Rather than call it "a listserve", you might want to call it "a mailing 
list".  The vendor of LISTSERV might be happier, and your association 
leaders might be less intimidated.

Do you have an association newsletter?  A mailing list, used as an 
announcement mailing list, is a newsletter without the paper cost.

A discussion mailing list is something else again.  I can see 40 dirty 
old men/women posting jokes every day, much to the disgust of 960 
others.   With 1,000 households, you must have more than a few lawyers 
... ask them who is responsible for an article written by one of your 
members and distributed in your mailing list / newsletter.  Who is 
responsible if someone moderates articles before distribution?  
Moderation takes someone's time, can make for better content, but does 
it pose a liability?  Does it matter if every article has a trailing 
banner declaring it the responsibility of the writer, not the 
association?   I'm not a lawyer and definitely not your lawyer!

On the other hand, why do you need the association?  Just create a 
mailing list and have your best buds subscribe and write.  After a 
while, make a flyer telling how great it is and pass it around.  Now 
it's going .. ask the association to sponsor it, including a postal 
mailing to members inviting them.

cheers, wayne

[log in to unmask] wrote, in part,  on 10/13/2005 2:23 PM:
> I am trying to convince my condo association to establish a listserve for
> owners(about 1,000 households). Can anyone
> suggest a good source for how to set it up, issues to consider, pointers,
> pitfalls, etc.? I am working with a group where many of the individuals
> don't understand the concept, and others have concerns about liability
> issues. Our Board is very leery of being sued. So far the concept has been
> met with a lot of resistance.
>