About AMWA's Listserves

AMWA's special topics listserves are open forums for AMWA members to freely share their knowledge and questions about medical communication. All members are welcome to participate, regardless of their level of experience. There are currently 5 AMWA special topics listserves. These listserves allow subscribers to post e-mail messages and replies to all AMWA members who have subscribed to a particular listserve. When a message is posted, subscribers will receive an e-mail message in their inbox. When a listserve is particularly active, subscribers may receive many e-mails on a daily basis. All members are welcome to participate, regardless of their level of experience. Send questions regarding AMWA's listserves to Ronnie Streff (ronnie@amwa.org), Communications & Technology Specialist.

In addition to the 5 special topics listserves available to all members, freelance members with a listing in the AMWA Freelance Directory have access to the Freelance Opportunities Listserve. The Freelance Opportunities Listserve is dedicated to postings from members listed in the AMWA Freelance Directory who are seeking freelance help or offering freelance services. Posting information about full- or part-time employment is not permitted.

Members who are are subscribed to the listserves may unsubscribe at anytime. The subscribe/unsubscribe process usually takes 1 to 2 business days, and can be done via the Manage Subscriptions button above, the Membership Account Update page, the Membership Renewal page, the Membership Application page, or the printed membership renewal invoice. Members may also unsubscribe at any time by e-mailing their name and the name of the list from which they wish to unsubscribe to unsubscribe@amwa.org .

AMWA's Special Topics Listserves

AMWA's special topics listserves are organized into topics on the basis of the following specialties:

• Editing-writing: For AMWA members who are editors or writers, or who are interested in topics related to medical editing and writing.
• Educators: For AMWA members who are educators, work in academic settings, or are interested in related topics.
• Freelance: For AMWA members who are freelances or interested in becoming freelances.
• Pharmaceutical ("pharma"): For AMWA members involved or interested in topics related to the pharmaceutical or biotechnology sectors.
• Public relations, advertising, marketing ("pram"): For AMWA members involved or interested in these fields.

Members may subscribe to any or all of the 5 listserves. When you subscribe to a listserve, messages posted to that listserve will arrive in your inbox. Please keep in mind that this can result in your receiving numerous e-mails on a daily basis. Also, remember that every posting you make to the listserve will appear as an e-mail for every subscriber to that list and also will be available for future viewing in the listserve archives.

Listserves are a great medium with which to solicit the advice of your peers, benefit from their experience, and participate in an ongoing conversation. We hope AMWA's listserves will provide a useful and informative means of communicating with your fellow AMWA members!

Lively and candid exchanges are encouraged; however, by joining and using these e-mail lists, you agree that you have read and will comply with the rules and guidelines below.

Rules and Guidelines

Listserve Rules

• Don't challenge or attack others. The discussions on the lists are meant to stimulate conversation, not create contention. Let others have their say, just as you may.
• All defamatory, abusive, profane, threatening, offensive, or illegal materials are strictly prohibited. Do not post anything in a listserve message that you would not want the world to see or that you would not want anyone to know came from you. Remember that every message posted will be received as an e-mail by every subscriber to the list; this could include your clients and employers! Once sent, messages cannot be recalled. All posts will be permanently archived.
• Do not post commercial messages of any type, including messages seeking or advertising employment or freelance opportunities, or promoting products/services in which you have a personal stake. Any violation of this prohibition will result in an invoice at the current rate for an ad posting in Jobs Online.
• Restrict messages to subjects related to the listserve topic.
• Use caution when discussing products. Information posted on the lists is available for all to see, and comments are subject to libel, slander, and antitrust laws.
• Note carefully all items listed in the disclaimers and legal rules below, particularly regarding copyright ownership of information posted to the list.
• Remember that AMWA and other e-mail listserve participants have the right to reproduce postings to this listserve.
• Send your message only to the most appropriate list(s). Do not send the same message to several lists.
• Remember that the AMWA listserves are for AMWA members only; therefore, do not cross-post messages from the AMWA listserves to other lists.

Policy on Violation of Listserve Rules

AMWA reserves the right to suspend or terminate membership on all lists for members who violate the listserve rules. When violations of the listserve rules are brought to the attention of the administrator of the Web and Internet Technology (WIT) Committee or the technical specialist at AMWA headquarters, the WIT administrator will send an e-mail to the member in violation reminding him or her of the listserve rules and warning that future violation will lead to suspension from all AMWA lists. Violators who have been removed from the listserves may appeal in writing to the AMWA executive committee (EC) to be reinstated. Appeals must be made within 30 days before the next regularly scheduled meeting of the committee. The EC will consider the appeal and make a recommendation regarding reinstatement to the listserve. Decisions of the EC will be final.

