From the information provided, this group that has come up with this  
non-profit organization to provide a home to the lists that were being hosted by  St 
Johns, including Gambia L, are among other things; a charity  organization.
 
quote
The purpose of the corporation is to assist  individuals and groups (clients)
which offer support, information, and  community to those in need, including
those affected by disability, family  issues, health issues, and other similar
needs.  To provide this  assistance the corporation will offer its clients
technical assistance and  services, including Internet services.
unquote
 
Aside from the nominal amount of $10 -$20 they have asked for, I would dare  
to say that if donations are sent to them annually, or anytime one chooses  to 
do so, they will be very appreciative of that. I think that if any  G-L list 
member wants to send them a tax deductible donation in the name of  G-L or in 
their own name or that of their family, those would serve as  gestures of deep 
gratitude and tokens of our appreciation for the service they  will be 
rendering to us as well as to others.
 
In addition, I would like to suggest that we collect donations to  purchase a 
plaque to be inscribed with a message of thanks and  appreciation and some 
books on The Gambia to present to St John's  University (to put in their 
library) as a token of our appreciation for hosting  the G-L on their server all 
these years. 
 
Since Dr Malanding Jaiteh is in the vicinity, perhaps he would not mind  
receiving these donations and doing the honors? One of my daughters is in Grad  
school at Columbia and I donate her services (Will inform her and I am sure she  
will not mind) to help Dr Jaiteh in coordinating this effort if you accept? I 
 hope I am not being too forward in suggesting you Malanding, but I just 
think  this would be a nice gesture, especially since you are one of the list  
managers.
I would like to know what everyone thinks of this and if there are  
other/better suggestions, let us put our heads together.
 
Sister Jabou Joh. 
 
In a message dated 1/4/2006 2:41:33 P.M. Central Standard Time,  
[log in to unmask] writes:

Folks,
The management after considering all options, has chosen  ICORS to be
Gambia-l's new home. ICORS is incorporated by former managers  of
Maelstrom lists as a replacement to St. Johns services. I include one  of
their messages as a backgrounder.
From what we know ICORS will work  very much like St. Johns. The
transition will be seamless. All subscribers,  and archives will be
migrated at once so no one should worry about  resubscribing. Except
during hours leading to the migration when the list  will be put on hold,
subscribers would not need to do anything. The  migration is scheduled
January 11. We will inform you when this is  confirmed. In theory members
do not have to do anything during the  migration except exercise a little
patience as messages sent during the  hold period would not be delivered
right away. Once migration is completed  there will be a new addresses to
send request for subscription and messages  to the list.

In order to help support this venture ICORS have asked for  an annual
dues/donations of 20 dollars US. This we believe is a fair deal  and glad
to say 2006 dues have already been paid for by one of the  managers.

This is where things stand and we will keep you updated as  soon as we
know more. Please do not hesitate to ask questions we will do  our best
to answer them when we can.

Malanding Jaiteh

Dear  Maelstrom Listowner community,

In recent months there have been rumors  that SJU is contemplating shutting 
down
Maelstrom. A decision was supposed  to be reached in May, with 6 months 
warning
before the potential shutdown,  but that announcement has been delayed. We are
very grateful that SJU has  spent the money and resources to make Maelstrom
possible all these years,  and sad to see that this era may pass.

With this in mind, some of us  are taking steps to ensure that the Maelstrom
lists will continue to have a  home. ICORS -- Information Center for Online
Resources and Services, Inc.  -- has been incorporated as a non-profit 
charity to
take care of this.  LSoft is interested in offering us a home and Listserv
software, for which  we are very grateful. This goes a long way toward keeping
the costs down.  Volunteers have been found to fill Kary's position -- though 
it
is  difficult to think about doing this without Kary's unending work, and he  
will
be missed.

The following Mission Statement and Policies are a  work in progress, and
suggestions and requests for additional clarity are  welcome.

Mission Statement:

The purpose of the corporation is to  assist individuals and groups (clients)
which offer support, information,  and community to those in need, including
those affected by disability,  family issues, health issues, and other similar
needs.  To provide  this assistance the corporation will offer its clients
technical assistance  and services, including Internet services.

The Internet services  referred to in the mission statement are, primarily, a
Listserv-based  server for email lists as we have at  Maelstrom.

****
Policies:

In order to maintain some order and  similarity among lists under the ICORS
umbrella, to maintain privacy for  list subscribers, and to minimize confusion
among subscribers who belong to  multiple lists, all list owners and 
subscribers
will be expected to agree  to a minimum level of conduct. This will enable 
fair
use of what is still  donated space, allow those who saved their archives 
before
they were  deleted from Maelstrom to restore them, and allow for future 
growth of
the  ICORS’s lists. While list owners are welcome to add their own rules  and
responsibilities, all of the below are required on every  list.

