None of us had the anniversary marked on our calendars, but I think it is
time to reflect on the success of the vicug-l mailing list.  The list has
grown to include 279 members and although  subscribers come and go, the
total continues an upward trend.

I guess the list is in the so-called "terrible two's" and cyber-tempers
will flare from time to time, but the quality of information shared and
the helpfulness and co-operation of list members has caused many to
consider vicug-l as one of the better lists available to the blind
community.

Here is a post from just over a year ago which marked the first
anniversary.  I still encourage list members to take a look at the
archives from time to time as they provide a valuable source of knowledge.
That posting which didn't interest you or was over your head at the time,
may be just what you are looking for right now.

- Mark

-- from the archives ---
Date:         Mon, 2 Feb 1998
From:         "M. J. P. Senk - Spamming the Globe!" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject:      ALL: VICUG-L list anniversary - read previous postings

Well, one year ago on this date it seems that Gregory Rosmaita was busy
configuring the listserv options for a new mailing list called vicug-l!

It was a project of a newly formed users group in New York City, but in a
few weeks expanded membership to incorporate the announcement lists from
groups in Chicago and Pittsburgh.

I would guess that with the present total of 174 people on the list, most
of the list subscribers are outside those three cities.

We've had some interesting discussions / debates in the past 365 days and
plenty of interesting and useful postings.

I'd like to remind new and even ancient subscribers that you can review
previous postings by visiting the URL
http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/vicug-l.html   There you can do some
pretty fancy  searching  and manipulation of those old messages.  Gregory
even made a more speech friendly version of the page, but I don't have
that address handy.

For those who find the WWW and forms too complicated, it is possible to
get the archives via e-mail.

Send the command to the listserv address which is :

[log in to unmask]

All commands go to that address, so don't reply to this message which uses
the vicug-l posting address or you'll embarrass yourself in front of 173
readers.

To continue, in the body of the message to listserv, put the command:

get vicug-l log9703

which would return you all messages posted for March 1997.  You could
change the YY MM numbers to get all postings up to the present log9802
file.

While many of the old messages are meeting announcements, minutes and
useless babble, you might come upon some of those "oldies but goodies" !

I'll include some of the subject lines from messages posted in April 1997
below to spark your interest in list history.

Thanks to all for participating, co-operating, tolerating items you might
deem useless and in general making vicug-l what it is at the tender age of
one year.

- Mark

Subjects from April 1997 vicug-l messages:


      A direct action guide
      ALL: newspaper article about someone familiar to this list
      EDU: Netsurfing Without a Monitor - Scientific American articles
      Electronic text titles from RFB&D
      PA:  Carnegie Library makes reading machines and CCTVs available
      PA: RIS fund raiser features play about blind woman
      PA: recent Post Gazette article about Willie Wilson and VIPACE
      TECH: JFW for Windows NT announced
      TECH: browser testers wanted and digital audio books to be
      TECH: computer news from CompuServe's Executive News Service
      Tech: Musical Automatic Teller Machines
      Theater By The Blind
      Voice input/output organizers from Sharper Image
      Web etext collection on Java and access
      act:  A guide to disability rights advocacy
      act:  Letter from Lotus to Education department
      act:  Using Cyberspace: Getting Active Online
      all:  tech:  latest files on Blinklink
      all: tech: web: openweb-l
      chi:  automated fares on the c. t. a.
      digital health care
      disabled man's plea for help heard accross ocean
      e-mail directory national braille press
      edu:  Tech Equity for Disabled on Horizon
      edu:  ncd rehabilitation report
      edu:  special education:  a system disabled?
      edu:  survey on business users of net
      edu:  web accessability at libraries
      edu:  what kind of computer to buy?
      general:  nontech:  making money accessable
      patents: a new kind of refreshable braille
      profile of Greg VanDerHyden
      service provision vs. civil rights
      tech:  another release delay for windows 97
      tech:  interactive media goes bust
      tech:  internet communities
      tech:  net to phone product review
      tech:  new advances in dictation software
      tech: comming soon, eletronic postage stamps
 Announcing dev-access mailing list
 CHANGE: QBasic - Programming Language
 Fw: Treasury may change money for blind Americans (fwd)
 LC Digital Library Competition winners
 Senate Guide Dog Story and Web Sites
     _________________________________________________________________


VICUG-L is the Visually Impaired Computer User Group List.
To join or leave the list, send a message to
[log in to unmask]  In the body of the message, simply type
"subscribe vicug-l" or "unsubscribe vicug-l" without the quotations.
 VICUG-L is archived on the World Wide Web at
http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/vicug-l.html