ISHPSSB Listserv Moderator

Listserv Moderator

2007-2009
Roberta Millstein

Duties:
(Note: there does not appear to be a formal set of duties for this position. The duties spelled out below are derived from the practices of the original listserv moderator, Chris Young, together with the experiences of the second listserv moderator, Roberta Millstein).

Collect and post messages from the membership on the Society's listserv.
Post official announcements from the Society
Assist members with subscribing and unsubscribing from the listserv, and in changing the email addresses that they are subscribed with
When listserv messages are not deliverable to an email address, try to find an alternate email address or delete address from the listserv
Route changes in snail mail addresses and queries about the newsletter to the Secretary, secretary@ishpssb.org

Listserv Moderator's Report 2001-2005:

In August 2001, the Listserv Moderator conducted a survey of the subscribers to the listserv. The results of the survey appeared in the Fall 2001 newsletter (see ISHPSSB archives). Based on the results of the survey and the recommendations of the President and the President-Elect, it was decided that there should be two types of messages sent to the list: official ISHPSSB announcements that are labelled as such and appear in full in the email message, and collations of announcements from members. It was further decided that collations of announcements from members would include: position announcements, postdoctoral announcementsm, grant and funding opportunities, other conference announcements and calls for papers, and brief queries from members on research topics. Only short summaries would be included in the email messages, with links to the complete announcement. The list of procedures below reflect these decisions.

Initially, the complete descriptions were located on a bulletin board provided by vt.edu. However, the bulletin board interface was awkward and somewhat confusing for members (in opinion of the Listserv Moderator), and so when the Listserv Moderator also became the Webmaster, the complete descriptions became regular webpages on the ISHPSSB website.

There has been discussion of having a listserv or a bulletin board for general discussion; this has not yet occurred and it may be an issue that the Society wants to take up at a future date.

Procedures:

The listserv is hosted by the University of Minnesota. Tools for maintaining the listserv are located at http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?LMGT1=ishpsb-l. A new listserv moderator should obtain the password from the previous listserv moderator. All messages to the listserv are automatically archived on the U. of Mn. website; see http://lists.umn.edu/archives/ishpsb-l.html
Note that since the listserv is moderated, only an "owner" of the list can post to the list. A new listserv moderator will need to be made an owner by the previous listserv moderator. It is recommended that the old listserv moderator be retained as an owner as a backup.
Recommended format for all messages to the listserv:
- Messages should indicate that they are from ISHPSSB.
- Messages should contain directions for subscribing and unsubscribing to the listserv, and full contact information for the moderator.
- The moderator may also wish to provide an explicit invitation for future announcements.
Recommended procedures for posting messages from the membership on the Society's listserv:

Collect announcements (position announcements, postdoctoral announcementsm, grant and funding opportunities, other conference announcements and calls for papers, and brief queries from members on research topics), as described in the Listserv Moderator's report, 2001-2005. Decide which are unrelated to the theme of the Society (e.g., spam). When there are a number of these and/or deadlines are drawing near, it is time to send out a message to the listserv.
Post complete announcements to the website. Links to the annoucements are at http://www.ishpssb.org/listservontheweb.html. Each complete announcement is contained in its own web page and is named http://www.ishpssb.org/listserv/YYYYMMDD-1.html, http://www.ishpssb.org/listserv/YYYYMMDD-2.html, etc. This will need to be coordinated with the webmaster, webmaster@ishpssb.org, if the listserv moderator is not the webmaster.
Compose an email message giving a brief summary of the announcement and include a link to the complete announcement on the ISHPSSB website. Highlight important dates and deadlines. Send the message to ishpsb-l@lists.umn.edu

Recommended format for official ISHPSSB messages to the listserv:

Official ISHPSSB announcements should be clearly marked as such and should be sent out separately from other announcements. They should contain the announcement in full.
Coordinate with the webmaster to determine if the announcement should be posted to the website as well.

This site is maintained by Frédéric Bouchard.