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Who is authorized
to request an email account? |
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Initially, only the Bennington Township Board
members. |
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What can the email
account be used for? |
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The email account can be used in
support of Bennington Township business and is subject to all
the same laws and retention criteria as if it were a paper
correspondence. |
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What to do if
an unauthorized person gains access to your email account? |
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Immediately contact the Web Site
Support on the Officials page to have the email ID suspended. |
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How much email
storage comes with the email box? |
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The initial storage is 100 Megabytes
per user. This number can be changed based on business
need. |
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Who establishes
and initializes the email accounts? |
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The Bennington Township Web site
support as listed on the Officials page. |
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Can the email be
viewed from both the web and on a PC? |
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Yes, but typically one or the other.
When viewing from a Personal Computer(PC), you can download the emails to your PC
and automatically delete them from your in box on the email
server. When you delete them, they are no longer viewable
on the web. If you view them on the web and do not delete
them, then they will be viewable and downloadable to your PC. |
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Where is the email
server located? |
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The email server is a shared resource
that is purchased from a commercial web hosting company.
The physical location of the email server can be virtually
anywhere in the world. As of this writing, it is located in
Broomfield, Colarado. |
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Does the use of
email conform to the Michigan Open Meetings Act? |
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The Open Meetings Act (OMA) provides
requirements over and above those pertaining to a particular
board or public body. Under the act, the township must precede
all board meetings with a public notice. This applies even
when the board does not intend to make final decisions.
Any time a quorum of the board is present (three members of a
five-member board, and the board is deliberating, discussing or
making decisions, the board must comply with the provisions of
the OMA. The act requires keeping minutes, allowing the
public to speak and prohibits the board from going into a closed
session, except for very narrow purposes.
With the above in mind, the use of
email conforms to the OMA, according to the Michigan Townships
Association, as long as the emails are not "deliberating,
discussing, or making decisions" with a quorum of the board
members. |
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How do I find the
email addresses of the Township Officials |
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Not all township officials have an
email address and not all the township emails addresses are
posted for general use. The email addresses that are available
are linked to the person's name on the Officials & Twp.
Personnel page. If the person has an email for general
communication purposes, just click on their name to launch the
email form. |
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What if the email
account is being abused by people sending non-relevant
information? |
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We may need to change email accounts
periodically or investigate additional spam filters to stop
unwanted emails. There are no filtering settings to control
“spam” emails on the email server. |
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Are the emails
virus scanned? |
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Yes, the email
service does have anti-virus software installed on the mail
server. There are no options in the control panel to adjust how
the anti-virus software operates. For security purposes, the
email provider is not disclosing which anti-virus product(s)
they have implemented, nor will we be notified if they change
from the current software to another. |
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The Bennington Township
email management practice should match the same business practice and
record retention criteria per the applicable schedule for that type of
record - the same as if it were a paper ("hard copy") record. It
is the message, not the medium, that determines the applicable record
retention period.
For those email records that
contain information not classified as ACT, which means Active or “until
no longer needed for convenience of reference”, it is recommended that
the email be converted into a paper record and the paper record be
considered the official record-copy for retention purposes. The
original email then becomes the “word processed copy” and can be
classified as ACT and deleted when no longer needed.