanted folder and select Delete.

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W e b A c c e s s t o E - M a i l

When using Microsoft Outlook Web Access, you can check e-mail with any web browser (Internet Explorer, Netscape, Safari, etc.) on any computer with Internet access.

Outlook Web Access allows you to:

• Respond and compose e-mail messages without being at school • Review all messages • Check your schedule with the use of the Calendar

• Find Contacts on your Outlook Address Book • Check spelling • Set Out of Office Auto Reply

Accessing E-Mail from Home:

Open any web browser (Internet Explorer, Netscape, Safari, etc.).

Type the URL (web address) www.fccpsmail.net into your browser and press the Enter key. The Web Access main web page will appear.

In the Log On box, type our Do-main (MD,TJ, MEH, GM, or CO), backward slash (\) and your e-mail name (ex. GM\knights). Most e-mail names are last name and first initial (knights). Your password would be the same password you use at your school when logging onto your PC.

Click the Log On button.

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Web Access Features:

Contacts: You have access to the Global Address book at home. However, you still need to search for a contact. To search for a name, click on the To... Button in the New Message window. To search for a name, type the first few letters of the name and click Find. Once the name is found, click once on the name and assign it to the To, Cc, or Bcc of the e-mail. Out of Office Assistant: Select the Options button on the left corner of your screen. Navigate on the left menu to Out of Office Assistant. Select Send Out of Office auto-replies, set time-frame and add a message.

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F C C P S S C H O O L B O A R D R E G U L A T I O N 8 . 3 2

The privacy of communication over networks cannot be guaranteed. Network supervision and maintenance may require review and inspection of directories or electronic mail messages. Messages may sometimes be diverted accidentally to a destination other than the one intended. Privacy in these communications is not guaranteed. The district reserves the right to access stored records in cases where there is reasonable cause to expect wrong-doing or misuse of the system. The Board encourages the staff to use electronic mail on a daily basis as a primary tool for communications. The administration may rely upon this medium to communi-cate information and all staff will be responsible for checking and reading your FCCPS mail.

C o n t a c t I n f o

George Mason High School Steven Knight—knights@fccps.org

Mary Ellen Henderson Middle School Brett Sparrgrove—sparrgroveb@fccps.org

Thomas Jefferson Elementary School TBD

Mount Daniel School John Pitas—pitasj@fccps.org

Communications John Brett— jwbrett@fccps.org