Hello Chandler Guild Member,
Welcome to the first announcement using the Chandler Guild's newly
created, announcement-only mailing list. If being added to this list freaks
you out, we apologize. But before you decide to unsubscribe, let us explain
ourselves and why being on this list should not worry you:
1. This is an announcement-only list. This means that ONLY Soyawax Mike
(Richards) and Sohodojo Jim (Salmons) are authorized to send mail to this
list. The whole idea of the Chandler Guild web site is for it to be a place
buzzing with helpful content and member interaction. So the last thing we
want to create is a mailing list that competes with the web site's purpose.
2. This list will ONLY be used (after this kick-off message) to
broadcast short 'Guild Member HEADS-UP' messages to draw your attention to
time-sensitive content on the Chandler Guild web site. In other words, the
volume of traffic on this list will be very low. Eventually, when there is
so much cool stuff going on the guild's web site, we won't have to use this
list to remind you to drop by! :-)
3. You are NOT subscribed to this list with your personal e-mail
address, so even if some ignorant hacker got our subscriber list, they would
get your "my.name@chandlerguild.com" address. (So if you want to
unsubscribe, send a note to admin@chandlerguild.com since a typical
'unsubscribe' note sent from your personal e-mail address won't trigger the
list server to remove your name.)
Now on to the meat of this announcement...
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= Chandler Guild First Continental Congress Announced
=
As many of you know, Mike has always had a plan to convene a founding
forum of the first one hundred Village Chandlers to join the Chandler Guild
microenterprise network. From this founding group, we'll elect the Table of
Twelve who will work on behalf of all of us, to determine just what the
Chandler Guild is, how it will work, and what services it will offer us.
During our first formative year, the Table of Twelve will organize a number
of special interest working groups that will help to shape the Chandler
Guild.
This all-important first organizing meeting has been dubbed the First
Continental Congress of the Chandler Guild, and it will happen sometime in
the next few months. And we very much want as many Chandler Guild members to
attend as possible.
To this end, please drop by the Chandler Guild web site to learn more
about the First Continental Congress to be held, most likely, in Cedar
Rapids, Iowa (in some funky old buildings in Mike and Lynette Richards'
revitalizing neighborhood where many of you took your Village Chandler
training).
The dates for this event are not yet determined, so be sure to let your
opinion be heard on the 'straw polls' where we are trying to get a sense of
who can come when.
This event will likely be a two-day affair, probably Friday/Saturday or
Saturday/Sunday... whatever works for most of us. Again, please drop by the
web site and vote for your preference.
We've got some wild ideas about how to make the Chandler Guild's First
Continental Congress a truly memorable event... Like we'll each pour into
the world's largest soy wax candle at the opening session, and the Chandler
Guild's Giant Candle will be lit on the second day before the election of
the Table of Twelve. And pouring a Giant Candle will be a tradition at all
future Chandler Guild annual conventions. So don't you want to be able to
say, "Yea, I've got wax in all our Giant Candles up there on the stage," at
future welcoming receptions for new Chandler Guild members!? We don't have
it ALL figured out, by any means... except the giant candle part. So we want
your most creative ideas about how we can make the Continental Congress the
best dern event any of us will ever experience. You'll be able to contribute
ideas as comments to the "Chandler Guild Continental Congress Announced!"
new story on the web site.
==============================================
= You now have a ChandlerGuild.com e-mail address!
=
Hey, it's only a start to the laundry list of PERKS and PRESTIGE that
you will accumulate as a Chandler Guild member, but you each now have a new
e-mail address!
These aren't POP e-mail boxes that you have to access, they're
'forwarding alias' addresses. This means that if your Chandler Guild user
name is 'BigSkyChandler Jim', your guild member e-mail address is
'BigSkyChandler.Jim@ChandlerGuild.com'! Cool, eh? Actually, capital letters
are optional. If the e-mail address of your user account's profile is set to
'big.jim@mydomain.com', then any e-mail sent to your chandlerguild.com
e-mail address will be forwarded to your mydomain.com mailbox.
Please feel free to use this address to help 'brand' your activity as a
Chandler Guild member. (In most e-mail client applications you can create a
new account and set the 'sent by' or 'reply to' address to the address you
want to be used for replies.)
MEMBER TIP: This also means that we all have a way to send e-mail to
each other when we see some content on our web site and we want to open an
e-mail communication with that member. (Of course we strongly encourage
open communication through use of the commenting system on the web site, but
sometimes you just want to talk privately with someone.) To do this, just
follow these simple rules:
* One word user names are easy, simply slap '@chandlerguild.com' onto
the user name and send away.
* For multi-word user names, replace the spaces characters between words
with a 'period' character, so 'Big Jake' becomes
'Big.Jake@chandlerguild.com'. (In a few instances where the user name
already has periods in it, just delete the spaces and don't double up the
periods. So 'xxx R. N.' would become 'xxx.R.N.@chandlerguild.com'.)
* Simply eliminate any characters other than letters and numbers. So
"C.J's Candle Creations" becomes "C.Js.Candle.Creations@chandlerguild.com".
This gives us a way to communicate with each other until we collectively
figure out what profile information we want to share on-line at the web
site, both with the public and between members. (Some things are relatively
easily decided, but then they become a 'simple matter of programming' that
has to be done right when we are talking about our personal information.)
========================================
= Finally, mea culpa... I'll get back to you soon
=
Some of you have written to the Chandler Guild via the
guildmasters@chandlerguild.com e-mail address and have never heard back from
us. In all the hub-bub of putting the site up and getting to the Iowa
Creative Economy Unconference, I forgot to create the forwarding alias for
this address and some twenty-odd notes from you folks have been sitting in a
catch-all POP account until I noticed them today! Mea culpa. I am sorry. I
promise to read and respond as soon as possible.
That's it for now. Thank you for reading this announcement and for being
a member of the Chandler Guild.
And please find a few minutes to visit http://chandlerguild.com to vote
on the two scheduling polls, and to give us your creative ideas about the
what you'd like to see happen at the Chandler Guild's First Continental
Congress.
Remember, in a microenterprise network nobody is in charge and everybody
is in charge. Sounds kind of Zen-like, but it is true. We welcome your help
in planning the Chandler Guild First Continental Congress.
Happy Chandlering,
--Sohodojo Jim--
for the Chandler Guild