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Introduction

The Institute for Spiritual Studies (ISS) newsletter is distributed by e-mail approximately monthly. The purpose of the newsletter is to provide subscribers with timely information about special features, and reminders of forthcoming ISS events, such as quiet days, seminars and excursions. On occasion, the newsletter will contain official announcements from the ISS Committee and information about the availability of reports on ISS events.

Since this is an ISS newsletter, contents will be restricted to relevant ISS material, and only material authorized by the Committee will be published. The ISS Committee has drawn up a more formal set of guidelines for the newsletter; these are given at the end of this introductory page. The rest of the page is devoted to a brief guide detailing how individuals can subscribe to, or unsubscribe from, the ISS e-mail list.

Subscribing

Membership of the ISS e-mail list is open to anyone who is interested in the activities of the Institute for Spiritual Studies. Persons may subscribe or unsubscribe at any time — membership is completely under the control of the individual. The subscription list is completely confidential, so members can be assured that their membership details and e-mail addresses will be available only to the list Administrator authorized by the ISS, and not to other members of the ISS Committee, other list members, or to any other person.

To maintain this privacy and individual control of membership, subscription and unsubscription are both two-stage processes — requiring confirmation and password authorization. This is not as daunting as it might appear at first sight. Basically, to subscribe, you go to the list information web site at the address:

http://web.stpeters.org.au/mailman/listinfo/stpeters-issnews

(Simply click on the above hypertext address line) and follow the instructions given there. You have to provide your e-mail address, and pick a password. That password will be required if you want to unsubscribe, or change any of your subscription details. However, you do not have to worry about remembering the password because you can always ask for it to be sent to you when you need it. It might seem that this would violate the security of the list, but that is not really so, because if anyone asks for your password to be e-mailed, it will be sent only to your e-mail address. Thus, only a person with access to your private e-mail can ever get the password. It is acknowledged that this system does not provide unbreakable security — it is only ever as secure as any plain text e-mail — but that is generally sufficient for subscriptions to a public news list, and it will prevent most spamming.

Subscribing is thus a two-step process. You give your e-mail address and a password. You are then sent an e-mail at that address asking you to confirm your subscription request. It follows that no person who does not share your e-mail address can subscribe you against your will.

When you confirm your subscription request, you will be sent an automated welcome note. This note includes web addresses (URLs) that take you to information and personal setting pages for the list, as well as a record of your password. You should keep this message in case you ever need to refer to the information it contains.

Unsubscribing

Removing yourself from the newsletter list (or unsubscribing) is also straightforward. Go to the same web page:

http://web.stpeters.org.au/mailman/listinfo/stpeters-issnews

and enter your e-mail address to access your person details page. You enter your password on this personal page, then click the Unsubscribe button.

If you have forgotten your password, go further down the page and click on the button requesting that your password be e-mailed to you. When the e-mail comes with the password, you can follow the above steps.

Options

A number of options for managing your subscription are provided by the list management software. Most of these are not relevant to the ISS newsletter list and should not be altered from the default settings. However, the subscriber may wish to change his or her password, or, if going away for some time, temporarily disable mail delivery (without actually unsubscribing).

Changing your password is simply a matter of following the on-line prompts. Mail delivery is disabled by turning mail delivery disabling ON.

The difference between ordinary and digest modes for mail delivery is not relevant for this list since mail frequency is very low. Also, the options concerning posting to the list have no effect since list members are not authorized to post messages to other list members via the list.

Archives

An archive of messages posted to the list (past newsletters) is maintained. Because the newsletter is issued approximately monthly, these archives are divided by years, and the user can access all previous messages for any year, as required.

In Case of Difficulty

If you encounter any problem with subscribing or unsubscribing, or in maintaining any other aspect of your subscription, you can contact the list administrator for assistance. Just send an e-mail outlining your problem to:

stpeters-issnews-admin [at] stpeters.org.au

The list administrator can intervene directly to subscribe, unsubscribe or configure membership details, but do try to do it yourself, please!

 

Formal Guidelines from the ISS Committee

  1. Purpose. The Institute for Spiritual Studies (ISS) e-mail list provides a regular newsletter that is designed to facilitate communication with people who are interested in the activities of the ISS.

  2. Content. Messages posted on the list will relate only to the activities of the ISS, and may include:
    • Official statements from the ISS Committee;
    • Notices of seminars, activities and special events;
    • Reports on ISS events and/or directions to such reports as posted on the ISS web pages.

  3. Submissions. The content of postings to the list is under the control of an Editor appointed by the ISS Committee. The Editor prepares newsletters according to the content guidelines, and is the only person authorized to post messages to the list. Anyone wishing to have material considered for inclusion should submit it to the Editor.

  4. Frequency. Newsletters will be issued approximately monthly, or as the occasion demands.

  5. Format. All messages will be posted in "plain text" format so that they will be readable in all versions of any e-mail program.

  6. Membership. Membership of the list is open to any person with an interest in the activities of the ISS. Membership remains under the control of the individual, and people can subscribe or unsubscribe at will.

  7. Confidentiality. List membership is completely confidential. No one, other than the list administrator, will have access to membership details or to e-mail addresses. Only overall membership statistics will be available to the ISS Committee or other persons.

  8. Administration. Technical administration of the list is provided by an Administrator appointed by the ISS Committee. This person is responsible for the maintenance of the membership list and responds to subscription queries.

  9. Authorization. This e-mail newsletter is authorized by the ISS Committee. Final responsibility for list maintenance and newsletter content remains with the Committee at all times.

 

This site is hosted by St Peter's Eastern Hill, Melbourne, Australia.
Content is authorized by the Institute for Spiritual Studies
Maintained by the editor (editor@stpeters.org.au)