Doug,
Trish and Julia dolphins@dolphinspiritofhawaii.com
Dear
Dolphin Podners,
The time has come for us to make some
changes to the way the community announcements are handled.
Doug (and then Julia) have happily served the community
by sending the announcements as they have been AND, nothing
is without its challenges. We have had mixed responses
to this method.
We wish to thank Julia for her amazing
and time consuming efforts to help out with the announcements.
Your contributions have helped to pay her a small fee
(not what she deserves for sure!!) About half of you on
the list have donated and we are so grateful.....these
donations have allowed us to continue the service. The
new service will be free and no donations are asked.
Some people have voiced their displeasure
at receiving so many emails
in their boxes .... and a number of people have "unsubscribed"
for this reason.
Some find the time lag hard to deal with,
especially when announcements are expected to go out immediately
without the usual requested three days lead time.
Recently, MyNewsLetterBuilder (our email
service), dropped many, many subscribers from our list,
due to bulk mailing rules and regulations. We are still
trying to recover those email addresses, and many are
not receiving the announcements.
Julia has also felt strongly that a more
long-lasting access to notices can be made available to
newcomers seeking homes, transportation, and even activities
and community services and connections (see more in her
email about her new web site offering.)
And lastly, the number of requests for
notices being sent out has become burdensome to busy schedules,
and demands on time and energy for Doug and Julia.
Sooooo, here's what we have planned.
1) We have created a Yahoo Group, which
will allow everyone to share
your own announcements (placing them yourselves), and
you can choose whether to
receive the messages individually in separate emails (as
they are sent), as a digest (listing the titles of announcements
sent in each day ... the announcements can be viewed by
clicking on them), or to visit the Yahoo site to visit
the archives when you're seeking specific items, events,
or whatever.
The name of that Yahoo Group is "Dolphin
Spirit Community Podners" at Yahoo!Groups.com.
In order to join the group, you must first
create a Yahoo! profile, and then join the group (getting
your password.) Our Yahoo Group is only accessed by those
of you who join (we will never sell or share your emails
with others.) We will also be sending invitations to our
entire list through the Yahoo! Group service as soon as
we have the details in place.
2) Julia has generously and in service
to us all created a website on her own whereupon she will
post the announcements as she receives them from the Yahoo
Groups site. She will share the details in another announcement.
You should send your announcements in to the Yahoo Groups
first to make sure that all podners will receive notice
that they are there, then, if you have a flyer or graphics
to add to your announcement, send it to Julia and she
will put it on the web site (time permitting.) She will
explain all of this to you.
You can access the web site
here:
http://www.communityannouncements.homestead.com
Although we may agree with any political
or religious announcements that are sent to the Yahoo
Group, we are not responsible for their content.
We hope this will make things easier and
more efficient for your announcements and are happy to
be the monitors for this new Yahoo Group site for the
service of the wonderful dolphin community! Thank you
all in advance for your patience as we transition into
a
new format for sharing Community Announcements.
Please note that we will process Announcements
as usual up and until January 27, 2007. That gives us
all ten days to make the transition. After that date,
you will receive instructions for joining the Yahoo! Group,
and sending your message through them, but messages will
no longer be posted or sent in this Newsletter format.
Love and Light,
Doug, Trish and Julia