Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: uses of email

[Sharon Villines (sharonvillines]

on 7/13/00 3:26 AM, Meg Justus at megj [at] nwlink.com wrote:

> Thanks to everyone who responded to my question about using email between
> face-to-face meetings in cohousing groups.  As a member of that 40+ female
> group Hans mentioned, it does strike me as somewhat amusing that I'm
> probably one of the more techno-savvy members of my group.

I thought this an odd comment as well since I am well over 40, definitely
female, and "converse" all day long with a very wide variety of women, all
over 40, from all over the world.

> Now, to narrow my question down a bit, do people know of any good ways (in
> addition to the facilitating tips Sharon already talked about) to increase
> comfort levels and ensure that everyone participates as much as - I don't
> want to say they'd like to, because at the level they're at now, they may be
> doing so by doing nothing at all <wry g> -- they need to? maybe? in order to
> feel as if they're being heard properly in Internet disccussions between
> meetings?

Ensuring that people feel properly heard is the work of the facilitator and
the person themselves, but there are some things that can help immensely in
making people feel that they are able to participate fully and easily:

1) Declare from the outset that all grammatical and spelling errors are the
work of gremlins and to be ignored. The only thing that is important is that
the comments be understandable -- this often does not even require complete
sentences. (the better email programs come with spell-checks but many people
don't know how to use them.)

2) The email program and equipment needs to be as functional as possible.
The iMac machines are perfect for beginning users. They are built for speed
and come with good software set up for internet access. WebTV also gets good
reviews from users although I don't know anyone who is on email a lot who
uses it. The old stripped down IBM-clones are not prepared for email and the
internet (Bill's short sightedness).

3) If the whole group uses the same program it helps immensely--they can ask
each other questions. Teach everyone the email program so they get over the
fear of sending messages before they are complete, responding to the wrong
person, losing addresses, etc.

4) If your community is just getting up to speed -- not everyone has
computers and those who do are ready to upgrade -- choose a common model,
brand, etc., at least for the entry level people so they can all  help each
other.  I often have difficulty helping Windows users even when we are using
the same program-- the options on their menu are different from the Mac
versions. The differences between the various Windows machines (different
companies) can be very confusing. They do not all work the same way--there
is no standard. (I don't recommend Windows machines under any circumstances
but have not been able to convince them to close down. The new Mac OS may
work on formerly Windows machines, however, so salvation may be around the
corner.)

Sharon
-- 
Sharon Villines, Editor
The MacGuffin Guide to Detective Fiction
http://www.macguffin.net
Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington, DC
http://www.takomavillage.org