The AMMRL mailing list was created to serve the needs of lab managers.
Obviously, we could not do our jobs without the vendors. They provide
products, services, and, most importantly in this context, information. I
personally don't care how many/who posts to this list. I belong to 3
hobby-related lists that generate 20+ messages a day- many of them
duplicates since the lists are on related subjects and people often post
to 2 or 3 of them. That does not change the fact that many list members
_do_ care how many messages they have to wade through. As an individual,
and as a steering committee member I have heard from a number of members
who do not wish to receive tons of email. Even looking at subject lines
and hitting the delete key takes some time, and mail messages do take up
disk space.
For whatever reason, posts on AMMRL have moved to the "ask a question,
send replies to the individual, post a summary" mode. While this was
not a deliberate policy, it has helped those who wish fewer messages.
The current vote is on if we should remove from the list those who
_repeatedly_ post messages of questionable value to the AMMRL members,
not should we get rid of all vendors.
It is also not vendor-specific. If a lab manager _repeatedly_ posted
messages of questionable value- kid's little league scores, or _repeated_
announcements/solicitations of services, I would be inclined to remove
said manager from the list. (After repeated warnings.)
Finally, a suggestion was made that AMMRL maintain a web site, with links
to the vendors' web sites. We do-
http://www.chem.yale.edu/~bangertr/ammrl/ammrl.html
This site has links to about 20 vendor websites.
I should say, Ben Bangerter has a site, since he is the one maintaining
it.
Both managing an email listserver and maintaining a website can be horribly
time-consuming (I maintain one for a local club in addition to my
facility one). As long as these are done by volunteers, we should be
very hesitant to complicate things. (Of course, if those that _want_
more/bigger/whatever wish to volunteer to _provide_ more/bigger/whatever
.....) Hiring someone to do these things would require dues, and lots of
paperwork. Again, do I see volunteers? Aside from that, I do not think
it is our responsibility to advertise for vendors.
Vote how you wish, but please, let's keep this list as informal and
useful as it has been.
One comment as a steering committee member: this was not Rich
Shoemaker's personal idea. The entire steering committee decided to call
a vote. Rich simply drew the short straw and was the one who got to post
the question and tabulate the vote. Other committee members have
posted steering committee "announcements" in the past. It was
simply Rich's turn. Please do not blame any of this on him personally.
Just my $.04 (inflation)
Karen Ann Smith karenann@unm.edu
Manager, NMR Facility Adj. Asst. Prof.
Dept. of Chemistry Clark Hall
University of New Mexico Albuquerque, NM 87131
505.277.4031 url: http://www.unm.edu/~karenann
"Facts are the enemy of Truth" - Don Quixote