Welcome to GALA-L!

[Trechter, Sara]

For those of you who are already subscribed. This is your official
'welcome.'


	IMPORTANT--PLEASE READ THIS MESSAGE

Welcome to GALA-L, a list dedicated to the creation of a national
association for the study of language and gender. The working name of this
organization is GALA (Gender and Language Association). The organization
does not yet exist. What exists is an idea, one that has become
increasingly evident in recent years: It is time to acknowledge over a
quarter of a century of excellent work in gender, sexuality, and language
and to ensure that this work continues to be recognized as an essential
component of language research. We, the facilitators of GALA, have created
GALA-L to achieve that goal.

WHY FACILITATORS?

The people behind GALA, listed below, are not an executive committee or a
final authority on the structure of the organization. We are people who
care about the future of language and gender studies and want to endow the
field with
full-fledged professional status. Not all of us are specialists in language
and gender, but all of us work toward the advancement of language
and gender as a field. However, we recognize that our perspectives on
language and gender are partial. We therefore believe that this
organization should be created democratically, through discussion and
respectful debate, rather than
through the executive decisions of a small group. We view ourselves as the
organization's midwives, who will help to usher GALA into the world. But
what GALA will look like is up to you, the discussion participants.

WHO SUBSCRIBES TO GALA-L?

GALA-L is open to anyone interested in determining the purpose, goals, and
structure of a national language and gender organization. The ultimate goal
for this discussion will be to form a mandate for the national
organization. Of course, participation on the list is not limited by
language, gender or sexual preference(s), one's major field of interest in
language, or one's relationship to academia. Graduate students and scholars
beyond academia, including independent scholars, are especially encouraged
to participate, as are scholars from a wide range of fields, including but
not limited to anthropology, area studies, cultural studies, education,
ethnic studies, gender studies, linguistics, literary studies, psychology,
rhetoric, sociology, speech communication, and women's studies. We seek the
broadest possible perspective so that GALA will truly serve its membership
effectively and comprehensively.

HOW DOES DISCUSSION ON THE LIST WORK?

GALA-L is closed and unmoderated. This means that only subscribers may post
to the list, but that membership and postings by members are not approved
or moderated by the listowners. The list has been set up in this way to be
as democratic as possible, while minimizing interruptions from
nonsubscribers. At times the facilitators may propose alternatives or make
decisions about the running of the discussion and of the list, in order to
keep
things moving smoothly. However, we will never make executive decisions
about GALA itself; all decisions about the organization's structure and
mandate will be made by vote of the subscribers. (Of course, like all other
participants, the facilitators will contribute our individual ideas to the
discussion, but at those time we are speaking as individuals and not in any
official capacity.)

The discussion will begin February 1, 1999. At that time the facilitators
will call for items to be placed on the agenda. To keep the process moving,
we will organize the discussion by topic and will set a time limit for the
discussion of each item. To avoid needless repetition, participants who
enter the discussion late can consult the archives to find out what issues
have already been settled. We ask that you not revisit topics that have
already been discussed, to the extent that this is possible. We also ask
that you not stray from a designated discussion topic, so that we can keep
the discussion focused and productive.

**Because of the very focused nature of GALA-L, we ask that you not post
announcements of any kind to the list. Queries should be limited to the
discussion topic at hand only; please do not post inquiries about, for
example, scholarly references, e-mail addresses, or other topics beyond the
scope of the discussion.** If you seek a forum for the discussion of
language and gender scholarship, as well as feminism and the status of
women in linguistics, we urge you to subscribe to FLING (Feminism in
Linguistics), which is dedicated to these issues. To subscribe to FLING,
send the following message to FLING at listserv.oit.unc.edu: subscribe FLING
yourname

Our goal is to have a working structure for the organization in place by
September 1, 1999. This structure will be implemented by an Ad Hoc
Committee, whose membership will be determined by nomination and vote at
the end of the six-month period. The role of GALA-L after September 1,
1999, will also be determined by the subscribers; it may be disbanded or it
may continue in some fashion after that date.

HOW DO I CONTRIBUTE TO THE DISCUSSION?

To post to GALA-L, send a message to GALA-L at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG.
Please
do not post to the list before February 1. Before that time, you may
receive test messages from the listowners, but traffic on the list should
be minimal until the list officially opens for discussion.

The URL for the archives is:
http://listserv.linguistlist.org/archives/gala-l.html

If you have questions about GALA-L, contact one of the listowners:

Mary Bucholtz, Department of English, Texas A&M University
(bucholtz at tamu.edu)
Sara Trechter, Department of English, California State University, Chico
(strechter at csuchico.edu)

If you have questions about GALA itself, contact one of the facilitators:

Mary Bucholtz, Department of English, Texas A&M University
(bucholtz at tamu.edu)
Justine Cassell, Media Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(justine at media.mit.edu)
Megan Crowhurst, Department of Linguistics, University of North Carolina
(mjcrowhu at email.unc.edu)
Kira Hall, Department of Anthropology, Yale University
(kirahall at pantheon.yale.edu)
Monica Macaulay, Department of Linguistics, University of Wisconsin
(mmacaula at facstaff.wisc.edu)
Sara Trechter, Department of English, California State University, Chico
(strechter at csuchico.edu)

NOTE: Although the LINGUIST List has graciously allowed us to use its
server, GALA and GALA-L are not affiliated with LINGUIST or any other
organization.