What is it?
In March 2017, the East Kingdom Webministry completed an agreement with Google to offer Google web based applications and services to Officers and other members of the East Kingdom. This primarily includes Gmail and Google Drive with its associated storage and office apps (Docs, Sheets, Forms, et al), but also Google Groups and other tools.
Why is it?
Google’s products have substantial improvements over the previously supported applications and services offered by the East Kingdom Webministry. Google has world class spam filters, mobile friendly native and web apps, search capabilities, and collaboration tools. Applications like Google Forms, Drive, and Google Groups expand on the breadth of services the East Kingdom Webministry are able to support, and Gmail removes many of the hurdles and hassles to every officer using the East Kingdom provided email service.
Who is it for?
Anyone in the East Kingdom with an SCA membership who has held, is holding, or will be holding an office. To properly disambiguate individuals, each person is identified by their membership number as their unique identifier. If you need to open an account, grab your Blue Card, and head to https://members.eastkingdom.org/newaccount/
When will it happen?
It’s already happened! All regional groups and Kingdom Offices have at this time been migrated over and are happily using the new system. If there are questions or issues with your group’s use or with your use of the system, please consult your local webminister or send an email to helpdesk@helpdesk.eastkingdom.org.
Am I going to have to use a webmail program?
No. There are many native applications that work with Google’s Gmail system. Early testing has shown compatibility with a wide array of desktop and mobile native clients. We believe you should find an option that works well for you.
How do I Check Email?
Logging on to your East Kingdom account will be much the same as logging into any Google based system. If you are unfamiliar with this, there are many sources of documentation online, such as at https://www.wikihow.com/Log-In-to-Gmail . Please note that when logging in to any Google login, you will need to enter your full East Kingdom members address (i.e. [membernumber]@members.eastkingdom.org) and your members account password.
How do I Manage multiple offices?
Officer emails will automatically flow to your members account, and when you reply or send email you’ll be able to choose to send that email from the officer address. If you hold multiple offices they will all flow into that one inbox, and you’ll be able to select which address you use on your outgoing email on a case by case basis. If you are replying to an email sent to one of the officer addresses it will automatically pick that up in the reply AFTER you go through the instructions in this document: Setting your From: Address
Additionally, if you hold multiple offices, we recommend using automatic labeling to label each incoming and outgoing email message with a label relevant to the office. These labels can be useful for sorting, searching, and managing email, and also for sharing relevant emails with successors to the office. Webministry is creating additional documentation and support videos on how to use labels.
What about an address book?
Members and offices added to the system, are added to a directory. Since much of the officer email is based around emailing other officers within the kingdom, it should be easy to search the directory or start typing an address and have it fill in automatically. So far this is only available using the GMail interface, but we are working on opening this up to other Email clients.
Who do I talk to if I have questions?
Questions can be sent to help@helpdesk.eastkingdom.org.
What to do when we get a new officer? What to do if we create a new office?
The short answer is that your local webminister is empowered to create new office email addresses and to redirect office addresses to new office holders. However, local webministers will not be able to create new member accounts. This is up to the individual member who can go to https://members.eastkingdom.org/newaccount/ to get started.
Which parts of Google Suite are we getting?
The full slate of services provided and supported is still an open conversation. However, all members will be able to access Mail, Forms, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drive, Keep, Hangouts, Meet, and Groups.