This policy will be revised when needed and reviewed in detail at least annually by the TIAA Communications Committee Chair for consistency between policy and current practice.

Overview

The purpose of the Communications function is to maximize the effectiveness of TIAA’s communications to TI Alumni. The Communications function is governed by a Communications Committee appointed by the Communications Chair.

The principal means of mass communication are the News section of the website, tialumni.com; the monthly email newsletter, eNews; the monthly printed newsletter, News; the monthly email calendar, eCalendar; and unscheduled eNotes or eLetters.

Website news items are posted as soon as the material and space on the home page become available. Therefore, the website is the place that our members can always go to for the latest information about TIAA. Longer, multi-paragraph articles are published on the website, but condensed versions with links to the website articles are published in eNews or an eNote to proactively promulgate the information.

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic all face-to-face TIAA meetings have been cancelled. The monthly eNews, News and eCalendar have been suspended until such meetings resume. In the interim, single-topic eNotes or eLetters are sent out to keep members informed of TIAA activities.

Scheduled Publications

eNews is normally published about the 1st of each month. It is sent to all members and nonmembers that have provided us with an email address. Material for inclusion in the eNews should be submitted by the 25th of the preceding month.

News is derived from the eNews and is edited to remove internal links and to fit within the 4-page format. It is normally delivered by mail by the 10th of each month to members without email addresses, and is also mailed to other members upon request.

eCalendar is published about the 15th of each month. It is sent to both members and nonmembers in the Dallas area. The eCalendar editor maintains a Master Calendar of planned activities. This Master Calendar is used as source material for eCalendar, eNews and News. Committee chairs, co-chairs and officers are responsible for submitting material about their activities to the eCalendar Editor and keeping that material current. The Master Calendar is automatically distributed to the various website calendars.

Unscheduled Publications

The website, newsletters and eCalendar each contain items on many diverse topics. We attempt to provide a mix of topics in the hope that each issue will contain something of interest to most of our readers. However, an eNote or an eLetter is almost always about a single topic – and therefore frequently of interest to only a small percentage of our members. We utilize the website, newsletters and eCalendar whenever possible to avoid sending out too many communications to members who may not be interested in that specific topic.

There are several situations where an eNote or eLetter is appropriate, such as an item that:

Relates to a breaking news event, such as an earthquake or tsunami.
Is too complex to cover in an eNews item (normally a single paragraph) and one that cannot wait until the next newsletter.
Corrects erroneous or changed data in the last eNews or News and cannot wait until the next eNews.
Cannot wait until the next eNews for another valid reason.

If a TIAA committee has a need to communicate with members quickly via an eNote or eLetter, it is the responsibility of that committee to prepare a draft and submit it to the Communications Chair because time is normally critical.

Occasionally, an email communication from a TIAA officer or committee chair or co-chairs may be sent out as an eLetter rather than an eNote. An eLetter follows normal letter style with a salutation and a signature block with or without a signature.

Distribution Criteria

The News Section of the website, tialumni.org, is outside the logged-in-member-only firewall and thus is available to the general public. All other publications are distributed by email or postal mail using the following criteria:

eNews criteria:

The contact record contains an email address.
Mailings to the same email address are combined.

News criteria:

The contact record shows an active membership and a postal address.
The contact has not opted out of postal delivery of the News.
Mailings to the same address are combined

eCalendar criteria:

The contact record contains an email address.
The contact lives within 60 miles of Dallas.
Mailings to the same email address are combined.

eNotes and eLetters criteria:

The contact record contains an email address.
Distance from Dallas varies based on the content of the eNote or eLetter.
Mailings to the same email address are combined.

Human Resource Seminar Postcard criteria:

The contact record shows the person is a TI Retiree and has a postal address.
The person lives within 60 miles of Dallas.
Mailings to the same address are combined.

Texas Instruments Retiree Luncheon Postal Invitations criteria:

The contact record indicates the person is a TI Retiree or an active TIAA member and has a good postal address.
The contact lives within 250 miles of Dallas.
Mailings to the same address are not combined.

Sourcing Responsibility

Source material for posting on the website or publication in the newsletters, eNotes and eLetters should be submitted to the Communications Chair. Items concerning TIAA scheduled events should also be sent to the eCalendar editor. The material may be submitted by completing forms with the relevant information or by preparing a rough draft. This source material will then be drafted or edited for clarity, conciseness and style. The drafted or edited copy will then be sent to the originator for factual review. At this stage, changes should be limited to error correction.

The Communications function has the prime responsibility for maintaining the Brand Image of TIAA. To that end, it produces headers for electronic media such as eNews, News, eCalendars, eNotes, eLetters and emails that have a family resemblance to each other and to the website, tialumni.org.

The Communications Committee cooperates with the Membership Development Committee to update the TIAA Brochure.

Updated by Jon Campbell on September 16, 2020.

Guidelines for TIAA Communications Committee as of 9/16/2020