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What is a Listserv?
It is a small computer program that automatically redistributes e-mail to names on a mailing list. Listservs are generally used to conduct email-based discussions by groups of people or coalitions of organizations and are also known as Email Discussion Lists . Users usually subscribe to a mailing list by sending an e-mail note to a mailing list they learn about. The listserv will automatically add the name and distribute future e-mail postings to every subscriber. In some cases listservs are moderated. A moderator decides who can subscribe to a list and screens postings before they go out to the list.
Introduction
The 1996 federal welfare law that established the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) block grant radically transformed our social safety net by transferring to the states broad new responsibility and flexibility for designing welfare programs while imposing lifetime limits on receipt of benefits and strict work requirements. In some cases, states went even further and devolved responsibility for program design to the counties.
The devolution of responsibility to states had significant consequences for the organizing strategies of economic justice activists. Under TANF, activists confronted separate programs designed by each state, with tremendous variation in rules and administration; this devolution made it more difficult to develop coordinated activities with advocates in other states. Activists responded initially to the 1996 welfare law by concentrating on shaping decisions at the state and local levels. At the same time they recognized the challenges of forging coalitions and campaigns across state lines to address issues of mutual concern. |
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Economic justice activists quickly realized that coalitions communicating across state lines about struggles and successes would be essential to build power for low- income people and improve welfare policy. In 1997 welfare rights organizers from seven states in the Northwest formed the Western Regional Welfare Activist Network (WRWAN) to share information and bridge the work being done. The organizations came together because of similarities in their structures (they were led by low-income people) and mission and the demographics of their states (largely white, largely rural with some urban populations). The initial focus was to identify common themes in their members' experience of welfare reform and to develop strategies to organize for changes in public policy. By 1999 WRWAN's focus turned toward the future and how to inject these common themes and strategies into the welfare reform reauthorization debate in 2002.
How Technology Helped WRWAN Conquer the Challenges of Geography
Wendy Young of the National Welfare Engine
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In the beginning WRWAN had trouble conceiving of how grassroots organizations, operating on shoestring budgets, and dispersed over a huge geographic region, could effectively communicate and coordinate. Since the fledging network couldn't afford frequent telephone conference calls email seemed like a promising alternative. Shortly after WRWAN was established, the Welfare Law Center began the Low-Income Networking and Communications (LINC) Project to help promote strategic use of technology in organizing. The LINC Project's first act was to launch a national listserv for welfare-organizers around the country, and this list served as an initial medium to facilitate communication across state lines. In 1998 LINC presented a workshop at the second annual WRWAN meeting about using the Internet as an organizing tool, and the two entities quickly developed a successful partnership.
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With the LINC Project's help and encouragement, WRWAN leaders deliberately set out to integrate technology into their work with a comprehensive technology strategy, rather than filling technology gaps as they appeared. The network identified what its needs would be as it developed. LINC assisted by demonstrating how technology could help with this growth and providing intensive ongoing technology support to the network and individual groups in the network. As Wendy Young, a member of the WRWAN steering committee, explains, "LINC's technology help makes you more willing to take on technology projects to help with your work and organizing because you know you will have the support to see them through."
Technology assessments of individual groups in the network revealed that many were at different levels of their technology use. When LINC and WRWAN examined the goals of the regional network a clear set of technology needs emerged : all members of the network must have computers with internet access, everyone needed to know how to use email, and everyone must be able to run a database (to support their organizing work). These needs were developed into goals which then became a technology strategy. Once it had a technology strategy, the network developed a funding proposal and secured a grant from the Progressive Technology Project for the necessary equipment and training.
How WRWAN Has Used Its Listserv Strategically
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WRWAN's communication goal was to enable network participants to learn from one another and share both technical information and strategic planning. A network listserv has helped achieve this goal. According to Kate Kahan, coordinator for WRWAN and Executive Director of Montana's WEEL, "We originally used phone conferencing but this wasn't sustainable. LINC helped us figure out how we could use technology as part of a communication structure. Now we have two in-person meetings a year, phone calls once a month, and the rest is done on the listserv."
Some of the organizers had experience being overwhelmed by the information overload on most email listservs, so there was a strategic decision early on to make the network's list different. First, the list was limited to members of the steering committee, which consisted of two representatives from each state. Second, steering committee members made a commitment to both limit the list serv and prioritize it. While the list would only be used sparingly to ask questions or send needed information, participants also agreed to invest the time needed to insure quick and thorough responses to postings. |
Jean Coleman of WROC
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Kate Kahan of WEEL and Beth Kelly (right) of PUFF
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Beth Kelly, former Director of Colorado's People United for Families (PUFF), put it this way, "The list serv has been successful because everyone on the list has specialties and contacts in different areas, bringing and sharing resources from individual perspectives. Everyone is responsive. When something happens locally you may wonder if federal rules have changed. You can put local developments on the list to get information on how to deal with them." For example, in 2000 PUFF learned that the Colorado state legislature was considering a bill that would increase welfare benefits for single welfare recipients who got married. WRWAN had already identified similar legislation developed under the term "fatherhood initiatives" as threatening the well- being of the families of their constituents. When Beth put this local development over the list, several organizations within the coalition responded with advice on how to defeat the bill. PUFF then led a statewide coalition in Colorado that defeated the legislation.
