The ARNOVA-L listserv was established in 1991 and has been in continuous service since that time. It is one of the oldest and most successful email discussion lists in the social sciences. The list enables us to facilitate the rapid sharing of concerns, interests, problems and solutions among interested researchers, teachers, practitioners and students.
Participants come from nearly 40 countries; although the majority are from North America. They represent a broad cross-section of researchers, teachers, students and practitioners interested in nonprofit organizations ,voluntary action and philanthropy. The continuing success of the list is due entirely to the enthusiasm and open participation of the subscriber base.
Roger A. Lohmann, Ph.D., Emeritus Professor at West Virginia University, created the list for the benefit of ARNOVA and the international research, educational and practice community interested in nonprofit organizations, voluntary action and philanthropy. Roger supported and maintained the list for more than 15 years. The role of list facilitator was then assumed by Putnam Barber (2007-2012), and later by Jimmy Young (2012-2023). They handled the tasks with grace and dedication and their service were invaluable for our community. The ARNOVA Staff now handles all administrative tasks for the listserv. Indiana University - Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) currently hosts the listserv.
FAQ about ARNOVA-L
This list was established as an open international electronic forum for anyone engaged with or interested in nonprofit organizations, voluntary action or philanthropy. The list enables us to facilitate the rapid sharing of concerns, interests, problems and solutions among interested researchers, teachers, practitioners and students.
ARNOVA was one of the first social science research associations to establish an ongoing discussion list, and ARNOVA-L has been an interesting and lively forum throughout its history.
Subscribing to ARNOVA-L is very simple:
- Choose the address with which you want to subscribe to the list.
- Send a message to list@list.iupui.edu, from the address you want to subscribe to the list.
- In the subject line of your message, type in: subscribe ARNOVA-L Firstname Lastname (indicate your own first name and last name). Leave the message body blank.
When your request is accepted, the message you receive confirms your subscription to the list. This message contains several pieces of essential information:
Your list password. This password is the same for all the lists you subscribed to with a single email address. You can change it online after logging on to the mailing list environment;
Detailed information about the list: its purpose, the Internet address at which the message archive is available, etc.
The rules applying to the list and its members: allowed and forbidden topics, netiquette, legal information, privacy policy, etc.
You should keep your subscription notice: you may need it later to remember your password or to send a precise command to Sympa (example: signoff command).
You can also subscribe to a list through the mailing list web interface. To do this:
Go to the list environment homepage and log in (for your first time logging in, follow the ‘First login?’ prompt in the upper left-hand corner to register).
In the left menu, go to the information page of the ARNOVA-L list.
In the left menu, click on the 'Subscribe' link.
ARNOVA-L is affiliated with a membership organization, and many of the participants are known to one another. One of the few requirements of participation on the list is that you register with your real first and last names (No pseudonyms please). We do not rent, sell or distribute our names list beyond the subscriber base in any fashion, and we will sanction any subscriber who does so.
Posting a message to the entire ARNOVA-L list is as simple as sending an email message to any person once you have subscribed to the list. All you need to do is address an ordinary email message to ARNOVA-L@iupui.edu and it will be delivered to everyone currently subscribed to the list and archived in the ARNOVA-L archives. You must send the message from the address with which you subscribed to the list, otherwise, your message will be rejected.
If you want to send emails to the list from more than one email account, some subscribers have done so by subscribing to the list from multiple email addresses and then setting all but one to ‘no mail’.
To change your Listserv options:
Go to the list environment homepage and log on.
Go to the information page of the ARNOVA-L list.
In the left menu, click on the 'Subscriber options' link.
If you have problems with or questions about the list, please consult the Listserv help guide. If you still have questions, please direct them to our staff at info@arnova.org. Please do not send questions or complaints to the ARNOVA-L list as it will be distributed to the entire subscribership.
ARNOVA-L is an unmoderated list. This means that:
No one sees or must approve your message before it goes out to the list.
All messages sent to the list by subscribers to ARNOVA-L are automatically posted to all other members of the list.
Please note that this means that if you "Reply" to messages sent out over the list, your reply will immediately go to all members on the list. If you intend to send a reply directly to someone who wrote an earlier message to the list, you need to send your answer addressed directly to that individual's username and address. If you just hit reply without changing the recipient, your message will be broadcast to the entire list.
If you are planning to go on an extended vacation, conference trip or sabbatical, you can instruct the ARNOVA-L listserv to hold your mail deliveries for the period you are away. You can do this quickly and easily online:
- Go to the list environment homepage and log on.
- Go to the information page of the ARNOVA-L list.
- In the left menu, click on the 'Subscriber options' link.
- Choose the “no mail” option.
Later, when you are ready to resume regular mail from the list, log on to the web page again and change your settings.
You can make other changes to your account through the 'Subscriber options' link. A list and explanation of mail commands is here.