CAS3 Staff Officer Guide - U.S. Army

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Staff Officer's Guide
control and distribution of all incoming and outgoing accountable mail and distribution.
d. Express Mail (USPS Express/Federal Express):
(1) Use express mail next-day delivery service only when next day delivery is absolutely
essential to meet mission requirements. Because of the greater cost, do not use express mail for the
sole purpose of meeting a suspense date.
(2) Activity deputy directors or executive officers must provide a signed request for use of
express mail. Submit the request to the CMDB prior to 1500 to ensure next-day delivery.
(3) Normally, the CMDB will not accept next-day delivery requests on Friday unless the
activity has made special arrangements with the recipient for a person to be available on Saturday at
the addressee’s office to accept custody of the mail.
Electronic Mail (e-mail)
a. E-mail is a powerful tool that can convey messages to a wide audience or a single addressee
rapidly. However, e-mail is not meant to totally replace important face-to-face, telephonic, or hard
copy communication. The best use of e-mail is to augment other channels of communication.
b. E-mail can be used as the final transmission of official correspondence (taskers, policy
directives, memorandums, etc.).
c. Check your e-mail at least twice a day. Remember to call recipients to alert them of time
sensitive e-mail traffic.
d. Be brief, concise, and forceful in your messages. Use the military writing style. Work to
minimize a message to only the visible space on the computer screen; avoid having the reader scroll
or page down. If you have a lot to say, pass the message in an attached electronic file information
paper or fact sheet. Format your e-mail logically, use the same rules for preparing the body of an
informal memorandum. Use conventional capitalization and punctuation. Do not use all capital
letters.
e. Be sure you are not misunderstood. The message is just words; it cannot convey body
language, speech inflection, or actions that provide clues to your mood when you speak face-to-face.
Review your messages carefully before you send them; use edit and spell check before sending. Use
bold face to emphasize or convey stronger emotions.
f. Watch what you say. Consider any message you type and send to be in the public domain,
unless you specifically tell the recipient not to forward the message to anyone else. If in doubt about
message content, add a “DNR” (Do Not Retransmit) to the end of the message to indicate that you do
not authorize the recipient to retransmit. Be aware that information contained in e-mail messages is
information obtainable under the Freedom of Information Act.
g. Send messages only to those individuals that have a need to know. Do not clutter the system
with junk mail; this ties up network resources unnecessarily.
h. Avoid sending file attachments to more than a few recipients and ensure that the size of the
file attachment is small. To share large files and briefing charts, use the commonly shared file server
or public folders. When transmitting correspondence as attachments to e-mail notes, add the words
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