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Requesting and Managing
Distribution Groups in Exchange


The Exchange Global Address List (GAL) can contain distribution groups, which are available to everyone who uses Exchange.  Distribution groups can be created to contain a large number of campus-wide Exchange email addresses, such as a group containing the addresses of everyone who works in your department or college. One owner (or multiple) can manage membership of the group.

Attributes/Benefits of Exchange Distribution Groups:

An Exchange distribution group can be setup in such a manner that:

  • only JMU-internal Exchange users are allowed to send to it
  • only members of the group itself are allowed to send to the group
  • only certain users (whether members of the group or not) are allowed to send to the group (an announce-only kind of group)
  • the group can be hidden in the Global Address List (for instance, the group does not need to be seen by everyone or only by some).
  • the group can be used for sharing permissions to delegate access to calendars, mailboxes and other functions, instead of having to enter individual names into the "Sharing Permissions" box.

To request a distribution group, please email helpdesk@jmu.edu with the name of the group and the owner(s).  You will be contacted within two business days concerning your distribution group and provided a link to Adding/Removing Distribution Group Members.

Note: Exchange distribution groups are not as inclusive as listservs. For instance, if you need to include email addresses outside of the JMU Exchange GAL or if you need message archival functionality, please request a listserv.