DABHC@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU (05/25/89)
Fellow Networkers, I logged on this morning to find the following message
waiting. If you are familiar with UMNEWS and the services it provides
you will recognize the importance of this message. If you are not familiar
with the UMNEWS services then you have been missing out. It is an important
part of Networks in education. I am not affiliated with UMNEWS; however, as
a user I am concerned with the threat of discontinued funds. Please take two
minutes to read this letter. If you have never used UMNEWS, help keep it going
for your future benefit. Thanks, Ari Buchler. DABHC@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU
YALECTRONIC MAIL SYSTEM - 05/25/89 11:43:34
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Received: from PUCC.PRINCETON.EDU by CUNYVM.BITNET (Mailer R2.01) with BSMTP id
8802; Thu, 25 May 89 08:41:48 EDT
Received: by PUCC (Mailer R2.04X) id 1810; Thu, 25 May 89 08:09:05 EDT
Subject: <Letter_Drive 2> UMNEWS letter drive
To: CTWCC@CUNYVM, DABHC@CUNYVM, DEPCC@CUNYVM, DJLQC@CUNYVM,
DXLQC@CUNYVM
From: "Andrew T. Robinson" <ANDY@MAINE>
Sender: "Letter_Drive discussion" <UMNEWS@MAINE>
Reply-To: "Letter_Drive discussion" <UMNEWS@MAINE>
Date: Thursday, 25 May 1989 07:56:23 EDT
As you may or may not know, the funding for the UMNEWS project will
be exhausted on 1 July 1989. The search for continued funding has
been unsuccessful, and unless more funding is found, the UMNEWS server
will be shutdown permanently on or about that date.
My purpose in sending you this note is to encourage you to use your
"voice" to appeal the fate of UMNEWS to the University of Maine
administration.
UMNEWS has been a BITNET institution (under various names, such as
VMNEWS and CSNEWS) since August 1984. According to a recent survey
performed by a person in Germany, out of 101 BITNET information servers,
UMNEWS processes 100 times as many requests as any of the other servers.
We have an active user base--over any 120-day period--of between 6000 and
8000 people. This success is not a fluke. It is a result of the fact
that UMNEWS has always been more responsive to the BITNET user community
than any other server system.
The University of Maine administration needs to be made aware that UMNEWS
is worth funding. At the current time, I think most of the administrators
who *are* aware of UMNEWS feel that it is a novelty, but not worth spending
the money necessary to retain the motivated people who have developed
and worked with it.
If we could get enough letters of support, the administration might see
things differently. Unfortunately, even with thousands of users it is
difficult to get even 1% to respond to a letter drive. We need more than
1%. We need every UMNEWS user to write a letter to the University of
Maine administration, telling them that UMNEWS is a worthwhile service
and deserves funding.
Don't be apathetic. Don't just purge this mail and go on to the next
one. WRITE, today. It might take 30 minutes to write an intelligent,
articulate letter that might change the fate of the UMNEWS server. The
address to write to is:
Dale W. Lick
President's Office
University of Maine
Orono, ME USA 04469
If you do choose to write, please send electronic mail to ANDY@MAINE so
we can keep track of how many letters have been sent.
I really do not relish sending this "letter drive" sort of thing to you.
I know how often I get junk mail asking me to save one thing or another
that I really don't care about. But I'm hoping that most of the people
who will receive this letter will not consider it junk mail. I hope you
take the time to write now, because we have less than five weeks before
UMNEWS is shut down--and then it will be too late.
Sincerely,
Andy Robinson
Computer Information Services Manager
Computer Science Department
University of Maine