Once or twice a week, someone sends a message to the wrong AAN listserv, but it’s not their fault. Quite the contrary, the problem is that the purpose behind each list can be confusing, and the members who are authorized to join them is often just as hazy. These matters have grown increasingly opaque as new lists have proliferated like kudzu over the years.
To address the problem, we modified the listserv nomenclature and eliminated some lists that have grown inactive.
Here’s an email message we’ll be sending tomorrow to inform members of these changes:
AAN Members:
AAN’s listservs are one of the most popular services the association offers.
To make them even more useful, we have changed the name of each list to help clarify their purpose.
Some of the lists are organized by job titles. We modified their nomenclature to make that connection clear:
“Classified Management” to “Classified Managers”
“Display Managment” to “Sales Directors”
“Editorial” to “Editors”
“Financial” to “Financial Managers”
“Management” to “Senior Managers”
“Music Reporting and Criticism” to “Music Editors and Reporters” We also added a new list for publishers and CEOs called — you guessed it — “Publishers and CEOs”.
The remaining lists are issue-oriented and are open to all AAN members. We renamed them as well:
“AAN West” to “AAN West Conference Issues”
“Cal-AAN” to “California Issues”
“Circulation” to “Circulation Issues”
“Design & Production” to “Design & Production Issues”
“Electronic Publishing” to “Electronic Publishing Issues”
“Foundation” to “Foundation CMS Issues”
“Marketing” to “Marketing Issues”
“Pre1” to “Pre1 Issues” (Although the names changed, the email address for each list remains the same.)
To join any of these lists, click on the “Listserv Registrations” link in the MyAAN section in the navigation bar on the right side of the page at AAN.org. (You must be logged in to see this link.)
In addition, we eliminated a number of lists due to lack of use. Some of them were limited-purpose listservs that have outlived their usefulness and others just never gained traction:
AAN Business AAN CAN Election Coverage Faux Alternatives First Amendment IT and Systems Sales Small-Market Papers Writing/Reporting If you have any questions about the listservs or suggestions to make them better, please let me know.
Best regards,
Richard Karpel
