On Wed, 3 Apr 1996 10:50:56 CST Jon Eidson said:
>While I appreciated all the discussion (and Eric's comments) on the
>changes in bitnet, my needs are the mechanics required to actually
>leave bitnet from a listserv maintenance standpoint.  While not
>official, TCU will probably be leaving BITNET at the beginning of
>our budget year in June.
 
if your considering leaving BITNET for budgetary reasons, then you
should wait....
next tuesday will be a Terena (again, that's the European counterpart
of BITNET) EXECutive meeting. my proposal being the coordinator of the
NJE is, to extend the NJE until 31.12.1997. i have had talks with
a lot of people during the past weeks and chances are VERY high, that
staying in BITNET (and all of the cooperating networks) will become
FREE of charge until the end.
 
reason for the delay of the 'winding down' is, that an abrupt end will
create major problems for all of us. as you know, so far there wasn't a
clear deadline and even the CREN letter wasn't very useful.
 
the reason for making it free of charge (while using the reserves to
run the GUMNCC) is more or less psychological : 'when the reserves are
gone, then we really need to stop'. the current reserves are just enough
to run the GUMNCC, however without being able to generate monthly
statistics (so this will have to be stopped definetly by end of 1996).
 
-ulrich-
(gumncc manager)
 
p.s.: i hope to make an official announcement, when i can get my hands on
      the EXECutive papers.