DISTRIBUTION:
AREVIEW DATE: October, 1996
POSITION RESPONSIBLE FOR REVIEW: Director, Business Operations
PURPOSE: To establish a policy and procedures for the use of electronic mail networks.
BACKGROUND: The electronic mail networks available to FMS can be used to send and receive messages campus- and world-wide. FMS staff members need to know the purpose of these facilities and and the appropriate uses of these networks.
POLICY: It is FMS policy to provide, for staff members who have assigned office locations, access to electronic mail networks for rapid, informal, reliable, documentable, work-related communications with other people on these networks. FMS policy is to make use, for work-related communications, of the advantages provided by the electronic medium in which these networks function, namely, the speed which both allows and encourages informal, nearly interactive, communications, the reliability of the current technology, and the ability to document an on-going exchange of information, for the benefit of FMS operations.
PROCEDURES: Electronic mail (so-called "e-mail") is available by way of a desktop computer attached to an e-mail network.
1. Access
1.1. Arrangements for access to an e-mail network must be made by, and with the approval of, the Director of Business Operations. The director approves access only for FMS staff members who have workstation assignments and who also have access to functionally appropriate desktop computing and data communications facilities.
1.2. The Director of Business Operations assigns a staff member to support the needs of FMS users of e-mail networks and other computing facilities. Those needs include system set-ups, trouble-shooting, training, and making system modifications, enhancements or upgrades.
2. Content
2.1. Messages are to be considered informal. (If the content is required as a permanent record, then the sender prepares, signs and sends a confirming hard copy document.)
2. 2. Messages should be limited to subject matter which falls under the preceeding policy statement.
3. Usage Communication on an e-mail network is particularly useful for tasks calling for quick, reliable exchanges of relatively brief, informal messages. While existing e-mail networks can accept other kinds of communcations, and can manage large volumes of messages, they are vulnerable to certain user practices that can overburden the network or diminish its performance. Messages originated , replied to, or forwarded, by FMS staff members using access to a network that has been provided by FMS are subject to the following procedures:
3.1. Messages relate only to workplace needs. FMS staff members thus avoid creating a message volume that might encourage investing in more message-handling capacity than is needed to meet the actual levels of demand from just job-related traffic.
3.2. Messages are addressed to specific individuals, and are not normally "broadcast" to large numbers or recipients on the network. The sender, respondent, or forwarder who is an FMS staff member thus gives thought to the need for each addressee to receive the message, and avoids overburdening the network, or taking the time of recipients, with unnecessary copies of messages.
3.3. Messages are read timely, printed and/or saved locally as needed, and deleted timely from the network hardware memory. FMS staff members thus follow good network mail management practices.
3.4. Messages with enclosures require additional network capacity. FMS staff members thus give consideration to alternatives to e-mail enclosures as the means of sending or receiving particularly large electronic files.
RESPONSIBILITIES: Each FMS staff member with a network identification code is responsible for adhering to the above policy and procedures.
REFERENCES: None
CANCELLATIONS: None
SIGNATURE:
Gary E. Robinson
Director, Business Operations
ATTACHMENTS: None