sign here please

October 3, 2011 7:34 PM

A group of colleagues and I want to send a complaint email. How can we all sign it, considering that it's an email and that none of us are even in the same state?

By the way, this isn't some huge fancy legal issue kind of thing. But it is a letter that we all stand behind and an issue we are all concerned about. We are crafting the letter collaboratively, but unlike a real letter, we can't each sign off our unique signatures at the bottom. Typing out everyone's name at the bottom doesn't seem very believable.

And for info's sake, none of us live in the same state.

Thanks!

posted by joyeuxamelie to law & government (10 answers total)

Whoops. Sorry about posting the info about none of us living in the same place twice.
posted by joyeuxamelie at 7:36 PM on October 3, 2011

I don't see any problem with including the other colleagues' names at the bottom of the email.

But additionally, whoever is sending the email should include the email addresses of the relevant colleagues in the cc field. That way, whomever is receiving the email knows that these people are definitely involved - or that if they have been involved against their wishes, they have been cc'd and will have the opportunity to disavow participation.

It seems like it would be a good idea, too, to indicate within the body of the email that the content has been composed collaboratively.
posted by paleyellowwithorange at 7:43 PM on October 3, 2011 [3 favorites]

Can your colleagues send in scans of their signatures to you for this purpose? This is done all the time. You can compile it all together in photo editing software and send the whole letter + signatures as one attachment.

You can also just go ahead and type everyone's names at the bottom and then CC them when you send the email so that the recipient knows all signed parties are aware of this letter, thus making it more likely that they did, in fact, sign off on it. It's just as believable as the first method and far more current.
posted by katillathehun at 7:43 PM on October 3, 2011

There are electronic signatures (gpg) but they are really not what you are asking about. They are the way a receiver can verify that the received text is what the sender sent. Also, sadly, most people don't know or care about how to use this technology.

If typing all your names at the bottom won't do, your choices are probably to send a scan of a paper document that you all signed with a pen, or to sign the paper document and then just mail it. I really suggest the latter, if there is any way at all to manage it.
posted by fritley at 7:43 PM on October 3, 2011

We recently did something similar. Eventually one person sent the email cc'ing all the complainants and each one individually replied to the complanee with the equivalent of "I'm Joe Blow and I approve of this message"
posted by mce at 7:46 PM on October 3, 2011

CCing sounds like a great idea! (And very obvious and simple too... why didn't I think of that in the first place -__-)
posted by joyeuxamelie at 7:49 PM on October 3, 2011

I agree that an attachment with everyone's names (and possibly scanned signatures) would be a good idea. A lot of officials in companies don't consider e-mails to be "real" documents, and like something in Word or a similar program to be more "official."
posted by xingcat at 7:52 PM on October 3, 2011

Legal documents that are electronically signed sometimes list everyone as e-signing.

Sincerely,

/s/ Wilson
/s/ wilson's colleague
/s/ wilson's other colleague

It's standard practice to cc them if you're sending an email. If you say you're signing on behalf of them and copy them, they would be free to reply and say they didn't agree/approve/etc.
posted by J. Wilson at 7:52 PM on October 3, 2011

Name and email addresses in the letter and cc'ed but I'd also consider putting in postal addresses and/or phone numbers to make you all look like real, contactable people.
posted by jessamyn at 9:45 PM on October 3, 2011

Shared google doc?
posted by WeekendJen at 7:41 AM on October 4, 2011