A few months ago, a survey request was sent to all GA ARES® members registered on the website. The survey included information about an opportunity to request a grant for nonprofits of Google Workspace licenses.
The primary question was if GA ARES® was granted enterprise licensing for Google Workspace would the service be used. The result was overwhelmingly positive. The application was completed, and the licenses were granted. We have enough licenses to provide an account for all GA ARES® members.
The applications included in the service are at the enterprise level including Google’s Gemini AI service. For example, the email accounts are not subject to all of the promotional email that arrives when using a free email account.
There are many positive benefits that will improve our internal communications and hence, our ability to support our served agencies. For example, remembering someone’s email address is easy. All addresses will be in the format of <FirstName>.<LastName>@gaares.org.
We will be able to share information more effectively than emailing files to everyone. If the file content information is updated, the current version will always be available to all with whom it is shared.
For those members in leadership positions, less time will be required while being more effective. I could write several pages about how the use of these tools will make our organization better. If you are curious about the features and benefits of Google Workspace, you can find more details on the Google site at: Google Workspace Features. Look at the Business Standard column.
New accounts set up will begin in a few days. The process is:
- User account created on Google Workspace.
- Password reset mail message is sent from Google to the email address that you used to register on the GA ARES® website.
- Click on the link in the message to change your password. The password must be at least 8 characters. You know the drill about lowercase letters, uppercase letters, numbers and special characters. The longer the better.
- Options will be presented to add other options for password recovery other than a mail message to your GA ARES® website address. You will also have the option to set up a Passkey.
- Creating your new password activates your account, and you have access to services included under the license granted to our organization.
As you can see, the process is very simple. Watch for the message from the Google system to complete your account activation.