I'm trying to reply to several notes at once, so forgive the confusion.
 
>An  example  of  an  excellent  seminar is  "The  Second  Conference  on
>Computers,  Freedom   and  Privacy",  March  18-20   in  Washington  DC.
>Registration is $295. Maybe we could do something like this.
 
I  don't think  there  is enough  interest to  organize  a 3-days  yearly
seminar. The topic is too technical, that is, people in charge of running
servers  and lists  will want  to attend,  end-users will  never get  the
funding, and  manager-types will not  be interested. Freedom  and Privacy
attracts journalists, executives, software developers, and so on. Limited
audience would considerably  increase your fee, and nobody  would wind up
attending.
 
>>Would you be willing to travel to attend?
 
I think most people would be willing  to travel to any reasonable city in
the US. However I think most people  would rather walk to the library and
just buy a book on LISTSERV.
 
>>Is there really enough interest  in LISTSERV to have formal instruction
>>on it's use?
 
Quite possibly, in  my opinion. I don't think SHARE  is the place though:
there aren't  many BITNET/Internet  people at SHARE,  and I  assume there
will be  even less with the  present economical situation. You'll  end up
with many  commercial companies  asking you what  vendor is  selling this
software, and the answer  is, well, if you REALLY want  it and you REALLY
think you can  handle all the table building and  possibly required local
changes to make it work outside BITNET, with no documentation whatsoever,
something can be  arranged, but you'd better forget it.  Frankly, I would
rather not  have to  answer questions  from a  crowd of  non-BITNET sites
following a  LISTSERV training session  at SHARE.  This isn't to  say you
shouldn't  be doing  BOF's,  but I  definitely think  a  session with  an
attractive  abstract  on  group  communication under  VM  would  only  be
frustrating for everyone.  And, of course, VMS people tend  not to attend
SHARE :-)
 
The ideal solution is for some well-connected (I'm talking flights rather
than network here ;-) ) university  with good local expertise on LISTSERV
to organize training seminars, say, 2-4  times a year and charge whatever
they feel  is a right price  for the service. In  addition, someone could
write a book for those not fortunate enough to be able to attend training
sessions.
 
Again, these  are just  my thoughts -  I'm not involved  in any  of this,
after all :-)
 
  Eric