Listserve Etiquette

• Be courteous.
• Include a signature tag on all messages. Include your name, affiliation, location, and e-mail address.
• State concisely and clearly the topic of your comments in the subject line. This allows members to respond more appropriately to your posting and enables members to search the archives by subject.
• Include only the relevant portions of the original message in your reply. Delete any header information, and put your response before the original posting.
• Send a message to the entire listserve only when it contains information from which everyone can benefit. The default for AMWA's lists is to reply to the sender only. If you wish to reply to the listserve, re-address your e-mail to the listserve (the list address can be cut and pasted from the original message).
• Send messages such as "thanks for the information" or "me, too" to individuals--not to the entire list.
• Do not send administrative messages, such as "remove me from the list," through the listserve. To unsubscribe, send an e-mail requesting to be unsubscribed to unsubscribe@amwa.org, or follow the instructions on the listserve page of the AMWA Web site. Be sure to indicate from which listserve you wish to unsubscribe (there are multiple listserves). If you are changing e-mail addresses, you do not need to remove yourself from the listserve and rejoin under your new e-mail address. Simply change your member profile.
• Warn other listserve subscribers of lengthy messages either in the subject line or at the beginning of the message body with a line that says, "Long Message."
• Warn other listserve subscribers of "water-cooler" type postings in the subject line with a line that says, "chatter."
• When generating a reply to a personal response, do not forward the personal response to the listserve without first obtaining permission from the sender.
• Do not use automatic e-mail reply programs. If you must use these programs, please unsubscribe from the listserve while you are away and resubscribe when you return.

Disclaimers and Legal Rules

• These listserves are provided as a service of AMWA. AMWA is not responsible for the opinions and information posted on this site by others; postings represent the viewpoint of the writer and are not endorsed by AMWA. AMWA disclaims all warranties with regard to information posted on this site, whether posted by AMWA or any third party; this disclaimer includes all implied warranties of merchantability and fitness. In no event shall AMWA be liable for any special, indirect, or consequential damages or any damages whatsoever resulting from loss of use, data, or profits, arising out of or in connection with the use or performance of any information posted on this site.
• Do not post any information or other material protected by copyright without the permission of the copyright owner. By posting material, the posting party warrants and represents that he or she owns the copyright with respect to such material or has received permission from the copyright owner. In addition, the posting party grants AMWA and users of this listserve the nonexclusive right and license to display, copy, publish, distribute, transmit, print, and use such information or other material.
• Messages should not be posted if they encourage or facilitate members to arrive at any agreement that either implies or expressly or implicitly leads to price fixing, a boycott of another's business, or other conduct intended to illegally restrict free trade. Messages that encourage or facilitate an agreement about the following subjects are inappropriate: prices, discounts, or terms or conditions of sale; salaries; profits, profit margins, or cost data; market shares, sales territories, or markets; allocation of customers or territories; or selection, rejection, or termination of customers or suppliers.
• AMWA does not actively monitor the site for inappropriate postings and does not on its own undertake editorial control of postings. However, in the event that any inappropriate posting is brought to AMWA's attention, AMWA will take all appropriate action.
• AMWA reserves the right to terminate access to any user who does not abide by these guidelines.

*   These rules and guidelines are based, with permission, on those of American Society of Association Executives (ASAE), May 2007.
Approved by AMWA's executive committee 11 May 2007. Modified November 2009

Subscribing to and Unsubscribing from AMWA's Special Topics Listserves

Messages posted by AMWA members to these listserves are received via e-mail, and active listserves can result in a large number of e-mails each day. Keep this in mind when subscribing. Members can subscribe to more than 1 listserve and may unsubscribe anytime. The subscribe/unsubscribe process usually takes 1 to 2 business days, and can be done via the Manage Subscriptions button above, the Membership Account Update page, the Membership Renewal page, the Membership Application page; or the printed membership renewal invoice. Members may also unsubscribe at any time by e-mailing their name and the name of the listserve from which they wish to unsubscribe to unsubscribe@amwa.org.
Subscription options are to receive individual e-mails, or a daily digest. The digest shows up differently depending on the e-mail program you are using. For some it shows up as attachments, for some it shows up as a long list of e-mails, and for some it isn't usable and therefore is not a viable option. For the listserves that don't have traffic every day, some use the digest as a reminder to check the archives. For all the listserves, if you have problems with the digest version, check out the archives.
This might work for you, and all members can access the archives without a subscription to any of the listserves. In addition to being able to view the most recent posts, you can search for topics, sort by date, sort by author, and etc.

Posting Messages to AMWA's Special Topic Listserves

Once you have subscribed, and AMWA headquarters has processed your subscription, you can post to the listserve by using the appropriate e-mail address in the To: field of your e-mail message. By posting you agree that you have read and will abide by all the rules and guidelines contained on this page.  

PLEASE BE AWARE THAT YOU WILL RECEIVE EVERY POSTING AS AN E-MAIL

Listserve Archives

All previous posts to the listserves can be viewed via the listserve archives. All members can access the archives without a subscription to any of the listserves. In addition to being able to view the most recent posts, members can search for topics, sort by date, sort by author, and etc.