A New Method of Electronic Networking:

Listserves

Summary:

As the Internet grows and evolves, the number of forms of communication grows and evolves. Most of us are familiar with the person-to-person form of electronic mail: I send and note to you, you reply to me. The typical office memo with a long distribution list also has its electronic counterpart.

The subject of this paper is a very useful adaptation of the "standard" distribution list, allowing a discussion to take place among a group.

As explained in the paper below, participation in a discussion is a simple as adding your address to a list. And from that came the name: listserv (or -serv, -server, -services as the situation and context changes)

How this method of electronic networking can help your association:

Providing rapid, responsive information and information services to members is at the heart of the association’s mission. Each of us has a "media preference." Some like their information in traditional, paper-based form. Others prefer interactive information exchange. Until recently, the only viable forms of interactive exchange were meetings and telephone calls. The rapid spread of email now provides a convenient form for "virtual" meetings and another possibility for association services.

The examples and guidelines provided in the following case study are valuable to all that are considering new member services.

A New Method of Electronic Networking:

Listserves

 

What Are Listserves?

You have probably heard people talking about joining mailing lists (or listserves) and participating in discussions on various subjects. They are referring to electronic mailing lists, which are group discussions or interest groups online. E-mail lists can involve as few as two people or as many as thousands.

A mailing list is simply a list of e-mail addresses of people interested in a certain subject. Each list has its own distribution address. All you have to do to get involved in a list is to subscribe to it by sending e-mail to the list subscription e-mail address with the proper command. Your e-mail address will be added to the list, and you will start receiving discussion contributions from other list members. You may reply to these messages or send new thought-provoking topics at any time. Any message you send to the list will be distributed to every other member of the list. You don’t have to actively participate by sending messages; you can just listen to the discussions, or "lurk", as it is known on electronic networks.

Listserv or Listserve: Both of these terms mean the same thing. The different spellings is because a few years ago when the Internet was still young, listserver software was developed on computers where there could be only eight letters file names, therefore the "e" was commonly dropped from the word. Now that listserver software is available in other environments, you see the term spelled both ways.

List Servers

The software that automates the process of maintaining e-mail lists is called listserver software. It is a program that runs on a computer and handles all of the administrative functions, such as subscribing and unsubscribing people to and from the mailing lists. The listserver accepts commands requesting different actions, such as subscribing to a list or listing members of a group. There can some confusion at times because there may be one e-mail address for listserve commands and another e-mail address to submit messages. Some versions of listserver software are helping to alleviate this confusion by providing one e-mail address for administrative functions, as well as distributing messages to the members of the list.

List Caveats

If you join a listserve, be prepared. Some lists are very animated, and you’ll see dozens of messages a day. On others you may only see a few messages a week. Many people get excited about the variety of topics available with listserves, and subscribe to many lists. They end up getting more mail than they can handle. It’s a good idea to keep track of the lists to which you’ve subscribed. That way, if you go on vacation for an extended period of time and don’t want to deal with the hundreds or thousands of e-mail messages when you return, you can unsubscribe to all of the lists and re-subscribe later.

The amount of traffic a list generates can be reduced considerably if members avoid sending unnecessary messages to the whole list - for example, responses such as "I agree" and "me too." A word of warning: you should always double check to see to what address you are sending a message. Is it the message sender or the entire list? Each listserve program is different, so you should familiarize yourself with your particular reply feature.

Listserve Features

Listserve software allows you to set up how your list will be managed based on your association’s specific needs. Implementing the following features depends on how your association wants to handle the issues presented in a later section.

Moderated: A moderated list has a person reviewing messages before they are distributed to the entire list’s membership. The moderator manually approves messages and submits them to the list for final distribution. There are many reasons for a list to be moderated, including legal issues, like scanning messages for antitrust implications, libelous statements or simply to provide consistency and keep discussions focused.

Unmoderated: An unmoderated list is one in which messages are distributed to the entire list automatically by the software. No one reviews the messages before they are posted to the entire list.

