**PLEASE** CHECK HERE *BEFORE* ASKING any of our officers

CONTENTS:
Who to go to with problems
How to do various things
Lists

Rules for all our lists and fora

ADMINISTRATION:
BIG LIST COMMITTEE
SMALL LIST
LISTSERV COMMANDS
MECHANICAL PROBLEMS

Key resources

HELP THE WPM
Please fill in the Volunteer Bank form:
http://www.pantheism.net/assist.htm

CHAT AND LIVE TALK - 10pm London = 5 pm Eastern USA = 2pm Western USA
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/wpmcommunity/chat


PANTHEIST READING LIST AND BOOKSHOP
http://www.paul-harrison.com/books/bookstore.htm

SPIRITWEB LIST (to discuss with other types of pantheist)
See instructions at http://www.pantheism.net/thanksp.htm

RULES
Over the years we have developed a set of rules for smooth
functioning. Experience has shown that these are needed to keep
the atmosphere positive and productive, and to keep the volume within
manageable limits.

ETHOS.
1. NO PERSONALIZED ATTACKS against individuals or sections of the
group, whether targets are named or can be inferred. Ideas may be
criticized or disagreed with, but persons should always be treated with
respect. Try to avoid contemptuous language when criticizing other
members' ideas. Mocking or satirical remarks which target other members
or sections of the group are strongly discouraged.
2. No racist, sexist, obscene or foul language is tolerated.
3. PRIVATE POSTS MAY NOT BE CITED TO THE GROUP without the author's
permission.
4. PRIVATE MAIL TO FELLOW MEMBERS SHOULD BE COURTEOUS.
In private mail to fellow members, grossly abusive language or threats or
harassment sexual or otherwise) are strongly discouraged.
5. Members have the right to forward mail they believe constitutes
gross abuse or harrassment to the list managers for review,
without the author's permission.
For a list of managers, see:
http://www.pantheism.net/resource.htm
6. The list and the geo-database addresses must not be used for commercial
purposes, or for the distribution of chain letters.
7. Names and contact details on the geo-database must not be divulged to
people who are not members of the WPM or the scientific panthism mailing
list. Breaking of this rule will result in immediate expulsion and a change
of the URL of the geo-database.

VOLUME.
1. A maximum of ONE POST PER DAY is allowed. If you post more than
this, the server will send it back to you. The list is limited to 20 posts
a day; if you are the 21st poster that day, the server will hold your
message and submit it the next day. You will be notified of this.
2. Please try to BE CONCISE and avoid the temptation to ramble on and
repeat yourself. Short letters are FAR more likely to be read than
longer ones. The list has a length limit of about 100 lines (depending
on header length.) This is about four screenfuls. If you send more than
this, your message will be sent back to you.
3. Please DO NOT USE AUTOMATIC QUOTING OF THE MESSAGE YOU ARE
REPLYING TO. In your e-mail programme, go to mail options/composition (or
equivalent) and make sure automatic quoting is turned off. Do this now in
case you forget. Full quoting can lead to double-sized messages, which if
requoted become treble etc etc. If you want to quote selected passages
which you are replying to, you can.
4. Please do not send letters as HTML as this doubles their size. Please
turn this option off in your mail programme [OPTIONS/MAIL/FORMAT].

FOCUS.
1. Post to the group only what you think will be of interest to the
group - this includes philosophical points, personal experiences and
feelings related to pantheism, experiences of nature, points about the
future of our movement, and also related issues like environment, other
religions, etc etc. Don't feel constrained.
2. No off-topic wanderings (though we are lenient in interpreting this,
otherwise it's too constraining). Individual welcomes can be made when
you next post. Trivial comments, discussions about Clinton sex-life type
matters etc can be made directly to the person without mailing to the whole
group.
3. It is expected that members will have read the description of this
list and of the Spiritweb list on the page:
http://www.pantheism.net/questior.htm
and will have chosen the appropriate list in view of their own beliefs.
If postings to this list show this not to be the case, we reserve the
right to redirect a person to the Spiritweb list.

