I thought it might be worthwhile to report one detail about Eileen Tan's involvement as a listowner. In order to stay on cornell.edu, we need a listowner at Cornell. When Hector left, this fell on Eileen's shoulders. The only other Cornell person who I know is on the list is Zimmy, and I don't think he can be the listowner from the NYC Cornell facility.
I would like to suggest that, since she has been persuaded to take this on as a public service, and since she is not an active member of the list, that we all strive to minimize the burden on her. Thus, the other listowners could take the burden of policing the list as needed, and she only be burdened with the absolute minimum of effort needed to accomplish this. This may be too much burden for just two people. If so, then maybe we could find a listowner or two to spread the load. My ideal selection for this is someone like Julia, who is active but usually not a partisan in heated debates. I realize that such a volunteer position requires real work without a tangible reward. However, it also involves power over the lives of others. Ideally, the power would be to gently enforce community understandings. For example, no one thought the obscene spammer was adding anything to the discussions. He was simply a troll. Even those who disagree with JDG cannot say his posts are content free. Incorrect from time to time, sure. Content free? No. So, my suggestion is for us to find a way to minimize the burden we place on Eileen, while having list owners who serve the interests of the list. Finally, for what its worth, having served in a number of volunteer positions, from chess tournament director to elder, I'm fully aware of the service that is involved in such a position. I'm also aware of the responsibility one has to not let personal feeling interfere with the responsibility. Dan M.
