LAUNCH A LIVELY LISTSERVER

Your board is seeking an ongoing means to connect members with members -- to encourage them to have an ongoing exchange of questions, solutions, “lessons learned," information and more. You're confident a listserver is a perfect solution for your particular church, but so many questions remain unanswered in your own mind.

1. Does the board even know what a listserver is? Will they recognize the value?

2. Even if they agree with the solution, how do we go about setting one up?

3. If we set one up, how will we make sure it doesn’t flop from inactivity?

Today, we'll address those questions by walking through the entire process of launching a lively listserver. The first step -- as acknowledged in the first question above -- is to "sell" your leaders on the solution.

Unless your board members are already participating in e-mail discussion groups, you'll need to start by explaining the concept, articulating the value and addressing a common objection.

Explain The Concept
Tell your leaders that a listserver is simply an e-mail discussion group. Explain that listservers use "push" technology versus online bulletin boards that use "pull" technology. (Information is "pushed" to users via e-mail rather than requiring users to "be pulled" (visit) an online site. )

If all else fails, steer your leaders to the great visual diagram on the Coollist website that shows how e-mail discussion groups function: www.coollist.com/tour/tour.cgi.

Articulate The Value
A good listserver provides "a sort of super form of ongoing continuing education," says Jack Feldesman, administrative director for the Northeast Regional Board of Dental Examiners Inc. Explain to your leaders that a listserver provides an easy means for participants to exchange relevant information in a timely fashion.

As Ian Cook of Fulcrum Associates Inc. states, "The neat thing about [a listserve] is that it addresses, laser-like, precisely what certain members need at precisely the time they need it. What could be better?"

Glenn Brill, executive director of the Fond du Lac Area Convention & Visitors Bureau, gives an excellent testimony about the value of an active listserver. Here’s what he said about his participation with the ASAE Executive Section listserver: "My budget doesn't allow me to attend the ASAE Conferences, so the listserver is a huge reason I continue my membership."

It's also helped me professionally. One example: I needed to draft a Professional Services Agreement for another association to which we'll be providing services. Never having done this before, I put out a query on the listserver; within four hours, I had three samples of agreements other associations have put together. It saved me the cost of having a lawyer to draft an agreement.

Address A Common Objection
Occasionally, leaders respond by saying an online bulletin board would be better because members already get too many e-mails. Simply smile and respond, "That's not a problem with a listserver. We'll set up ours so individual participants have the option of receiving individual e-mails of all posts, a digest versions of all posts from a set period, or no e-mail notices of posts. If a participant elects to receive no e-mail, that person can still read and post comments online."

Take the time to educate your leaders so that you have their support. Watch them move from asking "Why should we have a listserve?" to asking a new question: "Why aren't we doing this already?!"

Remind them the activity on the listserver is what adds the value for participants. Explain that you're proposing the following steps to launch a lively listserver for your organization.

1. Obtain Budget $$.  Determine what your organization is willing to spend to establish and support a listserver. While some organizations will be happy using the free e-mail discussion group services, others will want to pay for a listserver service or software.

Why would anyone pay money if a free service is available? Because most free services are supported by advertising. If you want significant control over the type of advertising associated with your listserver, or you prefer an ad-free discussion group, the free service is not for you.

Also, your organization might shy away from the free services because of your need for a specific feature or for a more accessible tech support team. Before you decide, consider your needs and check out several options.

While costs can vary widely depending on a number of factors, plan to spend $500 to $1,500 annually for a single listserver using many of the paid services.

When planning your budget, also consider the human resources that will be required to support establishing and maintaining your listserver. The human resource factor will vary widely depending on the size and activity of your listserver, as well as other choices you make, such as whether or not the discussion group will be moderated.

2. Assign A Staff Member To Oversee. “You can't expect the list to look after itself,” says Jim Vrac, executive director of SECO International LLC. After successfully establishing an active listserver with about 200 participants, Jim offers sage advice: “Make sure a staff member is participating in the list and responds to general questions or can help direct the dialogue. When I started a listserver for an association where I previously worked, we had only two staff (me and my assistant), so I made sure I was active on the list -- but this translated into a fair amount of time in the beginning and became an ongoing task. Be prepared for this.”

3. Find Committed Participants. This step will be key to your success. Remember, the activity on the listserver is what adds the value for participants.

Your members need to know multiple people are monitoring and will respond before they'll be inclined to post. If all questions and responses are from a two or three people, your listserver will be perceived as inactive … even if you have hundreds of others subscribed and reading the postings.

• Find at least 10 (preferably many more) volunteers committed to seeding the listserver with regular questions and responses for the first year.

• Define “regular postings” so your volunteers know what is expected. (For instance, you could ask each volunteer to commit to posting and responding to at least one question on a weekly basis.)

• Prompt and encourage your volunteers by sending them reminders to post along with suggested topics or questions.

• Thank your volunteers regularly.

Remember, a listserver with less than 10 (some say 50) committed, active, responsive core participants is like a conference with no attendees -- awkward and embarrassing for the few who participate, and the value is gone or decreased substantially in short order.

