Some weeks ago, I had posted an article asking what listowners did,
or recommended be done, when they went on vacations.  Although there's
nothing revolutionary in any of this, here's the promised summary,
paraphrased by me.  Thanks to all who responded.
 
1. RECRUIT: Recruit a replacement listowner, preferably trained ahead
   of time, so you never get into a situation like this.
 
2. IGNORE: Just go away and enjoy your vacation--the world won't come
   to an end.  That is, as long as your own system can handle the large
   number of error messages that will continue to accumulate if the problem
   addresses remain undeleted (i.e., you don't have a quota on your
   mailbox).  Helps if you can direct the "Errors-To=" to some alternate
   address where you don't get normal mail, so you can throw away the
   mess when you return.
 
3. DISCARD (EXPLICITLY): Similar to 2, except you explicitly arrange for
   the messages to be discarded right away.  "Errors-To= None" is not
   permitted by recent versions of listserv; the recommended way is to
   set "Error-To= <some local address that the postmaster has set up as
   a throwaway address>".  This also ensures that the postmaster is aware
   of the unattended list, in case a problem develops.
 
Disclaimer: I don't recommended any of the approaches per se (though
(1) does seem the most responsible)--I'm just relaying the types of
responses I got.  (I'll be using (2).)
 
Shahrukh Merchant