Subscriber-Approved: With a subscriber-approved listserve, subscription requests must be approved before a name is added to the distribution list. There are several reasons why you would want to set up your lists as subscriber approved. For example, you may wish to limit participation to a certain membership category or special interest group.

Open Subscription: If you are not concerned about who joins your lists, you can set them up as open subscription. This means that anyone who submits a subscription request will be automatically added to the distribution list by the software. 

Benefits of Offering Listserves

There are many benefits to offering listserves, including:

Networking All Year: A majority of associations find the greatest benefit they offer to their members is the ability to network with others in the same field/industry. Networking usually occurs during association meetings or gatherings when members are provided opportunities to meet others in person. If you are part of a small association or have members with limited traveling capabilities, this opportunity may only be available once a year during the annual meeting.

Listserves provide this opportunity all year long. The benefit to your members is they have a means by which they can network with their peers when it is convenient for them, without ever leaving their office.

Leveling the Playing Field: Members who are able to travel to network with others are probably the ones who are doing well in terms of their sophistication and position in the field. It is the member who can not travel who would greatly benefit from the information that is shared and gained during on-site meetings. Listserves offer the ability for the small or extremely busy member to gain industry information, advanced ideas, and share their experiences with others.

Quick Dissemination of Industry Information: Listserves provide an avenue for reaching potentially large numbers of members to disseminate important information quickly. In some cases, this ability could make a major difference in the industry. For example, responding to proposed changes in legislation, distribution changes, announcements of major mergers, etc.

Qualitative Data: When trying to represent the majority of member needs, association staff will benefit from the ability to listen to or follow the discussion on a list. What better way to collect information about what members need, think is important, and are concerned about than to encourage and support discussion on those topics through listserves?

Shortens Response Time: Listserves provide an opportunity to get responses and feedback to important questions and issues quickly. If you’ve ever tried to make a decision on an important topic, but wished you could hear what your members thought first, listserves provide you with that mechanism.

 

What You Can Do With Listserve Technology

In addition to just sponsoring discussions on particular topics, listserver software can be used to facilitate communication and offer other services, such as:

Special Interest Discussion Groups: Create listserves around industry niches, special interest groups or sections. Start with a broad topic and branch off specific topics to a different list if they start to dominate the broad topic list.

Advisory Task Forces/Committees/Groups: Create an advisory group of members for your association president, board or executive committee. This group can provide feedback and input into the decision-making process. There are often a large number of members who volunteer to participate on committees, but spaces are limited. This is the perfect place to channel that resource.

Online Newsletters: Listserves offer the opportunity to disseminate information in a new way. There are already many successful examples of associations delivering newsletters electronically using listserve technology.

Distance Education: The ability to deliver content and maintain student interaction via the Internet is a function that listserves can fulfill.

Board/Committee Updates: Setting up your board and committee chairs/members on a listserve will provide your association with a way in which to quickly update them on association activities.

Member Services List: Listserves can also be used to provide new member services. For example, set up a list for members to post information about products they have as overstock for sale.

Planning for Success with Listserves: Issues to Consider

Before you offer listserves as a member benefit, you’ll want to develop a plan for your association. During the planning stages, you need to consider the following issues:

Purpose of Your Association’s Listserves: What do you want to accomplish by offering listserves? Consider goals such as "to link members to other members" or "to provide a forum for members to network during times of the year when they cannot meet in person." Whatever your purpose, keep it in mind as you set up listserves and communicate their availability to your membership. It is recommended that you establish a separate purpose for each list you create - and encourage the moderator or staff champion to keep the list discussion focused on that purpose.

How Will Your Association Use Listserves to Further Your Mission? By focusing on ways that listserves can help further your association mission, you may find other uses for the technology - other than for discussion lists. This will also help you determine how much time and resources you can put towards supporting listserves.

What Are Your Goals? How Will You Determine Success? Determine during the planning what you consider to be successful and at what point the listserve should be discontinued. If having ten members sign up and share two messages a week is your definition of success, that’s great! But if your goal is to have 200 members subscribed and share ten messages a week, and you get ten members subscribed with two messages a week, you’ll need to determine if you should discontinue that list.

