Folks,
Prospero An~o Nuevo.
Thank you all for your responses in the referendum on the list.
We heard from many of you who had never posted before, or seldom.
I would guess each of you has at least one family story others on
the list would like to hear.
The overwhelming sentiment of the list members appears to be that they
want a list that runs according to the existing guidelines. That should
be quite possible. The guidelines do, after all, exist. And they were
composed with input from many list members.
This Sinclair Discussion List began on 18 December 1997. That was five
years ago last month. In those five years, much has been accomplished,
for example the beginnings of clarification of the Argyll mystery.
And I long ago accomplished what I set out to do: to initiate a working
list in which list members could communicate and cooperate.
I've lived in a networked world all my working life. In that culture,
it is common for people to join together for projects or organizations.
Certain tasks or positions have to be performed. Someone takes on each
necessary task or position for a while, and then it rotates on to someone
else. This is probably not unlike clan organizations, for that matter.
Five years is enough. It is time to rotate.
I was reading in a local newspaper in Georgia about the director of the
Atlanta Zoo. He's retiring from that position and, as he puts it,
continuing at a different level.
I'll be happy to be available for questions about list management,
which I'll answer along the lines of "well, what I would have done
would have been X, but you have to decide for yourself." I will
continue at that level.
Twice in December I said on the list that I would announce a decision
by New Year's Day as to whether I would continue. My decision is made,
and I'm sticking to it: I will not continue to maintain this list.
As I also said twice before, in that eventuality, I will hand over the
list to a new maintainer on a new server by 28 February 2003. If nobody
comes forward by then, the list dies.
But it can live, reborn like Adam Sinclair's phoenix.
The list, once again, has guidelines that were worked out in conjunction
with the people on the list, and which have just received rousing
approbation in a referendum. All that is really needed is for someone
to reimplement the list membership in a mechanism such as Yahoo! Groups,
and to be willing to enforce the guidelines.
Who will take a turn?
John S. Quarterman <jsq@quarterman.org>
[ This is the Sinclair family discussion list, sinclair@quarterman.org
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