All Chapter Email Lists

[GHOrphPike]

Our Chapter is fortunate to have a widely used "all members" email list. From what I hear, this is a tremendous advantage many Chapters don't have. We essentially use it for everything: meeting announcements, event recruiting, brotherhood trips, helpful advice, etc. We also have all exec, all pledges (and big brothers), and will soon have all advisors email lists.

We also have problems with the list. All too often a minority of members will send out inappropriate emails (political chainmail, crude jokes, etc) that could be easily offensive to our diverse membership. There are also instances when emails are either sent too quickly or read incorrectly as calling a particular person out in front of everyone, which starts a flamewar with the entire Chapter cced. In most cases, these issues are insignificant and once the members talk to each other (which I, as president, usually immediately facilitate) the issue is immediately resolved as miscommunication.

We are a large Chapter at around 120 members, 60 of which live at the House (at capacity). We also have about 8 faculty advisors. Since the list is used so extensively to communicate, many members who live out of house and advisors are basing their opinions of how the Chapter is operating and what the character of some of the most persistent authors of inappropriate or rude emails solely on what they see on the all chapter emails. The extensive use of email also is making people avoid person to person confrontation.

Let me be clear. Every time I explain the situation to people it comes off as my Chapter being disfunctional. We are the top Fraternity on campus and have been for several years. We're also on an upswing with a motivated and ambitious membership (an uncommon trend for top dogs). The Brotherhood is the strongest it has been since I joined. This is a relatively small, but in my mind important issue both in terms of Brotherhood strengthening and teaching Brothers that email is not always the best way to get the job done.

So, I have a few questions:
- Does your Chapter have an extensively used all membership email list?
- If so, on average, how many emails do you think are sent out each week (last week for us: 89)?
- Do you have a policy in place defining what can and cannot be sent out?
- Do all Brothers/Sisters have the right to send emails out or is access limited to just exec/chairmen?
- How do you or have you dealt with inappropriate or offensive emails?

I look forward to hearing your replies!

[KSUViolet06]

*We had an email listserve.

*The amount of emails usually depended on what was going on event-wise in the chapter or on campus. For example, around recruitment time, we got a TON of reminder emails from our Recruitment Director. It was never anything close 89 though, that's excessive!

*Yes we did have rules. Since our advisors were also on it, nothing was to have profanity and all of the emails basically had to have something to do with Sigma or a Sigma event.

Example of inappropriate email: "Hey girls let's go to SAE tonight and get wasted! what do you think?" Big no-no.

*We all had access to it. Since everyone held some sort of chair or office at some point, we all needed to use it at some time or another.

*We never really had inappropriate emails. Every now and then someone would reply to it as opposed to the individual email and that was annoying. If anyone ever did send something that was not allowed in the rules, they'd just get a reminder email from one of our advisors about what the list was to be used for.

[MsWufTriDelt]

www.theginsystem.com
We use it for our chapter (100+) Check that out! It may help a lot! The first semester is free...it has a great list serv that only certain officers may use and it has a discussion board, announcement page, and question area. It has really cut down on our e-mails! Good luck with whatever you do! Laura

[fantASTic]

We have one. We get probably between 40 and 70 emails a week, all business. We have a webmaster who is responsible for reprimanding those who do not send out business related stuff. She usually sends out a mass email saying, "Remember...the listserv is for BUSINESS ONLY."

It works fine for us. If you keep having problems, call people out - by name - in meeting. They'll stop.

[zta07]

hi, we have an all member email listserve. our advisors are also on it and anyone can post to it. however, our way of checking against inappropriate emails is to have the executive council be the moderators on the listserve, requiring them to approve messages before they are officially sent out.

[VandyDG]

We have a list serve for the entire chapter, as well as ones specific to each class, officers, different boards, etcetera. Except for the week of recruitment, we normally receive a max of 10 per week.

We do have a standard "procedure" for non-chapter specific emails from chapter officers. Girls are expected to email information about a group or event to our dir: Activities who, in turn, creates a "Top Ten" list each week that is emailed to the chapter. This was implemented to avoid the sending of inappropriate emails and has worked well.

Another suggestion: create an online, private forum for your chapter (Google groups, yahoo, etcetera) where girls can post this information.

[Thetagirl218]

*Yes, my chapter had one

* On average we sent out 10-15 emails a week, more leading up to special events, ie Greek Week, Initiation, etc

* We didn't have a policy in the beginning, so tons of stuff used to get sent out. Now everything needs to be pertaining to the sorority or opportunities for the sisters, and most need to be approved by the appropriate officer.

*Everyone had the right to send an email out but they had to follow the policy

[kristttiiinnn]

1. We do use a chapter wide email list, it's a yahoogroup. All members subscribe to it and we even elect a sister to moderate it.

2. We can get between 5 and 100 emails a week. It really just depends on what's going on chapter-wise, on campus, and in our individual lives.

3. We have about 40 women in our chapter and most of us hold positions so most everyone has "business" emails to send out. We often find this useful when we just have too much to discuss during our weekly chapter meetings and over the summer it is crucial. Our only real rules regarding email are no chainmail/forwards and if it's business it has to be sent out by the sister holding that position (i.e. if i heard about a volunteer opportunity i would forward it to our Service Chair who would then email the chapter) that way if anyone responds to it they will be in direct contact with the correct person.

