NCUF is a Google group. You don't need to have a Gmail address, or even a Google account, to join any google group. But you really want to have a Google account to join. Here is why.

In order to access features of a Google Group, you need to sign in with your Google username and password. If you have a Gmail account, that is your username (i.e., JohnDoe@gmail.com). But you can also link a non-Gmail email to Google account. You can find info on that in the Google the Google Create Account Page .

If you try to go to to the NCUF group page and you are not signed into a Google account, you will see a screen that looks like this:

While you can access certain pages of the NCUF website, including the Check-In tool and games pages, you won't be able to access some very important info that makes it possible to participate properly in the group. If you have a Google account, regardless of the email used to sign up, and you sign in per the message above, you would see:

It is the menu item that the red arrow is pointing to called User Settings that is why you REALLY want to have a Google account. If you click on that, you see:

You can't get to this screen any other way than signing in, and you can't sign in without a Google account. It is here that you can control if/how you receive group email, what your display name is, and even whether or not you want to leave the group. If you signed up without having a Google account, your display name is inexorably tied to your email name (i.e. johndoe if your email address was johndoe@yahoo.com). You can't change that name, and neither can the site moderators. You are stuck in limbo.

So, the bottom line of all this is, GET A GOOGLE ACCOUNT IF YOU DON'T HAVE ONE, and sign up using that account. You can either create that google account with a new email address that you can choose to not use for anything else, or you can create it with your existing email address if you prefer. If you don't want Google to have access to private info, then don't give them anything beyond your minimum required info, and don't use it for anything else.

If you have already signed up for NCUF using a non-Gmail, non-google linked email address, you can join google with that email address. And then when you access this site, you can give that password and you'll then have access to the membership preferences screen above.

If you have a NCUF membership linked to a non-gmail account with no Google account, and you wish to delete that account, contact the NCUF moderators to delete that account. WIthout the screen access above, you have no way to do it.