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SFD/PDA members - Did you know?

Submitted by bonniesac on Wed, 08/16/2006 - 11:25am

The SFD yahoo groups email list is exclusively managed by Bill and Karen.

All mail goes through them.

Not even the Board or President has the ability to send a message without their approval.

The Communications committee has not had a meeting in more than a year. What you see here and what takes precedent is the sole opinion of one person.

What does this remind you of?


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#1 Thanks for smearing Karen's name

Submitted by billl on Wed, 08/16/2006 - 1:12pm.

Hi Bonnie:

I am responsible for the yahoogroups list and I have been so for the last 2 1/2 years. Karen has nothing to do with the yahoogroups email list, but thanks for dragging her name through the mud with another baseless accusation.

No communications meetings? That's funny, then why did you attend the one we had at Hoppy Brewery? I can't remember, did you also go to the one at Infusion Cafe? If I didn't have to spend the last few months responding to attacks every week from baseless accusations like this, then I would have much more time to devote to the promotion of SFD.

You also accused me of telling you that you could not send an email to our yahoogroups list "a year ago", yet you had already sent 6 emails out to our group THIS year. Why do you continue to make false accusations?

I have told you this before, but it is worth repeating for all to read:

We rarely send anything out on our yahoogroups list that is not action-oriented (upcoming event, action alert, call your representatives, campaign updates, write a letter to the editor, etc...). There are occasional exceptions especially when the emails directly involve our members.

When have you or anyone else sent an action-oriented email to our group that was not "approved" and sent out to the group?

The problem in the past was that if we sent out too many emails in one day, then people started to complain and "unsubscribe" from our email list. "Sorry, but I just don't have the time to read that many emails". Not everyone wants to receive 5 or 10 emails a day from each email list that they are on. I try to limit our email list to only 2 or 3 a day as it has ALWAYS been an action-oriented, low volume list.

I have suggested to our board and officers that we start a separate high-volume email list that is more interactive and open. We would allow our members to opt-in to it with the knowledge that it could be a high volume list with lots of articles and replies. This would be an "un-monitored" list, so that everything that was sent to it, would automatically go out to the list. This would allow the timely response for all replies.

As of this date, I have not received a response to my request but I hope to hear from them soon.

Would you be interested in being in charge of the high volume email list? We will need someone to respond to any compliments / complaints / suggestions that may be sent to the list.

For now, if you would like our members to read the articles that you have sent out, I encourage you to post them on our website.

If you have any questions, feel free to drop me a line.

Cheers,
Bill
sac4democracy AT hotmail.com

#2 Just the Facts -

Submitted by bonniesac on Wed, 08/16/2006 - 9:40pm.

This is the screen image from the SFD yahoo group moderators page. It clearly shows that you are the owner, and you and Karen are moderators. As I have moderator rights in other yahoo groups, I know that only the moderators can send or "release" email to the group address.

Time really flies, Bill, but that meeting at the Hoppy occurred Wednesday June 15, 2005, more than one year ago. And none since the election.

#3 So are you volunteering to be moderator?

Submitted by billl on Thu, 08/17/2006 - 9:53am.

Are you volunteering to be moderator on the new high-volume SFD email list?

You would be free to send out as many articles as you wish.

Again, neither the board nor steering committee has responded to my request to help you out, but if your request to change from a low volume action-oriented list to a high volume reply-to-all list is approved, we will need someone to monitor it. With your yahoogroups experience, you should have no problems at all.

Time sure has flown by. Sorry about the old moderator info on the yahoo groups list. There were times when I could not get access to our email list while I was at work. In those instances, if someone called me and said they needed something to go out to the group immediately, then I asked Karen to send them out. For the record, she only moderated 14 out of the 2307 emails that were sent to our yahoogroups list. I know it would help your "case" if she had been more actively involved, but that is only six tenths of one percent (0.006) of our yahoogroups activity. I am solely responsible for the other 99.4% of our yahoogroups list. If she had not sent them, then it is possible that they would have not have gone out to the group in time. As a moderator of other yahoogroups, you should understand the necessity of timely emails.

Again, you want an SFD high-volume email list, so if the officers approve it, will you be the moderator?

And once again, have you ever sent an action-oriented email to our yahoogroups list that was not sent out to the group? I am trying to find out the real basis of your complaint.

#4 Two lists

Submitted by Amy Price on Thu, 08/17/2006 - 12:17pm.

First, since in the past I have not been successful communicating my sincerity in my posts, I'm stating right now that this post is meant to be respectful, positive, and resolution-oriented.

I believe that having two lists would work well for our group and I want to help get us there. Since the article-based, high-volume list would need to be joined anyway, could it not just be created and an invitation sent to the action item-based, low-volume list one time, since this is one of those special cases that pertains to the membership? We have other mass e-mail options open to us (DFA-link, meetup.com possibly) and could send one invitation thru those also. I know there are those who like receiving articles, digests, etc., and this would be an efficient way to do that, especially since I sometimes receive the same article multiple times from different people who just maintain their own lists! The article-senders and digest-creators among us could just use the new yahoogroup, and possibly the moderators could work at preventing duplications, right? And it seems to meet the needs Bonnie and Bill have addressed: the preference of some of our members to minimize the e-mails they receive, and the wishes of some of our members to send out and receive information that is not specifically action-oriented.

