What is a Listserv?

In a basic sense, a listserv is best described as an e-mail community. You join the community by "subscribing" to the listserv. Once on the list, you are literally only one e-mail message away from a group of peers who will be able to help you with just about any professional situation you face. Subscribers can post a message which is then distributed to everyone on the list. All responses to the message are also distributed to the entire list. For example, say you were preparing your budget and you notice that costs for temporary classrooms were skyrocketing. You could post a message to the listserv asking if other business officials have experienced a similar increase. You may get one response confirming your report. Another response may suggest a new supplier of temporary classrooms and yet another may explain a new alternative that you hadn't even thought of.

Such an exchange — an original question followed by one or more replies — is called a "thread." An added benefit of subscribing to the listserv is that you can follow a thread and learn about issues affecting your peers. Maybe you will follow the temporary classroom thread, look at your own financials and discover you, too, have this problem. Best of all, the responses to the original question may already have provided you with a solution to your problem.

Will I Be Inundated With Junk E-mail?

No. The purpose of this listserv is to give ASBO members an Internet forum through which they can find real solutions to real problems they face. While access will be limited to members, the listserv will be an open forum insofar as any and all posts to the listserv will be distributed without censorship. The practice of sending junk e-mail (defined as e-mail not related to the designated subject matter) is known as "spamming." Violaters will be warned and repeat violaters will be taken off the list permanently.

How Many Messages Will I Receive?

The answer to that question depends partially on you. Obviously as the listserv gets started these first few months, the traffic will be light. As more and more people join the list, the rate of messages will pick up. The power of a listserv rests in the hands of its subsribers. If you join the list, you are encouraged to be an active particpant. If you have questions, ask. If you have experience that may benefit someone else, share. It's that simple.

For those worried about e-mail inboxes overstuffed with School Business Listserv mail, there are two suggestions. First, if linking electronically with your peers for the purpose of exchanging ideas and information sounds valuable to you, you are encouraged to subscribe. If the number of e-mail messages becomes a burden, unsubscribing is a simple e-mail away. Second, if the listserv generates an excessive amount of messages, ASBO International will examine the possibility of starting a second listserv on a particular topic to decrease the traffic.

If you have any questions or have problems subscribing, please e-mail Jay Snyder at jsnyder@asbointl.org.