[Winona Online Democracy] Greetings Everyone! This is the September edition of the Winona Online Democracy Newsletter. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- CONGRATULATIONS! We've had a very successful start to Winona Online Democracy. Thanks to everyone who has helped organize the list, recruit participants and help manage the list. Most of all, thanks to everyone who has actively participated in posting to the list and helped to create a dynamic discussion right from the start. WE'RE GROWING We currently have 120 list members with great representation from elected officials, community leaders and a broad cross section of the community. Please continue to tell your friends and associates about this exciting opportunity to become involved in helping to build a better community. We are particularly interested in adding more members of the local media to the list, so if you happen to know anyone who fits that description please take a moment right now to tell them to visit http://onlinedemocracy.winona.org and sign up! TAKE THE SURVEY As you may know, one of the goals of Winona Online Democracy is to determine if participation in the list has an impact within our community. You can help out by taking a few moments to answer a ten-question survey about civic participation. This is a confidential survey and we have no way of associating any response with a particular person or email. You can take the survey by visiting: http://www.zoomerang.com/survey.zgi?72NKJWV0XTHHTS8TG2XCRKKE TOO MUCH EMAIL? Feel like your Inbox is inundated? Here's a few tips to help make things manageable. 1. Set up your incoming email so that your Winona Online Democracy messages are automatically sent to their own folder, rather than going to your Inbox. A while back, we sent out directions on how to do this (for those of you who use Outlook Express), if you did not receive them just let me know and I'll send you a copy. You can also do the same type of incoming message management with Yahoo!Mail. If anyone knows how to do this with Netscape Messenger (or another email program), please post the instructions to the list or send them on to me. 2. Having a busy week? . . . Don't be afraid to delete. We wouldn't want you to do this everyday, but if you're too busy on a particular day or week; it is o.k. to delete the messages without reading them. You can always pick up the discussion later. 3. Stay tuned . . . we'll be setting up a few new features to help out, such as a web based archive and the ability to subscribe to a digest version of the list. TIP . . . CHOOSING THE RIGHT SUBJECT HEADING An often overlooked item that helps make discussions easier to follow is careful selection of Subject Headings. As a general rule of thumb, if you are adding to an existing topic you should leave the subject heading intact. If you're starting a new subject (or spinning off a related subject), make sure you choose a subject heading that summarizes the issue you are writing about. JOIN THE STEERING COMMITTEE This has been an exciting first month and it's a great time to get involved by becoming a part of the Winona Online Democracy Steering Committee. This committee meets once a month with the next meeting scheduled for September 19th at 3:30 at City Hall. Join us to talk about how the list is progressing and how it can be improved. SHARE YOUR TECHNICAL SKILLS Winona Online Democracy is run entirely by volunteers & donated services. If you have technical computer skills and would like to volunteer to help us develop enhanced services, please let us know. We're in need of people who are familiar with UNIX administration, CGI set up and PERL programming. If you can help, please email [EMAIL PROTECTED] FEEDBACK Your feedback, suggestions, criticisms and insights are always welcome. Please email any comments to [EMAIL PROTECTED] ---------------- This message was posted to the Winona Online Democracy Project. Please visit http://onlinedemocracy.winona.org to subscribe or unsubscribe. Please sign all messages posted to this list with your actual name. Posting of commercial solicitations is not allowed on this list. Report problems to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
