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.gov email required for board business; members approve distribution lists
Summary
The state IT strategy board unanimously approved a motion to adopt state .gov email accounts as its primary channel for board communications and to establish distribution lists for committees and work groups.
The state Information Technology strategy board voted unanimously on Friday to require that members use state .gov email addresses for board business and to authorize the creation of distribution lists for standing committees and work groups.
The motion, made by Keith, the board’s vice chair, directed staff to provision .gov accounts for board members and for DIT to create distribution groups organized by committee (for example, cybersecurity or digital transformation) and by staff/board composition. Jeff, chair, asked for a second and the board approved the motion without recorded opposition. “Let the record show it was unanimously approved,” he said after the vote.
Board staff and legal advisers explained the rationale for the change: emails sent to and from official state accounts are more readily searchable and manageable under public records rules. One staff member said the legal preference is for state accounts because “the public is entitled to see your emails and your communications,” and that centralizing communications avoids the difficulty of chasing personal accounts during public-records requests.
The board also agreed that distribution lists should include configurations that can be limited to board members, to board members and staff, or extended to staff plus external advisors, depending on the group’s needs. Members discussed practical steps to encourage use of the new accounts, including forwarding meeting invites to members’ primary inboxes and combining calendar notices with SharePoint repositories.
Why it matters: The board said a single official communication channel will simplify record-keeping, improve coordination among committees and work groups, and reduce the risk that public-records requests will require staff to search private inboxes.
Next steps: Staff will provision .gov addresses and create distribution lists for the board’s standing committees. Members must begin using the addresses for board-related communications, as the motion makes the .gov account the board’s primary electronic notice and repository for documents.
