Distribution Lists - Part 1 - Introduction

Distribution Lists

Introduction

Distribution Lists act as a shortcut when assigning tasks to multiple users. When the same individuals are involved in the same tasks, rather than picking them individually every time, a distribution list can be used to select them all in one click.

The members of a distribution list are contacts. Distribution lists can also be used for more than assigning tasks, for example to send a controlled document to every contact on a list. When a list is used to assign tasks, any member who does not have a user account, or who does not have an active staff record, is skipped.

In most cases, tasks assigned through a distribution list will only be issued to the distribution list’s members at that point in time. The same tasks won’t be automatically generated for users added to the distribution list afterwards.

There are three exceptions:

• when distribution lists are added for repeated use in the Settings, Competency, Reagents and Materials areas (distribution list notifications for Reagents and Materials are only sent on accounts that have batch and stock management enabled),
• when they are linked to a staff member’s profile in the Management Group(s) field (only public distribution lists can be selected). When that staff member raises or cancels a leave request, a notification is sent to whoever is a member of each linked, active distribution list at that time, so changes to the list’s membership take effect straight away, and
• when they are used to populate the list of members of a skilled group.
  In this case, the system will record that a given distribution list was used and it will link it to the skilled group. Subsequently, if users are added to the distribution list, they will also be added to the list of staff members of the skilled group and will be issued skilling tasks for the group’s documents. Contacts who do not have a user account are not added to the skilled group. If users are removed from the distribution list, they will also be removed from the skilled group, unless they are still a member of another distribution list linked to the same skilled group. More detail is available in the section Distribution Lists used in Skilled Groups.

Contents

• Permissions for Distribution Lists
• Creating Distribution Lists
• Searching and Managing Distribution Lists
• Using Distribution Lists

Next S:

The next article covers Permissions for Distribution Lists