Association of University Teachers

E-mail list for fixed-term staff

The e-mail communication group (list) aimed at all academic and related staff on fixed term contracts is now ready. I hope you will join it and publicise it locally to persuade as many others as possible to join. The list is open so anyone can join although I expect AUT members might be the most active users of the list.

The list is also 'unmoderated' so what you write goes straight on it. Make sure it is worth saying to everyone before you send it.

I hope this facility allows us to communicate better. In a couple of days I shall circulate a message about a key issue to those on the list which I hope we can have a good debate about, with the possible outcome of changing a particular AUT policy at May Council.

At the bottom of this message are full details about how the list operates. Please join the list and participate

Colin Bryson, on behalf of the national FNS and CRS committees, AUT

To join the list:
send a message to majordomo@leeds.ac.uk with the message- subscribe ftcs

1 CHARTER

The original charter for the list was:

This list will provide a support medium and infrastructure for the activities of academic and related staff who are on fixed term/temporary contracts in the UK. This gives them particular difficulties in maintaining academic contacts and networks. The existence of the list will allow such individuals to feel more involved in the wider UK HE community. The list will also help to monitor the implementation of the Concordat on Contract Research Staff careers recently established between the UK Research Councils and the CVCP.

The list is there to:

publicise events of interest to FTCS;
share information amongst the FTCS community;
coordinate campaigns on terms and conditions of employment;
provide mutual support for individuals;
provide for general discussions on relevant topics.

2 MEMBERS

Any employee of a Higher Education Establishment in the UK and who is employed on a fixed term contract basis is welcome to join the list. Job description is irrelevant.

Other categories of staff may also be welcome to join and participate in the list. Membership of a recognised trades union is NOT required.

3 ACCEPTABLE USE

A few points to bear in mind when using the list:

Use meaningful subject lines;
Send plain text messages only (no PostScript; Word or encoded files);
Send text in the body of the message (no attachments);
Keep the line length reasonable (60-70 characters);
Avoid the use of CAPITALS to emphasis a point;
Include your e-mail address in the body of the message (or in a signature);
Don't bother sending acknowledgements of messages to the whole list;
Decide whether its better to reply to the sender rather than the list;
Don't re-post all the original message if replying;
Remember to unsubscribe if you change or lose an e-mail address.
No commercial advertising;

4 OPERATION OF LIST

The list is hosted on the Majordomo system sited at The University of Leeds. Individuals may join the list by sending an e-mail message with the body

subscribe ftcs

to majordomo@leeds.ac.uk

To contribute to the list, sent your e-mail to ftcs@leeds.ac.uk

5 GENERAL LIST COMMANDS

This is Brent Chapman's "Majordomo" mailing list manager, version 1.93.

In the description below items contained in []'s are optional. When providing the item, do not include the []'s around it.

It understands the following commands:

subscribe <list [<address]
Subscribe yourself (or <address if specified) to the named <list.
unsubscribe <list [<address]
Unsubscribe yourself (or <address if specified) from the named <list.
get <list <filename
Get a file related to <list.
index <list
Return an index of files you can "get" for <list.
which [<address]
Find out which lists you (or <address if specified) are on.
who <list
Find out who is on the named <list.
info <list
Retrieve the general introductory information for the named <list.
lists
Show the lists served by this Majordomo server.
help
Retrieve this message.
end
Stop processing commands (useful if your mailer adds a signature).

Commands should be sent in the body of an email message to "Majordomo@leeds.ac.uk".

Commands in the "Subject:" line NOT processed.

If you have any questions or problems, please contact "Majordomo-Owner@leeds.ac.uk".

6 PROBLEMATIC ADDRESSES

With all lists it is inevitable that some e-mail addresses on the list will become unreachable. In such circumstances the list administrator will receive an error message. If an address is seen to persistently generate such error messages it will be removed by the list administrator. If this is inappropriate or the problem subsequently resolves itself, individuals are welcome to re-join the list.

Acknowledgement : Items taken from the introduction files to: allstat; trades-unions-he; econometric-research; utsg.

Return to UCL AUT Home Page. Enquiries to Rob Jones.

Last updated 12th March 1997