Don't know if this is the right sort of posting for LSTOWN-L, but
here's a message I send out every Spring. (I run a lot of academic
lists.) I use a similar one around Christmas.

Dear List member:

Summer is soon upon us, and that means travel season. Conferences
begin, holidays happen, and visits are undertaken. All of which means
you may be away from your email for a considerable amount of time at a
given stretch. If so, then PLEASE set your lists to NOMAIL. You can do
this easily by addressing an email to [log in to unmask], and putting
in it the sole line:

                Set mylist nomail

where you put in the name of the list in place of "mylist," e.g.,
"episteme" or 'tgc-l' and so on. When you return from your travels,
simply do the same thing with the "mail" command to resume receiving
your email.

Should you be concerned that you've missed something exciting, then
you can check the log for most lists by sending the message,

                Get mylist log0107

to [log in to unmask], to get, for example, the July log of mylist,
and, log0108 for August, etc. Of course, use the name of the list
whose log you want in place of "mylist."

PLEASE, failure to follow these simple procedures results in a
plethora of error messages for your devoted list owners. Also, if you
haven't set nomail and use a vacation message, then everyone on the
list will know you're goofing off and not hard at work.

So, please be a good list member and set yourself to nomail when you
are going to be unable to check your email.

Thanks,
Michael