Town Email Accounts and Policies

Setup

The easiest way to directly access your town email is via your browser – the address is

mail.monktonvt.com

This will bring you to a screen that asks for your user name and password.  The username is your town email address (including @monktonvt.com) and the password should have been sent to you via email.  Enter the information and before you press Log In, bookmark this page in you browser (and allow it to save the password if you want).   This will make it easy in the future to return.

For instructions specific to users of Apple computers and iPhones, please see this page. Apple requires that you go through at least part of the Multi Factor Authentication (MFA) setup.

Change Password

It is strongly recommended that you change your password to something that you will be able to remember when you are traveling etc.

Configure email client

If you do not want to use a web browser to access your town email, then you can set up an email client to check your town email for you. The advantage of this is that all of your emails, both personal and town, go to one place for you to check your email, reply, etc.  Examples of ’email clients’ are Outlook, Gmail, Apple Mail, and Thunderbird. Using another email client is fairly simple but there is a lot of jargon. Note: Apple seems to require using multi-factor authentication (MFA), so setting up an application specific password may be necessary. If you use Apple’s “Mail” app on either an iPhone or Mac, and are having difficulty with setting up MFA, please email [email protected] for assistance.

First there are two types of interface POP3 and IMAP.  If possible your email client should be set up to use IMAP.  This allows for creation of folders to sort your email on the server (see best practices section).  This means your folders will be there when you use the browser to access your town email while traveling. (If there is not an option for using IMAP, please contact the town webmaster at [email protected] for the POP settings.)

Hopefully the email client you select will automatically find the monktonvt.com email server (Zoho) and connect but if not, you may have to manually add the server information.  Here is the server info:

Zoho IMAP Server Configuration

Incoming (IMAP)

  • Server – imappro.zoho.com
  • Port – 993
  • Encryption – SSL

Outgoing (SMTP)

  • Server – smtppro.zoho.com
  • Port – 465
  • Encryption – SSL

If you have question or problems please reach out to [email protected].

Best Practices

  • Change your password the first time you log in
  • Do not re-use your password from something else, e.g. your bank login, Amazon account, etc.
  • Adding folders to sort your emails can aid in finding emails later
  • Using IMAP will allow you to have folders to sort emails instead of having everything just piled in the inbox
  • If given the option while setting up a client, choose to keep a copy of the emails on the server, i.e. Do not delete the server copy
  • If using a public or shared computer (e.g. libraries, cafes, etc), log out of your account before leaving

Email Policies

Town email accounts should be used by all town officials in conducting town business.  Conducting town business means that you are representing the Town of Monkton

http://vermont-archives.org/records/standards/pdf/ElectronicMessagesBestPractice_Eff.20090401.pdf

 

 

While any Public Record Act exemption may be applicable to any particular public record, given that email is most often used as a method of correspondence, a number of exemptions may specifically apply to email correspondence between municipal officials or municipal board members. These include:
• Records of interdepartmental and intradepartmental communications in any county, city, town, village, town school district, incorporated school district, union school district, consolidated water district, fire district, or any other political subdivision of the state to the extent that they cover other than primarily factual materials and are preliminary to any determination of policy or action or precede the presentation of the budget at a meeting held in accordance with section 312 of Title 1. 1 V.S.A. § 317(c)(17).
• Records that would cause the custodian to violate the common law deliberative process privilege which protects information of an advisory or deliberative nature that relates to the governmental decision or policy-making process and allows government officials freedom to debate alternative approaches in private. Bethel v. Bennington School District and Mount Anthony School District, 403-10-07 Bncv; Munson Earth Moving Corp v. City of South Burlington, So 805-08 Cnc.
• Records concerning formulations of policy, where such would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy if disclosed. 1 V.S.A. § 317(c)(12).
• Records of, or internal materials prepared for, the deliberations of any public agency acting in ajudicial or quasi-judicial capacity.