Announcing ADS-M, the email newsletter for the Society

[Grant Barrett]

Below is an announcement that you will receive in the next issue of
American Speech, both as a one-page note and as a blow-in (the paper
notice under the plastic wrap). If you have submitted your email
address to Duke University Press when subscribing to American Speech,
you will also receive a second email notice.

I post this here as a reminder to members and as a way of encouraging
participating non-members to join the society at <http://dukeupress.edu/ads/
 >.

...

The Newsletter of the American Dialect Society (NADS) cannot be
sustained: postage costs have increased, editorial material has been
scarce, and ADS members increasingly look for news on the Web rather
than in their mailboxes. So, the ADS Executive Committee has decided
to discontinue NADS, in both print and PDF formats; yet there is still
a need for something like NADS.

Although the ADS Web site serves many of the same purposes as NADS, it
is useful only if members think to check it at the right times for
certain information (calls for papers and other deadlines, for
instance). Forgetful as we all are, many ADS members would appreciate
timely announcements or reminders of ADS-related business and
activities. The best way to disseminate these nowadays is via an e-
mail list.

A new e-mail list, called ADS-M, has been established in order to
serve this purpose. Unlike ADS-L, it is not a discussion list: ADS-M
is moderated and distributes mail to list subscribers only from ADS or
ADS members who submit material to the list moderator (as though to
NADS) at administrator at americandialect.org. Only the moderator can
post messages to the list, and messages will be posted only if they
pertain specifically and clearly to the interests of ADS and its
members. Messages will be relatively infrequent, on the order of one
per week.

Also unlike ADS-L, ADS-M is available to ADS members only: the list of
subscribers will be checked regularly against the list of current ADS
members. To sign up for ADS-M, visit

<http://www.americandialect.org/adsm>

Signing up will require that you verify your e-mail address, after
which the moderator will verify that you are an ADS member before
approving your subscription to the list.

Currently, 59% of ADS members have provided the Society and Duke
University Press with their e-mail address. We suspect that many more
(perhaps all) members use e-mail, and we hope that all members will
soon subscribe to ADS-M so that important ADS news can be distributed
to members efficiently.

With the help of Anthony Aristar and Susan Smith, Linguist List has
agreed to host ADS-M--many thanks to them and also to Allan Metcalf,
Executive Secretary, who edited NADS to the Socity’s great benefit for
so many years.

Sincerely,

Grant Barrett
Vice President of Communications and Technology
American Dialect Society
gbarrett at worldnewyork.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org