Communicating Together: Listserv Tips to Share with Your Members, Part 2 page 1

Fig. 1: Click on the label to get that group of listservs (those beginning with DIV1-DIV2).

This information is prepared by the APA Division Services Office staff. You are free to share it with others.

Your division’s listserv is an electronic mailing tool that can automatically distribute an e- mail

message to every subscriber to the listserv.  When you send a message using the listserv, you

only have to type in one e-mail address to send your communication to all of your subscribed

division colleagues.  Let’s review some basic know-how for sending messages on APA-hosted

listservs.

On APA’s server, most division listserv names start with DIV and the division number,

such as DIV1ANNOUNCE. You can find an alphabetically arranged list of APA-hosted list-

servs when you log in to APA’s listserv portal at http://lists.apa.org.  You can tell that a listserv

is hosted on APA’s server by examining the e-mail address—those addressed in the style of

“[listserv name]@lists.apa.org” are hosted by APA. (See Fig. 1.)

To address a message to the listserv, simply use the listserv’s name, in front of @lists.apa.

org.  For example, to e-mail a message to the DIV17ANNOUNCE listserv, address your e-mail

to DIV17ANNOUNCE@lists.apa.org.  Send your messages “from” the e-mail account by which

you are subscribed to the listserv, because listservs are set up to recognize subscribers by

their e-mail address.  The listserv can “reject” your message if you send it from an unrecog-

nized e-mail account. (See Fig. 2.)

In acknowledgement of your submission to the listserv, the system may send you a confirma-

tion link to click to prove that you are a person and not a machine sending bulk junk e-mail

Communicating Together: Listserv Tips toShare with Your Members, Part 2

Communicating Together: Listserv Tips to Share with Your Members, Part 2 page 2

(spam).  Or, if the listserv is set up for moderation, the system may send you a message ac-

knowledging that your post has been received and forwarded to the moderator.  This means

that your message will not be posted until it has been reviewed and released by the moder-

ator. (See Fig. 3 and Fig. 4.)

Each listserv has been set up in the way specified by the division, and will have a style that is

discernable to its subscribers.  If the listserv is primarily used to send announcements of di-

Fig. 2: This e-mail lets you know that the e-mail account you used to send your message is not sub-scribed to the listserv.

Fig. 3: This e-mail lets you know you need to click to confirm your message.

Fig. 4: This e-mail lets you know your message has been received and is being reviewed.

Communicating Together: Listserv Tips to Share with Your Members, Part 2 page 3

vision business, with no back and forth commentary from subscribers, a moderator will assist

to maintain this style of posting.  Or, the listserv might be set up to automatically recognize

subscribers and allow instant posting for back and forth sharing and discussion.  APA’s List-

serv Rules can be found at http://listserve.apa.org/infopages/APARules.html and all listserv

users are asked to review and follow these rules.  The listserv rules protect the listserv envi-

ronment and also protect APA’s nonprofit tax status.

The listserv archive is a tool you can use to review the posts that have been made to the

listserv.  When you log in at http://lists.apa.org/ using your recognized e-mail address, you

will have the ability to see the archives for the listservs to which you are subscribed. (See Fig.

5 and Fig. 6.)

Once logged in at http://lists.apa.org/, click the listserv name from the alphabetical list.  Your

dashboard view will show the latest messages and the archives arranged by month.  Clicking

will open the messages or the month folders. There is also a “Search Archives” feature in the

Fig. 5: Go to lists.apa.org and click to continue.

Fig. 6: After you click to continue, you will see this and can click to get help with logins and subscrib-er options.

Communicating Together: Listserv Tips to Share with Your Members, Part 2 page 4

navigation bar that you can use to search by word or phrase. (See Fig. 7.)

If you ever wish to send a question to the listserv’s manager, you can use an addressing

style that will automatically send your question to the right person.  To send a question or

to request help, address your e-mail in the style of [listserv name]-request@lists.apa.org.  For

example, to e-mail a question to the manager of the DIV17ANNOUNCE listserv, you should

address your e-mail to DIV17ANNOUNCE-request@lists.apa.org. (See Fig. 8.)

RESOURCES

Keeping In Touch: Listserv Tips to Share with Your Members, Part 1

• HTML: http://www.apa.org/about/division/digest/share-members/listserv-tips.aspx

• PDF: http://www.apa.org/about/division/digest/share-members/listserv-tips.pdf

APA Listserv Website, http://lists.apa.org/

APA Listserv Rules, http://listserve.apa.org/infopages/APARules.html

APA Social Media/Forum Policy, http://www.apa.org/about/social-media-policy.aspx

Fig. 7: Once you are on the page for the listserv, you will see the most recent messages, the ar-chives by month, and the search feature.

Fig. 8: Send an e-mail like this to ask for help from the listserv manager.