A few additional comments to augment Calvin's remarks. I too maintain
various email lists: About 120 for my Troop, about 600 for my District
Newsletter, and about 1100 for my professional responsibilities for the
DEA. Plus some lesser lists for my High Adventure Crews, and the Spring
Camporees and Alonzo Stagg 50/20 Hikes I or my Troop runs.
Although changing email addresses is a significant problem, what is
quickly becoming a much larger headache for (legitimate) group mailers
are the anti-spamming measures put in by various ISP's, and the
firewalls installed by many institutions. In such cases, the email
addresses are legit and current, but group mailings can't get through to
them - even when specialized Group Mail programs are used. What is
especially annoying is that many times the intended recipient does not
know that he/she is being "protected", and so some weeks or months later
will send an attack email asking why they were dumped.
One can only imagine the fury this would cause if people missed out on
critical Philmont info about applying for Crews, or reserving treks,
etc. You change your email address and forget to tell Philmont, well
that's that's your oversight, and your tough luck. Your ISP or
organization decides to protect you from Philmont-based "spam", and you
never knew, now what?
Short version, until we start executing spammers, better stick with the
good old USPS Pony Express.
- Dr. Bob
Calvin H. Gray wrote:
>>May I suggest Philmont stop using snail mail due to time and expense and
>>start using e-mail only? Save both time and money! Just a thought!
>
>
> As one who maintains several Yahoo!Groups and knows how difficult it can
> be to keep them current when e-mail addresses change, I believe it would
> take more time (and result in a lot more complaints) than the snail mail
> method currently being used. Remember that we're talking about
> maintaining contact with hundreds of crews over an extended period of
> time. Also remember that the administrative staff at Philmont is a very
> small group, especially when you consider the number of customers they
> serve each year.
>
> Consider...
>
> For the 2006 summer camping season, registrations were made in late 2004.
> There will be several mailings to those crews during the next year and a
> half. Many of the people listed as "primary contacts" will change their
> e-mail addresses during this time but relatively few will change their
> snail mail addresses.
>
> I do feel that Philmont would be wise to put as much of their information
> as possible on a web page for easy reference, but I don't believe using
> e-mail as their only method of communications would be effective, or be
> accepted by Philmont's customers.
>
> YiS,
> --
> Calvin H. Gray
> Scoutmaster, Troop 405
> Associate Advisor, Venturing Crew 405
> Georgetown, Texas
> I used to be an Owl (WM-62-2-98 @ Philmont)
> http://www.troop405.org/
>
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Received on Thu Jan 6 17:19:37 2005
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