[saymaListserv] SAYMA's Electronic Communications systems

[CIsland at aol.com]

TO:        SAYMA  Friends  who may have missed seeing the quesionnaire below 
or who need  a prompt to respond.
FROM:  Bill Reynolds, Clerk,  SAYMA Ad Hoc  Committee on Electronic 
Communications
RE:        SURVEY  QUESTIONNAIRE
 
Your Yearly Meeting, "SAYMA,"  is seeking to  improve its utilization of the 
opportunities that electronic  communications offer, or at least reduce the 
problems that arise in its  use.  
 
The ad hoc committee was formed to seek out what improvements  might be 
possible and desirable.  To begin the seeking this committee  is soliciting 
feedback from all SAYMA Friends.  The questionnaire below  is for gathering this 
feedback.  Any responses to any one or more of  the questions are helpful; no on 
need feel obligated to answer every question,  or even most of them.
 
The committee selected the 22nd of this month (22,Second Month,  2005) as its 
target date to gather almost all responses in order to begin the  next stage 
of our work with those responses as the "data  base."   (This means we do not 
expect that date to  be a deadline - just a target date.  We are sensitive to 
how busy the  personal and meeting lives are for most, if not all, Friends in 
SAYMA and  do not want to exclude feedback from any who could not provide it 
by any  particular date.  But,) If possible, please aim to send it  in by 
around that target date.    
 
 
 
 

My thanks to you for your efforts on this questionnaire  project, and for 
your effort toward the development of Yearly Meeting  e-communications policies 
and procedures that will assure SAYMA's  faith and testimonies continue to be 
advanced through its use of electronic  media. 




 
QUESTIONNAIRE on SAYMA's listserv, website,  & other possible electronic 
communications systems
 
Any responses to any one or more of the questions are helpful;  no on need 
feel obligated to answer every question, or even most of them.
 
I. ListServ  –  (Questions for those who have  been subscribers to the SAYMA 
listserv, have tried to subscribe and not been  able to, or in consideration 
of some of these questions think they might become  a subscriber):

* Have you had any technical problems with the ListServ  (subscribing, 
reading, posting, sending)? If yes, please describe the  problem?
* Do you feel that the ListServ is useful?
* What kind(s) of  messages are of most interest to you?
* In your view are there any problems  with the content of the ListServ?
* Would you like to see more or fewer  postings?
* How could the ListServ be improved? 
* Would you prefer to  have more than one SAYMA ListServ, each to have 
designated functions? (For  example, one for official SAYMA business notices and 
communicating concerns or  suggestions about business before the Yearly Meeting 
(maybe call this a YM  "business list") , the second for topical discussions 
NOT directly related to  SAYMA's current discernment process (maybe call this a 
"discussion list"), a  third for  other?                    
 
II.  SAYMA Web Site  (We would  like everyone who responds to a question in 
this list to make at least one  visit to the website before they respond.)
 
* Have you used the web site successfully to answer a question  or otherwise 
get useful information?
* Have you had technical problems with  the web site (unable to download 
documents, unable to view properly)?
* What  kind of information on the web site is most useful?
* What kind of  information would you like to see added to the web site?
* Have you had any  problems finding information on the web site? If yes, 
please describe. 
* How  could the web site be improved?
 
III. SAYMA Electronic Communications in General:   (We want everyone who will 
to provide feedback on the following sets of  questions regardless of whether 
they have or have not ever connected to either  electronic service.)
 
Many people see electronic communication as a way to bridge  the distances 
that separate us within the yearly meeting---to keep in touch with  distant 
Friends, to support YM committee work, and distribute information  quickly and 
cheaply. Many people also see problems---information overload, spam,  risk of 
harassment or identity theft, gap between the techno-savvy and the  
non-technical, temptation to bypass face-to-face, worshipful discernment,  etc.
 
Questions related to Values and Testimonies :  
* How  do you regard the use of e-communications in the light of Quaker 
values and  testimonies?
* In your view what is the proper role of electronic  communications in SAYMA?
* What concerns, doubts or sense of opening do you  have about the use of 
e-communications in SAYMA?
 
General operational questions about SAYMA e-communications:  
* What other types of e-communication do you think would be useful within  
SAYMA? (group e-mail, web forum, newsgroup, conferencing, committee-work  
web-pages...) Please comment on what you think the useful benefits from any of  
these would be. 
* Should the yearly meeting be more aggressive or more  cautious in its use 
of electronic communication? 
More aggressive with which one(s) of the different e-communication 
technologies?  
More cautious with which one(s)?

*Any additional suggestions, concerns or comments? 
 
Please forward your responses (either individually or in a  compilation) to : 
Bill Reynolds,  e-mail: < _cisland at aol.com_ (mailto:cisland at aol.com)  >; US 
Postal Service:   3529 Dell Trail, Chattanooga, TN   37411


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