saquigley@watmath.UUCP (Sophie Quigley) (05/12/84)
Here is a reproduction (with permission) of a brochure I re-
ceived today about a canadian women's mailing list:
The WEB, Canadian Women's Mailing List, A project of Web,
Women's Information Exchange.
WOMEN...
REACHING OUT...
SHARING RESOURCES
Join the Canadian Women's Mailing LIst, a project of the
WEB, Women's Information Exchange, and receive up-to-date
information about women's events, publications, and ser-
vices.
WHAT IS THE WEB WOMEN'S INFORMATION EXCHANGE AND THE CANADI-
AN WOMEN'S MAILING LIST?
A non-profit society providing information services to wom-
en, the WEB Women's Information Exchange has started the
CANADIAN WOMEN'S MAILING LIST (CWML) as a communication tool
for women and women's groups. By building the CWML and by
then providing mailing labels at cost to women's organisa-
tions, groups or individuals, WEB can help bring women to-
gether with the wealth of information available to them.
The CWML will also facilitate communication between feminist
organisations and allow these organisations to reach out to
women they might otherwise be unable to contact. In this
way, WEB can build and expand a broad base of support for
issues or interests of concern to women across Canada. Many
other powerful groups use computerised mailing lists to
reach and organise their supporters. Women can also use the
computer to their advantage - to create an efficient femin-
ist network.
The inspiration for this project has come from the National
Women's Mailing List in the U.S.A. WEB appreciates their
encouragement and assistance. NWML is now fully operational
- linking-up tens of thousands of individual women with
women's organisations and businesses.
WHAT KIND OF MAIL WILL YOU RECEIVE?
Depending on what interest areas you specify, you will be
hearing from any or all of the following:
* Women's literary, art, scholarly, and political maga-
zines, journals and newspapers.
* Women's publishing houses announcing new feminist
books.
* Producers and distributers of women's music.
* Political groups doing work on feminist issues; action
alerts.
* Non-traditional workers' networks.
* Women's studies programs
* Tours and travels for women.
HOW DOES IT WORK?
Registration with the CWML is purely voluntary. When you
return a completed registration form, WEB will use the com-
puter to store your name and produce mailing labels. Your
name will only be entered into the computer when YOU regis-
ter in any or all of the listed categories. Feminist groups
and other organisations with information of interest to
women will then keep you informed in the areas you have
selected.
WEB will be relying on donations to help build our lists
until they reach a size suitable for selling. Groups wish-
ing to purchase a list will be required to provide a copy of
the item(s) they will be mailing. This insures that the
litterature being sent is of interest to and not exploitive
of women. Mail distributed through the Information Exchange
will carry the name "WEB" on the label. In this way you
will be able to distinguish which litterature you are
receiving through the network.
YOUR PRIVACY WILL BE RESPECTED
Greatest care is given to security of the CWML because we
are accountable to you. All data is under our control. We
are using the best methods to ensure computer privacy; hence
our list is more secure than most organisations' membership
lists.
We suggest that women who are concerned about protecting
their identities use another name. Do not use "resident" or
leave the name space blank. It would be most helpful, how-
ever, to have women register with their real names. This
will help organisations avoid duplicate mailings. It will
also help in forwarding your mail should you move.
HELP BUILD THE NETWORK
To make the Information Exchange a truly effective communi-
cation tool, women accross the country must contribute to
its growth. Women and women's organisations can help to
distribute registration forms to their friends and associ-
ates. Please request extra brochures for distribution in
your area.
If your organisation would be willing to include this bro-
chure in a mailing, please contact WEB Women's Information
Exchange for details about our label credit program.
For information about how you can use the Canadian Women's
Mailing List to publicise your projects or activities, write
or call:
WEB Women's Information Exchange
9280 Arvida Drive
Richmond, B.C. V7A 3P4
Telephone (604) 272-5335
The registration form follows. The general interest areas are: Women's
culture, Women and sports, Lesbian women, Legal/Political issues, Health,
Women of colour, Education, Violence against women, Work.
Each interest area has many subareas, e.g the subareas of Health are:
pregnancy and birth, Abortion/birth control/sterilisation, Gynecological health,
sexually transmitted diseases, mental health, alternative health services,
nutrition/fitness, drugs and alcohol.
Sophie Quigley
...!{clyde,ihnp4,decvax,allegra}!watmath!saquigley