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Posted by Ryan Pelletier, St. Agatha, January 10, 2008:I happen to belong to the Maine Town & City Managers List serve as well.  One way we cut down on the number of responses is by including our direct e-mail in the body of our original e-mail.  That way people can respond DIRECTLY to the person asking the question instead of the entire list serve.

Responses: I do APPRECIATE being on your list and reading the responses of others.  My town is more like a village and does not face the issues that many larger towns have (thank heavens) , still the questions and answers are helpful and interesting.  (Midge, Town Clerk, Stoneham).

DITTO!!!!  The Town of Phippsburg is the same and I usually learn something.  (Lisa Phillips, Phippsburg)

I agree completely. (Town of Guilford)

It drives me nuts when someone puts a question out there and I never see any responses.  What's even worse is when someone sends out a thank you for all the responses which they received directly.  What were the responses??  Some emails have good ideas in them.  Some serve as reminders of things long forgotten.  I like being on the list serve. (Kathy Lausier, New Sweden)

I have to agree completely.   A lot of time I don't send responses - when I should - but I always always always find the comments and discussions interesting and often serve as good reminders. Thank you to all who take the time to participate. (Barbara, Dover Foxcroft)

I am a "wet behind the ears" Deputy Clerk" so I may learn something along the way. (Gary Nelson, Abbot)

Here's an idea to help make all the list-serve queries and replies less cluttering for your e-mail if you use Microsoft Outlook.   I created a special folder called Tax Collectors that all the list-serve messages from MMTCTA go into automatically.  Here's how to do it:

Click on “ tools ”, then click “ organize ”, then “ new folder ”.  You can name the folder anything you want (I call mine Tax Collectors).  After you're done creating the new folder….

Click on “ tools ” , then “ rules and alerts ”, then pick “ e-mail rules ”, then “ new rule ”.  Select the move messages from someone to a folder .  The address of the list-serve (someone) is mmtcta-members-owner@imail.memun.org .    Use that when you click on the “from person or distribution list” option.  Then keep clicking next , and when it asks what folder you want to put it into, pick whatever you named your folder above.  Keep clicking next until your rule is set up.   The rest of the process is pretty well explained by clicking the next button.  

Once this rule and mailbox are in place, all your list serve mail should go into that folder, and you can read or disregard as you wish without your main inbox being cluttered by list-serve material.

Good luck.  I'm not familiar with other e-mail programs, but suspect they can be set up using a similar process. 

Stu Marckoon, Lamoine (webmaster)

Good idea Stu, thanks.  Midge, Town of Stoneham

The smaller towns get the most from these messages . There has been times I have printed off some of the responses given for later reference. (Alicia Silkey, Orient)

I have to agree with Alicia and some of the other clerks. There are times that some of the subjects being discussed don't apply to my town, but who knows if I will be here forever. I might end up in a larger town and care use the information I have gathered. I learn something each time I read the e-mails. If they really don't apply to my town, I just delete them.  Many times, I print the conversations out to share with Joyce later and file them for later reference. I learn a lot from the list serve. (Michelle, Guilford)

I do agree with your responds.   We are a small town & there have been several times, also have used the responses for reference.. (Wanda Brooks, Corinna)