CLAS-talk FAQs

Thanks for your interest in the CLAS-talk email discussion group. Please read this carefully since it contains important guidelines about how to write and respond to postings. We recommend you save a copy for future reference. You are welcome to send us comments or recommendations for changes using our online form. >>

Questions

1. What is CLAS-talk?
2. What are the posting guidelines for CLAS-talk?
3. Why is it moderated?
4. How do I subscribe and post messages to CLAS-talk?
5. How do I post messages to CLAS-talk?
6. How do I manage my subscription?
7. What is the digest form?
8. Is there a CLAS-talk archive?
9. Where do I send administrative questions, complaints, and requests?

Answers

1. What is CLAS-talk?

CLAS-talk is a moderated email discussion group (sometimes called a "listserv," "mailing list" or a "list") sponsored by DiversityRx.org. The purpose of CLAS-talk is to serve as an online community for people interested in cross cultural health care. Participants can raise issues, ask questions, share information and resources, and network with each other about the design, delivery, and evaluation of culturally and linguistically appropriate services (CLAS) in health care. They also receive updates on new publications, policies, and events related to CLAS.

As of October 2010, there are nearly 2,000 list members from the United States and over a dozen other countries. The list is open to all with a legitimate interest in cross cultural health care.

The sponsor of CLAS-talk, DiversityRx.org, is a non-profit project of the Tides Center. Since 1997, the mission of DiversityRx has been to inform, educate, and support a growing field of health care providers, policymakers, researchers and advocates designing and implementing health services that are responsive to the cultural and linguistic differences presented by minority, immigrant, and indigenous communities.

2. What are the guidelines for posting on CLAS-talk?

CLAS-talk is a moderated group, so all submitted posts must be approved by the list manager before they can be distributed to subscribers. This is primarily to screen for spam, duplicated messages, and messages that are better sent to a specific individual rather than the whole list.

The following kinds of postings may be rejected by the moderator:

• Private posts to individual list members unless they benefit the whole list.
• Advertisement of products or services by a commercial entity in response to a question about resources.
• Too many advertisements for the same product or service by any organization.
• Administrative questions.
• One-liner emails ( “Thanks!” or “Great resource.”) We value courtesy and appreciation, but we see too many emails like that, so they will be politely returned to you.

When posting a message to the list, be sure to consider the following:

• Use subject topics as headers. Please start your subject line with an appropriate subject topic. For example, if your posting is related to an upcoming conference, your subject topic should begin with “Conference” and read something like: “Conference: interpreter conference in Hawaii” If it is a news item, the header should read, “News” and the whole subject line might read, “News: legislators approve reimbursement for all interpreter services.”
Recommended subject headers include, but are not limited to:

-News
-Conference
-Event
-Analysis
-Resource
-Question
-Journal article

• Be specific in the rest of your subject line. The title of your message should be clear enough to convey its purpose. For example, if you have a specific question regarding how to start using interpreters, don’t title the message as "Question" or "Help." Instead, choose a clear, expanded title, like “Question: Training doctors to work with interpreters” or "Question: Initiating translation programs in emergency rooms.” Or, if you're going to post your first message to the list, you might want to say "Introduction: Bill Gates" (assuming your name is Bill Gates, of course) instead of just saying "Intro" or "Hello." Clear message titles are important because many CLAS-talk subscribers receive hundreds of emails a day. So if you want to be sure your message gets a close look, your title should be clear and should stand out.

• Avoid posting huge messages. You should always completely say what you want to say, but don't post messages that drag on for many pages worth unless you've got a really good reason. Long messages are slower to process and can cause bottlenecks in the server. So if you want to invite people to register for a conference, post a summary of it with links and contact information, instead of posting the entire conference program and all the registration requirements.

• Trim previous messages from your new message. Often when there's a discussion on the list, people will post replies to a message and include a previous message in their response. This is often a good idea if you want to let people know the context of your reply. However, please trim the size of the original message - there's no reason to repost the entire original, since we've all seen it before. Instead, include the highlights and key points to which you're responding. Never respond with an entire daily digest of messages tacked to the bottom of the message. Emails that large will not be posted due to size constraints.

• Post only to add to the conversation. There no need to respond with a post that says "Yes, I agree," or "Me, too," and nothing else. If you're going to post a message, make sure that message is adding to the conversation.

• Private vs. public postings: respond appropriately. Usually, when a person posts a message to the list, we all want to see its responses, assuming the original author hasn't requested that the responses be private. When you respond to a message, your reply will automatically go back to the whole CLAS-talk listserv and not to the original author, so please be aware of that when you compose your responses.

