Got the answers from Eric on this. Here is my understanding. If a list has a matching filelist, then the FAC of OWN will let the owner update the filelist using the list password. If the filelist is an orphan, i.e. is not related to a distibution list, then the following form of the FAC is useful: *+TRY=OWNER(SPECIAL),PW=(SPECIAL) This says that the owners of the SPECIAL list satisfy the TRY FAC and that the password of the SPECIAL list will be checked. This is just what I needed since I have a WELCOME FILELIST where I store WELCOME and/or FAREWELL messages for all lists that don't have their own filelist.