Who is the Audience: Determine who will be permitted to participate on listserves. This could mean all members on every list, certain categories of members or anyone.

Reporters: Be aware. Listserves are a great place for members to talk openly about their experiences and perceptions. But often times listserve participants are not aware of who else may be on the list. Often reporters can and will subscribe to listserves. Members need to be informed that lists are considered a public forum, and an item they post could be quoted by a reporter without their knowledge or consent. Generally, publications will ask for permission from the originator of a message before they reprint it. However, there have been incidences where a person has been directly quoted without his prior knowledge. Determine how your association will inform members about the "public" nature of listserves and what your policy will be regarding reporters or others participating on listserves.  

Making the Moderated vs. Unmoderated Decision: You should contact your legal counsel before making this decision. If you are moderating a list, be sure to inform members/subscribers what this means so they don’t feel their messages are being "censored" in any way. Other issues to think about when making this decision are:

Making the Subscriber Approved vs. Open Subscription Decision: Deciding who the audience for your lists are will help determine whether or not to approve subscribers. If you determine to allow members only, someone will need to approve subscriptions by checking them against your member database. Also, if your lists are a member benefit, you will need to establish the procedure for checking list participants against your dropped member’s list after dues billing.

 Responsibilities of Moderators: Moderating a list means taking on certain responsibilities, which help the list become a more valuable resource for members, including:

 Welcome Message: The welcome message is sent when a member subscribes to a list. It should contain the purpose and objectives of the list. Commonly this message also contains legal language that sets the guidelines for what types of activity are permissible on the list. In addition, this message should contain the commands used by the subscribers to unsubscribe and other commands supported by your listserver software.

 What Type of Activity Will Be Permitted on the List: You need to establish as part of the list purpose and objectives, the type of activity which is permitted on the list. For example, will vendors or companies be permitted to post product-specific information for the purpose of advertising? Will members be permitted to make reference to specific products or companies? Will hotels be permitted to solicit business from the list?

 Getting Discussion Started: Listserves are new to many people, and because of this, they may not be comfortable or familiar with the process of e-mail discussions. To help get activity started on a new list, it may be necessary to work with a committee or group of members to start discussions by creating some postings or questions that are distributed to the list members during the first few days or weeks after the list is established.

 Keeping Lists on Topic and Building in Quality: Members will find your lists more valuable if moderators help keep the discussions relevant. For example, if the topic of your list is using technology for teaching and learning, but someone posts a message talking about the computer they just purchased for home and problems they are having, the moderator may want to forward the message to someone who can help, but not the entire list.

Summarize Like Messages: Often times a question will be posted to a list that solicits many similar responses. Rather than posting 20 like responses to the list, summarize the responses or comments and post it once to the list, with an explanation of what you’ve done.

 Sending Responses Directly to the Originator: Occasionally you will have responses which are best sent directly to the originator, especially when the moderator doesn’t feel comfortable distributing the response to the entire list or if the response is personal in nature. Other members of the list will appreciate not receiving an irrelevant e-mail message.

 Title Messages so they Relate to Topic: When posting messages to the list to be distributed, title the message in the "subject" so receivers can determine what the message is about. When posting responses to original messages, be sure the title in the subject area helps receivers relate the responses to the original message. For example, the original message could be title "LCD Panels" if the message is about using LCD Panels for presentations. The responses should all read "re: LCD Panels" in the subject area.

If A Message Should Not Be Posted: Occasionally there will be a message that the moderator feels should not be posted to a list. If this becomes the case, the moderator should respond to the originator of the message letting them know their message was received, and why it can’t be posted. The moderator could include suggestions for rewording the message so it could be posted.

 Removing Computer Generated Symbols: Depending on the software used to administer the list, you may experience computer-generated symbols when posting messages to lists, such as the "<" symbol in front of every line. To increase the quality of the list, try different techniques to remove these symbols. For example, copy the entire message and paste it into a new message rather than forwarding it to the list address.

