Cycling UK Forum

Was recently asked about doing something to sort out my club's email problems. Basically, various members of the committee have their own list of members' email addresses and these lists get out of sink quite often. Because different committee members use different email clients, mailing a new list around isn't always as easy as it should be in terms of importing it to each users' address book, especially as some are not that well versed in the technicalities of IT (and don't really want to be).

It is complicated by the fact that the club actually needs to maintain several different lists of members emails (so that different types of mail shot can be sent to different groups within the club).

So what would you recommend as a solution?

I was thinking of just getting one of the free email addresses (hotmail, googlemail, etc) that allows multiple groups within the address book and use this for mail shots - the sender selecting the appropriate list. Each club officer would be allowed to use the account. When a member's details are to be changed it can be done to all the lists in one visit thus making things simpler. And it's free.

Does that sound reasonable? If so which free email address provider would you use? Or, what alternative idea would you suggest? Remember - easy, simple and free(ish)! Oh, and it has to be able to do BCCs for DPA purposes.

cheers!

Could you use a service such as mailchimp? Don't know if it would support different groups on the free version though.

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My vote would be for Gmail - it can do groups & BCC and if you've got a web browser you can access it.

If you need/want to you can also set it up to monitor other gmail accounts (or even non-gmail accounts) from a different account so you can tell if there are messages incoming in without specifically logging into that account.

Gaz raises an interesting point which I think needs considering by CTC - I'm not sure whether it is practical any more to insist on data storage at officers' homes with cloud storage/ remote access/ VPN/etc. I don't know if this is relevant though to Si's original question as there may well be a separate club database independent of CTC's info. If that is the case then it is up to the club to observe sensible data protection (have they a policy of their own?).

Rick.

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Maybe have a look at google groups.

There seems to be an assumption here that an email address constitutes personal data.

Some years ago now, I started receiving emails intended for somebody else from an online bank - "egg." Their customer had entered my email address by mistake when she had signed up for the account. Whenever I sent the emails back, saying I didn't want them but perhaps their customer did, I got the indifferent, incompetent reply that that was what the customer had supplied so that was what they were going to use. It was in the days of dial-up so I was paying to receive this rubbish. Eventually, I complained - on the basis that my email address was personal data for the purposes of data protection - to the toothless data watchdog whose underling could not understand what was happening because an email could not go to the wrong address.

As an aside, would a bank keep ringing me up if a customer had given my phone number instead of their own? Would they persist in sending letters ditto?

Anyway, the said underling declined to refer my complaint upwards for a decision as to whether an email address was personal data but said they would write to egg. I presume a letter from the toothless data watchdog enters an outfit like egg higher up than something from me because I had a written response agreeing to do what I had been suggesting from the outset:- the radical step of contacting their customer (by post or telephone rather than email) and asking her to verify her email address. It stressed, however, that if the customer persisted in providing my email address they would continue using it. I never heard any more so I presume the customer got it right when pressed.

Then we wonder why the banks are in such a mess the Bank of England has to print more money to keep them afloat. And the toothless data watchdog? They wouldn't have a clue if you were sending messages to CTC members in bottles and floating them down the river.

thirdcrank wrote:There seems to be an assumption here that an email address constitutes personal data.

If someone's email address contains their name, it counts as personal data under DPA.

As far as I know the email addresses and names are mostly polled straight from the members (the national office lists not being that reliable but that should improve now that people can access and change their own data). I was under the impression, but may be wrong, that if someone gives you their email and name and, at the same time, says that you can use it for specific purposes (inc keeping it on an on-line list) then this will override any DPA guidance to do with keeping it on an on-line list..?

Anyway, thanks for the ideas.

For small groups, gmail works well, I use it on our Residents Association, though we do not maintain large mailing lists, just as a contact point.

The basic trick is to set it up as imap. This allows everyone to access it, and does not delete emails but allows you to see someone has read them. You need to invent some protocols to ensure that mail is properly handled, but shared access allows those who like to read emails on their PC or smart phone to use it and those who just want Web mail to use it too. Mails only get marked as read when they are read, whereas automatic downloading with POP3 marks things as read when downloaded, or alternatively leaves mail permanently marked as unread.

gmail has a contacts list and in principle you can get this to synchronise with other contact systems, e.g. Thunderbird email, Outlook, iPhone, Android, but it is a bit clunky and you have to be confident that those who are synchronising with it aren't going to break it. However, it can be a master list that everyone can access.