STC (take II)

[Geoff Hart]

Suzette Leeming reported: <<I've belonged to a specific SIG for years  
and I think maybe I received a related email over a year ago, and  
nothing since.>>

Some SIGs aren't particularly active; others are downright dormant,  
or possibly even pushing up the daisies. However, before assuming  
that a SIG is dead, you should make a point of checking their Web  
site carefully. Back when I was a chapter president and SIG manager,  
I found it increasingly vexing that e-mail simply wasn't arriving  
reliably: ISPs lost messages, spam filters trapped messages that  
appeared to be bulk mailing, members deleted messages unread or  
misfiled them without noticing, and on and on. Plus, there were  
periods when STC's office was overwhelmed and simply couldn't keep up  
with member renewals; I'm told they've largely solved that problem  
now, but we went through a rough spot a few years ago.

As a result of this experience, I now start with the assumption that  
e-mail didn't arrive unless I received a confirmation. This has  
avoided many potentially serious and costly misunderstandings.

Back to STC: Eventually, we got fed up and simply told members:  
"Look, we have no way to know whether you're getting the information  
we send out. If you haven't heard anything from us in a couple  
months, ask. And if you want to know what's going on, check the Web  
page monthly. We know the Web page works because we test it each time  
we upload new information. You can do this too!" (Well, a tad more  
diplomatically, of course. <g>)

And if a SIG really was completely inactive, don't hesitate to write  
to STC and ask for your membership fee to be reimbursed (or credited  
to next year's renewal). I don't know whether they have a formal  
mechanism for this, but it can't hurt to try, and if nothing else, it  
sends along an important message: that someone needs to give the SIG  
a poke to see whether CPR or a pine box is the appropriate response.


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-- Geoff Hart
ghart at videotron.ca / geoffhart at mac.com
www.geoff-hart.com
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