The Right E-Mail List Can Make Your Job Easier

If you’ve just taken on an important role in your congregation and are feeling a bit alone, not sure where to start or who to talk to, take heart. Help is only a click away. The UUA has more than 250 e-mail lists, which over 12,000 UUs subscribe to, to help you find your way. Here are a few of the more useful ones for church leaders. All of them can be found at www.uua.org/lists.

• Memb-l – for membership committees and others involved in welcoming and integrating new people and keeping older ones connected to the congregation.

• UU-Leaders – for board members and other key lay leaders to discuss general leadership issues as they pertain to congregations.

• UU-Money – discussion of financial issues pertaining to church life such as the annual canvass, fundraisers, insurance, and budgets.

• Worship-L – discussion of worship practices, sharing of ideas for lay-led and intergenerational services, sharing of readings, and discussion of worship formats.

• UUA-L – the UUA’s official news and information e-mail list. If something significant occurs that is related to the UUA, this is where to learn about it first. At least one person from each congregation is encouraged to subscribe to this list and be prepared to share the information with others on the congregation’s leadership team.

• Advocacy-news – public policy news and action updates from the UUA Washington Office. One of several lists for social justice advocates.

There are lists specifically for large congregations (550plus), small ones (smalltalk), for advisors working with Our Whole Lives (Owl-l) and Coming of Age (COA-L) programs, religious educators (reach-l), and youth (seven lists including YRUU-announce and Advisor-L).

There are specialized lists such as UU-cong-archives for church historians; UU-editors for congregational newsletter editors; Websters for those who maintain church Web sites, and Adult-RE for leaders of adult religious education programs. If you’re going to attend General Assembly, there’s UUA-GA.

Young adults have gotten on the e-mail bandwagon in a big way, with more than 200 lists. Young adult lists are managed by the Young Adult and Campus Ministry Office at http://lists.uuyan.org/listinfo.

Marian Beddill with the Bellingham, Wash., Unitarian Fellowship, has been on 15 UUA e-mail lists at various times. “The lists have really made a difference,” she said. “Ask a question on a UU list, and answers from really knowledgeable folks may be in your lap in minutes. Recently, on one of the lists, someone asked about dealing with the local media for publicity. I wrote back with a set of guidelines and pitfalls from my experience. Writing to the list, everybody saw both the question and the answer, so the benefit was multiplied.”

In addition to connecting with other people, many lists have searchable archives. The question that burns in your mind may have been discussed last year.

If you’re worried about getting too much e-mail, all of these lists can be received in digest mode. You still get all the complete postings, but they arrive in a group perhaps once a day or once a week. That also can make it easier to follow the flow of conversation.

The lists help many people, says Deborah Weiner, the UUA’s director of electronic communication. “People just don’t realize that when they are feeling isolated or like they don’t know enough about their leadership role in their church—there is ready help for them, and a supportive community with good ideas.”