From: Michael F. Bowman (mfbowman@usscouts.org)
Date: Sat Oct 27 2001 - 15:47:05 CDT
Many of you have written to express thanks for the list. On behalf of
USSSP, I want to say simply "Thank You" to the folks that have made the list
possible and tell you a little about what happened.
LIST TRANSFERS FROM BOWLINE TO USSSP
When Doug Gentry reached a difficult decision and decided that he could no
longer continue to run the Bowline Community of Scouting Lists, he wrote to
the U.S. Scouting Service Project and asked whether we could try to host the
lists. When Doug asked, we said that we would try our best to help. At
first we didn't fare very well. It was hard to find a new home for the lists
and to be sure that the privacy of the members of each list would be
respected and that we wouldn't face the prospect of a lot of advertisements
with each e-mail. We were almost at the point of believing that we
weren't going to be able to help keep the lists alive when Scouter Bill
Keller stepped forward and offered the services of his ISP in Iowa to make
sure the lists didn't die.
VOLUNTEERS KEEP LISTS ALIVE
This was wonderful news to all of us in Scouting. We knew that we would be
able to keep all of the lists alive and to start a new one for Cub Scout
families too. For that we offer a hearty thank-you from the bottom of our
hearts to Bill for showing the best in volunteerism. Bill didn't know
just how much of a volunteer he was going to be either and when things got
tough, he was firm in his resolve to help and met the challenges. Early in
September we thought we had all of the lists set up and ready to go. We
launched and within a few days the mail server for Bill's ISP was grinding
to a halt under the added stress of running multiple e-mail lists.
Undaunted, Bill donated a machine for the use of these lists and set it up
as a new server dedicated to Scouting lists. Bill and his colleague Tenny
worked tirelessly to build the new server and get it running. Thanks to
their efforts we are happy to say that the list is now operational. Please
feel free to send a thank-you to Bill at wkeller@www.mebbs.com for saving
the lists. Finally, I want to say thank you to Rich Wenneker for taking on
the job of moderator/listowner for Philmont. I know that the list will be
in good hands.
WE ARE ALL VOLUNTEERS
The U.S. Scouting Service Project is all about volunteers. We are all
volunteers. We serve without pay. We do have a small budget and it isn't
enough to run our operation, but is enough to contribute to scholarships and
fellowships. We depend on volunteers and on goodwill. Our own websites are
hosted by ACS (http://www.acssystem.com/) in Virginia Beach at no cost.
Scouters Timothy Miller and Wes Gibson stepped forward and volunteered to
help when we suddenly became a homeless website with the bankruptcy of our
host at a time when our website was offline.
Our web content is a compilation of contributions by hundreds of volunteer
Scouters including a gifted cartoonist and many wonderful writers who have
shared because of their love of Scouting.
In many ways we are an experiment in the values of Scouting and Scout
volunteerism. Most of us on the board of the U.S. Scouting Service Project
have never met face-to-face. Few of our contributors and supporters have
met each other or us. Yet we have reached out across the net electronically
to make enduring friendships that have allowed a set of websites to emerge
that offer thousands of resources to Scouts and Scouters including the
ability to participate in online forums and now to communicate by e-mail
lists. In a sense we have been pursuing the same dream that Doug Gentry
started with in forming these lists - that of building an online Scouting
community to share resources and ideas, to make friends, to get to know
other Scouts and Scouters, to learn and grow, and more. There are a lot
of websites on the web and there are some that are building communities in
various interest areas. And there are far fewer that are all volunteer and
still fewer that are doing it all on a shoestring budget. We see it as a
tribute to Scouting that we can as a community bridge distances and
differences to pull together so much with the help of so many.
Because of that shared dream, we are going to continue to do our best to
provide you with the best possible web content and to provide the means for
communication between Scouters at all program levels.
OPT-OUT
We realize that this list won't be for everyone. And if it isn't, we don't
want to hold anyone on the list who would prefer to opt-out. If you would
prefer to opt-out, you can do so by visiting:
http://usscouts.org/lists/Philmont.asp
To unsubscribe type in your name and the e-mail address that you used when
you originally subscribed. Press the submit button and your request will be
sent to the listserver.
CONDUCT ON THE LIST
Your conduct on the list should be governed by the values of Scouting. There
is no better guide to conduct than the Boy Scout Law.
PROBLEMS WITH COMMANDS AND LIST OPERATION
If you have a problem with your subscription or using a list command, please
write directly to the Rich and not to the entire list. For your
convenience the e-mail address for the listserver and the list are included
in each e-mail sent by the listserver at the bottom.
FEATURES
Some have asked whether we will offer the lists in digest mode. The answer
is yes. You can set the digest option at http://usscouts.org/lists/lc.asp
or you can send an e-mail to listserv@troop47.com without a subject line and
with the following in the
body of the e-mail message (and nothing else):
set philmont digest
to leave the digest mode send an e-mail to listserv@troop47.com with this
message:
set philmont nodigest
. . . and with all that said, I'll step aside and leave the running of the
list to Rich.
Mike
Michael F. Bowman
Vice President, http://usscouts.org
Webmaster, http://www.webnme.com
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Scouting E-mail Discussion Lists @ usscouts.org
Subscribe/Unsubscribe at http://usscouts.org/lists/
Listserv Commands at http://usscouts.org/lists/lc.asp
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Send listserv commands to: listserv@troop47.com
Send postings to: philmont@troop47.com
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As you gather around this virtual campfire with fellow
Scouts and Scouters, do your best to be trustworthy,
loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient,
cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent.
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