Theos-Talk Archives (April 2009 Message tt00389)

Use of email resources by TS Members

In the West, majority of the population use the simplest Internet tool -
email. While predominently used for keeping in touch with family and
friends, many use it for their businesses as well. Actually some cannot
survive without email and I have even seen withdrawal symptoms when their
computers go down. We have seen, how the simple tool can be a very potent
tool in exchanging ideas, opinions and distribution of information. The
velocity is astounding, much to the dislike of oldish folks who enjoy the
built-in delay of snailmail. With use of Blackberry, many keep in touch
almost instantaneously. The most recent example was how President Obama was
unwilling to give up his Blackberry.

The current level of use of email applications between TS organizations and
the members is very low. Many members, while they use it for personal
communication, are unaware of the resources such as maillist whose
foundation is email.

More than a decade ago, when the first maillist - theos-L was set up by John
E Mead, it was a personal enterprise of a single TS member, the information
was hard to come by from Olcott, since it was not an officially sanctioned
one. Those days, there were no search engines. So, when I was looking for
theos-L, by accident, a helpful soul who attended the annual meeting shared
the info with me by fax. And of course the rest is history.

>From some of the recent feedback I got, it appears that many members are
still in the dark about the resources available in cyberspace, especially
those which will keep them uptodate with current happenings connected with
TS and its administration world-wide. Some times I wonder why. Since
information is power, keeping members in the dark and feeding them only with
spinned information favorable to the policies and personal objectives of the
leaders, does help those in power.

We all experienced the various events since the start of last yearâs
election and its aftermath and only those who depended on the unofficial
forums such as theos-talk were kept uptodate on all critical matters.
Discovery and dissemination of critical information such as the presidential
coup attempt by disenfranchisement of members took place on theos-talk and
not on any official forums. When such discovery takes place, it backfires on
the organization leaders and destroys the credibility in the minds of
members.

Modern modes of communication such as email, should be seen as an ally and
not as an impediment for the efficient operation of any organization. We all
should be imaginative and creative to make the best use of the available
tools of the day.



MKR

There is no religion higher than truth


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