Agency to Transition to Google Mail This Summer

You should have received an email about this subject last Thursday, but we are repeating it here for your information. 

We are excited to announce that Heartland AEA will be transitioning from Kerio Mail to Google Mail (Gmail) over the summer. This will not require a great amount of work from you, other than learning a new email and calendar system. We know many of you use Gmail on a personal basis already and are one of the over 400 million people worldwide with a Gmail account. 

Our email addresses will be changed as a part of this process (as you read that our website address will change to www.heartlandaea.org as well). For example, Lance Wilhelm’s email address will change from lwilhelm@aea11.k12.ia.us to lwilhelm@heartlandaea.org. Don’t worry -- your old email address will forward to your new email address for a year or more. 

The Agency’s leaders and their administrative assistants will be transitioned at the same time on a date to be communicated in the future. The transition to Gmail for most employees will begin around June 3. We intend to go in alphabetical order by last name, starting with the A’s early in June and finishing with the Z’s in late July. All of your existing email (in your inbox and in your folders) will be moved to Gmail, along with your existing calendar events and your contacts. 

Tim Weets, Network Specialist in the Internal Technology Department, is heading up this project, and he will schedule a time with you to transition your account. Once the transition begins for your account, you will generally need to stay logged out of your Kerio Mail account for 1-2 hours. Tim will contact you by phone when your transition begins and will call you when it’s completed. This includes those of you who will be off contract this summer. 

Most people find Gmail very easy to use, but for many of you, it will be a new system for your mail and calendaring. We will have many instructional materials (handouts, videos, etc.) available once the transition begins. Look for more information in the coming weeks. We recommend you read this Gmail Transition Questions document as well. 

We will do our best to make this transition as easy as possible for you. If you have any additional questions after reading the Transition document, please contact Tim Weets at tweets@heartlandaea.org.