Google Apps Mailing Lists

[caffrey]

How are you all doing your mailing lists ?

 

Currently I use Active Directory distribution lists which are synced to Google, however the disadvantage of this is (And the most complained about thing) that the lists cannot be expanded in Gmail as far as I know.

The main advantage is, when there's a new starter in AD I just copy another OU user from the same container and they are automatically added to the relevant Distribution lists (and I can have nested groups).

 

Can you do anything similar using google ?

[InterwebsGuy]

We're doing pretty much the same thing. It can be a bit of a faff at times, but mostly it works pretty well.

[CyberNerd]

We control a few central mailing lists this way, but for smaller and more dynamic lists (like the ones where people want to know who is on it) we use Google groups and let the list managers manage their lists. It also allows people to choose the way they receive their messages, daily, all at once etc and gives them access to the forum. We also found that once staff start getting away from the 1990's methods of mailing lists they are more comfortable about using groups for teaching, which has other collaborative advantages as it is a bit more natural way of working for students.

[caffrey]

It was brought to my attention as I was asked if you could send to a Distribution list with exceptions (Eg if they are doing a collection for a member of staff who is leaving etc.) But they can't list the members. I just tried a test google group and it appears you can't list the members there either (when composing an email) I may have to rejig the old AD mailing lists.

[pcstru]

Distribution groups maintained in AD and Synced to Google. We use exchange so groups can be expanded.

I'm currently working on some Powershell scripts to drive a data extract from CMIS and process class ,tutor group, department etc into appropriate distribution groups. We also have a few groups that are maintained by individuals. They tend to go out of date quite quickly though, which results in low user confidence making good use of distribution groups.

[edutech4schools]

We control a few central mailing lists this way, but for smaller and more dynamic lists (like the ones where people want to know who is on it) we use Google groups and let the list managers manage their lists. It also allows people to choose the way they receive their messages, daily, all at once etc and gives them access to the forum. We also found that once staff start getting away from the 1990's methods of mailing lists they are more comfortable about using groups for teaching, which has other collaborative advantages as it is a bit more natural way of working for students.

 

This is how we do it.

[CyberNerd]

It was brought to my attention as I was asked if you could send to a Distribution list with exceptions (Eg if they are doing a collection for a member of staff who is leaving etc.) But they can't list the members. I just tried a test google group and it appears you can't list the members there either (when composing an email) I may have to rejig the old AD mailing lists.

 

You can see the members if you have permissions>access permissions> View members "User can view the forum membership list". But remember the trick with google groups: *Everything* is a forum first, the "email group" is only the "backend" to the forum and people just see the email as a reply to the forum (if they choose to). For all intents and purposes people think google groups is a regular mailing list, but it isn't, far from it because it has many more features. Of course, one of the caveats is that if you want to see members of the forum they need to use the forum feature, and not the email "group".