Listserv Guidelines

The ALCA Listserv is a service for active ALCA members. All an active ALCA member has to do to join the listserv at any time is contact THE ALCA OFFICE at alca@alabamacounseling.org to be added. However, each time you renew ALCA membership, please respond "Yes" to the question about the ALCA Listserv and you will subscribe to the ALCA Listserv. Answering "No" will not provide a subscription. ALCA Listserv subscriptions are active for one year. When your ALCA membership expires there is a 30 day grace period for the ALCA Listserv subscription, after which you will be automatically unsubscribed.
PERFORMANCE DISCLAIMER: The ALCA listserv is intended simply as a service and convenience to our membership. Information is posted on the listserv at the request of members and others who have information that it appears would be of interest to our members. Inclusion on the listserv should not be viewed as an acknowledgement or endorsement of the accuracy of the information being provided. This is simply an information venue. ALCA assumes no liability resulting from the use of this service. Consumers are advised to screen information as they would any other information source. ALCA reserves the right to determine which items will/will not go out on its listserv.

Please note the following hints that should make us all more effective in using the ALCA Listserv:

1. Remember the ALCA Listserv is a monitored listserv. This means that only the listserv manager may place a message on the listserv. By handling messages this way, we filter so that only items which should be of interest to counselors go out to ALCA Listserv subscribers. If you are not interested in a certain message, simply delete it- if you are Chapter X you may not care about Chapter Y news, but there is no need telling us you are not interested in news from other groups-we are going to continue sending the messages for each Chapter/Division/Affiliate. We cannot separate items this finely on the listserv. Messages go to all or none.
   
2. Do remember that it is impossible to monitor and send according to each individual taste and philosophy/moral conviction. We do well, but occasionally something may go out that you think is unnecessary or with which you disagree. Such occasions invoke using the “delete” button for its intended purpose. While we certainly value and read your personal responses, getting one does not mean that we can only operate the listserv based on your individual concepts. We are a diverse and multi-opinioned group. We always try to be conscious of that fact.
   
3. If you hit “reply,” the message only comes back to the ALCA Listserv manager. If you want to respond to a message, you must respond to the email address or phone number found inside the announcement. DO NOT HIT “REPLY”. You are not responding to the message. You are only responding to the ALCA Listserv manager. The ALCA Listserv manager cannot answer your question, however, someone listed on the announcement can respond to you.
   
4. The only way to get a message posted is by sending it to the ALCA office (alca@alabamacounseling.org) and asking us to post it. We have been empowered to use our best judgment about whether a message is appropriate to send to all counselors. We consider whether or not the message would be of interest to a significant cross-section of our members. We try not to distribute advertisements about practices or events that seems to benefit the asker more than the target audience.
   
5. ALCA Listserv messages should be sent in “plain text” (part of body of email message) so that all we have to do is forward it. Many, many of our member servers routinely block attachments as SPAM or for security reasons. Even if not blocked, they are often too large for system servers to handle. If you think you are not receiving the ALCA Listserv announcements, please check your SPAM or junk files and see if your network system is blocking it. Then release it from there and you should correct that issue.
   
6. Announcement regarding events that are not sponsored by ALCA or its Chapter/Divisions/Affiliates are only sent when they appear to carry a possible benefit or interest to our members. We avoid promoting events that conflict with planned ALCA events. For example, we promote almost nothing that might affect attendance at the ALCA Annual Conference either in that timeframe (September, October, November, December) or in the conference's general location. Since Fall of the year is the time for our annual conference and recognizing that the primary purpose of our conference is training and professional development (including offering professional development hours), it is not very logical to promote events for other individuals/entities that could be construed/interpreted as being in competition with our conference during this time frame. In particular this will apply during September/October/November/December timeframe. We will obviously continue to promote ALCA Chapter/Division/Affiliate events, but even those should try to avoid conflicts near the conference timeframe.
   
7. Effective March 1, 2013, we will no longer publicize office space/real estate as being available to colleagues.
   
8. Effective March 1, 2013, we will no longer as a matter of course send out individual requests to help locate a particular kind of counselor or one located in a specific area, etc. The ALCA Counselor Locator Service housed on our website was established for this purpose and should be used.
   

Remember that the ALCA Listserv is a membership benefit for active ALCA members. The announcements sent on the ALCA Listserv are sent to be of assistance to our members. ALCA Listserv is tied to ALCA membership and thereby if one does not renew membership one will be deleted thirty days after ALCA membership expires.

This may be more than you ever wanted to know, but reading and trying to adhere to these concepts will certain make the listserv more effective.