Accounts
Officers of U.S. Grand Lodge and its local bodies, and other O.T.O. members doing work for U.S.G.L. on various projects and committees, are given accounts on the U.S.G.L. Google Workspace. These are ordinary Google accounts in most respects, but are associated with oto-usa.org rather than gmail.com.
Each individual has a primary account at oto-usa.org, which they use to log into the system when needed, and at which they can receive personal email if they wish. In addition, archiving groups are assigned based on the roles a particular individual fills. For example, Catherine Berry's primary account is catherine.berry@oto-usa.org, with webmaster@oto-usa.org as an alias.
The default for primary account names is your first and last names separated by a dot, e.g. "catherine.berry". Because you can send and receive email as any of your groups you manage, your primary name will usually not be prominently visible in email sent as a group. However, it is there in the email headers, and some mail programs display it. For example, when I send email as webmaster@oto-usa.org, some recipients see "From: webmaster@oto-usa.org (on behalf of catherine.berry@oto-usa.org". If you are concerned about your civil name being visible to this extent, you can use a different primary account name. Discuss this with the webmaster before formally requesting a new account (see below).
Usage and ownership
All U.S.G.L. accounts are provided solely for use in conducting the official business of U.S.G.L. Resources created using such an account are owned by U.S.G.L. Any U.S.G.L. account may be suspended, deleted, or modified as required by the policies of U.S.G.L., without prior notification.
Requesting accounts
Requests for U.S.G.L. accounts may come from the person needing the account, or from a U.S.G.L. officer with authority to request an account for some specific purpose. For example, the President of the Electoral College may request accounts for newly seated Electors, the Grand Treasurer General may request accounts for their assistants, and so forth.
Before submitting a request for an account, the prospective new account holder should read (or be directed to read) the information in the previous section, with particular attention to the matters of account names and aliases.
In requesting an account, the key concern is that the U.S.G.L. information technology management team must understand the purpose of the request, and confirm that it is legitimate. The simplest way to do this is to complete the Internal Email Enrollment Form.
When a new account is created, an automatic email providing instructions on how to access that account (including a temporary password) is sent to the provided personal email address. The temporary password expires after a short interval, so those receiving new accounts are asked to sign in and change their password as soon as possible. Account security
Mobile devices
Devices which can access an oto-usa.org account must be secured against data exposure in the event of loss or theft. Most importantly, you must configure the device to auto-lock after a short period of inactivity. Any unlocking technique (password, PIN, pattern, fingerprint, facial recognition, etc.) is acceptable.
Two-step verification
The user must also enroll in 2-step verification when they set up their account.
Password recovery
Contact tech@oto-usa.org if you have not properly provided recovery information upon setup.
Notes on email access
Web email access
There are two approved ways to use your oto-usa.org account to send and receive email on the web.
Log into the Google mail website using your oto-usa.org account. Send and receive email from there.
Set up a local email client (e.g., Outlook or Thunderbird) to send email through Google's servers via SMTP, and receive it via IMAP.
In the past, a third option was popular: Configuring your personal account to send and receive mail as your oto-usa.org account. That approach is no longer approved, as it leads to security issues. If you are currently using this approach, please migrate to one of the approved approaches as soon as possible. The send-as mechanism will likely be disabled soon.
Mobile app email access
You may use an email app on your mobile device to access your oto-usa.org email. Most devices and apps allow you to create multiple account profiles and toggle between them, keeping your personal and oto-usa.org emails separate.