Chapter Email Forwarders & Email Productivity Tips

This training focuses on understanding the chapter email forwarder that each chapter has as well as tips on how CCL groups across the country approach keeping on top of their email communications without it letting take over their lives.

Email forwarders

You may have noticed if you were looking at groups on our website or if you’ve ever emailed a group leader before that they have a special email just for their chapter (i.e. CCL MI Grand Rapids group’s emails is grandrapids.mi@citizensclimatelobby.org).

This is an email forwarder.  That means that there isn’t an inbox associated with the email, but it just forwards to another email address, like the group leader’s personal email, or multiple group leader’s personal emails, or some groups decide to set up a group email for which they all share the password. 

We have these set up for a couple of reasons. 

1. It prevents group leaders from having to give out their personal email on our website and helps provide a more professional look for the group online. 
2. Most importantly, it is so we can make sure there is a constant place to contact groups.  All materials for the groups or group leader business cards should have the group CCL email on them, not their personal email, so that in case there is ever a change in group leadership, people will still be able to get in contact with a new group leader. 
   1. For example, imagine that you hand out business cards at an event with your group’s email on them, then next month end up taking on a new role in CCL and resign your group leader role.  Since you had the group’s email on the card instead of your own, if any of those people decide to connect with CCL, they’ll still be put in contact with the current group leader!

We set up these email forwarders when we officially create a group in our database, so you should stay in touch with your regional or state coordinators to help decide when the appropriate time to take that step will be! If your group is already set up and you are interested in taking over the email, you should also reach out to your regional director or state coordinator and tell them that you’re interested. 

Email Management Tips

Try out this advice from FAST Company, for every email you encounter, choose from the following fast-triage options:

1. If a message requires no action on your behalf, archive it immediately.
2. If a message requires a simple reply that you can knock out in a minute or less, respond right then and there—and then archive it immediately.
3. If a message requires some level of thought or response that you can’t get to right away, snooze it to a time and date when you will be able to handle it—whether it’s later that same day, sometime the following week, or on a Friday two months down the road. That’ll get the message out of your way so it doesn’t serve as a constant source of distraction. And then it will reappear and grab your attention when the time is right.

In other words - only handle it once and decide whether to:

• Delete (or archive), Delegate, Respond, Do (Merlin Mann’s insights), or Defer  Note: Gmail now has a "Snooze" function designed for this exact purpose.

• Understanding Email Forwarders

• Email Background
• Rethinking Our Inboxes
• Keeping It Organized
• Productivity Tools
• Applying It To CCL

• Caillie Roach
• Brett Cease

Listen to or Download the Podcast

To play, press the arrow on the player below.

Download options:

1. Download this episode (right click and save).
2. Find the episode on CCL’s iTunes channel.

• Chapter Organizing Forums

Task or “Capture” Reminders:

• Google products: (Keep, Inbox, & Calendar)
• Boomerang
• Easilydo
• Sanebox (free trial)

Merge/Bulk Mail:

• MailChimp
• Gmass
• Google Groups
• Slack

Pre-written templates:

• Canned Response

Schedulers:

• Doodle
• YouCanBookMe
• AppointLet (free trial)

Articles Referenced in the Presentation: 

• http://five.sentenc.es/
• T.J. Raphael’s 7 Step Guide to Achieving Inbox Zero, Fast Company 
• Jacyln Schiff, The Ladders’s: Influencers Give Their Best Email Management Tips & Tools