Submission of News or Discussion Items
This feature permits members to email directly news items and other items of general interest to the alumni. Because of concerns of overuse, I will moderate the emails and approve those that are consistent with the policies below. The email service is provided by YahooGroups. You may go to the web address for our group by clicking below.:
You can review the group members, past messages and join the group at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/taxdivalumni/
I shall explain below the key points of how the group e-mail works. I encourage each of you to use this feature, for I think that you will find it most useful. However, for those of you who do not want to use that feature but have items of general interest to the alumni group, please e-mail me Jack Townsend.
The key points of the new e-mail/discussion feature are:
- The group is principally for Tax Division Alumni. However, because of our common interest, I encourage current Tax Division personnel to join the group as members.
- Alumni and current DOJ Tax Division personnel who have not received notice of membership in the group or those who have but have unsubscribed may join by going to the following web page:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/taxdivalumni/
There is no cost to alumni for this feature, and you may unsubscribe at any time.- To send an e-mail to the group, address the e-mail to taxdivalumni@yahoogroups.com. Please read the policies set forth below. Also, I moderate the messages -- meaning that I must approve them before they are released to the group. I do this not to act out a need to censor, but to avoid the problems we had when the messages were not moderated -- too much of marginal if any relevance to the group as a whole. Any news item that I do not approve for mass email will, if appropriate, be put on the alumni web site.
The policies for the use of this feature are:
1. I encourage those who are considering whether to send a group e-mail to exercise some self-selection. Every little bit of trivia is not appropriate for the mass e-mail. Let's preserve it for matters that are really important. For example, when I learn of deaths in time that alumni might attend the funeral or memorial service or contact the family timely, I send an email. If I do not learn timely, I put the information in the news section but do not send a group email. By way of further example, I think that the birth of a child of an alumni, while important for a lot of reasons, is not the type of thing that should be sent in a general e-mailing or even put on the web site. By way of still further example, the fact that you are named the best lawyer in the universe, while important, is not important enough I think to send out a mass e-mail. I would, however, like to be advised of the information and will post it to the web site (as I note below at par. 6).
2. As noted, I first review the e-mails to determine whether members of the group have a common interest in the subject matter, and may cull some out. I shall, however, first discuss the e-mail with the sender before culling it out. This is not a job that I relish, but my purpose is to prevent this group email tool from becoming a nuisance to the group. We tried for a while not having the emails moderated and that did not work.
3. Although we have never used the email group as a "discussion" tool, we could do that if the members want. Without some discipline, however, this might proliferate the emails and make the tool less useful.
4. There will be other topics that you may think of sufficient general interest that a mass e-mail would be appropriate. I do not desire to limit or prevent such e-mails. I do, however, encourage you in each instance to think whether the matter is sufficiently important to a significant number of the group that every member should receive the e-mail. Keep in mind that matters of interest to only a few can be targeted to only the few by getting their individual e-mails from the directory or the email page.5. I will continue the tax division alumni web site www.tjtaxlaw.com/alumni.htm) where the less critical items will be posted and all the other information (directories of alumni and current DOJ personnel, etc.) will be kept. I encourage you to visit the site and make suggestions for improvements.
I value your input on these matters. Please send your comments either to Jack Townsend or, if you believe your comments are sufficiently important that the entire group should receive them, then you may send them as a mass e-mail in this group mailing service.
Thank You!
Jack Townsend