 Signatures and Identifying Message Authors: Most e-mail programs offer a feature for pasting a "signature" which includes identifying information at the bottom of every message the person sends. Moderators should consider creating a separate or alternate signature that is sent with messages posted to the list. This message could also include a disclaimer protecting the association, such as "This listserve is being provided by XYZ Association, but the opinions expressed by the subscribers to this listserve do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs held by XYZ Association," etc.

 Setting Member Expectations: As with all association services and programs, member expectations must be established. For example, communicate to list participants the maximum amount of acceptable time between a member submitting a message and the message being posted. This information should be included in the welcome message.

Remind Subscribers about the Public Nature of Listserves: Generally, because of the nature of the Internet, listserves are considered to be public forums in which open discussions occur. Members may become caught up in a flurry of heavy activity on a list and forget who may be lurking on the list. An analogy to this scenario is like participating in a roundtable discussion that is everyone is taking part in. The difference is that on a list, you don’t know who else may be listening. The moderator or staff monitor should be prepared to remind list participants of the public nature of lists to protect themselves and other list participants from potentially embarrassing or illegal situations.

 Protect your members and subscribers of your lists by reminding them periodically of the public nature of listserves. A message could be posted by the moderator such as, "When posting a message to this listserve, consider it to be a public forum in which you may be quoted. As a courtesy to other subscribers, before quoting someone, please ask for permission to ensure you are quoting him in the context intended."

 Who Can Request Establishment of a New Listserve?: As part of your planning, determine who will be permitted to request the establishment of a new listserve and what information you will require for it. If your lists will be moderated, you should require that staff members "champion" all lists.

Marketing and Letting People Know Your List Exists: A list will be of little value if people don’t know it is available and start subscribing. As part of your planning, decide how you will inform members that the list is available.

 Establish a Personal Contact: It is recommended that a person be identified as the technical contact for your association members (especially for those who are not technologically advanced). Many members make simple errors, such as spelling "subscribe" wrong, that can unnecessarily frustrate and thwart their participation.

 Copyright Issues: Rising quickly in importance (and violations) is the legal issue of copyright. Listserve messages should not be posted if they include copyrighted information and the copyright owner has not consented to the posting. Copyright consents should be obtained in writing to protect both the originator and the association. Moderators should be trained to identify messages for possible copyright infringement.

 Libelous Statements: Libelous statements are messages that contain information about another person or company that are arguably:

• not factual;

• contain malicious information;

• contain information that is injurious to the reputation of another.

A statement can be libelous even though the person or entity is not specifically named if that person or entity can be identified by others.

 Antitrust Implications: Antitrust violations are a major reason listserves may need to be moderated. Antitrust guidelines cover many issues specifically related to associations. It is advisable to check with legal counsel to determine what implications your association needs to be aware of in regards to the activity on listserves.

 Helping Your Membership Get E-mail: It’s great to offer listserves, but can all your members participate? Although all they need is e-mail access, you may find a large proportion of members don’t even have that capability. As part of your plan to offer listserves, consider partnering with an Internet provider or commercial service provider to offer your members a quick and easy solution to getting e-mail.

So Is It Worth It?

After reading all the considerations and issues involved in planning, you may be asking yourself, "Is it worth it?" In today’s environment of rapidly advancing technology, most associations will be unable to avoid electronic communication issues for long. So far, the benefits and perceived member value of listserves far outweighs the issues the association must deal with.

Debbie Bender, Curriculum Technology Analyst, Baldwin-Wallace College, Berea, Oh. Responsible for working with Faculty to integrate technology into teaching and learning. Previously with the National Association of College Stores in Oberlin, Ohio as the Director of Interactive Services responsible for electronic communication initiatives. jbender@bw.edu As compiled for American Society of Association Executives.

For additional information contact:

©1997 JH & Associates, 1209 Hill Road North, Suite 295, Pickerington, OH 43147 USA
(888)859-8644 or (614)834-9404, fax: (614)834-9403, info@surveyssay.com

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