[Sust-mar] fundraising thank you, and other sust-mar housekeeping

[Peter Watson]

Hello Sust-mar membership (Sust-Martians?)   :)

>From the moderator's chair, a few bits of sust-mar housekeeping ...

1) FUNDRAISING SUCCESS

BIG thank you's go out to all who contributed to the recent pleas to help
cover sust-mar's expenses. We got many more responses after adding the
e-transfer option, and sust-mar is now covered for the coming year's web
hosting charges. With a few cheques still arriving, it looks like we'll have
some surplus to put towards the following year, so you might (possibly) be
spared my begging for funds again this time next year! Much appreciated
everybody, a sincere thank you.

2) MEMBERSHIP OUTREACH

We're interested in increasing our reach and membership outside of the metro
Halifax area. This is tough to do without an advertising/promotion budget,
but there may be ways, particularly online. I have ongoing ads on Halifax
Kijiji and The Coast online, both free.

If sust-mar members in NB, PEI or other areas of NS post on Kijiji or
similar sites, and/or know of other quick, simple (and free!) ways to get
the word out (such as local community pages or websites), please let us 
know.
I can send you the sust-mar blurb for posting or printing in your region.

3) SUST-MAR FACEBOOK?

We're also floating the idea of adding a facebook branch to sust-mar. This
was tried back around 2008, but it never really took off and the page soon
faded into obscurity. We may give it another shot.

The idea (then and now) is to offer an optional extra sust-mar medium to
complement (not replace or dilute) this listserve. Where people can do
basically the same, like post their news and events, ask questions etc, in a 
less
moderated format that allows for some discussion and feedback. And hopefully
get more participation from outside Halifax too.

It might never take off at all, as per last attempt. Or it could end out 
with so many
messages that people leave, like the original unmoderated sust-mar and many
facebook groups today. It will take some thought on how to to set up a page
or group for most effective use. Stay tuned.

4) POSTING GUIDELINES

We encourage EVERYONE to take a look at the posting guidelines on
the sust-mar home page at www.sustainablemaritimes.ca . I cant tell you how
much of the moderators' and members' time is consumed in the process of
correcting basic posting errors.

The latest trend has been messages with no or vague subject lines, like
'message to post to list' etc. We've had so much feedback from frustrated
members about this recently that we're now enforcing the descriptive subject
line rule.

For more detailed explanations on why these rules are in place, please see
this message in the sust-mar archives:
http://list.web.net/archives/sust-mar/2010-January/002032.html .

5) CONTACTING THE LIST MODERATORS:

As always, remember that we are here to serve the membership and we do try
to run things as a democracy. If you have any problems, comments, questions
or feedback about sust-mar and how it is run, please do contact your 
volunteer
sust-mar moderators Peter Watson and Paul Falvo at: sust-mar-owner at 
list.web.net .

Note that this is different than the address for mailing list submissions,
which is sust-mar at list.web.net .

Thanks again, and happy autumn everyone!

Peter