The FCNA list has been rapidly growing. When I volunteered to manage the list in 2007, we had 300 members. Six years later, we are nearing 1,400.
Due to our size — and more importantly, due the diverse interests of our members — it’s impossible for me to customize the list, to make it the perfect list for each member. What’s important and interesting to one person might be thoroughly useless to another.
So how can we solve the problem: We want to serve the needs of many Fall Creek residents with diverse interests ? … (We don’t have the funding to set up the list in the style of a “Bulletin Board” or “Support Forum” that contains different categories.) So the answer, as Anita mentioned, is to create a list that includes just about everything.
Now here’s where the fun part comes in:
If, as a list member, I don’t like messages about, for example “leaves”, then I can make a filter in my email. Gmail makes it so fast and so easy to do this.
Notice that every message you receive begins with these words:
[ FCNA Ithaca ]
I added that phrase so that you can block all messages from the FCNA list that contain the word (for example) “leaves”. Other messages about leaves — that are not sent from the FCNA — will not be blocked.
* Using filters you can create the perfect list for you, that lets in everything you call a “signal” and blocks out all the “noise. *
Below is a link to a video about how to set up filters and labels in Gmail.
This technique is valuable not only for customizing your FCNA list. Skillfully using labels and filters will organize all your email, save time, and improve your productivity.
Every FCNA member is important to me. When even one person unsubscribes from the FCNA list, part of me asks how I can be a better List Manager. But another part of me remembers my mother at the dinner table, who always covers the table with a beautiful feast including colorful vegetables and fruits, and then tells the family and guests her prayer and mantra before the meal: “If you go away hungry, it’s your own fault.”
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How To Use Labels and Filters in Gmail – Gmail Tutorial

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~~ MP
2014-November-16