I've tried to keep the administration posts to BLANCHARD-L at a bare minimum but from time to time, it seems advisable to share a few thoughts with you. 1. Please continue to observe the guidelines for posting messages to BLANCHARD-L / -D. Before you hit the "Send" button, be sure you are sending to the correct address. An easy way to remember is that the -request address is for requests/commands to RootsWeb to sub, unsub, and conduct other business with RootsWeb. All posts to be distributed to the members, go to BLANCHARD-L@rootsweb.com. 2. The List Archives at RootsWeb are a tremendously valuable asset. If you haven't been using them, you should take some time to become familiar with them. This is especially important for newer members. A quick check of our archived messages will give you a good idea of what topics (and people) have been discussed in the nearly 2 1/2 years that we have been operating. The databases on our Web Page are another resource that you should be using. Here again, it takes some time to get the knack of navigating around these but there is a tremendous amount of information to be found and knowing who is and who isn't in the databases will give you a much better position for interacting with the list members. If you have suggestions for other BLANCHARD databases to add to our page, let me know. 3. Marc Nozell at RootsWeb is perfecting his "Threaded Archives", a project that he started last year. This is in a 'beta' test phase and, though the site is not top secret, it has been suggested that listowners not publicize this widely until they are fully functional. The "Threaded Archives" may eventually become <the> List Archives at RootsWeb. The heart of the system is Subject: lines. Posts to a list and the replies that they generate are "threaded" together using common Subject: lines so that a reader can follow a particular discussion. Without appropriate and consistent Subject: lines, the "threads" cannot be maintained. Please adopt the habit of adding a meaningful Subject: line to all your posts. Whether or not the "Threaded Archives" become the standard, this is an important rule for all Mail Lists. The GenConnect Boards use this technique for managing their posts so you can see how it will work for the Mail Lists; which brings us to the next topic. 4. Our GenConnect Boards have not "taken off" but are gradually being discovered. They do not compete with our List but offer another way to communicate with people interested in the BLANCHARD (and all name variants) surname. Two reminders: when you enter surnames in the "Surname list" block for any board, be sure that these are only the surnames that are mentioned in your post to the board and please observe the instructions that Queries should only be posted to the Query Board; not to any of the other Boards. 5. If you have any questions at any time about BLANCHARD-L, that are not covered in the Greetings/Guidelines, please send them to me. If I can't answer them, I'll find someone who can. If you are not sure that the subject of a message you'd like to post is appropriate for the List, send it to me first so we can discuss it. I hope you don't find our 'Guidelines' too restrictive. They are intended to provide direction and help in using the List to its best advantage. As of today, we have 254 members with 216 subbed to Mail and 38 subbed to Digest. Fletch