California Educational Data Processing Association
	The DataBus - Vol. 37, No. 6 October-November, 1997

E-mail: Forums disseminate timely information and provide answers to questions.

CEDPA has launched several discussion lists or "Listservs" that represent current topics of importance and interest to the association. These Listservs are forums to learn about, discuss, and share ideas relating to the particular discussion list. By joining these listservs, members receive all communications posted to these discussion lists and have the opportunity to post messages or queries to all of the list's members. These lists provide an excellent platform to exchange timely information and get specific questions answered from sources throughout the state.

At present there are two active discussion lists, ERATE and EDTECH. Additional lists will added as interest or importance dictates. If you have suggestions for a discussion list that you feel will benefit CEDPA's members, please communicate your suggestion to one of CEDPA's board of directors.

The Educational Technology (EDTECH) listserv is a discussion list about technology issues in education.

The E-Rate (ERATE) listserv is a discussion list that has been formed to provide critical and timely information about the Telecommunications Act of 1996. The Act, commonly referred to as the E-Rate, will provide tremendous savings to schools in the areas of telecommunications and connectivity. Recent information exchanged through the discussion list provided specifics about applications, qualifying technology and bidding requirements. There exists confusion and incorrect information that is being disseminated concerning E-Rate. This discussion list provides an excellent opportunity to obtain accurate information from the experts, including participants of the CEDPA conference E-Rate discussion panel. You must first join a list before you can post messages or questions to it. To join a list, send an e-mail message to . Leave the message subject blank. The message body should contain only two words: the word subscribe and the name of the list you wish to join. The rest of the message should remain blank. Do not include any other text or signature lines in the message.

For example, to join the E-Rate discussion list, send an e-mail message to [email protected] with the following in the message body:

subscribe erate

After submitting a successful request to join a discussion list, you will receive e-mail confirmation that you have been added to the list. To post a message to a list, send your message to listname@cedpa-k12.org, where listname is the name of the discussion list (either erate or edtech).

If, after joining a list, you find that you no longer want to participate, simply send an e-mail message to [email protected] with the words unsubscribe listname (substitute the name of the list you wish to leave) in the message body. You will be automatically removed from the list and receive confirmation of your removal.

Some common errors that are being made when trying to sign up for the lists include:

• superfluous text in the message body -- The message body must contain only two words: subscribe listname where listname is the name of the distribution list. Automatic signatures, taglines, or other text should not appear in the message body.
• incorrect command syntax -- The command word (subscribe or unsubscribe) was incorrectly spelled.
• signup request incorrectly addressed -- The request was not addressed to [email protected].

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