On the other hand, a lively listserver with many subscribers will take on a life of its own, and core participants will become less critical over time. Subscribers will want to participate because the value will be obvious.

Some organizations have addressed the need for multiple, active participants by “dumping” all or select member e-mail addresses into their listservers. While this might make sense for your church, be prepared for some backlash.

Listen to some of Jim’s story: "We only had about 200 e-mail addresses for our membership. To transition these names to the listserver, I started by e-mailing a short message to these 200 hundred, telling them we were setting up a listserver and would like to include them. We asked for anyone who did not want to be a part of the listserver to email me to let me know. Nobody did."

"I waited a week and sent the message again, this time letting everyone know the details of participating in a listserver in the form of a mini-FAQ, again requesting anyone who did not wish to participate to let me know. Again, nobody did.

"The following week, I imported my entire list of names and e-mails in the program and sent off a welcome message. The reaction from those 200 in the first two weeks was dreadful as they adjusted to the idea of participating in a listserver.

"My attempts to forewarn them seemed to have been completely ignored! There were complaints about the volume of e-mails, as people would e-mail about changing their e-mail address, or asking to leave the list, and, of course, everyone would get these messages and complain about all these new e-mails they were getting, which would be shared with everyone ... and round and round it went. However, only one person got really testy, and she was removed from the list pronto.

"Thereafter, it quieted down. Once people realized that they could communicate with 30 state agencies in one fell swoop, they loved it. It was one of the most successful 'little' programs we put into place, and it took on a life of its own. When I left, it was still very successful and popular.

"At the last annual meeting I attended, after discussing the listserver during my presentation, I could hear members saying to their colleagues, 'You're not on the list? You gotta get on it!'"

When asked if he would dump all members into a listserver in this manner in the future, Jim says, “That depends on size. If dealing with under 500 members, yes. The entirely expected ‘unpleasantries’ of dumping a small number of names into a listserver to start it off is worth the price to move forward so rapidly. But more than that, no. Either way, communicate, communicate, communicate!”

Another option to automatically subscribing all your members would be to automatically subscribe a select group. In general, your active committee members would probably be more receptive and supportive of such a unilateral move.

4. Compare Features and Functions. Become knowledgeable about your choices. Spend some time learning about the options and determine which features will best serve your members. Determine how you'll manage your discussion group. Will it be moderated to insure participants do not break copyright or antitrust laws? How will you manage participants on your listserver if they don't renew their membership with your organization? Will you allow nonmembers to participate in a read-only mode?

5. Select Software or Service Provider, and Establish Your List. Armed with your budget, committed volunteers and an understanding of your needs, you're now ready to select the software or service provider.

Visit the following sites to learn about some popular options that will require more money upfront.

Lyris: www.lyris.com
Majordomo: www.greatcircle.com/majordomo
Listserv: http://www.lsoft.com/listserv.stm
Topica: www.topica.com

To begin understanding some of your free ad-supported options, check out these service providers:

• Topica: www.topica.com (offers free and fee services)

• Yahoo! Groups: www.yahoogroups.com

• Coollist: www.coollist.com

Select your service provider, set up your list and test it thoroughly to see that everything functions as expected. (When you're done, test it again!)

6. Clearly Articulate The Mission, Policies And Rules.  Brad Holt, VP publications/new media for Document Management Industries Association, reminds you to make sure you have clear guidelines and instructions sent to each subscriber and posted on your website. "Even when rules and regs are understood, you can never overemphasize to your members the value of the delete button," he says. "It's your best defense against the ignorant or silly post you might encounter when you're part of a large group.”

In addition to your polices and rules, the mission of your listserver should be posted. Sum up the mission of your listserver in a single sentence. Gently remind the participants of the mission periodically to help keep everyone focused. A listserver with a defined purpose will attract more participants and lead to more meaningful exchanges.

7. Promote, Promote, Promote! Plan a full campaign -- not just a couple of announcements -- to get the word out about your new listserver. Mention the new listserver in meetings. Include blurbs at the bottom of your e-mails, and ask your “volunteer seeders” to do the same. Write articles highlighting the value and the giving instructions for participating. Write more articles sharing some of the knowledge shared between members on the listserver, highlighting the value again and again.

If your budget allows, send direct-mail pieces about your new member benefit. Consider explaining the new member benefit and automatically signing up all active committee members … while simply inviting the larger membership to opt-in.

Get Started!
That about covers it. You now know how to sell your board on using a listserver solution for connecting your members. You know how to set one up. And you know how to secure participants to make sure it takes off as an active listserver from the very beginning. With all this information in hand, there’s no reason you shouldn’t begin taking steps to launch your own lively listserver right now!

*Originally printed in Technology Solutions Directory, a supplement to Association Management published by American Society Of Association Executives; June 2003. Portions of this article are revised and reprinted with permission from issues of Covenant Professional Services’ free newsletter, TIPS FOR SMALL NONPROFITS WITH SMALL BUDGETS … AND MORE. To sign up for your own free copy, visit www.CovenantPro.com and click on “Free Newsletter." To contact Michele Newhouse directly, call 405.396.3321 or e-mail her at Newhouse@CovenantPro.com.