Cohousing-L Mailing List: Internal Listserve

[Rob Sandelin (floriferous]

We have had an internal listserve at Sharingwood for almost 10 years now. It
is only open to residents and we remove people from it as soon as they leave
the community.  It is private and things get put on it randomly which I am
sure only get put there because it is a private list.  It has never been
used as a PR tool, and on a few occasions when people have sent onlist email
offlist, the list moderator has privately scolded them.

A listserve is the only communication medium which reaches almost everybody
in our community. That is why it gets used so much. It does generate a lot
of....me too... type replies and many of the threads are only of interest to
a small subgroup but email is easy to scan and delete and all attempts to
create sublists have not taken hold, mainly I think because people do not
want to keep up with more than one community communication list and can
easily delete threads that do not interest them. 

It is a broadcast medium and it has happened that on random occasions,
particular individuals have been chastised over email, which makes some
folks uncomfortable. This used to happen more often but as we have matured
in our list use, it rarely happens anymore.  However, the situation Sharon
mentioned, where things done by unknown persons have been brought up, either
to praise them, or damn them. It happens frequently for the exact reason she
states, it would take hours of work to try to figure out WHO left the
shovels out in the rain, easier and probably better just to sent a general
message about putting tools away, better because we all then get reminded,
or learn about something rather than just the one person who did it so our
community awareness is increased. 

One of the most useful things we have done is use some standardized headings
in the subject line. One of the best for us is: Shirley's List.  This is a
notice that I have something to give away. Usually what is being given away
is listed in the subject also.  The heading RANT: alerts the readers of a
pissy email. HELP is one which is obvious.  

Rob Sandelin
Too much caffeine up past midnight
Sharingwood
Snohomish County, WA