[Comphelp] Bulk E-Mailing of District Newsletters

[Penneman, Roger B]

In D/21, we have set up a mailing list on the USPS server, just like this
list.  We can broadcast the location of a file that is available on our
district web site, such as the newsletter.  The problem we have is getting
people to sign up to the list.  They can be subscribed by the administrator,
but some might not like that.

Roger Penneman
Fort Worth

-----Original Message-----
From: comphelp-admin@usps.org [mailto:comphelp-admin@usps.org] On Behalf Of
Bob Brandenstein
Sent: Tuesday, May 04, 2004 9:55 AM
To: comphelp@usps.org; db2000@usps.org
Subject: [Comphelp] Bulk E-Mailing of District Newsletters


Folks,

This is not a new problem, but it's new to me.

Like others, we in District 7 we have been urging our Squadrons to E-Mail
their newsletters as much use as possible, maintaining current E-Mail
addresses using DB2000.  Some Squadrons have, most have not. Fine and well.

But as I prepare to send out a broadcast E-Mail to all D7 members with
E-Mail addresses (about 400 members, at the moment), I encounter a problem
in administering this quantity of E-Mail addresses. As far  as I can tell,
MS Outlook and Outlook Express are not designed to send E-Mail to large
groups. Also, I do not wish to add 400 members of D7 to my Outlook address
book. Moreover, as we go forward, D7 will have well over a thousand E-Mail
addresses in its database. So the question is, how do we best administer the
E-Mailing of our District newsletters?

As I search around the Internet I find many commercial bulk E-Mail software
offerings which can likely handle this problem, including the administration
of newsletters. But I have no benchmarks against which to measure strengths
or weaknesses, or to judge price performance.

This would seem to be a problem not unique to me, or to D7, but one which
would be faced by any Squadron or District who opts to move toward greater
use of electronic communications.

Like as not, someone has trod this path in the past.

I would appreciate any guidance from someone more knowledgeable, and more
experienced, than I  on the subject.

Cheers,

Bob Brandenstein
D7 Commander