AYA -Online Services

Yale Alumni Online Services Update - June 1, 2005

Dear Yale Alumni,

We periodically find it useful to update alumni regarding the online services available from the Association of Yale Alumni. We'd like to take a moment now to do so. As you may know from using the Virtual Yale Station (VYS) email forwarding service, the AYA makes a suite of online services available to alumni at no cost. We are very excited about the service enhancements we have made in the last year and wanted to take this opportunity to encourage you to take advantage of them.

We have also sought to improve the performance and reliability of the Virtual Yale Station email forwarding service. Working with our friends at Alumni Connections (our vendor partner which hosts many of our online services, including VYS), we have implemented domain validation checking.

This means that when email is sent to your VYS address, we check to make sure that the sender is using a valid domain. Invalid domains are sometimes used by spammers to conceal their identity; and this validation process will help weed out spam messages as well as remain in compliance with deliverability requirements of many ISPs. For more information on spam and your VYS address, please see our FAQ at: http://www.aya.yale.edu/online/spam.htm.

In addition to spam, some VYS users have received emails purporting to come from the aya.yale.edu administrators. Some of these emails appear to come from "administrator@aya.yale.edu" and claim that your email account will be closed if you do not respond. These emails are hoaxes and contain viruses which you should not open. Keeping your anti-virus software up to date will protect you from most of these harmful emails.

Also, you can use the following rules of thumb when evaluating the legitimacy of an email:

- When contacting you regarding your VYS account, our emails will be signed with a staff person's name and contact information.

- We will not send unsolicited attachments. (That is, we will only send attachments as follow up to an issue that you have initially brought to our attention.)

- Occasionally, we may direct you to a website that belongs to AYA or a trusted partner. The address would be part of the www.aya.yale.edu or www.alumniconnections.com/yale.

In addition to VYS, other online services available to alumni include:

The Yale Career Network - The Old Yale Network...Now Online! The Yale Career Network is a database of over 6500 alumni who are interested in networking with Yale alumni and students. This exciting new service will allow you to discuss career objectives and explore career interests. You can serve as a resource for current Yale students as well as network with other alumni by joining the Career Network. While not a job placement service, the Yale Career Network can be a valuable tool to assist you in your career and networking pursuits. We encourage you to log on now to http://www.aya.yale.edu/career and fill out your career profile.

The Online Alumni Directory - The Online Alumni Directory contains degree and contact information for all alumni from all schools. You can search for others as well as update your record. In addition, you can hide from view any part or all of your personal contact information. By keeping your contact information up to date, your friends and classmates will also be able to contact you. Visit http://www.aya.yale.edu/online for more information.

You can log on to these services with the same user name and password that you use for the Virtual Yale Station. If you have forgotten your user name or wish to change your password, you can do so at http://www.aya.yale.edu/online (scroll to the bottom for password help).

We hope you'll find this information helpful and will use and enjoy these online services in connecting with Yale and other alumni.

Best wishes from Alumni House,
Jeff Brenzel '75
Executive Director
Association of Yale Alumni
AYA@yale.edu
www.aya.yale.edu