The public information office maintains a list of voicemail extensions for full-time staff and adjunct faculty and broadcasts public service announcements by telephone to the campus community. Staff may call the public information office and request to be added or removed from this list. The following are a few helpful suggestions about when to consider a systemwide broadcast for an event and how it works.

• It works best as a reminder. Staff who rely solely on systemwide broadcasts to get out important information miss a large number of people. The telephone recipient has an option of discarding the message without even listening by pressing 3, just as recipients of written material may choose to read it or not.
  
  
• Unless it is necessary to make a correction in an event, e.g. cancellation, only one systemwide broadcast will be sent.
  
  
• Systemwide broadcasts should be conveyed in 20 - 30 seconds. People want to hear who, what, where, when, and sometimes why.
  
  
• Submit systemwide request to the public information office at least two days in advance of the day you want it sent; systemwides will be scheduled so that staff receive no more than two per day. Systemwides should be in staff voicemail boxes two to three days before the actual event. For example, if an event occurs on Monday, the reminder should be sent the evening of the previous Wednesday so staff will have it by Thursday morning.
  
  
• In order to avoid overwhelming the telephone system during normal business hours, systemwides will not be sent after 7:30 a.m. or before 5 p.m. If it is necessary to send an emergency broadcast during these hours, the public information officer (PIO) will notify the district and request permission to send.
  
  
• Systemwide messages may be sent by the PIO or someone designated by the PIO. If both the PIO and designee are scheduled to be out of the office for more than a day, arrangements will be made for the president's office to send a systemwide message. Systemwides must be of general interest to the campus and must be approved by either the PIO or the president.
  
  

In general, the most effective communication is the Staff News, a memo, or a flier, with systemwide broadcasts as a reminder of an event, a meeting, or a deadline.