Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: The Future of Cohousing-L mailing list

[Alice Alexander (alicecohous]

I appreciate Katie's comments, and celebrate Fred's amazing service for
over two decades to establish and maintain coho-l. Coho/US exists to
nurture and grow cohousing, and coho-l is an integral part, so keeping this
list serve strong and vibrant supports our agenda. Additionally: Coho/US
serves the *community* of cohousing; we are part and parcel of that
community. So the premise that coho-l be a community service fits into that
scenario. Finally: I hope coho-l readers will appreciate that Coho/US is
now a stable and strong organization, and as such could play a foundational
role in maintaining the coho-l list serve. As Katie contributes her $.02 so
do I! Since ultimately the future of coho-l is a community decision. That's
what we "do" in cohousing after all. I look forward to more conversation
here and at the conference - and hope all readers will consider joining us
www.cohouing.org/2015conference
Alice Alexander, Coho/US Executive Director

On Fri, Feb 20, 2015 at 6:56 PM, Kathryn McCamant <
kmccamant [at] cohousing-solutions.com> wrote:

>
> Dear Fred...good idea! Glad you are taking this initiative. The conference
> will be a great place to continue the conversation.
>
> But I did want to question your assumption that CoHousing-L needs to be a
> separate entity from the CoHousing Association. Personally, I see the
> Association as the key link that ties us all together...and the umbrella
> by which all the volunteer efforts that make this a movement more than
> just a bunch of individual projects. To me, it makes total sense that
> Cohousing-L exist as part of the Association. In recent years, I suspect
> that most people find you thru the association website. I think formally
> combining your efforts with the Association would be one way to secure
> Coho-L's long term existence...whatever happens to any one of us along
> life's road. Each of us do more or less depending on what else is going on
> in our lives, but so far, the Association has continued and offers a great
> format to bring in new energy as us old timers grow weary, move on, or
> eventually die off. I think the Association needs all of our support and
> encouragement, and the more of our volunteer efforts are done under the
> umbrella of the Association, the strong both the Association is as well as
> the cohousing movement.
>
> Just my 2 cents (without any discussion with anyone CohoUS). Feel free to
> share my comments as you see fit.
>
> In community and with the utmost respect for you ongoing contribution to
> the national and international cohousing discussion,
>
>
> Katie
>
> --
> Kathryn McCamant, President
> CoHousing Solutions
> 241B Commercial Street
> Nevada City, CA 95959
> T.530.478.1970  C.916.798.4755
> www.cohousing-solutions.com
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On 2/20/15 9:54 AM, "Fred H Olson" <fholson [at] cohousing.org> wrote:
>
> >
> >I have managed Cohousing-L for over 21 years now, but WHAT IF I CROAK?
> >
> >Someday I will no longer be able to manage the list. NOT ANY TIME SOON
> >but someday someone else will need to take over managing Cohousing-L.
> >I expect to continue managing the list for a good long time yet.
> >
> >But life is unpredicatable; it seems like it would be wise to have a
> >contingency plan for succession of a manager.
> >
> >There will be a session at the conference, currently scheduled for 4pm
> >Friday -- "Cohousing-L Email Group: Looking to the Future " where we can
> >discuss this (and other list related topics) but I wanted to start the
> >discussion here. ( Conf. page: http://cohousing.org/2015conference )
> >My 68th birthday is during the Cohousing conference in North Carolina
> >in May which I will be attending for the first time since 1997.
> >
> >I frequently get thanks for managing a useful and civil discussion
> >free of ads and distractions.  Such appreciation helps keep me at it.
> >There are occasional lulls in the discussion. ( There were very few
> >messages for about 4 weeks around last Thanksgiving. I was starting to
> >wonder if we had discussed everything :) Then it gets busy like the
> >last week or two...   We suffer from 'feast or famine'.
> >
> >For now I presume this online discussion will continue to be useful
> >indefinitely. I and a number of people feel strongly that Cohousing-L
> >should continue to be independent of Coho/US.
> >
> >With few exceptions it has been just me behind the scenes "managing"
> >cohousing-L.  The software is maintained by a great ISP (Tigertech in
> >Calif. http://justcomm.org/#tigertech ) and their tech support is also
> >great.
> >
> >My suggestion is that we establish and maintain a small "post-Fred
> >advisory group" of people with the interest and some expertise that
> >would agree to make arrangements for the list to continue when I can
> >no longer do so. The group's responsibilities would be:
> >o maintain contact with each other and with Fred over the long run
> >o recruiting someone to take over management tasks when needed.
> >  Fortunately the list would continue to run unattended for a while
> >  (tho some messages would not be distributed due to filters that
> >  keep the "quality" high).
> >o Arranging to pay the ISP ( currently I do that annually - it is only
> >  $75/year. )
> >
> >If you are interested in being on such an advisory group or would
> >consider managing the list someday please feel free to reply to Fred
> >off list. There is a summary of tasks involved in managing cohousing-L
> >at end of this message.
> >
> >Probably the key thing about managing the list (and an advisory group)
> >is the long term nature of it.  Management tasks are usually not a big
> >task, typically a few minutes EVERY DAY and it goes on for years.
> >Fortunately it fits into my life easily.
> >
> >It would be desireable to have people on an advisory group who are
> >committed for years until they are needed.  They would have have
> >little to do til I croak. Ideally some advisors would be younger - say
> >under 50 ...
> >
> >Fred ( below: Summary of tasks involved in managing cohousing-L )
> >
> >--
> >Fred H. Olson  Minneapolis,MN 55411  USA        (near north Mpls)
> >     Email:        fholson at cohousing.org      612-588-9532
> >My Link Pg: http://fholson.cohousing.org         My org:
> >Communications for Justice -- Free, superior listserv's w/o ads
> >
> >Summary of tasks involved in managing cohousing-L
> >o Daily:
> >-- review a few posts held by software filters --
> >1) posted from a non-subscribed address
> > a) some spam which gets discarded,
> > b) post that is appropriate but came from an address that is not
> >subscribed.
> >    Approve it for distribution.
> >    I generally send these posters a canned message suggesting actions
> >they
> >    may want to take depending on the situation
> >2) post is too big
> >   a) excessive quoting like a quoted digest - several ways of dealing
> >      with these
> >   b) has an attachment that needs to be dealt with
> >   c) long but appropriate post, approve it
> >
> >o Less than daily (a few time a week?) :
> >Deal with list related email.
> >There usually is not too much of this and it varies widely.  Most often
> >it is related to unsubscribing, subscribing, change of address.
> >Fortuantely cohousing folks are very good about dealing with these things
> >themselves via the forms on the Info Page (
> >http://cohousing.org/cohousing-L )
> >
> >o Other occcasional tasks include --
> >1) editing list related web pages
> >2) archiving subscriber list (I do it monthly)
> >3) reviewing procedures, writing "canned responses" to recurring requests
> >4) posting to the list related to discussion process. This is rare --
> >   Cohousing-L subscribers are  about the most civilized, thoughtful
> >   mailing list participants one could ask for.
> >
> >
> >
> >_________________________________________________________________
> >Cohousing-L mailing list -- Unsubscribe, archives and other info at:
> >http://www.cohousing.org/cohousing-L/
> >
> >
>
> _________________________________________________________________
> Cohousing-L mailing list -- Unsubscribe, archives and other info at:
> http://www.cohousing.org/cohousing-L/
>
>
>


-- 
Alice Alexander
Executive Director
www.cohousing.org <http://www.cohous.org>
[image: The Cohousing Association]