THE DATA MONKEY SPEAKS...
Suggested Guidelines for Room 41's Listserve
I know many of you are confused or concerned about what kind of posts are appropriate for Room 41. That's partly because there are no hard and fast rules. And I, personally, hope that we won't need them. Here is a simple guideline that I always use, which may give you a clearer idea of what is appropriate, and hopefully help you feel more confident about using this listserve in ways that can benefit you.
Think of Room 41 like the Theatre Lab when we used to get together with all 200 people in the department, and the Head of the Department would stand up and ask if there were any "announcements". And anyone who wanted could raise their and stand up in front of everybody and take a minute of their time to make an announcement.
So the appropriate topics for a lab announcement were pretty broad. Everything from showtimes, to auditions, to scholarships, to so-and-so is having a graduation party. But generally speaking you didn't make an announcement unless it was something likely to be of some interest to a most of the people in the room, particularly considering they would probably have to sit through 10 or 20 more such announcements after yours.
And if that analogy doesn't happen to work for you, I offer these suggestions on specific guidelines for posting to Room 41. (Pardon me if this is a bit disorganized)
It is ALWAYS appropriate to use Room 41 to announce:
- Productions and performances (which you are involved with)
- Auditions
- Job opportunities
- Major life changes: Births, Deaths, Weddings
- Or to draw attention to news about fellow theatre alumni (such as awards or reviews)
Since part of what we hope to do here is encourage networking, and a general awareness of what's going on in our "community," you should ALWAYS feel free to use this space:
- To inform the group about a change of address. (Especially if you change cities.)
- Or changes of e-ddress
- Or to request help in locating other alumni
- Or to let us know the address of your new web page
It is PROBABLY appropriate to use Room 41 to let us know about major career changes, such as:
- Starting to grad school
- Taking a teaching position
- Starting a theatre company
- Retiring from the theatre altogether to become a dentist.
It is SOMETIMES appropriate to use Room 41...
- To announce social events such as a party for a visiting alumni
- If your intention is to welcome any Room 41ster in the vicinity in hopes of promoting a sense of community
It is of DUBIOUS interest to use Room 41...
- To inform us of lesser life changes, such as your child's first day of school
- Or lesser NON-theatre related news, such as: you've renovated your dentist's office
- Or to share theatre related news which is *unlikely* to be of particular interest to the group in general, such as: "I hate my director, these rehearsals are too long."
- Postings which are LONG (like this one)
- Postings which are impolite or specifically intended to get the goat of another Room 41ster
And it's probably NEVER APPROPRIATE to use Room 41 to share...
- Chain Letters
- Funny things (even the really funny ones)
- Petitions (even the really good ones)
- Important Local, National, or International News which is not directly related to Room 41, the U of I Theatre Department, or specific people in them.