There are multiple lists, one per site or site coordinator. Rider coaches subscribe to any site's list in which they have an interest. "Have an interest" does not mean you are committing to teaching there. It does mean you have an interest in activities specific to that site, though, which means you should absolutely be subscribed if you do teach there.
Site coordinators subscribe to their site's list. They can also subscribe to other sites they have interest in.
In addition to per-site lists, there is an "all" list. Anyone subscribed to a site list is automagically included on the "all" list. Nobody directly subscribes to "all".
When a site coordinator wants to communicate with coaches about their site, e.g., to send out an updated schedule, they e-mail their site list. When a site coordinator needs to talk more broadly to the coaching community (e.g., to find coaches to cover classes), then can e-mail their site list or the "all" list.
When a coach wants to communicate with people about a specific site, they e-mail that site's list. In order to do this, however, the coach must be subscribed to that site list. When a coach wants to communicate with all coaches (e.g., "looking for a substitute" they can e-mail the site list or the "all" list.
listname+subscribe@mnridercoaches.org, substituting the list name for listname.That's it!
listname+unsubscribe@mnridercoaches.org, substituting the list name for listname.Send e-mail to listname+help@mnridercoaches.org and the list manager will respond with additional information.
I am. I got tired of trying to figure out if messages I sent to coaches included everyone. I also got tired of not being included on some mailings because someone else forgot to include me in the list of recipients.
I also like the idea of having coaches maintain their address. If for some reason you decide to change your address, I think it's easier to change your subscriptions to a few lists than it is to try to get a bunch of people to fix their address books.
Not at all. I'm hoping people will use it, because I think it's an improvement over the current way we do things. Having everybody indicate which site(s) they're interested in (for whatever reason!) seems like it would make it easier for coordinators to contact the coaches they want to communicate with. Having an "all" list seems like a drastic improvement because it means we're not all having to manage a list of coaches' addresses.
I'd like people to at least try using it. If it doesn't, we can always dump it and go back to how things are now.
It's e-mail, so probably not. However, you're not providing any information other than your e-mail address, and an indication of which site(s) interest you. If the server running this got hacked, the attacker could find out that information. Notably, there's no password or secrets being shared, so there's not much to disclose. Many coaches likely already have your e-mail address, too, so it's not like your address itself is much of a secret.
Early on I expect to leave subscription fairly open, but will probably move it to some form of moderated control. The intent is for rider coaches and site coordinators to subscribe to the lists, not anyone else. No students, no I-am-thinking-of-becoming-a-coach people, etc.
In my day job I'm a network security guy with some years of experience providing defenses to a largely open network. I also have some years of experience doing system administration. If you have specific questions about how I'm doing things or concerns about types of attacks that you're concerned might cause trouble, let's talk!
Yes. I think having a central place for current schedules would be immensely helpful. If a coordinator changes a schedule for whatever reason, the coordinator can upload the most recent schedule to a place where coaches can obtain it online. This is a little more security sensitive (it's effectively a list of who's going to be where and when, and may contain proprietary data about the various sites), and I'd like to think about the implications of doing so before actually taking steps towards implementation.
Great! Drop me a line!