A couple of recent discussions here and on some other lists I subscribe
to gave me the following idea.  Would it be possible (desirable?), for lists
to be easily managed in a loose "parliamentary" fashion?  What I mean by this
is for a list-owner(L-O) to be allowed to easily create a temporary "sub-lists"
for a particular "hot topic".  Or in government-ise, send an issue to
committee, with the committee chair being charge with reporting to
the final motion to the main body for consideration.
 
You can do that now, but the amount of effort required and the level of
cooperation between ListServ Manager(L-M) and L-O is currently prohibative
to such a set up.  It would seem possible for there to be a simple set
of commands which would let a L-O quickly setup a temporary commitee list
based on restrictions set by the L-M.
 
The restrictions that come to mind would be things like, the number of active
"committee lists" an Owner might set up.  The length of time a C-List could
exists without the LM's approval.   And all the other issues I haven't
thought about but will be told to me..... ;-).
 
Another possible use for these sublists would be for 'Voting' issues or
surveys.  Perhaps, these type of functions could be 'specialized' with
automatic forms tallying, etc.  (Though, I'd say this is more the L-O's
area than the ListServ's).
 
The benefits would be that topics of some importance could be discussed
among those listmembers who are interested.  Those who are not, wouldn't
be "disturbed".  The results or current postings would be available via the
normal listserv archiving under the sublist's name.  When the sublist
is shut down, either a summary of the findings could be posted or a notice
of where to get the discussion archives could be posted to the main list.
 
I just thought I'd present this idea to the list and Eric.  It just seemed
a half way interesting model for future mailing list servers....  Of course,
we'd all have to read up on Robert's Rules of Order to REALLY make it work.
But then, they probably don't really apply since everyone in a discussion
group can talk at once while not listening.....  8-)
 
Greg Monroe  <[log in to unmask]>
Duke's Fuqua School of Business
Durham, NC  27708-0114