Why?

Mailing lists seem like a good idea to me. We have a need for coordinators to be able to easily reach coaches affiliated with their sites. We also have a need for coaches to be able to reach each other for things like finding substitutes. Currently we ALL have to maintain lists of e-mail addresses, and that seems to me like some pointless duplicative effort.

How do they work?

Each college has its own list. Coaches who teach at a college subscribe to that college's list. Coaches who have any interest in what's happening at a specific college can also subscribe. When a coordinator needs to communicate with the coaches who teach at their school, they e-mail the list. Same goes for coaches who need to reach other coaches who teach at the college.

By subscribing to any college's list, you also get added to the all list. As the name implies, messages to the all list go to everyone. Coordinators or coaches who are seeking coverage for a class can e-mail all, which sends to everyone. Messages that pertain to all coaches (like Jay's fatality reports) can also go to all.

Because coaches are responsible for signing up to lists, the lists will always be current. Nobody needs to try to search old messages for addresses, hoping that the old message actually has everyone's address. Coordinators won't send messages to coaches who aren't working at their sites, but can easily reach those who are (and also those who have an interest in their sites).

Got security?

There's not much to secure. Your e-mail address generally has to be known to those who e-mail you, so that's not really security sensitive. There's no passwords or other private data being stored. No other information (e.g., phone number, address, financial stuff, etc.) is needed or wanted. All communication is through old, boring, entirely functional e-mail.

That said, the system handling the messages is pretty hardened against attack. Feel free to poke at it if you want, but don't complain if it decides it no longer wants to talk with you.