Garrison Forest School (GFS) is a premier all-girls boarding and day school in Owings Mills, Maryland, renowned for its rigorous academics and nationally celebrated athletics program, which includes unique offerings like polo and equestrian sports.
At the helm of this bustling athletic department is Jessy Morgan, a former NCAA champion and USA Team lacrosse player.
However, despite her high-performance background, Morgan was facing an opponent that no amount of practice could defeat: an overflowing inbox.
With multiple teams to manage and constant communication with parents, coaches, and students, she needed to reclaim her time to focus on what matters most: empowering student-athletes.
The Problem
For an Athletic Director at a prestigious institution like Garrison Forest, communication is the lifeblood of the department. But for Jessy Morgan, it had become a bottleneck. The volume was staggering – i.e., upwards of 1,000 emails every single week flooded her inbox.
This wasn't just a matter of being popular; it was a mix of critical administrative updates, urgent parent inquiries, game scheduling, and a deluge of low-priority noise that required manual filtering.
The root cause was a lack of automated organization.
Without a system to differentiate between an urgent safety update and a routine newsletter, Morgan was forced to manually triage every incoming message.
This "search and destroy" method of email management was inefficient and mentally exhausting. She found herself constantly behind, living with the low-level anxiety of a cluttered digital workspace. The administrative burden was burying the strategic and educational aspects of her role, leaving her dreaming of an empty inbox that seemed impossible to achieve.
The Answer
To defeat the email deluge, Garrison Forest School turned to Gmelius, transforming their Gmail accounts into powerful, automated workspaces. The implementation focused on three core features that directly addressed the volume and sorting issues:
Adaptive Email Templates for Gmail
Morgan utilized Gmelius’s Adaptive Email Templates to standardize and speed up communication. Instead of typing out the same responses regarding game times, uniform policies, or weather delays, she could insert pre-written, customizable templates in seconds. This ensured consistency across the department and slashed response times significantly.
Automated Email Sorting
The game-changer for the sheer volume was Automated Email Sorting. Gmelius’s intelligent filtering began tagging incoming emails automatically. By distinguishing between internal staff comms, parent inquiries, and vendor newsletters, the system did the heavy lifting of organization before Morgan even opened her inbox.
Email Task Automation
Finally, Email Task Automation was deployed to handle the lifecycle of messages. Rules were set up to auto-archive completed threads or delete expired notifications after a set period. This meant the inbox didn't just get organized, but it actually stayed clean without constant manual maintenance.
The Results
The impact of implementing Gmelius was immediate and measurable. The department went from drowning in 1,000 unsorted emails a week to a streamlined operation where every message has its place.
- 1,000+ incoming emails sorted weekly: The automated systems now handle the triage, ensuring Morgan only sees what needs her immediate attention.
- Inbox zero guaranteed: What was once a dream is now a weekly reality. Morgan consistently clears her inbox, ending her week with a clean slate.
- Focus on education: The time reclaimed from email management is now reinvested in the students and the athletics program, allowing Morgan to lead rather than react.
- Peace of mind: The stress of "falling behind" has evaporated, replaced by the confidence of a simplified workflow.
As Jessy Morgan, Athletic Director at GFS, puts it: “Everything is organized in a snap with Gmelius.”
How to Get Similar Results for Your Team
If your team is struggling to see the signal through the noise, Gmelius offers a clear path forward. As the leading collaboration platform for Gmail, Gmelius transforms your inbox into a workspace that manages itself. From AI Email Assistants to Shared Inboxes, we deliver secure, compliant enterprise solutions designed to integrate seamlessly with your existing Google Workspace.
Whether you are in education, logistics, or operations, our dedicated implementation support ensures you get set up quickly and correctly.
Stop dreaming of Inbox Zero and start living it.
Learn more about Gmelius AI Email Assistants & Shared Inboxes for Gmail.
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