[Town Meeting] List background and rules

[Rich Carreiro]

Dear Members,

This will be old hat to most of you, but since there are
a bunch of new people on the list I wanted to repeat it.

This list was started (by David Coletta, I think) at least
five years ago (maybe more like 8?  Time flies.)

When he originally mentioned it at Town Meeting he at
the time got a lot of pushback from TMMs who didn't want
there to be substantive discussion in a forum that
all TMMs might not choose to be a part of.

While Mr. Coletta could have decided to bill the list
as a discussion forum anyway (I believe the Open Meeting
Law doesn't apply to TMMs -- but that's above my pay grade :)
he decided to go with the flow and position the list as
a no-discussion zone that is a place where people can
electronically distribute announcements, handouts, etc. -- the
same sort of things one would find passed out on TMMs' chairs.

When I took the list over from him, I kept the same list purpose.

Now, this doesn't mean there can't be advocacy of a point
in stuff sent here.  After all, things passed out on TMMs'
chairs certainly take (often strong) positions.

But things here should have the character of handouts or
longer floor statements.  Direct (especially short, immediate)
responses to stuff posted here are discouraged (because of
the no-discussion rule).  Obviously, ongoing duelling position papers
would make a tough call :) but so far that sort of thing
hasn't happened. :)

One final note -- this list is not and has not been hosted
on Town equipment.  The list server is a private company (PairList).

-- 
Rich Carreiro                            rlcarr at rlcarr.com