Announcement

Date: 	Thu, 12 Dec 1996 14:16:02 -0500
From: "Benjamin G. Wright" 
To: "First Century Judaism Discussion Forum" 
Subject: IMPORTANT LIST INFORMATION

Dear IOUDAIOS-L subscribers,

As many  of you  know I  will be  stepping down as coordinator of
IOUDAIOS-L.  After three years, it is time for me to let others
assume the leadership of this list.  Many of you also know that
recently there  has been  some dissatisfaction with the direction
of the  group. In a time of exploding Internet access many people
subscribe to almost any group without heeding the group's focus or
ground rules. Lately IOUDAIOS-L has taken on more of the character
of a chat room than a scholarly discussion forum. IOUDAIOS is not,
however, a chat room. Ground rules that were laid down have been
increasingly ignored and many scholars who originally subscribed
and contribubted to the list have unsubscribed due to the all-too-
frequent unscholarly nature of the discussion.

When I  decided to  step down,  several longtime  members of this
list  were   asked  to  join  an  ad  hoc  committee  to  find  a
replacement. The committee was comprised of David Suter, Rochelle
Altman, Jim  Davila, Jay Treat, Ted Bergren, Chuck Jones and me. The 
committee also decided that reforms were needed, and a change of leadership
was thought  to be  a good  time to  evaluate where  the list was
headed. As  a result  of these discussions several decisions have
been made that will be instituted immediately.

1) The list will be shut down beginning on Monday, December 16,
   1996 for some reconfiguration.

2) All subscribers will be unsubscribed.

3) A new form of the list rules, which accompanies this
   posting, will be used to govern the list when it starts up
   again.

4) The list will start up again on Friday December 20, 1996.

5) Anyone who wishes to resubscribe may do so on or after that
   date.

The rules,  which are  provided here  and  which  will  accompany
subscriptions,  will   be  ruthlessly   enforced   by   the   new
coordinators.

PLEASE READ THESE RULES CAREFULLY BECAUSE THEY WILL BE ENFORCED!

The committee  that was  assembled to  discuss these  issues will
continue as  a steering  committee to assist the new coordinators
where necessary. All potential subscribers are urged to subscribe
through the IOUDAIOS web site established by Jay Treat at:

 http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/ioudaios/

Please browse the entire site, which contains copies of the rules
along   with   other   important   information   for   IOUDAIOS-L
subscribers.

If you  cannot go  through the  web site,  the usual subscription
procedures through  listserv@lehigh.edu will  be  available.  The
list will still be housed at Lehigh and the address will remain

 IOUDAIOS-L@LEHIGH.EDU.

The new  coordinators of IOUDAIOS-L will be:
        Jay Treat (treat@ccat.sas.upenn.edu) and
        Rochelle Altman (RISA@Concentric.Net).

I want  to take this opportunity to publicly thank Ted Bergren of
the University  of  Richmond  for  his  absolutely  indispensable
assistance. He  has been a lifesaver on more than one occasion. I
also want  to thank  Jay and Rochelle for volunteering to take on
the headaches  of coordinating  a discussion  list such  as this.
Only someone who has done this knows the time and energy that are
necessary to  make things run at all smoothly. My expectation and
hope is  that IOUDAIOS-L  will continue  to serve  the  scholarly
community by  providing  a  forum  for  scholarly  discussion  of
Judaism in the Second Temple period.

Sincerely,
Benjamin Wright
Lehigh University
Co-coordinator, IOUDAIOS-L

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION