Welcome to a WMO Google Group.

How you got here

You may have been referred to this web page by an email that invited you to join a WMO Google Group.
You will have been told the "short name" for your group - you should substitute this for <strong><em>######</em></strong> in what follows.

Registering for a Google Group and using it

This may be the first time you have used a Google Group. A Google Group acts like an emailing list, but it also provides an archive of all the messages exchanged. To protect you from spam, Google will not copy you any emails sent to the group until you have confirmed that you are happy for the group to send you emails. If your IT infrastructure does not allow access to the Google infrastructure, you will not be able to accept the invitation yourself. In that case, forward the invitation email to the Secretariat at wis-help@wmo.int and we will accept the invitation for you.

The group has an online archive of conversations at
https://groups.google.com/a/wmo.int/group/<strong><em>######</em></strong>/topics?hl=en

Some organisations block access to Google Groups, and if your organisation is one of these you will not be able to see the archive or post directly from the website. However, everything posted to the site also gets emailed to all the group members, so you will not miss anything if you cannot see the group site. And if you want to post anything yourself, you can either reply to an existing conversation or send a new email to <strong><em>######</em></strong>@wmo.int - this will post to the group and send an email to everyone. Only emails from recognised group members will be accepted.

The permissions for the group are set up so that only people who have been nominated as members of the group can see it or post to it. Of course, that means that the group needs to know who you are. So, if you follow the above link you will get to a page that asks you to login. Because the group is hosted under the WMO Google Apps area it offers you two login methods - one for WMO staff, and one for others.

You have a choice here.

If you have not already done so, you can register your work email address with Google to set up a Google account. Then you can log in to the group using your work email address. See the note at the bottom of this message.

If you are already registered with Google Groups (or have a Gmail account) then you can use that email address to log on to the Group instead of the one we registered for you.. However, you will then have to request permission to join the group from the next page you are shown.

However, you do not need to register for the Google Group if all you want to do is be sent the emails or post messages back onto the group by email - but you need to follow the link in this invitation email to confirm that you want to take part in the Group activities. If you cannot access Google Groups to confirm that you want to join the group, forward this invitation to wis-help@wmo.int and we will confirm on your behalf. You will receive emails sent to the group and can post to the group by sending an email to it.

Finally, you can post comments to the group by two methods. First, you can go to the Google Group page and post a comment. Second, you can send an email to the group (or reply to one it sent you. If you use the email method, Google will sometimes hold your message until one of the WMO staff has released it - this is part of their spam protection.

We hope this makes things a little clearer.

Setting up a Google Account

Step 1: When you get to the "Welcome to WMO.int" page, put your work email address into the "enter your email" box.

Step 2: At the next page use the "Sign Up" button (top right of the screen).

Step 3: The next page lets you set up a Google account with your work email as the login identifier. Remember that your IT Security team advises you not to use the same password for that account as for your work logins!

You will probably want to turn off the stay logged in and web history features.

Note that it asks for a birthday (as long as you remember it and it is more than 21 years ago it doesn't matter what it is - 21 is in case google starts to put age restrictions on things) - but be careful because the date is in American order (Month/Day/Year).

This does NOT set up a gmail account - it is purely there so that the system can be fairly sure that you are who you are. I expect that you will be asked to confirm that the email address is yours by following a link. If you have problems following the link forward the email to one of the WIS team and as us to follow the link for you.

Step 4: The next page asks you to verify your account - what happens next depends on whether there is a link between the email provider you use (unlikely f it is a work email account) or not. You may be asked to sign in to your email account, or you will be sent an email. If you are sent an email, follow the link to confirm that you own the email address.

Step 5: You will then be able to login to the group using your email and the password you chose.If you need to login to any other Google tool (it does not need to be associated with WMO) you should be able to use the same user/password combination.