• Sign your messages! All posts to CLAS-talk must be signed with your full name and email address, and preferably your location and what you do. Be sure to say exactly where you are - for example, if I signed my messages Julia Puebla Fortier, DiversityRx (which I mostly do!), no one will be able to tell if I'm in Arkansas, Australia or anywhere else. Anonymous postings to email lists are considered impolite and won't be posted. They can make it difficult for people to respond to you privately, since not everyone uses email reading software that identifies the author's name and email address rather than just the listserv's name and address. This is especially important to note if you're asking a question or are requesting that people to contact you privately.

• Post only significant updates. If your project is dynamic enough to merit a posted update every few weeks, then feel free to do it. But do not post a weekly or monthly message just to repeat announcing your project, even if there haven’t been substantial changes to it. This kind of bombardment will backfire and your reputation will suffer. Instead, wait until there is news to share or are significant changes to announce.

• Don't post copyrighted articles without permission: Because this is a public forum accessible to anyone in the world, we would be in violation of copyright laws if, for example, any of us posted a complete article from the New York Times, Washington Post, or Reuters service. Most commercial news organizations have strict copyright policies that prevent such posting. Wired News is the exception and allows full posting of its articles as long as its copyright notice is attached. If you want to bring attention to a copyright-protected article, either write a summary of it and supply the URL for the original story, or quote a few sentences from it. Never post copyright-protected articles in full.

• We do not support attachments. Attachments may slow the list's processors to a crawl because of their size and not all list members have email software that will process your attachments. Attachments may contain viruses that will damage the recipients’ computers. So our listserv doesn’t handle attachments. You are welcome to direct readers to other documents or media by publishing them on a website and referring to their URLs. Or, ask people to email you privately—not publicly to the whole list—and you can send them a document as an attachment to a message that originates from your email address.

• Don't send autoreply messages to the list. Autoreply messages like, “I am out of the office until the end of the year. . ." are the scourge of list managers because members can be flooded with autoreply messages if the person using it is subscribed to the list. It's also a major hassle to block autoreplies. If you use an autoreply and it sends multiple messages back to the list, you will be put into hibernation by our automatic bounce software. You will have to fix your subscription status yourself. A notification email will warn you before it happens and tell you how to fix it when it does.

3. Why is the list moderated?

Moderators help a list function smoothly. In an average month, there are several dozen incidents where people try to post emails that are off-topic, are commercial advertisements, involve personal attacks, or even contain virus attachments. The purpose of moderating isn't to control the discussion - instead, it's to make sure that the discussion can occur without any serious distractions getting in the way. The moderator will also occasionally point out the need for courtesy and even-handedness, privately or to the whole list, if it seems like tempers are flaring or people are not being respectful in their postings.

4. How do I subscribe?

To join CLAS-talk, please introduce yourself and briefly describe your interest in culturally competent health care by using our online form.

After the server has confirmed your subscription, you’ll receive a welcome message and a password. Please save this password, in case you ever want to change your administrative settings such as receiving postings in digest format, explained below.

When you join CLAS-talk, please post an introduction of yourself to the group, and feel free to suggest any discussion topics. You don't have to post a message immediately; many people prefer to follow the conversation for a few weeks in order to get a sense of what's a good topic or question to post.

5. How do I post messages to CLAS-talk?

List members may post messages at any time by sending an email to: CLAS-talk-list (at) diversityrx (dot) org Please follow our guidelines outlined above.

6. How do I manage my subscription?

You can unsubscribe, change your subscription address, temporarily suspend your account, and switch to digest form, etc. from this webpage http://lists.diversityrx.org/mailman/listinfo/CLAS-talk-list
You need your password to get in, although if you have misplaced it, you can request it again using the link at the bottom of the page.

7. What is the digest form?

Because CLAS-talk can be a high-volume list at times, you can elect to receive its postings in one large email each day. This is the best way to avoid information overload for many people, but it can also slow down one's involvement in the discussion. Please be aware that the moderator typically approves all the messages for the day in one batch, so you should only get them once a day. To receive the digest, go to the subscription management page at http://lists.diversityrx.org/mailman/listinfo/CLAS-talk-list

8. Is there a CLAS-talk archive?

Yes, and it’s always a good idea to check the archives before you post a request for information to the list, to see if this subject has been covered before.
You can access an archive of messages posted to CLAS-talk by following the instructions at http://lists.diversityrx.org/mailman/listinfo/CLAS-talk-list.  You will need your password to access the archives.

9. Where do I send administrative questions, complaints, or requests?

If you can’t get your question answered from the listinfo page mentioned just above, please contact the moderator by using our online form. The moderator isn’t able to check this address every day, but she will get back to you as soon as possible. If you want to be unsubscribed, you can do this on your own, following the instructions on the listinfo page: http://lists.diversityrx.org/mailman/listinfo/CLAS-talk-list
 

Many thanks to DigitalDivide for their template of email list discussion group FAQs. (revised June 2010)