The question from Cheryl Poling:
May I respectfully request that the two candidates for secretary address one of the issues the secretary has taken on in the past few years? Sue Rego and Vanessa Blomgren found that the oversight of the yahoo groups took lots of time and energy. Some of us DFLer's are shockingly unable to control ourselves and become passionate (wordy and snippy at times), fail to sign our posts and fail to control our posting to the limit (2 per day). Both secretaries found that controlling the flow was time intensive. What methods/suggestions/goals do you both have for handling this issue? Thank you.
And, my answer:
Cheryl, you asked a good question. Like you had mentioned, we are passionate people, and sometimes we forget the rules, whether it be the 2 posts a day, signing one's posts, or sometimes we forget to be respectful to one another. Talking to Vanessa just recently, and Sue during the run up to the Business Conference in February, I have learned again and again how much time moderating/monitoring the e-mail list can potentially take. The Secretary's duties beyond taking and reporting minutes have moved into a more technological era. I have something to admit, I probably spend too much time on the internet. The first thing I do when I get back to my computer during the day is to check my e-mail, there's always something I need to keep track of, and I find that I have the skills and time to keep track of our handy e-mail list. I have experience managing the SAAC e-mail list, as well as working with my Houston County e-mail lists. My method for keeping track of the e-mail list would be to devote as much time as is needed during the day to making sure we are all abiding by the rules. One technical aspect of my Gmail account is that all replies to an e-mail get stacked on top of one another rather than appearing separately in my Inbox, this has really aided me in following the SCC e-mail list conversations and debate. Another thing I have often noticed is that posts that are originally shared with the Central Committee list also sometimes get sent to the DFL-Chairs list and back and forth, it would be good for all of us to note who and what we are responding to when replying to a post, and also to note what the purpose of each e-mail list is. We all make mistakes and in the middle of a passionate debate, or being absent-minded we might forget to sign a post. I remember within the year former Associate Chair of the 3rd Congressional District George Greene had a suggestion of creating a signature with our name and title so that our e-mails are automatically signed, I believe it was a good suggestion, however it does not always work for everyone's e-mail purposes. How do we put people in the habit of always remembering to follow the rules? I believe friendly reminders through the e-mail list, and a quick reminder directly to the person's e-mail is the best way to remind a person to remember the rules. And, perhaps a monthly reminder to the whole list from the Secretary. If it gets more serious than that, I am not afraid to put a person on "moderation" or, for an egregious offense, to ban someone from posting on the SCC e-mail list for a time. We can have debate and still be respectful of one another, that would be my mantra while using my time and skills to monitor our handy e-mail list. When being respectful, we need to think of it not just in terms of the debate, but also in terms of people's personal e-mail Inbox and time, we need to be respectful of people's time and e-mail Inboxes. There's a reason we have the rules and it's for those exact reasons. As always, a little self-control is also welcome. I have the time, I have the energy, and I have the skills to monitor our e-mail list, and I hope to be given the chance to do so on September 17th.
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