Sex Ratios, Anthro-l Management, and Voluntarism...

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Well, everybody, as stated in the anthro-l welcome message (which you
all have read by now, right?), anthro-l is run by a Manager, and
technically "owned" by its founder, Professor Ezra Zubrow. Prior to the
formation of the Board, it was run by up to two Listowners at a time. Now
we have dropped that title. The Board of Governors consists of the
Manager, currently Patrick Miller, all those who have been Listowners,
Ezra Zubrow, Eleazar Hunt, and Hugh Jarvis, and Danny Yee who runs our
archive.

These people, who happen to be all men (although I have never met Danny
in the flesh, I saw his picture on his Web homepage and he appears to be
male), are distinguished by their service (past and current) to the list
which shows clear dedication to the list's goals, their experience
running the list, or, in Danny's case, its archive, and their general calm
manner and wisdom in dealing with people and the Net. With the exception of
Danny, they were all part of the Anthropology Department at Buffalo, and
stepped forward to express and interest in helping to keep anthro-l going.

Had a women offered to do so, she would very likely have replaced me ages
ago as Listowner, allowing me to get my disseration finished much sooner.

(If I sound a trifle bitter it is because I never did get used to people
complaining about how others should run their affairs, or to those who
only offer negative criticism, and feel the need to tell people how to
rearrange everything simply to suit the way they feel the world should
be run. Sorry to the vast majority of you who are not guilty of this,
but this annoyance has been building slowly.)

By the way, Board membership is not an award, it is at best meaningless, and
at worst a royal pain in the (rear anatomical area). The only reason
Ezra and I began the Board at all was that we felt that it was not fair
to ask the person running the list (at that time, me) to make strong
policy decisions regarding people who were misbehaving and/or threatening
legal action. We have been very happy with our choices for Board members
and I think it has been an excellent experiment. I recommend it to any of you
who someday decide to start up your own list(s).

As you may have already read (in the welcome message perhaps?), this list
is not a democracy. However, we are always open to reasonable and useful
suggestions. If someone can explain to me why the Board needs to have
another representative, I will certainly make sure that all Board members
receive your suggestions. But until that point is made, I personally see no
need for more people on the Board.


Yours truly,

Hugh

(a disgruntled Anthro-l Board member who just disobeyed his own sig)

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Hugh Jarvis...hjarvis@acsu.buffalo.edu
...tis better to be silent and thought a fool
than to reply and remove all doubt... (oops)

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