Function of Email Lists and Responsibilities of List Managers

The UUA's ITS Web Team is responsible for setting general standards for on-list conduct and for defining the roles and responsibility of list managers. The purpose of these standards is:

  • to maintain fairness and respect for individual and group rights,
  • to see that all subscribers (including the list managers) are accorded worth and dignity in list communications,
  • to protect the Unitarian Universalist Association from legal action or damage to its reputation, and
  • to communicate to list managers that part of their role is to maintain a balance on their lists between too much control and too little.

The Web Team is responsible for determining whether these standards are being maintained and to take action when the standards are violated. These actions may include:

  • temporarily or permanently suspending list membership,
  • temporarily or permanently suspending posting privileges,
  • removing list managers,
  • changing list status to private or moderated, and
  • eliminating lists.

Lists may not be made private, moderated, or hidden except with the permission of the Web Team. An exception is changing an unmoderated list to moderated on a temporary basis when needed to impose a "cooling off period" or the like. When making such a temporary change, the email list site managers must be notified immediately, and the change may remain in effect for only 72 hours unless a longer period or change is approved by the Web Team. Private lists may be made public, moderated lists may be made unmoderated, closed lists may be made open, and hidden lists may be made visible without permission, but permission will be required if changing back later.

The Web Team must approve of all list managers, both new and replacement. All list managers will be subscribed to the lists they manage and to the list managers' list. They may receive list mail as a digest, but they may not unsubscribe or set "nomail."

List subscribers participate in uua.org lists at their own risk. Members of the UUA Staff, Board of Trustees, and Committees who participate on UUA.org lists do so solely as private individuals, and should not be assumed to be participating in any official capacity unless otherwise stated. Neither the UUA nor the individual list managers are responsible for the content of any list except announcement lists managed by UUA staff.