Subject: Digest for the period 4/28/2004 - 4/29/2004 Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 01:00:07 -0400 Table of contents ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Re: election notification 2. BJCP email difficulty ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Ed Westemeier Date: Tue, 27 Apr 2004 08:11:58 -0400 Subject: Re: election notification On 4/27/04, Jeremy Bergsman said: > >In California, every registered voter receives by mail a book for each >election. The cover of the book gives the location of that person's polling >place and the book contains the text of proposed laws, arguments for and >against, etc. I understand the book is in 83 different languages, including Braille and several obscure dialects of southern Elbonia. There is also a section on the voter registration form where you specify your favorite color and font. Considering the current condition of that state's finances, I find it hard to believe the extra publicity does much to educate the voters. Relax, folks. We're looking into the email notification problem, and we're actively looking into a long term solution for it. If people spent as much effort helping us get the word out as they do complaining about it, we'd have a better turnout. Here's the situation: After our initial notification efforts, we got 23% of the total eligible voters to cast a ballot. The ensuing weeks of discussion have only raised that to 26%. Granted, that's far better than the 10% or less we used to get in the days of paper ballots, but still a bit disappointing. Voting in the Northeast region ends next Tuesday, May 4th. The polling place is http://www.bjcp.org/nevoting.html and we still hope for a better turnout. We also hope members in the region will help us achieve that. On the brighter side, maybe this first electronic voting exercise will prove to be helpful, if it raises the level of interest and possibly even encourages more people to run for office. Remember, we're all volunteers, and fresh meat (oops, I mean new blood) is frequently a good thing for an organization. Ed ********************************************************************** * JudgeNet - the beer judge digest * * Send plain text only, no HTML, MIME, encoded text or attachments * * Send subscription requests & changes to judge-request`at`synchro.com * ********************************************************************** ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Ed Westemeier Date: Wed, 28 Apr 2004 07:27:09 -0400 Subject: BJCP email difficulty The good news is that the mystery of why many people in the Northeast didn't receive election notification emails has been solved. The bad news is that I have learned that the probable reason is that my ISP appears on one or more spam blacklists. Consequently, these emails, containing only between 20 and 50 addressees each, were simply trashed by the receiving ISPs without being routed to the intended recipients. That means it would be futile for me to try sending out the nationwide notice about the draft styles forum. We are currently looking into alternative solutions. Meanwhile, please help us spread the word. Anyone can find the link to the draft styles forum on the www.bjcp.org home page. By the way, if you're interested in checking out your own ISP, take a look at www.spam-blockers.com/SPAM-blacklists.htm for a good list of links to blacklists. Ed Westemeier BJCP Communication Director communication_director`at`bjcp.org ********************************************************************** * JudgeNet - the beer judge digest * * Send plain text only, no HTML, MIME, encoded text or attachments * * Send subscription requests & changes to judge-request`at`synchro.com * ********************************************************************** Subject: Digest for the period 4/28/2004 - 4/29/2004 Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 01:00:07 -0400 Table of contents ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Re: election notification 2. BJCP email difficulty ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Ed Westemeier Date: Tue, 27 Apr 2004 08:11:58 -0400 Subject: Re: election notification On 4/27/04, Jeremy Bergsman said: > >In California, every registered voter receives by mail a book for each >election. The cover of the book gives the location of that person's polling >place and the book contains the text of proposed laws, arguments for and >against, etc. I understand the book is in 83 different languages, including Braille and several obscure dialects of southern Elbonia. There is also a section on the voter registration form where you specify your favorite color and font. Considering the current condition of that state's finances, I find it hard to believe the extra publicity does much to educate the voters. Relax, folks. We're looking into the email notification problem, and we're actively looking into a long term solution for it. If people spent as much effort helping us get the word out as they do complaining about it, we'd have a better turnout. Here's the situation: After our initial notification efforts, we got 23% of the total eligible voters to cast a ballot. The ensuing weeks of discussion have only raised that to 26%. Granted, that's far better than the 10% or less we used to get in the days of paper ballots, but still a bit disappointing. Voting in the Northeast region ends next Tuesday, May 4th. The polling place is http://www.bjcp.org/nevoting.html and we still hope for a better turnout. We also hope members in the region will help us achieve that. On the brighter side, maybe this first electronic voting exercise will prove to be helpful, if it raises the level of interest and possibly even encourages more people to run for office. Remember, we're all volunteers, and fresh meat (oops, I mean new blood) is frequently a good thing for an organization. Ed ********************************************************************** * JudgeNet - the beer judge digest * * Send plain text only, no HTML, MIME, encoded text or attachments * * Send subscription requests & changes to judge-request`at`synchro.com * ********************************************************************** ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Ed Westemeier Date: Wed, 28 Apr 2004 07:27:09 -0400 Subject: BJCP email difficulty The good news is that the mystery of why many people in the Northeast didn't receive election notification emails has been solved. The bad news is that I have learned that the probable reason is that my ISP appears on one or more spam blacklists. Consequently, these emails, containing only between 20 and 50 addressees each, were simply trashed by the receiving ISPs without being routed to the intended recipients. That means it would be futile for me to try sending out the nationwide notice about the draft styles forum. We are currently looking into alternative solutions. Meanwhile, please help us spread the word. Anyone can find the link to the draft styles forum on the www.bjcp.org home page. By the way, if you're interested in checking out your own ISP, take a look at www.spam-blockers.com/SPAM-blacklists.htm for a good list of links to blacklists. Ed Westemeier BJCP Communication Director communication_director`at`bjcp.org ********************************************************************** * JudgeNet - the beer judge digest * * Send plain text only, no HTML, MIME, encoded text or attachments * * Send subscription requests & changes to judge-request`at`synchro.com * **********************************************************************