The Email Distribution Processes (omail)

This allows authorised members to compose an email at the personal email address (the one in their profile) and send it to the MyU3A server for distribution within their own U3A to a nominated sebset of members according to the distribution code provided by the sender. The distribution codes available to the sender are set in the sender's profile by an administrator of the appropriate authorised level (see Authority to send emails below).

When composing the email the distribution code is placed at the start of the Subject line of the email in upper case characters followed by a space (if the U3A defines several regions and the email is to be sent to one region of the U3A, the region character is to be placed between the distribution code and the following space). This is then followed by the actual subject line of the email. In composing the email any number and type of attachments may be included. However, because of a range of factors (mostly beyond our control) we strongly recommend that wherever possible Attachments should be converted to PDF documents.

Attachments are inspected by email systems for SPAM, virus content and document types seen as not secure. This can result in the complete email NOT being forwarded to the intended members or at best, without an attachment.

non alphanumeric characters Some "special" characters (i.e. not numeric and not alphabetic) are used by the part of the operating system used to send emails, sendmail, as codes for internal processes of sendmail. If any of these appears in the subject or body of the email, it may cause unexpected results. You should be careful to avoid using any of these chracters unless you know they will not have an unexpected result.

the total size of an Omail, including attachments should be less than 12 MB (megabytes), as some email systems will reject the Omail as being too large. Converting attachments to pdf documents can significantly reduce the overll size of a document, particularly documents with multiple images. We recommend that you paste images into a Word, or similar document, then save the final document as a PDF type - most document systems have PDF as an optional file type selectable at the time of saving the definitive version.

Omail Processing

Emails are addressed to the MyU3A Server as follows: u3axx@myu3a.net where xx is the MyU3A 2-character abbreviation code for your U3A.
If the sender's email address is confirmed as authorised to send an Omail with the supplied distribution code, a receipt confirmation email is immediately sent to the sender and the Omail is placed in the Omail queue in the MyU3A system.
Every few minutes the MyU3A system checks for waiting Omails and commences the send process for the next Omail.
If the sender is cleared, a separately addressed email is sent to each person on the distribution list (obtained automatically from the MyU3A database for that U3A).
If the sender's email address is not authorised to send Omails for the distribution code requested, the sender will immediately receive an email advising that the Omail has been refused.

Omail Replies

a member's reply to an Omail is received at the Omail sender's email address.
When all emails have been distributed, an email is sent back to the sender with attachments in csv format advising those members who have been emailed and those on the distribution list who do not have an email address. The latter attachment contains postal address information (for producing envelopes) and contact phone numbers.

Authority to send emails

The office Manager, Class Co-ordinator or your local support team can authorise members to send emails for distribution in the Member app by updating the Member Profile and ticking the appropriate check boxes:

Code	Meaning
ALL	All current and last year members.
ALC	All current members (not last year's members)
NL	Newsletter
NLC	Newsletter (not for last year's members)
TUT	All tutors
VOL	Volunteers
CSV	members in an attached csv file of member IDs
CC	Committee Members
CLS	Members enrolled in a class, the sender must be a tutor or leader of the class stated in the Subject line of the email.

Distribution Identifiers

This is the code (in upper case) placed at the start of the Subject line of the email to be distributed followed by a space and then by the Subject of the email.

Use
ALL	An email is sent to all current and last year's members with an email address.
ALC	An email is sent to all current members with an email address.
NL	If a current or last year's member has elected to receive a newsletter by email, the email is sent. If the member has elected to receive the Newletter by post, the address information is added to the post list.
NLC	as for NL but only current members
TUT	An email is sent to all tutors with an email address.
VOL	An email is sent to all volunteers with an email address who are serving your U3A during the current academic year. This includes office volunteers, tutors, leaders and volunteers serving your U3A in other capacities.
CSV	An email is sent to all members whose member numbers are in a comma-separated file, named omail.csv, attached to the email.
CCxx	Distribute the email to all members of the Committee or sub-committee identified by replacing xx with the 2-character code for the Committee (set in the Committee app).
CLSx-y	The Class code in the form x-y for emails to be distributed to a particular Class. x may be up to 5 digits for course no. and y may be up to 2 digits for class no.

	User Guide
	Initial Setup of your MyU3A database
	MyU3A Setup
	Transfer of Information between MyU3A and a local workstation
	Membership and Renewals
	Courses, Classes and enrolment
	Business Objects and Processes
	Information Apps
	U3A Configuration Apps
	Activity Tracking
	Special Purpose Apps
	General Upload

For further assistance, contact support

Created: 10th May 2011 Modified:27th May 2021