Affirmnet: listserve for the Affirmative Action/Diversity Community

OVERVIEW

The Office of Diversity & Affirmative Action and the State University of New York (SUNY) at Stony Brook has taken advantage of the information superhighway, particularly in the growing interest in electronic mail communication by developing AffirmNet, the Affirmative Action officer’s mailing list.

AffirmNet has been created to serve as a bulletin board for the exchange of ideas on many aspects of Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity. AffirmNet evolved out of the anxious desire to develop communication and interaction between men and women working in the areas of Affirmative Action and Equal Employment Opportunity at educational institutions. This interaction amongst AA officers provides additional resources to help them to accomplish the objectives of creating greater diversity in the workplace and eliminating past, present, and future discrimination.

Gary Matthews, former Special Assistant to the President for Diversity and Opportunity at Stony Brook, established the list in November 1994. We invite your comments and suggestions for enhancement of the list.

Today there are a total of 209 members from across the United States. Our membership is growing every day, and we would like to encourage your participation. The list is managed by Christina Vargas Law and Missy Kenny.

AffirmNet messages and postings include the following:
· Announcements for job openings and positions
· Program announcements
· Requests for information about specific issues
· Information about methodology and procedures for developing accurate Affirmative Action plans and other reports
· Questions, answers and opinions

SUBSCRIPTION REQUIREMENTS

There is currently no fee associated with membership to AffirmNet. In order to become a member you need:

· To be an Affirmative Action Officer or Staff member related in some way to Affirmative Action / Equal Employment Opportunity / Diversity in your organization / department. Membership is limited to those working at educational institutions.
· To have access to electronic mail (e-mail) i.e. have an Internet or a Bitnet address.

HOW TO SUBSCRIBE:

Subscribe in one of two ways:

1. Send an e-mail message to: AFFIRMNET-SERVER@LISTS.SUNYSB.EDU

Be sure that there are no spaces or typographical errors in the address. In the text of the message (not the subject) type:

Subscribe AFFIRMNET <Name of Subscriber>

Once this message has been received, you will receive the message:
“The AFFNET list is not open to automatic subscriptions. Your request is being forwarded to the list owner.”

Once the list owner receives your request, you will be required to submit some additional information about yourself and then your request will be processed.

2. If your attempts to subscribe the first way are unsuccessful, send an e-mail message to:

CLAW@NOTES.CC.SUNYSB.EDU or MKENNY@NOTES.CC.SUNYSB.EDU

The text of the message should state your Name, Title, Department, Organization Name, Full Mailing Address, Phone, Fax, and the
E-mail address that you will be using. You will be subscribed within one week of your request.

After your subscription is processed, you will receive a welcome message and a summary of instructions that you can keep to help you use the system.

SENDING A MESSAGE TO THE LIST

You can send messages to all the people currently subscribed to the list by sending an e-mail message to our list address:

AFFIRMNET@LISTS.SUNYSB.EDU

This is called “sending mail to the list” because you send mail to a single address and the LISTSERV computer system that organizes our list makes copies of your message and sends it to all those who are subscribed. If you send any other commands to that address, they would be distributed to all subscribers, so you must be careful to use the correct address.

Respond to a message that you have received in the same way. If you use your e-mail system’s “reply” or “answer” function you will receive an error message and your response will not be sent.

If you do not want the entire list to receive your response, make note of the author’s e-mail address and respond to them directly.

LEAVING THE LIST

To leave the list at any time, send a message to:
LISTSERV@LISTS.SUNYSB.EDU

In the text of your message type:

Signoff AFFNET

This is especially helpful if you are going to be on vacation or unable to check your e-mail for a period of time.

For More Information please Contact:

The Office of Diversity and Affirmative Action at SUNY at Stony Brook. The list managers are:

Christina Vargas Law, E-mail address: claw@notes.cc.sunysb.edu
Mary "Missy" Kenny, E-mail address: mkenny@notes.cc.sunysb.edu

We hope that many of you will consider assisting us in developing this concept by taking advantage of this opportunity to share ideas. We look forward to having you join our list.