Jan Gilbert of the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada (PLAN) notes that the messages on the list prompted her to action on several occasions, including recently sending a coordinated letter to Nevada's Governor urging him and other Governors to address issues around TANF Reauthorization at a National Governor's Association meeting in Boise in July, 2002. She's also tapped into information that would have been otherwise difficult to access, such as successful legislation that other groups in the Network have gotten passed, such as Montana's At Home Infant Care (AHIC) program.
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As the debate around Congressional reauthorization of the 1996 welfare law heated up in late 2001 and in 2002, WRWAN used its list to share timely information about fast-paced developments and to share strategies for communicating the views of its low-income constituents on issues to Congress. "The list has helped us share strategies and tactics to move the TANF reauthorization work forward," reports Jean Colman of WROC in Washington State. "We have been able to share what works with our senators and congress-people so that we can use a coordinated message."
Lessons Learned from the Email List
The listserv has thrived because of strong personal relationships among participants. The most important lesson from the network's experience with technology is that it doesn't replace the nuts and bolts of community organizing. While the listserv has helped spread information, the list's power as an organizing tool has rested on the relationships of the organizers on the list. Because there were established relationships among participants there was a trust level and intimacy that is almost never possible in affinity-type listservs. Jean Coleman of WROC explains, "If relationship-building is essential to organizing then a listserv will only work as an organizing tool when there are established relationships. Sometimes it seems that people consider being on a listserv as a relationship and this is not always the case."
According to WRWAN listserv participants, the communication that has been facilitated by the listserv has demonstrated that the peer support is more valuable than originally thought. Because most people on the list are leaders in their organizations, the list not only helps disseminate information, but also provides critical support and feedback. Participants believe that the limited number of participants on the list and their existing relationships account for this success. The listserv increased the network's ability to share information, support each other's work, and coordinate actions more closely, which in turn left more time to conduct the most important aspect of their work: membership engagement.
A new Welfare Activist attends a WRWAN meeting, Portland, OR - August, 2001
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The list is effective because of shared expectations and common goals for its use. The group agreed to use the list, to post only as necessary to raise questions or provide information, and to respond promptly to postings. As Jean Colman of Washington's Welfare Rights Organizing Coalition (WROC) explains, "There is an understanding that the list is to share information, discuss issues, decide policy amongst ourselves, decide structure for the network and for some decision making in between meetings. The difficulty comes in making time to read stuff. The problem with email is that you have to read it and it's easy to get overwhelmed. When we send out information it leads to some conversations. Some like it and some find it tedious. So we try to avoid personal notes." |
The listserv is an important communication tool for organizers, but there are barriers to its usefulness as a tool for communicating with members. While the listserv certainly helped the network grow, it is clear that organizers within the network don't see technology as the answer to everything. The most important thing to remember is that technology only helps if people have access to it and know how to use it. Most members of the network have resisted using email or listservs as a means to communicate with their membership because of their members lack access to computers. And although the WRWAN listserv has been important for selected leaders in the participating organizations, it has done little to engage the broad membership. While important information moves between organizations by the listserv, it is disseminated to members in face-to-face meetings.
Where lists hosted by the LINC Project live, a machine known as "sweetie" in New York City
For hardware the LINC Project uses a Dell Pentium II 233mhz machine with 128megs of RAM. For software to run the lists, LINC uses open-source software; the operating system is RedHat Linux 7.2; to send and receive mail on the machine we use a program called postfix (www.postfix.org ); and to process the messages we use a program called mailman (http://www.list.org).
For More information on Listservs or Email-based Discussion Lists:
From ONE (Online Networking for the Environment) North West Sample Guidelines for a Large Email Discussion List at http://www.onenw.org/bin/page.cfm?pageid=416 and Guidelines for Participating in an Email List at http://www.onenw.org/bin/page.cfm?pageid=32
Democracygroups.org's resource page at http://www.democracygroups.org
esources.html - particularly Tips on Facilitating a Social Change Email List.
For more information on the Western Regional Welfare Activists Network please visit www.wrwan.org.
This case study is derived from an original outline, draft and interviews conducted by Adam Horowitz.
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