Mail List Update - May 4, 1998

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Archived email update sent to all maillist subscribers

Date: Mon, 4 May 1998 00:01:46 -0700 (PDT)
From: "Avalanche Center (CSAC)" <snow@csac.org>
Subject: End of Season Update

This is an end-of-season update sent to all email lists. If you have been using this service, value it, and would like to see it continued please take the time to read this.

We have also just issued a general update on the project and website as whole. To receive those subscribe to the list csac-updates@csac.org - they are also posted and archived in the Organizational section of the web site.

Contributions

While the level of contributions has increased over last season the large majority of subscribers are not making the requested $10 contribution for email list service.

On one hand, for the past several seasons list contributions have been one of our major sources of operating funds despite the low compliance. (Our budget is very small!) And we believe it is a valuable service which
encourages people to follow the development of the snowpack throughout the season. This is the type of service the avalanche center exists to provide.

On the other hand, we cannot continue to fund the project without seeking other sources of funding, and at some point these lists may not be worth the maintenance time involved. What really got us on better footing this season was a single contribution of over twice what we received in $10 list contributions. While we were elated to receive this we are bothered that close to 2000 people have only contributed half as much between them all.

We will decide in the fall what the future of this service will be. (The decision may not be the same for all lists - see any specifics below.) If you value it please make a contribution. Contributions received now will do a lot to get us through the summer, which is our toughest season. Expenses continue, as does work on the project. However, contributions are almost nonexistent during these months.

If we make this a fee-based service we will probably do so after the first few bulletins are mailed to their lists next season, and not immediately. We may continue to offer the list service as it is, which we would like to be able to do. This way people can subscribe and decide whether to stay on the list or not, and they can
contribute at a time which is convenient for them. We may also discontinue it entirely. An option we have considered but which has many problems is to offer sponsorships of the various lists for various regions. However, we have enough trouble finding sponsors for the web pages and do not see how we could pursue regional sponsors in so many different areas. Thoughts on this option are welcome.

Subscribing/Unsubscribing/Address Changes

One of the problems with our list system is keeping bad addresses off and handling requests from people who won't take the time to subscribe or unsubscribe themselves. Some bounces from bad addresses give inadequate information and take us a long time (up to hours) to track down for removal. If your address will be terminated please remove it, and if it will change please unsubscribe the old one and subscribe the new one. For instructions and an online method go to http://www.avalanche-center.org/Bulletins/maillists/

Another annoyance is the autoreply messages we receive - "John Doe is away until ___, your e-mail will be read then." If you will be going away and using this feature please consider unsubscribing while you are gone. If you are gone any length of time we may do it for you, in which case you can resubscribe yourself when you return.

We will be glad to help if you encounter difficulties in your efforts to manage your csac list subscription(s). Otherwise whether or not we do anything with unsubscribe requests sent to us depends on how busy we are.

Colorado, Utah, and Northwest Email Lists

These lists all have a few things in common, and people have asked about them at times so here are the answers. As far as contributions go, we seem to get quite a few from the Northwest but not so many from Utah or Colorado. Thanks much to those who have helped us keep this service running.

None of these three government centers cooperate with the CSAC and our efforts to make the bulletins as widely and easily accessible as possible. They were the first centers approached over three years ago. Which is interesting since they are the best funded centers in the country. (More or less $100,000 for Utah and $180,000 for the NW based on their annual reports.) So the reliability of these lists isn't quite as high as the others where the bulletins are sent directly to the public upon being issued.

One problem which has cropped up a few times is the mailing of an empty bulletin. When this begins to happen sporadically we have sometimes changed the script to mail the bulletin to the CSAC where it is then
forwarded to you. This means that the information is not as timely until we can fix the script and set it back to normal. However, our html version on the website does update during these time periods and is current. It
also has key terminology linked to a glossary.

A second problem is that bulletins which appear to be duplicates are sometimes sent out. They are not duplicates, although they are sometimes close to each other. Our script checks the bulletin and sees that it has changed, even if it was just a small change, and sends it out to you. We could have it send one per day but then you may miss a change issued due to a rapid change in conditions. This is a quirk we will probably all have to put up with unless these federal agencies decide to participate directly.

We have spent a very significant amount of time keeping an eye on these lists and fixing problems when they do arrive. (Like the change of computer systems in Colorado to one which eats up lots of cookies. This
required a reworking of our programs to get the info.) Thanks a lot to those of you who have found the efforts worth $10 or more and contributed.

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