Free Clinics of the Great Lakes Region©

Listserv Information Page

 

The FCGLR Mailing List Server was created in order to facilitate communication between the clinics in the Great Lakes Region (and beyond). This page introduces the concept of a Mailing ListServ, describes the specific features and advantages of the FCGLR lists, and gives instructions on their use.
 

How to Subscribe to the FCGLR ListServ:
 

  1. Subscribe to the FCGLR list by clicking your mouse on the  following link: Webmaster.
     

  2. A blank e-mail message will automatically open; the only action needed is to construct a message containing the applicant's name, clinic name, address and telephone number and request to be added to the ListServ.
     

How to Un-Subscribe to the FCGLR ListServ:
 

  1. Un-subscribe to the FCGLR list by clicking your mouse on the  following link: Webmaster.
     

  2. A blank e-mail message will automatically open; the only action needed is to construct a message requesting to be removed from the list.
     

How to send a message to the FCGLR ListServ:

  1. Clicking your mouse on the  following link: FCGLR ListServ Message.
     

  2. An e-mail message will automatically open; add your desired subject and message, then press the SEND button and an e-mail will be sent to everyone in the FCGLR ListServ database.

NOTE: In order to send a  message to the list, a subscriber must use the e-mail server that corresponds to the e-mail address that is enrolled on the list. For example, if a subscriber's e-mail server is "comcast.net" then their e-mail must be sent from: [insert subscriber ID]@comcast.net, or the ListServ will reject the message.
 

  1. FCGLR ListServ members can answer a message sent to the entire group by simply pressing the REPLY
    button; the reply message will go only to the original sender.


What is a ListServ?
Electronic mail (email) is not limited to conversations between only two people-- unlike a paper letter, an email may have several recipients . Hence, discussions between groups of people can be held with this media very easily. Individuals can send mail to many people involved in a discussion, and participants can reply so that all others see their message too.

For larger groups of people, though, this becomes inconvenient. When exchanging email among larger groups, it is easy to forget to add people to the list of recipients, send replies to the wrong person, fail to keep addresses up-to-date, etc...

To remedy these shortcomings, the idea of the listserv was developed. A a listserv is hosted on a central server which has the addresses of the people who are on that mailing list. Then a special account is created, called the listserv address, to which people can send the mail they want to be distributed to all receivers.

The mailing list server accepts the mail, looks up the list of addresses in the list, and re-sends the mail to all those people. If one of the persons on the list wants to reply to a mail he or she has received via the mailing list, he or she sends the reply to the listserv address again, and it is automatically distributed among all recipients again.

The list of addresses on the machine (server) hosting the mailing list is called the list of subscribers, and a person who is on that list is consequently called a mailing list subscriber. The process of sending an e-mail to the special address with the intention to get it distributed to all subscribers is called "posting to a list."

Advantages of ListServ

The advantage of this setup is that each subscriber only has to know the address of the listserv and not the addresses of all the subscribers. In fact, a subscriber doesn't even have to know who is subscribed to the mailing list at all.

Imagine the company you're working for  has a mailing list where all employees are subscribed with their current email address. Imagine the listserv address is ``all-employees@enterprise.com". If you wanted to inform all your colleagues about an important meeting, you would simply send an e-mail to that address, and everybody would receive it. If a person leaves the company, or a new employee comes to the company, only the list of subscribers on the listserv would need to be altered, and that is handled by the list administrator or (automatically by the employee who is coming or going).

A listserv is nothing more than a program that stores a list of addresses, receives mail under a special mailing list address, and then re-sends the mail to all subscribers. Whenever a large group of people has to exchange electronic mail on a regular basis, a mailing list is a good way to do it.

About the FCGLR Lists

The FCGLR list can be used to disseminate/receive messages that are in the form of an announcement (i.e., a message that is intended to reach all subscribers, but that does not necessarily elicit any response). You may want to announce a particular meeting of interest, a little known (but relevant) fact, or that you have a glut of glucose test strips that you need to unload on some needy clinic (we'll see about that one!).

Since the email address of the person who posts the message will appear on the message posted, individual replies may be sent directly to the poster if the reply is not useful for all the subscribers to see. The idea, however, is open discussion from which all subscribers may benefit.



Good luck, and happy communicating!

© 2000 Free Clinics of the Great Lakes Region
Webmaster: Jim Van Buren