Welcome To This Guide!

  save money on long-distance phone calls, conference calls, faxing, and travel 

  easily share documents, information and relevant resources 

  involve more people than face-to-face meetings allow 

  keep an ongoing centrally accessible archive of your group's work 

  involve people when it's convenient for them 

  have a place to collaborate between face-to-face meetings 

  build and strengthen your community of interest

Mailing lists can serve all sorts of collaborative functions: some are used for short-term, concentrated action planning across a closed group; others are available for ongoing general information sharing and discussion on a particular topic. No matter how public or private, immediate or long-term, successful mailing lists have four critical requirements: a committed group of participants, a shared purpose, good facilitation and a well-organized plan. 

The information in this guide is organized according to the stages a facilitator goes through in preparing to use a mailing list to work productively with a group of people. We've divided it into three parts: 

Getting Set Up 

• Provides an overview of mailing lists and how to prepare your group to use them. 
• Finishes with a checklist to be used as a quick reference guide to keep you on track throughout. 

• Introduces the concepts of online facilitation and how to apply them to your group's work. 
• Outlines how lists can be used for specific group activities. 

• Answers typical real-life questions that arise when facilitating mailing lists. 
• Provides references to further reading and online resources. 

Copyright 1998 © Held by the authors 
pub@idrc.ca | 6 February 1998 
Source: http://www.idrc.ca/books/848/welcome.html