Dear EATAW colleagues,

What we have seen in the last 24 hours is that the EATAW community that is subscribed to the list is alive and well, that we don't all agree on how to behave, and that different people in that community have different expectations of what happens on e-mail lists. All of this is fairly normal. 

Some people subscribe to the EATAW list without knowing about EATAW and without having ever attended an EATAW conference. The biennial EATAW conference - coming up in June 2013 in Budapest - is the heart of the organisation. This is where as friends and colleagues with a common interest in writing in Europe we have a chance to meet and share our research, our experiences and our problems. It's a great opportunity and I really hope to see as many of you as possible next summer in Budapest.

In between conferences, we all work in our own contexts, and the listserv is the main channel we have for communicating with each other. We (the conference organisers - that's me this time) use it to inform prospective participants about the upcoming conference, and any member can use it to post news of other conferences that are likely to interest those of us engaged in teaching writing, like the 2013 ICLHE Conference in Maastricht, the posting of which prompted two people to attempt to terminate their subscription. It is also a forum where people - like John Taylor, who posted yesterday on the question of how a book cover may impact on sales - can turn to their colleagues for help, and please do answer John's enquiry - see if you can help him - this is why we are here for each other. 

I think Catalina's question about why people leave the list is an interesting one. Maybe (tongue in cheek) we can introduce a rule - someone will unsubscribe those who don't wish to receive further e-mails if they give us a clear and reasoned explanation why the EATAW list didn't meet their expectations. Too many announcements for conferences I can't afford to go to? Don't have enough experience to help others with their enquires? I've just given up teaching and got a job in business? Thought it was all about English language teaching? Can't bear to have e-mails from people I don't know landing in my mailbox?

But our listserv is as good as we make it. If we the members don't initiate (and respond to) discussion topics, it will be just an information board - and that will satisfy some people. Listservs develop a culture: Wcenter, which some of you may subscribe to, is incredibly chatty and easy-going, churning out 15-20 posts a day, some of which only say 'me too'. The people in that community know that and accept it - those who can't cope with 15 e-mails a day have long left that list. IWAC, another useful writing listserv, has quite a different character, much more like EATAW, and often quiet for weeks at a time. We as members of EATAW don't have to agree together (and we never would if we sat down to discuss it) on what we want the listserv to be, but how we behave will determine that, whether we want it or not. 

Let's try to make it a constructive and useful discussion centre (which can also be a bulletin board) and let's use it as a forum that can help us to prepare for the conference itself next June. People could use the list (as Wcenter members do) to propose and plan round tables or workshops others might participate in, or to give sneak previews of the topics they hope to present. Now that ought to be interesting for all of us!

See you in Budapest!

John

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John Harbord
Center for Academic Writing
Central European University
Budapest, Hungary
Tel: 00 361 327 3196