Once again, a sudden change in the frequency of messages sent to
ICOM-L has resulted in a number of communications sent to me
personally regarding various administrative aspects of the list.
I suspect that other list members may share at least some of the
confusion about these points and am therefore responding in this
manner.

1. The search engine will locate all material on the ICOM Web
site and nothing else. If it doesn't reveal, for example, a list
of the members of one of the committees, it is unlikely that any
such list is on the central server. I do not have time to perform
individual searches on request and have absolutely no way of even
guessing what documents may be on other servers maintained by
ICOM bodies.

2. The only way that mail addressed to ICOM-L can end up in your
mailbox is if your name is on the distribution list. (It is
possible for a third party to be forwarding such material to you,
as well, but such action is completely beyond my control.)
Although Advisory Committee and Executive Council members are
automatically included, the only other way to have landed on the
list is by your own personal request to the automated LISTSERV
facility. Every message sent to the list includes instructions
about how to remove names from it, should the receipt of postings
to it no longer be desired. This also requires the use of the
automated LISTSERV.

The entire ICOM-L venture is based on an automated distribution
list server. Manual subscription and unsubscription services are
not provided as a convenience to members. Quoting from the list's
charter, which is sent to every new member, "the list owner does
not provide manual assistance with the operation of LISTSERV
unless provided with an explanation of the reason why the
automated facility cannot be used."

3. Although I would very much like to be in a position to enter
into individual correspondence with list members about any and
all questions that they may have, in reality I can barely keep up
with a small fraction of my total e-mail load. Queries that are
treated in readily available documentation are likely
respectfully to go unanswered if sent to me personally. At times,
individuals appear to feel it useful to drown me in e-mail, for
example, by forwarding all messages sent to ICOM-L to my personal
mailbox. Although I make no assumptions about the purpose of such
action, it usually results in all mail subsequently received from
the prolific source automatically being discarded without my ever
seeing it.

4. Sorry about the griping.

/Cary


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