Date: Sun, 23 Mar 2003 10:13 +0000 (GMT Standard Time)
From: Howard Lake, FundUK list manager
To all on FundUK
I'm delighted to announce that I'm introducing a much-improved version of
the FundUK e-mail list. From Tuesday 25th March, all messages will be
published on a Web bulletin board as well as via e-mail. In this way, all
messages sent to the list will be archived and will be searchable.
FundUK will become the core of the UK Fundraising Forum, a new facility
that can host any number of fundraising discussion forums, run by us or
other organisations or groups. As a result, for the first time, FundUK will
become part of the UK Fundraising Web site (www.fundraising.co.uk).
So, what will this mean to you? The new system will allow you to:
* subscribe to particular topics of interest e.g. direct marketing, events
fundraising, or you can subscribe to every message, pretty much as you do now.
* search the archive of messages already posted.
* keep up to date solely via the Web site, if you wish. You can click on
the link on the main page to "today's active discussions" to do that. You
don't have to subscribe to the e-mail version if you don't want to.
* control which of your contact details are made public. You can, for
example, hide your e-mail address, but still allow yourself, if you wish,
to be contacted by other forum members via the system's private message
facility, without revealing your e-mail address to the person contacting you.
* view the members' list, or at least the details that the forum members
have chosen to make public
* you will post messages by entering the text into a Web page form rather
than sending them to the FundUK e-mail address
* you can even edit a message once you have posted it.
* in time, you'll be able to search the archive of all past messages to
FundUK (1996-2003), although adding this archive could take a while
I won't go into all the other new facilities now, but I hope you'll find
the new system offers you much more than the current FundUK. It should
allow you to choose to follow the topics that matter to you, rather than
have to wade through every message posted. It will also make managing the
list easier. There's a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) page that should
answer most of your questions.
Of course, Fundraising UK Ltd will continue to provide FundUK and the Forum
at no charge.
So, what should you do now? Do explore the new Forum at
www.fundraising.co.uk/forum
and register.
Once registered, you can even post a message if you want. If you'd like to
test the system, I've created a separate test forum so that you can see
what your message will look like. If you do register, don't forget to
unsubscribe from this version of FundUK by sending the message
unsubscribe funduk
to
funduk-request@lists.dircon.co.uk
There will be no more messages on the e-mail version of FundUK, apart from
my admin reminders and possibly any paid-for adverts that come in in the
next few days. From now on, if anyone posts a message to the current e-mail
version of FundUK, I'll simply request that they post it on the Forum. I'll
continue to monitor the e-mail addresses of FundUK, but as of Tuesday
morning, I'll declare the new Web-based FundUK open.
I'll continue sending reminders of this changeover to this e-mail list for
some time, so don't worry that you might get left out of the loop.
I very much hope you like the new system. It will take a while to get used
to, but I'm sure you'll find the new facilities make that worthwhile.
I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Netscalibur (formerly Direct
Connection) for sponsoring FundUK for these past seven years. Without their
generous technical support and hosting, this forum would not have been
possible.
Any questions about the change? If the FAQ doesn't answer them, drop me an
e-mail at hlake@fundraising.co.uk.
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Howard Lake
List manager of FundUK, for discussion of fundraising in the UK
hlake@fundraising.co.uk
Fundraising UK Ltd
+44 (0)20 8640 5233
FundUK has been kindly supported by Netscalibur http://www.netscalibur.co.uk
FundUK details http://www.fundraising.co.uk/forum
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