[aaus-list] Changes to AAUS-list--all members please read this

[Robert DeLossa]

Dear AAUS-list members,

There has been much discussion in past months about the future of 
AAUS-list, both on the list and in the Executive of AAUS. We are now 
introducing changes to the list and wish to solicit comments from 
AAUS members and AAUS-list users. During recent months, our list 
users have initiated new and sometimes sharp debates on political 
themes. These new debates fall outside the norms for AAUS-list and 
introduced more sustained tension within the list than we previously 
had experienced during the eight years of the list. Still, we do see 
value in providing a forum for such debate, so we are proposing a new 
subsidiary list for such discussions: the AAUS-community-list.

The main AAUS-list will continue to be used for AAUS business (e.g., 
announcing meetings and awards) as well as for academic 
announcements. It will be limited in the future only to members and 
affiliates of the AAUS.

Political discussions and non-academic announcements will be open to 
the community at large and will be conducted on the 
AAUS-community-list. Both lists will be moderated.

All announcements from AAUS-list will be reproduced on 
AAUS-community-list so that members do not need to belong to both 
lists in order to participate in political debate and to receive news 
of the profession.

Posts from AAUS-community-list will not be reproduced on AAUS-list, 
so that members who wish to belong to a purely academic/informational 
list can choose that option.

We have been compelled to make this change in response to concerns 
raised both by our association's members and its officers regarding 
conflict among list users. There is no clear guideline in the by-laws 
for how to carry out this split in our list. To facilitate making the 
list work better, we are giving this proposed change a three-day 
comment period. At the end of this period, we will move all current 
members of AAUS-list to AAUS-community-list unless an individual 
member requests to remain on AAUS-list. Instructions for making 
comments on the changes or for requesting to remain on AAUS-list are 
given at the end of this message. A reminder about how to post to the 
lists will be sent once the change is made. At the next AAUS meeting 
in November we will vote on the proposed changes to make them final 
or to make any other changes that are deemed necessary.

I also will be sending out another e-mail in the next few days that 
provides historical background about AAUS and proposes norms of 
communications, including discussion of the role of moderation on 
these lists.


FORMAL TEXT OF PROPOSED CHANGE TO AAUS-list

1. The AAUS will hereafter conduct two e-mail lists for the benefit 
of its members: AAUS-list and AAUS-community-list.

2. AAUS-list will be open only to members and affiliates of the AAUS. 
Only members and affiliates of AAUS may post messages to AAUS-list.

2a. The subject of posts to AAUS-list will be only those items of 
professional interest to practitioners of Ukrainian studies. These 
include commentary about events within Ukraine or the field of 
Ukrainian studies, or notices about accomplishments within the field, 
lectures, support opportunities, publications, professional meetings, 
job announcements, etc.

2b. Posts to AAUS-list must conform to standards of professional 
civility: anonymous posts will not be allowed, neither will ad 
hominem attacks. Members of the list not conforming to these 
standards will be warned once by a moderator of the list. A second 
infraction will result in the list member being moved to 
AAUS-community-list and losing his or her posting rights to AAUS-list.

2c. AAUS-list will be a semi-moderated list. Messages will not be 
automatically filtered, but will be monitored by the Outreach Officer 
(currently the Chair of the Communications Committee) as stipulated 
by AAUS by-laws and by other designees of the Executive of the AAUS. 
Violations of the rules of the list will result in the consequences 
outlined in 2b above. Subscription to the list will not be automatic, 
but will need to be confirmed by the official designees of the AAUS 
Executive, pursuant to verification of membership in the AAUS or 
affiliate status with the AAUS.

2d. Messages from AAUS-list will continue to be archived and 
searchable on the world-wide web.

3. AAUS-community-list will be open to members of the AAUS and 
individuals outside of AAUS who have a personal and/or professional 
interest in the independent nation of Ukraine and the study of 
Ukraine's society, politics, history, language, etc. Posts from 
non-members of the list will be allowed at the discretion of the 
moderators of the list.

3a. The subject of posts to AAUS-community-list should be items of 
importance to Ukrainian studies: issues emanating from Ukraine and 
Ukrainian studies, current events important to Ukraine and Ukrainian 
studies, and social, political, or economic issues that would be of 
interest to individuals on the list as intellectuals and 
professionals.

3b. Member posts to AAUS-community-list must follow the same 
standards of decorum enumerated in 2b above. However, "professional 
civility" will be interpreted more loosely by the list moderators 
than for AAUS-list.

3c. AAUS-community-list will not be moderated except for spam and 
non-member posts. These will be filtered by the Outreach Officer 
(currently the Chair of the Communications Committee) as stipulated 
by AAUS by-laws. In those cases when members of AAUS-community-list 
violate the standards of professional civility, the Outreach Officer 
or other members of the Executive may, at their discretion, remove 
members from the list.

3d. Messages from AAUS-community-list will be archived and searchable 
on the world-wide web.

4. All messages from AAUS-list will be posted to AAUS-community-list. 
Messages from AAUS-community-list will not be posted to AAUS-list. 
Members of AAUS should choose one or the other list to join, but 
should not join both.


END FORMAL TEXT OF PROPOSED CHANGE

Summary:

AAUS-list will become the more narrow list that some members have 
requested. AAUS-community-list will continue the profile and 
operations of the current list.

Action list:

1) If you wish to comment on the above, please send your comments to 
<aaus-list-owner at ukrainianstudies.org>. I will summarize comments and 
post to the group.

2) If you are an AAUS member and wish to remain on AAUS-list and not 
be moved to AAUS-community-list, you must send a message to 
<aaus-list-owner at ukrainianstudies.org> stating in the subject line or 
body of the message "keep me on AAUS-list" with your name and 
affiliation. By doing this you will not be on the list that has a 
broader thematic scope and allows debate on political and cultural 
topics. You will belong to a list that is more purely informational 
and will behave more along the lines of the H-net lists.


Regards,

Robert DeLossa, AAUS Communications


-- 
Robert DeLossa
Chair, AAUS Communications Committee
List-moderator, AAUS-list
http://www.brama.com/mailman/listinfo/aaus-list
http://www.ukrainianstudies.org
replyto:<aaus-list-owner at ukrainianstudies.org>
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