In conducting a test of the WarnMe system next week, UC Davis will for the first time share the notification automatically through two of the university’s social media channels: Facebook and Twitter.

The test message is scheduled to go out just before 11 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 12, to employees and students on the Davis campus and at some other university facilities, via tens of thousands of work and personal email addresses, and SMS (short message service) devices. A test for the Sacramento campus will be conducted at a later date.

Before the tests, officials urge all faculty, staff and students to visit the WarnMe website to check that their contact information is up to date and includes personal email addresses and phone numbers. Nick Crossley, director of Emergency Management and Mission Continuity for the Davis campus, said he recommends providing cell phone numbers for text messages — because they are the quickest way to get notifications.

This will be the first test of the system since UC Davis contracted with a new vendor, Rave Mobile Safety of Framingham, Mass. Crossley said the new system includes some important features to extend the reach of the notifications — for example, through Facebook and Twitter. “We’re working to improve our ability to notify our community about emergencies and let them know what they should do,” he said. 

Coming soon will be features that post notifications to some campus websites and allow parents and members of the public to register to receive notifications by email and text message.

Email messages addressed to ucdavis.edu email addresses will come from warnme@ucdavis.edu. Messages addressed to external email addresses such as gmail or yahoo will come from warnme@getrave.com. The e-mail message will invite recipients to complete a brief survey by clicking on a Web address in the message.

Some people may need to configure their computers’ junk mail filters to ensure WarnMe messages get through to inboxes, by allowing emails sent from the WarnMe server: getrave.com.

For text messages, UC Davis recommends the following:

• Save a contact on your phone as WarnMe and add 67283 and 226787 as numbers within that contact.
• If you have any short code messaging or premium messaging blocks (sometimes added without your knowledge when you take your number from one carrier to another, or get a new phone number), ask you carrier to allow the two short codes listed above.

WarnMe automatically uses employees’ work contact information from the university's online directory, students’ email addresses, and personal contact information that students and employees provide voluntarily.