This message is descriptive, and when we have full subscriber and  listowner
agreements they will contain more terms dealing with specific  restrictions on
objectionable material (obscenities, hate mail, spam,  etc.). We also hope 
that
listowners will stay involved with any problem on  their list(s) that violates
ICORS's policies in a way that necessitates  ICORS stepping in. Constructive
listowner input is valued.

List  owner responsibilities include:

* Having at least one list owner of  each list subscribed to the Owner’s list.

* Working to keep their  list(s) free of space hogs – excessive quoting, long 
sig
files, jokes  forwarded with hundreds of previous header lines.

* If access level to  archives is changed (such as moving from private to
public), members are to  be notified. Messages posted under a more restrictive
access level will be  removed before such a change is made.

* Membership listing may not be  shared/published/exchanged.

* Subscription requests must be confirmed  -- automatically or through the
listowner(s)-- to prevent people from being  subscribed without their 
knowledge.

* Potential conflicts of interest  (e.g. related associations, affiliations, 
etc)
should be noted.

*  Exchanges with individual list members are not shared outside the owner  
team
except if they need to be shared with overall management (ICORS) to  address a
problem.

* E-mail addresses are hidden in public archives.  This option will be
available in the newer version of Listserv we will be  using after the move.

* ICORS services are used by many people with  disabilities or who have
restricted access to the Internet. Where possible,  list owners are expected 
to
provide solutions that meet the needs of such  members. (e.g. restrictions on 
the
posting of html or  attachments).

Subscriber responsibilities include:

* The  subscriber owns the copyright for their own posts. However, the list  
owner
holds a compilation copyright in the archives.  This does not  override the
individual copyright but allows the list owner to protect the  archives as a 
whole.

* The subscriber grants unrestricted world-wide  permission for Listserv to
distribute the message, distribute the message  as part of a digest, store it 
in
the archives indefinitely and have others  search and view these archives as 
per
the list policy (private or public  archives). Other exceptions maybe 
specified
by the list owner (e.g.  external archives).

* The subscriber acknowledges that they, not the  organization or the
list owner, are responsible for their writings, even if  moderation is in
place. The subscriber also acknowledges that, while the  list owner(’s)
will work to enforce privacy rules, they can not necessarily  control the
actions of the list membership outside of the list. They may  not be held
responsible for any damages should a list member choose to  ignore any rules.

* The subscriber acknowledges and respects copyright  and all other authors:
they will not quote, full or in part, any message  from the list outside of 
the
list without express permission of the author  and anyone else quoted in the
post. Exception: the "newsletter/announcement  clause", abstracts or literary
quotes, quotes from speeches, research  articles, books, newspapers and other
_publicly_ published materials. All  within the 'fair-use' limitations as set 
by
international Copyright  conventions.

* The subscribers do not share other’s personal  information gained from 
private
correspondence (email, phone, written, FTF  contact), either quoted or
paraphrased, with anyone, including current or  past list members, without
permission from the person being  discussed.

* The subscribers will do their best to conserve space and  make Digests more
readable. This includes trimming quoted material to the  minimum necessary to 
get
the meaning across, not using huge sig files, and  not forwarding material 
with
hundreds of header lines included from  previous forwards.

* No cross-posting. Privacy is compromised when  reply-all is used, and 
responses
meant for one list end up being quoted on  another.

****
Answers to questions:

* What lists will be  allowed to move to ICORS?

Those that are involved with disabilities,  family issues, and health issues. 
For
current Maelstrom lists with special  hosting needs that do not directly fit
these categories, considerations  might be possible on a case-by-case basis.

* What responsibilities will  I have for the move?

Keeping your list members informed, and letting  them know the policies.
Answering any questions ICORS needs to know about  your list to facilitate 
the move.

* What responsibilities will I have  after the move?

Subscribing to and reading the Owners' list.  Maintaining the minimum
responsibilities. Being actively involved in  maintaining your list.

* What will this cost me? My  subscribers?

Nothing that you are unable to pay. We are pursuing  grants, and will set up 
an
account for tax deductible donations. If fewer  than 10% of the membership 
base
contributes $1 a year, we will have enough  to keep operating. There is a
suggested annual contribution of $10 a year  per listowner, but that will be
waived in the event of hardship.

*  If Maelstrom shuts down, will ICORS be ready?

Backups of all files for  Maelstrom lists are already being made. Lists will
continue operating -- up  until the shut-down date if necessary -- until the 
move
has been completed.  Our intention is that everything will be in place well
before the potential  shut down.

* Will everyone have to learn the new address  immediately?

We hope to keep the current addresses set up for a while,  and have them 
routed
to the new address.

****
If you have input  or questions please address your comments  to
[log in to unmask]

If you want to be involved in this please  subscribe to our project list
by sending an empty message to  [log in to unmask]

Jasper van Beusekom
Karen  Reznek
Cynthia Teeters
Tom  Rawson

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To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface
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To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to:
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