I appreciate Bill's efforts to obtain the blessing of the Board and the officers to create such a list, but in the absence of their response, and since the new list cannot be imposed upon anyone and yet will be available to everyone, perhaps it does not conflict with our goals of democracy, transparency, and accountability to just do it.

Comments/corrections/fixes welcome.

#5 easily done

Submitted by billl on Thu, 08/17/2006 - 5:09pm.

Yes Amy, you are correct. We could send out an email to all of our lists (yahoo, meetup, dfalink) announcing the new high-volume email list that any and all members could subscribe to.

I would suggest sending several announcements about the new email list. We could send out a reminder once a month for a while to make sure everyone reads it. I know that I do not receive every single yahoogroups email at my work email address. Sometimes they get blocked by my work spam filter and sometimes they get through, so multiple announcements would probably be a good idea.

Now we just need someone to volunteer to be the list "moderator". That person could address all the complements / complaints / suggestions that come with creating a yahoogroups list.

#6 If you're reading this, take the poll!

Submitted by Amy Price on Fri, 08/18/2006 - 12:29pm.

New poll for members of the yahoogroup to weigh in -- would you sign up for the proposed second list? If you missed the e-mail, go to the group page and vote in the poll!

#7 Is this a democracy?

Submitted by bonniesac on Fri, 08/18/2006 - 12:58pm.

A moderated email list, does not have ONE moderator. I appreciate the offer, but would never take on the role of censor alone. Isn't there a communication committee?

There are usually three or four moderators of differing views, who come to a consensus of what is true to the mission and values of that group. (See
Contact us and from yahoo groups -

Description

Sacramento for Democracy, a member group of California For Democracy, is a grassroots organization dedicated to the advancement of progressive political and social changes. We share an affinity for the goals that have been articulated by the national group, Democracy for America. These goals are:

  1. To have strong, sustained grassroots involvement in the democratic process.
  2. To promote an America where candidates and office holders tell the truth about policy choices and stand up for what they believe. The era when politicians equivocate about matters as fundamental as war and peace must end.
  3. To fight against the influence and agenda of the two pillars of George W. Bush's Washington: the far right-wing and their radical, divisive policies, and the selfish special interests who for too long have dominated politics.
  4. To fight for progressive policies like health care for all; investment in children; equal rights under law; fiscal responsibility; and a national security policy that makes America stronger by advancing progressive values.

It is my opinion that the content of the main portions (non-blog) web page base should reflect those values as well. With the inclusion of "Anti-Occupation Sites" in the bottom of the left frame, I once again express my concern and dismay with the content of SFD communications.

As I have repeatedly stated, Charles Lechner from national PDA expressed in a personal email to me -

"Using language like 'Israeli Occupation Forces' instead of 'Israeli Army' and focusing all concern only on one side of the conflict is often counterproductive.
"...all I can tell you is that the PDA leadership, in the efforts it makes at the national level, strives to be a voice of concern and support for both Israelis and Palestinians.
"There are differences between the state of Israel and the actions of the Israeli government, and between the people of Israel. PDA is in touch with the voices of the Israeli peace camp and seeks to promote genuine peace, not the defeat of one side at the expense of the other.

This is the email that did not get sent - Click here . I sent this immediately after the announcement from the Pearcy's regarding their appearance on the Christine Craft show. I still think that article was relevant and might have added to the discussion on both local talk shows. I thought it qualified as an Action Alert.

It was not sent out and there was no notification that it would not be. If I had been contacted, I might have been able to convince the moderator that it was timely and relevant.

I ask again. Does this reflect the values and mission of our group?

Enough of this.

SFD/PDA is faltering. I have never seen minutes of any meeting. I have never heard a Treasurers's report, although I have made online donations. Members are filing grievances. How did they even know there was a grievance process? What is going on and why?

It is time to pull it together.

Election day is coming and we have terrific candidates to work for. It's a real challenge to find out anything about them on this page. I think that the 2006 Election is the most important thing we concern ourselves with.

Let's get it together and get back to the campaigns, at least for now!

#8 Why?

Submitted by bonniesac on Fri, 08/18/2006 - 1:02pm.

The communication committee has not had a meeting regarding this or anything else. Shouldn't the committee, discuss and propose? then submit for a poll, or present to the Board? I'm not sure what is going on here.

#9 Bill Does An Incredible Job

Submitted by Dan Bacher on Fri, 08/18/2006 - 5:43pm.

As a long time anti-war and social justice activist, I can attest to the outstanding job that Bill has been doing on moderating the list. Obviously, you are only concerned about this matter because of Bill's courage in sending out articles that dare to expose the truth about the Israeli war against the Lebanese and the Palestinian people.

#10 Financial Reports and Meeting Minutes

Submitted by roanna1 on Mon, 08/21/2006 - 2:01pm.

Hi Bonnie - As Treasurer Bud is responsible for the Financial Reports and the minutes of the meeting would come from Peter.