Mike's musings

Mailing lists for groups

I hate to think what the header above is going to do to my AdSense adverts, but I've been having a bit of a think about use of a mailing list that I run. At ERMC, my theological training course, we're split into eight cross-year groups of about 12-16 people. These groups act as a locus for some of the discussion we do on the weekends and during the Summer Schools, and we're encouraged to support each other at a personal level as well. At the beginning of the academic year, I suggested that I set up a mailing list (email, obviously) for the group, and people agreed. Much to my surprise, all but one of the group have contributed - some much more than others, and the only non-contributor has been ill. We've used it for ERMC-based activities (organising worship activities), course-based activities (discussing essays), group-based activities (asking for prayers or support, which is part of what the group is supposed to do) and personal activities (Happy New Year emails, etc.). I'd say that we're a more effective group because of it, and I'm keen to find out from other members of the group what they think of it. I'm keen for four reasons, as I explained in an email to the group today:

1. to think about how we could use it even more
2. to think about what other similar resources we could use (shared website, shared blog, for instance)
3. to think about how we could use such resources in our wider ministry, both now and in the future
4. to think about whether we should present our experiences (in the longer term!) to other members of ERMC to see if they'd like to adopt email lists or other resources as a standard tool.

I use mailing lists regularly for work and pleasure, and it's been interesting to see people who don't work in IT using them, too, and just the way I hoped they would.

I think that mailing lists can be very powerful tools to coordinate projects, or just to keep in touch with people, although there are dangers of people being alienated by them, which need to be closely monitored. It might feel odd for a "normal" parish with a full-time priest to use such a tool, but for a part-time priest to be involved in projects, it might make sense, and it could be a way of getting wider community involvement in a parish context anyway.

Other resources offer interesting possibilities, too. A shared blog for a youth group, tied to a group web-page, would allow people to chat about what they're doing, tell people about new issues, and point out things that they've noticed. I really need to think about this. Could be good - and it plays strongly into my academic interest in how churches - and, more importantly, their members - use the Internet and online tools in general.