How do I set up a special interest electronic mailing list?

A special interest electronic mailing list can be a great way for an organization to make timely announcements to its members or other interested parties, or to form virtual communities to discuss and debate a topic of mutual interest. To create such a list, you or your organization will need to:

• Decide on who will do the day-to-day management of the list. This person will be the list's "owner" and will have the ability to manually add and remove subscribers as necessary, as well as being responsible for responding to requests and problem reports from subscribers.

• Determine how subscribers will be recruited and added to the list. This can be done by using signup sheets to collect addresses which the list owner then manually adds to the list. And/or you can advertise on posters, flyers, web pages, and the like, telling people how they can subscribe themselves to your list by just sending an e-mail message or filling out a web form.

• Create a name for the list, as well as a short description and welcome message that will be sent to all new subscribers.

When you are ready to setup a list, or if you have questions or concerns about how a list will work for particular application, send a message to the List Server Admin via e-mail (of course!) to:

        List.Admin@unh.edu

You should include a simple description of what it is you want to accomplish with your list and how you envision it being used. Based on your description, the Admin will send back a recommendation as to which general type of list would be best suited for your particular situation and other pertinent advice. After this preliminary consultation, you will be directed to a web page which will guide you through a step-by-step process for applying for your new list.

Before requesting a list, however, you should be aware of some of the limitations of such lists and what responsibilities you or your organization will have in sponsoring such a list on the UNH ListProc list server:

• The most important feature of an electronic mailing list that is managed by a list server program, such as ListProc, is that the list of addresses can be shared by more than one person. If what you want to do is maintain a list of e-mail addresses for your own exclusive use, then what you need instead is a "personal e-mail distribution list". In general, such a list is much easier to create, maintain, and use, than an electronic mailing list. See the web page:

       http://www.unh.edu/NIS/Docs/E-mail/local-list-how2.html

  for more information on creating your own e-mail distribution list using either Pine or VMS EMAIL, or

       http://www.outlook.unh.edu

  if you are an Outlook user.

• While creation of electronic mailing lists is offered as a free service by CIS, please keep in mind that a non-trivial amount of effort is needed to create or remove a list on the list server. Because of this, please do not request a list that you plan to use for only 1 or 2 mailings.

• Be aware that only members of the University Community, i.e. students, faculty, and staff, or recognized University organizations, may sponsor an e-mail list on the UNH ListProc server. The membership of the list itself, however, is not restricted in any way.

• Lists may not be established as a support mechanism for any commercial enterprise or other for-profit activity or organization. For example, it's OK for an UNH individual who is a fan of a particular brand of skateboard, but is not otherwise acting as an agent for that company, to establish a discussion list for other enthusiasts of that particular brand. However a list maintained and used by the manufacturer of that skateboard to contact customers or distribute press releases would be prohibited, even if the owner of the company was a member of the UNH community.

• The list-sponsor may delegate list-ownership, i.e. day-to-day management of the list, to another person. This person, however, must also be a member of the University Community as defined above and must have an e-mail account with a return address that is within the "UNH.EDU" domain (or selected e-mail systems maintained and administered by UNH CIS).

• You (or the person you designate as the list-owner) are responsible for maintaining your list of subscriber addresses. This includes: adding any initial list of names and addresses, removing addresses from the list that are no longer valid (i.e. cause mail delivery errors), and removing a subscriber's address from the list at that person's request. You are also responsible for answering subscriber questions about how to use your list, although you can look to the List Server Admin for help on questions outside your experience and knowledge of ListProc.

• As the sponsor of the list, you will be expected to supply brief documentation about your list. This will include a brief description about your list as well as a short welcome message that will be sent to all new list subscribers as each is added to your list. Sample documentation is supplied during the application process to help you in composing your own text.

For more information on ListProc mailing lists at UNH, see the UNH ListProc Home Page.