[nafex] membership rosters and privacy

["Nell Lancaster" <nlancaster@rockbridge.net>]

Hi all,

I have to disagree with the fluffy privacy advocate a bit.  Membership 
rosters are very handy items for an enthusiasts' group, and a nice 
membership benefit.  It's perfectly possible to publish a roster *and 
respect the desire of members for privacy.

The American Hemerocallis Society (daylily people), has almost ten thousand 
members.  They publish a roster every two years.  On the membership renewal 
form, there's a checkbox to mark if you want to be left out of the roster.

Likewise, members can ask that their names not be included when mailing 
labels are sold -- though in practice, the labels are sold only to daylily 
growers and daylily-related businesses, most of whom are members of the AHS 
to begin with. (Maybe daylily people are less sensitive to postal 
intrusions -- I've never heard of one being upset about getting an 
unsolicited daylily catalog in the mail.)  I've been a member of NAFEX for 
five years, and can recall very few catalogs or flyers that have arrived 
via NAFEX list-selling; the ones that did were fruit-related and I was 
happy to see them.

The daylily society also has an email discussion group open only to AHS 
members, like this one only larger (1000 members now).  It's possible for 
anyone on that group to "harvest" emails and send out email advertising, 
but it doesn't ever happen.  Why? Two reasons: 1) because they'd be kicked 
off the list (clearly stated as one of the rules of the email group when 
people join), and 2) they have an alternative to spam: a weekly e-mail 
'bulletin board' that handles commercial postings and keeps them off the 
main discussion.  The person who sends out the bulletin board uses blind 
carbon copy (BCC) addresses to do so, and anyone can be taken off the BCC 
list just by asking.

Dr. Parmar is a member of NAFEX, or he wouldn't be a member of this 
discussion group, yes?. Those of you who have received unsolicited mails, e- 
and postal, and are upset by them, should communicate directly and 
privately with Greg Miller <gsmiller@cet.com>, the manager of this list, 
and with whichever NAFEX office-holder you think is appropriate.

Nell

Nell Lancaster <nlancaster@rockbridge.net>
Lexington, VA, where there's still ice in the stock tanks at noon...

 




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