Australian Housing Co-ops List Started

With the advent of the Internet, the use of e-mail has become widespread in the modern world. It has proved to be a convenient and a faster way for people to communicate with each other, irrespective of the distances. While e-mail is used mostly for one-on-one interaction, e-mail lists advance the concept further by disseminating a single message simultaneously to a group of people with similar interests. This facilitates a discussion of a topic among the group with all or many members conveying their views to the whole group. Such economical mass-group communication has become easier with the use of e-mail lists, with considerable saving of time and effort.

Several co-operative organisations have set up e-mail lists that cover issues affecting co-operative and mutual type organisations.

The first such list was the "co-operative-bus", an e-mail list managed by the University of Wisconsin Centre for Co-operatives in association with the International Co-operative Alliance (ICA). It has many subscribers and a general theme of co-operative business, with heavy emphasis on issues affecting co-operatives in North America. To subscribe send a message to listserver@relay.doit.wisc.edu with only the text "subscribe co-operative-bus - your name" in the body of the e-mail message.

"Co-opNet", is an electronic mailing list run by the Southampton Co-op Network to promote co-operatives and encourage constructive and diverse discussion on co-operative and related issues. The emphasis is on co-operatives in the United Kingdom. This list is quite active with many messages being posted to the list daily. To subscribe to the mailing list, send an e-mail to: co-opnet-on@total.tcp.co.uk

CGIN (Cooperative Grocers' Information Network) is a membership organisation founded to support the growth and development of food co-ops. Given the increasingly competitive climate all food co-ops operate in, CGIN aims to help co-ops maximise their collective resources and keep them, as independent groups, from being put at a competitive disadvantage. In this context, CGIN has set up the "CGIN" listserve, which is supported by the University of Colorado's Centre for a Sustainable Future. To subscribe to the list, address an e-mail message to listserv@cgin.org, with subscribe CGIN-list (your name) in the body of the message.

"CASCnet-l" (Canadian Association for Studies in Co- operation) is an e-mail list sponsored by the Canadian Association for Studies in Co-operation (CASC). It is a discussion forum to present and discuss new research relevant to co-ops; review books and conferences; discuss co-op policy and current affairs of co-ops and discuss CASC directions for future research and policy. To subscribe, send a message to: cascnet-request@usask.ca, leaving the subject line blank. The body of the message should read: SUBSCRIBE CASCnet-l (that's CASCnet hyphen letter L).

E-mail lists on credit unions include "CU-TALK" (Credit Union Talk), sponsored by the United Communications Group. To subscribe, send an e-mail to: listserv@list.iex.net. In the body of the message type: Subscribe CU-TALK (Your Name). Credit Union National Association (CUNA) runs the "CU-Exchange" for the U.S. credit union community. To subscribe, send an e-mail to: Majordomo@lists.cuna.org with subscribe cu-exchange in the body of the message. Another e-mail list dealing in community banking is "CommunityDevelopmentBanking-L" set up by the Alternatives Federal Credit Union. To subscribe, send an email to: listproc@cornell.edu with subscribe CommunityDevelopmentBanking-L (your name) in the body of the message.

Apart from these lists, the Canadian Co-operative Association (CCA), manages "WICEN" (Women in Co-operatives Electronic Network) and "Youthyac" (Youth and Co-operatives). Two more lists that are aimed at youth in co-operatives are "YoungCo-op" set up by Total Coverage Limited on behalf of the Co-operative College in the United Kingdom, and "YouthNet" sponsored by the ICA Consumer Sub-Committee on University/College Co-operatives for Asia & the Pacific. Details for subscribing to these e-mail lists can be obtained at http://www.coopcca.com/discussion/Default.htm.