[Businessmtg] List Administrator Report

[Steve Rankin]

Hi ASPers,

 

Last month my report addressed the number of messages I received as List
Administrator the previous month.  While the report differentiated the
messages from the server that do NOT need attention from those that do, many
members focused on the big numbers and missed the point that 90% of them can
easily be ignored.  For those that are new to the ASP Business Meeting this
is a link to that report.

http://www.asp-afg.org/mailman/private/businessmtg/2020-September/003824.htm
l

 

This month I'm going to go over the numbers for the recent purge of the
mailing list on the server.  Again, for those that don't know what that is,
or was . . .

Over time a large percentage of the email addresses that are subscribed to
our server become "inactive".  Inactive could mean almost anything.  With
the advent of free email address such as Gmail, it is common for many people
to acquire numerous email addresses; one for each "thing" in their lives.
When the person is no longer active in that "thing" they simply stop
accessing that email address.  This was compounded for a few years by the
Greeters that actually recommended new members open a new Gmail account just
for ASP shares.  Our greeters ended the practice of recommending that a few
years ago, but the practice appears to be common anyway.  Not surprising
considering that 59% of ASP members use Gmail.

 

Gradually, the number of inactive email addresses dwarfs the number of
active members, so we conduct a purge to clear out the inactive addresses
from the server.  

 

The process goes like this:

 

1.	The entire list of email addresses is downloaded into an Excel
spreadsheet.
2.	Notices are sent out in the ASP meeting telling ASP members to
reply.  
3.	Every time a member replies to one of the notices, the date is
entered in the spreadsheet next to their email address.
4.	After at least a month of notices and replies, the spreadsheet is
sorted by date and rise to the top of the list.
5.	All emails without a date are sorted to the bottom of the list. 
6.	The list of email addresses without a date - no one ever replied -
is unsubscribed from ASP. 
7.	NOTE:  This process completely avoids new members joining ASP during
the process.

 

Previously, we sent out 3 notices over a month-long period.  This time, I
sent out 5 notices over a 6-week period.  Additionally, I sent out notices
on different days of the week to try to capture members that might only read
their ASP mail on weekdays, the weekend, etc. 

As expected:

*	Replies arrived quickly after each notice.
*	The number of replies dwindled each time.  The first notice garnered
by far the most replies.
*	A number of members replied multiple times.
*	Quite a few members wrote nice notes - that's always appreciated.  
*	Nobody complained.  Yet.

 

OK, numbers about the purge. 

 

*	Number of email addresses subscribed at the start:          3,458
*	First Notice replies - DAY 1:
281
*	First Notice Replies TOTAL
306
*	Second Notice Replies TOTAL
92
*	Second Notice DUPLICATE
60
*	Third Notice Replies TOTAL
53
*	Third Notice DUPLICATES
86
*	Fourth Notice Replies TOTAL
15
*	Fourth Notice DUPLICATES
53
*	Fifth Notice Replies TOTAL
23
*	Fifth Notice DUPLICATES
56
*	TOTAL DUPLICATES
255    
*	TOTAL REPLIES
489    14.1%
*	Number unsubscribed on October 9th
2,969     85.8%

 

In other words, the bottom line is that just over 14% of the "members" of
ASP replied after 6 weeks and 5 notices.  

 

I don't recall the exact number, but the roster on the server was
approximately 700 after the purge.  In other words, roughly 200 members
joined ASP during the process and were unaffected.

 

What about the aftermath?

 

It's been almost a month since the actual purge.   A total of 26 members
(well under 1%) have contacted me because they noticed that they weren't
getting ASP shares.  A few more went directly to the Greeters to get
re-subscribed.  The majority contacted me within a couple of days.  The vast
majority simply noticed the sudden lack of email from ASP.  A few of those
that contacted me wrote that they found the notices and apologized. One
member wrote that she thought that she misunderstood the instructions.  One
member wrote a haughty note insisting he read every ASP share every day and
never saw anything about a purge.  He reminded me of two women about 20
years ago that wrote me over 2 years after I'd moved ASP to a new server -
they were upset that they didn't get the ride to the new server even though
they hadn't been in a meeting for over two years.  Ugh.  After this weekend,
anyone that was unsubscribed via the purge will go through the greeter
process.  

 

As of this evening, we're at 742.  

 

Love and SERENITY,

Steve