Guidance notes for members of IWA's national committees

E-mail

Head Office utilises e-mail circulation lists to assist with the efficient and low cost circulation of discussion papers and other useful information.  All members of national committees are encouraged to use e-mail where practical.

Mailing Lists

Upon appointment, new committee members with e-mail access will be added to the relevant circulation lists unless they request otherwise.  There are a number of points that should be observed when using the e-mail mailing lists:

• You should be a member of the relevant committee before posting messages and should not attempt to cross post to other committee lists.
• Mailing lists should only be used to circulate information that is likely to be of interest to all recipients and relevant to the committee concerned.
• Conversational dialogue between members should be undertaken direct between those concerned outside of the mailing list circulation.
• Depending on the settings on your own e-mail software, replies by, default, are likely to be sent to all members of the mailing list. Before sending your reply, you should check whether you are posting to just the sender or the entire list. If the default is set to the entire list and you do not wish this, you should replace the list address shown in the ‘To’ line with the individual address(es) of intended recipients.
• You should remember that mailing lists distribute e-mails to a wide number of people. You should be aware of who your email will be seen by and be particularly careful that it is not critical of individuals, or capable of being perceived as such. The rules of libel and slander still apply (as does employment law where employees are recipients of emails).

Sending Messages

To send a message to a mailing list, the address of the mailing list should be added to the ‘To:’ line of your e-mail (see above, which may differ slightly between software types)

The following are a selection of mailing lists that currently exist:

trusteesonly@waterways.org.uk - trustees only

trustees@waterways.org.uk - trustees and senior Head Office staff

navcom@waterways.org.uk - Navigation Committee (excludes corresponding members)

finance@waterways.org.uk - Finance Committee

promcomm@waterways.org.uk - Promotions & Communications Committee

promcommplus@waterways.org.uk - Promotions & Communications Committee plus corresponding members 

festivals@waterways.org.uk - IWA Festivals Committee

wrgboard@waterways.org.uk - WRG Board

E-mail aliases

Head Office also encourages the use of ‘alias’ e-mail addresses; using IWA’s domain ‘waterways.org.uk, amongst trustees.
e.g. (john.smith@waterways.org.uk = john.smith@freeserve.co.uk)

This has a number of advantages: Committee members do not have to publicise their own private e-mail address, only Head Office will need to know these.  When a committee member changes their e-mail address or Internet service provider, the number of places where this detail needs updating is limited to one, that being Head Office’s mail server.

Telephone

Head Office, through a third party telephone supplier, operates a ‘Homeworker’ telephone service. This eliminates the need for committee members, who use BT, to claim telephone expenses for calls made on behalf of IWA.  Instead, the user dials a prefix number when dialing out and the call is billed direct to Head Office.  This service is only available to users of BT telephone lines and is not, at present, available to subscribers of cable.  IWA officers and committee members who would like to be added to the ‘Homeworker’ service should contact  Head Office.