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Sebastian,

This experience has revealed several problems to me, and with the rest
of my tenure as president of the neighborhood association, I'd like to
address some of these problems.

First things first, how many e-mail lists do we need?

I have a suggestion there, but if there is one thing that really gets under my skin it is when someone makes a "suggestion" to me which is intended to make their lives far more convenient while making mine far less.  I am therefore going to state in advance that I will help to implement the following idea if it is regarded as a good one.

The NNA has a web site.  How about we improve it, and include a legitimate discussion forum on that website.  You open up the discussion forum and there is a list of threads organizing the various discussions:  "Howard's Nursery Development"; "Neighborhood Crime"; "Skyview Variance Request".

When someone starts a new thread, I get a single e-mail that says "New Thread.  Ridgetop Fundraiser".  When a thread is active, I get a single e-mail that says "New Post.  Neighborhood Crime".  I get a single e-mail no matter how many posts are added to that thread, and I only get a new e-mail when posts are made after my last log in.

Anyone can read the forum, but only residents can comment.  (You have a new members login that requires a physical as well as e-mail address to join.)  If you are worried about prying eyes--i.e., developers whose motives we are cynically discussing--then be reminded that if they are savvy enough to snoop through the future NNA forum, then they are probably savvy enough to go to the NNA website today and simply sign up for the nndl.

You preserve entire discussions in the cache, so that when someone eventually complains that neighborhood projects "were kept secret from them", they can be referred to a thread that details the entire debate that occurred long before they began paying attention.

Save the lists for the "free kittens" and "Does anyone know a plumber" e-mails, but keep the critical debates in the forum.

I have a business and a home in the neighborhood, and I am interested in relevant events that are happening around me.  I would like to be informed about development and crime from Hyde Park to Skyview, I-35 to Lamar.  I have already made up my mind about the Howard's Nursery project, but I received a discouraging onslaught of e-mails over the weekend from people trying to make up other people's minds.  There has got to be a better way to go about this to promote new membership and new opinions.  At the very least, we would be an organized haggling fracas as opposed to a bunch of amateur squabblers.

This would take some work to execute.  Again, I would be more than willing to take the lead on the project.

Everyone have a nice day.                    Jason

---

From:  "Sebastian Wren" < [at] >
Reply-To:  < [at] >
To:  < [at] >, "'HoodDiscussion'" < [at] >, "'NLPT Chat-line'" < [at] >
Subject:  [nndl] Why so many lists?
Date:  Tue, 2 Oct 2007 21:22:39 -0500
>-
>  To respond privately, use the "Reply" command.
>  To post to the list "Forward" to [at]
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>
>
>So it looks like the battle over the development is more or less over,
>so now I'd like to turn to the question, "how do we stop this
>foolishness from happening again."
>
>This experience has revealed several problems to me, and with the rest
>of my tenure as president of the
neighborhood association, I'd like to
>address some of these problems.
>
>First things first, how many e-mail lists do we need?
>
>It helps to know some of the history behind the lists that we have.
>
>NLNPT -- the North Loop Planning Team is a group created by the city to
>help with the creation of the neighborhood plan.  (The city is still in
>the process of creating these neighborhood planning teams across Austin
>-- ours was among the very first ever created.)  The NLNPT has active
>members from several different neighborhoods -- Morningside-Ridgetop,
>Northfield, and Skyview.  To be on NLNPT, you are supposed to be an
>active member of the NLNPT (meaning you actually go to the meetings).
>Information posted to the NLNPT discussion list is SUPPOSED to be
for
>planning team issues.
>
>NNDL -- A guy I have never met named Bapi created this discussion forum
>as part of the planning team activity, and he continues to maintain it
>to this day.  I've talked to him through e-mail, and he seems like a
>very nice guy.  Bapi created the NNDL as a discussion forum for people
>who live in this general area - Morningside-Ridgetop, Northfield,
>Skyview.  Really anybody interested in this general part of Austin could
>join.  I have no idea how many people are on NNDL -- maybe Bapi could
>answer that.
>
>NNADL -- I'm afraid this one is my brain-child.  I thought it made sense
>to have a discussion list specifically for the Northfield Neighborhood
>Association.  I created it when I created the website
NorthfieldNA.org.
>The NNADL was intended to be a discussion forum that we could monitor
>and control -- a discussion list for issues related specifically to the
>Northfield Neighborhood.  We advertise the NNADL in the NNA newsletter,
>and people can sign up through our website.  I just checked, and it has
>115 people on it right now.
>
>SO -- if people think we have too many lists, then we need to decide
>which one we should keep.
>
>The NLNPT is staying -- that's not negotiable.  That one is just for
>active members of the planning team.
>
>The NNDL has been very generously supported by Bapi for years, and it
>has been a great forum.  But it is intended for a fairly wide audience
>(geographically speaking).  During the "great debate" we have had in
the
>past month about Koenig development, residents in Morningside-Ridgetop
>have had to endure a slew of e-mail about a development that may not be
>that interesting to them.
>
>I was also a little creeped out when Jamil called me and told me that
>somebody was offering to subscribe him to our discussion list so that he
>could monitor what we were saying.  I know that couldn't happen with the
>NNADL because the only people who can subscribe him to that list are me
>and the webmasters.  (It turns out it doesn't really matter because he
>could still monitor all of our discussions on Bapi's website if he
>wanted to... Anybody in the world can check out what we're saying on
>that site.)
>
>So, if we are going to have one forum for all of our discussions, which
>one will it
be?
>
>____________________________________________
>Sebastian Wren, Ph.D.
>Director
>http://BalancedReading.com
>
>
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>Website: Northfield Neighborhood Assoc - www.main.org/nna [1]
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