4. All of us have access to email. Some rarely send out email, others email us whenever they're bored. We also have an alumnae list that sisters subscribe to once they go alum.

5. There really hasn't been any offensive email since I joined in 2005. I know there used to be issues with forwards like surveys that someone would fill out and forward to the whole chapter. It just wasn't relevant so no one does it anymore. Otherwise, there's been maybe one or two times a sister has said someone in the heat of the moment but an apology email soon follows so it's never been an issue.

Hope this helps!


Also, I know you said you have a list, but in case you're interested...yahoo allows you to upload files (we have policies and meeting minutes), pictures, calendar, and other useful items.

[Kappamd]

*Yes. My chapter has a googlegroup. Everyone in the chapter is a member of it, so when an email is sent to the googlegroup, it is also sent to each individual member. It also allows us to post files, a calendar, and other useful things.

*On average, maybe 15-30/week. It really depends on what is going on at that time. Busier times of the year we probably get 50+.

*We don't really have a policy set in stone. I would say 98% are business, but every once in a while you get a sister looking for a roommate or something like that.

*Everyone has access to use it.

*We honestly have not had a problem, even with us not having a real rule system.

[gtdxeric]

We have an all member list, known as the "all list". We also have the following lists:

only brothers
only pledges (and the pledge educator)
only officers
officers and committee chairs
alumni (with brothers having the option to subscribe if they want).

Lastly, we have a list that is for random shit, meaning funny videos, random vents, funny comments basically all the unimportant, nonessential stuff.

All these lists may seem like overkill, but we had a very good IT chair a few years ago that set it up to be essentially seamless. "All list" traffic can get up to 10-20 a day, spiking at points in the year where a lot of chapter communication is necessary (rush, homecoming, Greek Week, move-out). Everyone has the right to send emails, but peer pressure keeps useless emails minimized, for the most part.

I think that adding an optional "useless shit" email list would help you a lot. Come up with a catchy name for it. Having a list that is explicitly designated as the place where offensive and things should be sent helps reduce the noise on the list that actually has important stuff on it. If people can't stand the heat, they can remove their membership from the optional list.

Brothers calling each other out on the list is a whole different matter. Perhaps a short (5 minute) presentation in chapter on basic email etiquette would help. Teach the difference between "reply" and "reply all", and when each is appropriate. Make it funny, and keep it short. You need to determine what your own policies are, but make them easy to remember and reasonable.

Examples:
"no boobs on the all list"
"don't talk about (insert things that could get you in trouble if your greek advisor saw them here) on the lists"
"label stuff NSFW if it's not safe for work, and only send it to the useless shit list"
"no calling people out on any list, settle that in private like a man"
"If you send something extremely stupid out, it's ok to make fun of you, but only on the useless shit list".

If someone repeatedly breaks/disregards those rules, I guess you could vote in exec on whether to take their privileges away, perhaps for a set period of time, increasing with multiple offenses or something, and make it known what has been done and why. (We've never done this to my knowledge, so this is untested advice)

These are just my suggestions, and they probably aren't the exact right things for you, but you can take them for whatever they're worth. Hope this helps.

[Tom Earp]

Originally Posted by SECdomination

We have three listserves.


One is for everyone who lives in the house.

One is for all brothers and alumni- we send out all the important information on it. It's not catered to the alumni, but it keeps them up to date with what we're doing.

The last is for brothers only- to give everyone the real information.

LOL, I find this rather odd. It sounds like the Alumni are not Brothers and giving "the real information"?

If you mean in touch with current actives, I can understand that pov.

Over all, it seems to be a good plan.

May talk to our High Rho about it when get the new web site up and running.

[Morpheus_LFE]

if you have a chapter website, set up a chapter forum. that's what my chapter uses to communicate. it makes things much easier for everyone. important announcements (ie. meetings) are made, and members have the opportunity to jokes, chat, gossip about whatever else they want. it also prevents getting countless emails and having to click and read through them all.

if the forum is set up correctly to the needs of the fraternity or chapter, it can be a very effective means of communication. with a fairly large chapter like yours, im sure there is someone who is familiar with website/forum set up so just ask for a volunteer.

[techzbt]

Take the advisors off the listserve.

If something needs to go to them, CC them individually.

Alternatively, set up a listserve that's brother's only and instruct the brother's that they'll get fined if they send anything inappropriate to the old list that includes the advisors. Also, make it clear what the listserve IS and ISN'T for and that repeat offenders will be subject to discipline.

[BCTgamma]

I agree with the Chapter forum idea. Set up a brothers only portion of your website and add a Forum discussion. It is much more organized, the only problem is getting your brothers in the routine of checking the forums. But if everyone does, then this is definitely the most effective way. And yea, we have an officer who emails our advisor any pertinent information.

[Zillini]

Originally Posted by MsWufTriDelt

www.theginsystem.com
We use it for our chapter (100+) Check that out! It may help a lot! The first semester is free...it has a great list serv that only certain officers may use and it has a discussion board, announcement page, and question area. It has really cut down on our e-mails! Good luck with whatever you do! Laura

We started using this system about 2 years ago. It's great! The only potential problem is members have to remember to check it, but once they get into the habit they love it.