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Archiver > SOG-UK > 1998-11 > 0910422708


From: Charles Barraball <>
Subject: [SOG-UK-L] OFFtopic - email versus snail mail reply policies
Date: Sat, 7 Nov 1998 07:11:48 +0000 (GMT)


On Fri 06 Nov, Derrick Porter wrote:
> On 06 Nov, SoG Webmaster <> (by way of Geoffrey
> <>) wrote:
[snip--- snip--- snip--- ]
>
> > 2) e-mail to the Society is answered on the same rota as ordinary
> > mail, in rotation and regardless of the medium used - it would
> > cause outrage amongst the unconnected if e-mail were dealt with any
> > quicker than ordinary! I'm not sure what the turnaround is meant to
> > be but I don't think it's less than 2 weeks.
>
> I'm a little concerned/puzzled by your policy on replying to e-mails.
> Do you print them out and put them in a queue with the letters? Some
> e-mails can be answered in less time than it takes to print them.
> What happens to these?

Where I work we do not have a policy on this, any more than we do with
faxed or couriered messages. There is a tendency to respond to the
speed adopted by the sender as well as the content. Bills get paid
promptly - yes, they do!- final demands cause a flurry, as do notices
of court action.

It is easy to respond to emails immediately in the main where they are
addressed to a named individual - if they go to a department, then
there is a risk they may sit around if the departmental nominee is on
hols. - we haven't quite caght up with that one; if an individual
recipient is away then email waits till they come back, although you
can have an auto-response set-up.

If a matter is desperate then there is a tendency not to rely on email
any more than fax - correspondents tend to phone up and say did you get
my fax/email - they recognise that there are fallibilities.
As they do with the postal service.

In a work situation where no individual is allowed to correspond in
case he commits the organisation to a course of action that the
hierarchy would rather they hadn't, then clearly defined
responsibilities are perhaps the solution.

The idea that there is the possibility anywhere that emails are managed
so they may be dealt with in rotation with the normal post (but
allowing faxes some precedence because that medium is perhapsa little
more familiar) strikes me asas very awkward. Email can be to so-and -so
quick for our own good, but that is the risk with rapid responses of
any kind

Yes, I do remember getting authority to SEND A FAX and before then,
a TELEX. But haven't we moved on since then?

Charles
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