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Re: [atlarge-discuss] 003 WG-WEB.mailinglists S?B OUTREACH?



At 23:00 +0100 2002/08/28, Richard Henderson wrote:
>*** why is the membership list and mailing lists a matter for WG-WEB? I
>would say membership issues and contacts is more a matter for the Outreach
>WG (though of course it crosses other groups as well)

I would tend to agree with Richard. While membership registration is likely to remain Web-based, and while we may want to post some information for members on the site as well as material destined for the general public, communicating with members can't be on a "check the Web site daily" basis.

At a minimum, I would like to see an "atlarge-announce" list set up as soon as possible so as to ensure that members who can't keep up with the traffic on this discussion list will still get the essentials --like the text of potential resolutions, reports from the Panel and working groups, and notice that certain reports and other materials have been added to the Web site. 

Personally, I'd recommend 
- that all members receive the "announce" list automatically so they'll know what's going on (newsletters are fine but there tends to be a longish time-lag and recipients tend to feel they're being presented with a fait accompli) and that we use this list for everything we want all members to see but NOT for miscellaneous discussion;
- that the "discuss" list remain optional (not everyone having the time or inclination to follow all the debates);
- that the registration form on the Web site include check boxes allowing new members to sign up for whichever of the working-group lists interest them;
- that, as soon as it becomes feasible, the site should include a list of relevant organizations by region or country, with a brief description and the appropriate links and mailing addresses (the existing page for contact information not being ideal for people with older browsers or slow connections)

>The Newsletter will not be enough IMHO : that will be a good thing in
>itself, but we need the ability to be more incisive, more targetted on
>particular individuals, and we need to "enable and equip" co-ordinators of
>particular nations or regions, so they can easily communicate with members
>in their own areas. That's why it's so important to get national or >regional e-mail lists out to co-ordinators. We need to "facilitate" what >must happen more locally than at our central panel level. We should not >"keep" the mailing-lists to ourselves at "panel" level (not that I think >you are suggesting that!)

I take it you mean distribution of members' contact information to regional or national co-ordinators. Generally speaking, I agree ... with the proviso that members have explicitly agreed to release of the information for this purpose beforehand. Otherwise, it might in fact be easier to host "announce" mailing-lists for the various regions (sorting members into the appropriate ones from the central membership database) or assist regional organizations by hosting their sign-up pages.

In any case, this may be my personal bias but I would strongly advocate the use of e-mail as well as the Web. It seems that over the past few years, some people have started thinking "Internet" means "Web" and not much else, whereas far more people make regular use of e-mail than are likely to visit a given Web site regularly. 

Richard's caution about spamming is well-taken but we're presumably not selling anything but the opportunity to participate in democratic decision-making, and we're talking about informing members who have already signaled their interest in receiving the information so I doubt it would be perceived as spam.

Regards,

Judyth

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Judyth Mermelstein     "cogito ergo lego ergo cogito..."
Montreal, QC           <espresso@e-scape.net>
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