Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Community listservs

[Craig Ragland (craigragland]

Below...
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>Date: Thu, 18 Oct 2007 20:46:54 -0500
>From: Muriel Kranowski <murielk [at] vt.edu>
>Subject: [C-L]_ Community listservs

>Speaking of email, we're also interested in finding out if other
>communities have a policy about allowing former owners and former renters
>to remain on your community listserv after those folks leave.  This is
>addressed to communities that are built out and lived in.
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Songaia Cohousing has no formal policy, but since its just a few of us that
know how to manage the lists, we pretty much do what we think is right. We
have a few different lists that might be helpful for you to know about...

one for just the owners (includes owners who do not live here at this
moment)
one for just the people who live here now (includes renters)
one for all women that live here now
one for all men that live here now
one for people that live in an adjoining shared household that participates
with our community
one for folks that actually participate on varying levels, this includes
lovers, former residents, special neighbors, frequent visitors, relatives,
and some neighbors
one that includes all of the above

AND, VERY IMPORTANTANTLY (I think)

an announcement list that anybody can sign up for from our website homepage
(check it out, and consider signing up, at www.songaia.com)

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>We don't have a policy, and in the absence of a policy we let them stay on
>if they don't ask to be removed.
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We have generally removed people as their status has changed and one of us
who manages the list notices. Sometimes people have asked to be removed. Its
frustrating when we fail to get somebody on a list quickly enough and they
hear about stuff indirectly, "why didn't I get that mail?"
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>There are also a couple of almost-members
>on the listserv -- people who were very involved during the planning stage
>but eventually dropped out.
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They would be on one of our other lists - and especially might be included
"folks that actually participate on varying levels." Being in the Silicon
Forest, many of us are very heavy emailers here, to some people's
consternation and its helpful to move people on and off the proper lists -
its also a privacy issue.
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>I'd love to hear both from communities with a policy -- what is your
>policy? -- and those without -- how are you handling this informally?  And
>are you satisfied with the way it is working?
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Me too, I'm in the middle of setting things up for New Earth Song (
www.newearthsong.com). So far, we have lists for:

1. ones who are paying capital expenses
2. ones who are committed, but not yet paying
3. ones who are starting to explore us
4. numbers 1 & 2
5. lists 3 & 4

I'm also thinking about where to use aliases, discussion lists, and
announcement lists - the three forms that Dreamhost makes easily available.
The key advantage of discussion lists are that all mails are archived, like
in Yahoo Groups.

Craig Ragland
Songaia Cohousing
New Earth Song Cohousing

>Muriel Kranowski
>Shadowlake Village Cohousing
>Blacksburg, VA