Good morning,

Montgomery College is committed to providing timely alerts and emergency notifications for situations that present a threat to the campus community. To support this commitment, the College's Office of Information Technology will install Alertus Desktop Notification software to all employee workstations beginning October 10.

COLLEGEWIDE TEST: OCTOBER 17
On Wednesday, October 17, communications and OIT staff will issue a TEST "pop-up" message to computers with the Alertus emergency messaging desktop client installed. MC Alert will NOT be part of the Oct. 17 Alertus Desktop Notification test. The TEST pop-up alert will appear on your computer screen. See attachment 1 (PopUpMessageTestAlert) below.

The pop-up desktop messages can be tailored to a specific situation by the sender. The Alertus Desktop Notification has been integrated into the current MC Alert dashboard provided by Rave Mobile Safety. This allows the sender to continue to use just one system to launch an MC Alert message via multiple channels. This feature allows a qualified staff member to launch an alert that will cause any registered computer to be overridden with a screen "pop-up" message.

Please click the green "Acknowledge" button (Mac users will see "Dismiss") once you've seen the test message on your screen. After five minutes, the test pop-up message will expire and will no longer be visible.

<b>Alertus Desktop Icon</b>
A new icon, either in your system tray (bottom bar in Windows) or in the task bar (Mac), will be displayed on your computer. See attachment 2 (AlertusIcon) below.

If you do not see the Alertus Desktop icon by Oct. 13, please contact the IT Service Desk:

*by clicking on the IT Service Desk icon on your desktop
*by e-mail at itservicedesk@montgomerycollege.edu
*by web chat on OIT's web page at http://cms.montgomerycollege.edu/oit
*by phone at 240-567-7222
*** Be sure to include your computer's MC number when contacting IT Service Desk about Alertus Desktop. ***

For more information about the College's emergency notifications and alerts, visit the <a href="http://cms.montgomerycollege.edu/mcalerts/">Emergency Communications webpage</a>.

Shawn Harrison
Director, Office of Public Safety and Emergency Management.
Montgomery College