I am a member of the Corgi-L Administration Team.  We were set up late
last summer in an effort to relieve the two list owners from the daily
grind of errors and questions from our about 750 subscriber list.  About
10 members of Corgi-l volunteered to become Administrators.

A few, like myself, are now in the list header as Owners.  We deal with
the technical stuff.  The rest are the Cordial Correction Cops (for lack
of a better term).  They rotate weeks taking care of the netiquette issues
like TYPING IN ALL CAPS, or reminding the digest folks to alter the
subject line when they respond to a digest posting.

To date this has worked out fairly well for us.  The one list owner who
had been handling most of the errors and daily work of the list changed
jobs in October.  We were able to continue without interruption until she
settled into the new job and got her email account active.

The setup for us involves 3 lists.  Corgi-L is the original and main list.
Corgi-AD was set up for the Administrators to communicate without getting
the whole list involved.  Corgi-ER receives the error reports from
Corgi-L.  Both administrative lists are as private as the listserv
software can make them.  The only minor opening is in Corgi-AD.  We set
this up so that anyone can post to Corgi-AD.  This way any subscriber who
wishes to complain, query, ask for assistance, can contact all the
administrators without having to know our individual addresses.  There
aren't may problems, but this has helped to keep the "How do I get off
this list?" from going to all the subscribers.  The bottom banner of each
posting gives the address of Corgi-AD.

New subscribers are set to Review.  After a few postings of non-
inflammatory nature they are removed from review.  We think we had a
couple of "trolls" last fall.  This is our method of trying to avoid this
creature in the future.  To date, we have succeeded.  Trolls seem to want
a quick thrill.  Having to wait a few weeks to post without going through
a Moderator takes the thrill away from them.  (We hope.)

This setup has provided a way to "test" new settings and policies before
springing the on the entire list.  If we like it on Corgi-AD then we move
it to Corgi-L.  This has helped to keep the list running smoothly.  We are
international with most subscribers in the US and Canada.  Australia and
New Zealand don't have the language barrier.  France, Finland, Norway, and
Japan have a fair representation.  We have managed to make just about
everyone feel at home.  Local Geographical groups have started to have
picnics and gathering to meet in person.

Good luck with whatever you decide.

              - - - - - < < < < < * > > > > > - - - - -
              Dickens, COMH (PWC)   [log in to unmask]
           Den Collins, MOHH (HS)   http://hoflink.com/~dcollins
Hicksville, Long Island, New York   The home of Spotted Corgi Cookies.