On Tue, 22 May 90 11:59:07 EDT you said:
>                                    In order to make a decision as to
>whether or not to install this product, we would like information on (1)
>cost of obtaining the software,
 
No cost.  Simply send a request to Eric requesting the software.  He will
send it back via the network.
 
>                                (2) approximate amount of staff time
>required to install it
 
Less than 1 day.  With experience, I can do an install in 30 minutes, but the
first one will probably take longer.  It's just a matter of defining the
LISTSERV id, CARD LOADing the files, and doing some configuration work with
XEDIT.
 
>                       (3) approximate amount of staff time required to
>maintain it,
 
There are two parts here.  Maintaining LISTSERV which takes almost no time
at all.  Eric sends out updates which are self installing (if you elect this
option).  If you don't want them to install themselves, you can have LISTSERV
hold the install files, and install them upon your command, or you can have
LISTSERV transfer the files to you and you can manually install them.  If you
elect to have LISTSERV keep archives, then periodically, you have to do
something to keep the log disk from filling up.  LISTSERV will warn you when
this is about to occurr.  I just delete the oldest logs at this point to get
enough free space to continue for another 3 months.
 
The second part is list maintenance which can be done by the list owners as
a part of managing the list.  This can take little or no time, or it could
take several hours a day (if you have many very active lists, with lots of
people signing on and off (or worse, not signing off before their accounts
get deleted)).
 
>             and (4) approximate maginitude of the computing resources
>it consumes (PENNSAS is an IBM 4341 L2 and PENNDRLS is an IBM
>3090-200E).
 
We run LISTSERV on a 3090-400E, and it normally consumes 20 minutes of CPU
time per day.
 
>                 I found a one liner in INFO GENINTRO that made me think
>I should talk to my regional listserv coordinator, whose name I had
>noticed earlier in INFO COORD, but he has not replied and its been 10
>days.
 
I am that coordinator, but I have been out of town for the past two weeks
and am still trying to catch up on the mail which came in while I was gone.
 
These are "MY" estimates.  Others may differ with me.  Your mileage may vary.
Hope this helps...