If you would like to have an email address with an AFS domain name, we can give you one! We offer volunteers an AFS Google account for emailing, document storage, and collaboration. Once created, volunteers can access the account via MyAFS or Global Link since the accounts feature single sign on with our system, meaning that when you're signed into one of our sites, you're signed into all of them. The account can also be accessed by signing directly into Google with the same credentials.
In this article:
- Why would you want an AFS Email?
- Where to Access your AFS Email
- Creating your AFS Email
- Useful Notes
Why would you want an AFS Email?
Many volunteers work with schools and other community-based organizations that appreciate knowing that the AFS volunteer who they're corresponding with is an official representative of the organization. While all registered volunteers are representatives of AFS-USA, the credibility that an official-looking email address can lend is something that some volunteers find useful. And keeping all AFS activities and correspondence in a separate inbox frequently helps volunteers stay organized.
Where to Access your AFS Email
In MyAFS, you can find the "AFS Email" link in the lefthand menu.
In Global Link, "AFS Email" is in the top right corner.
You can also go directly to Google to sign into your email with your AFS credentials. For mobile use, the easiest way to access your AFS email is to download and use the Gmail app.
Creating your AFS Email
In order to create an AFS Google account, a volunteer's username for logging into MyAFS/Global Link will need to be changed to match the established naming convention for our google accounts, which is firstname.lastname.usavol. While that will be your username for signing into MyAFS, your ultimate Google email address will be firstname.lastname.usavol@afs.org. You can write to AskAFS@afsusa.org to request an AFS email account.
Useful Notes
Please note that your afs.org google account is for AFS volunteers and linked to a volunteer's Global Link person record, so if you step away from volunteering or let your volunteer registration lapse, you’ll no longer have access to the google account.
Once activated, the AFS Google account functions like any other Google account, including the Gmail features, with the notable addition of the AFS International Directory already loaded in. So when you begin typing an email to someone who is already in the directory, their name will autopopulate in the To: field.
Do you want to have an AFS email address but still be able to see your AFS emails in your personal email inbox? You can! Inside the AFS email account, you to set up automatic forwarding of emails that people send to your @afs.org account so that you can access them in your personal email inbox. There are settings in the forwarding menu that you can choose whether you want the original copies of the emails in the AFS inbox to stay there and be marked as read or unread after forwarding, or they can be deleted all together after forwarding. But if you reply to an email in your personal email that was forwarded from your AFS account, if would still show your personal email as the sender, so you may want to log into your AFS email to reply.
If your personal email address is a gmail account, once you’ve logged into your AFS inbox in the same browser that you’ve logged into your personal gmail, you can toggle back and forth between any google accounts that you have access to. It’ll look like this:
You can write to AskAFS@afsusa.org to request an account or ask any questions about this offer.