Hello,
  I just today found out about this list; this is my first post.  Having
never been a mailing list owner, I'm hoping someone might be willing to help
in bringing me up to speed on the agonies and the ecstasies of this
responsibility.  Some details:

Our firm is assessing the feasibility of establishing an emailing list to
support a technology transfer project that we're taking the lead in
promoting and supporting.
  Initially we envision having about 1,000 participants on the list.  Well,
that is the number of people we'll invite to participate though I suspect
that the regular participants will be around 50-150.

I need to learn the following:

1.  Is it recommended/wiser/better for us to have the listserv hosted on our
own server?  What are the requirements to do this?  Size of server, other
software applications needed to be on the server, etc.
2.  If another company is the host, what is a standard cost for this?  What
is the downside, assuming that there is one(more?), of our not hosting this
ourselves?
3.  I've heard about L-Soft and they've come recommended to me.  Are they
pretty much the best choice for either our hosting or them hosting?
4.  About how much employee time weekly will be required to monitor a
listserv such as this one?
5.  It strikes me that some initial training would be useful and a good
investment, or, have most of you learned how to do this through
self-immersion?

It will be a pleasure to hear from the more seasoned list owners and
hopefully avoid some of the less wise choices out there.

Thanks for listening.

Peggy Lucero
4iP, Inc.
Bethesda, MD  20814
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www.4iP.com