ADMINISTRATION OF THE LIST
MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE
The list has a four person management committee to run the list and
adjudicate on breaches of the rules.
The current members are:
Sue Williams [chair]  - fallow@mweb.co.za
Hilary Caws-Elwitt     - hce@epix.net
Paul Harrison             - harrison@dircon.co.uk
Jocelyn Markey        - a-jocelm@microsoft.com
Members do not take part in cases in which they are one of the
parties. Paul Harrison does not vote in any rule breach cases.
If you have technical problems about list operation please report
these to Hilary. If you have a complaint about a rule breach or anything
else about the big list, please write to Sue.
Generally, a first infringement will result in a first informal
warning.
A further infringement in a formal warning. A third in suspension.
Sincere apologies may help to avoid sanctions.
Sanctions depend on the severity of the rule breach. Some breaches may result
in immediate explusion. Warnings are very infrequent, suspension even more so.

HINTS
To post to the list, send your email to PANTHEISM-L@LISTSERV.AOL.COM
or just click reply on a message and change the subject line.
If you're making your first posting - or if you haven't done it
before - please tell the group some background about yourself and
how you became a pantheist or pantheistically inclined, and
where you live - other members may live near you. Put your city at the head
of every mail.
If you're replying to a mail, remember to change the subject
line to what you want to deal with.
There is a lot of correspondence between members on a one-to-one
basis, which is good for trivial comments, off-topic matters
etc. If you do want to mail one-to-one to the sender, just
copy their address into your messages MailTo line.
Remember you can post about anything more or less relevant to
pantheism,
eg:
*personal experiences, descriptions and insights
*problems of pantheist education and family life
*discussions of "ceremony" and personal observance
*action proposals over environment, religious freedom,
anti-supernaturalism, anti-anti-science, and so on.
*intellectual debate
*scientific exploration

The list has a tendency to veer towards intellectual debate, but
this is only part of its purpose. If you don't like the drift at any
moment, you can always introduce a new subject.

HOT POTATO SUBJECTS
The following subjects have been raised many times in the list.
In our experience they very often lead to heated arguments and sometimes to
outbreaks of
personal insults. Alas no resolution, compromise or agreement has ever been
reached on any of
these subjects and none ever will be.
If you want to find out what others think about these, we suggest
that you search the list archive (URL above) with the keywords you are
looking for.
*Is it possible for humans to do anything unnatural?
*Is C. G. Jung a genius or a charlatan?
*Should humans colonize space?
*Should pantheists be vegetarians or engage in hunting?
*Should Scientific Pantheism organize and promote itself as a religion?   
[We are already organized and we are already promoting the
World Pantheist Movement. For any worries about this, please consult the
page: http://www.pantheism.net/organize.htm]
Posts about the "how" of organization are, of course, welcome.
If you do get involved in any of these or other hot topics,
please try to post in an especially moderate manner. Better, use the Ezboard
which has forums for these topics:
http://server5.ezboard.com/bpantheism

WOMEN MEMBERS PLEASE POST.
The list is at least one-third women, which is the gender
proportion on the Internet at large. But our list has gone through certain
periods when the list has become argumentative. At these times the gender
balance often changes, women then feel this is not for them, and post less
- it's a vicious circle. In periods when women post sufficiently, the list
is usually more harmonious and has a better balance between ideas and
experience.
So it is VERY VERY important for the balance and harmony of this
list that women should not feel shy or put off, but should post at
least in proportion to their numbers on the list. If you see things
getting too dry or argumentative - just plunge in and change the
subject.

THE PANEL OF DIRECTORS
FORMATION
In September 1997 a "small list" was created with the aim of
discussing active ways in which scientific pantheism could be spread.
Initially there were 12 volunteers out of a list of 57 at the
time. Volunteers had to be in basic agreement with scientific
pantheism, and to believe that these ideas should be spread, and to be
interested in finding ways of doing so.
The numbers have varied between 12 and 18. Since large numbers can
be cumbersome for e-mail discussions, we have stuck at this number and
vacancies are now filled by co-option from the big list. It is planned that
the World Pantheist Movement will have some kind of democratic
channel through which full members' wishes can be represented.

ACTIVITIES
The small list began by electing officers. Then it had to agree on
what it was we were spreading. So we proceeded to agree a statement of
beliefs which you can read at:
http://www.pantheism.net/manifest.htm
We have now incorporated as a religious charity, the World
Pantheist Movement, in the US state of Colorado (where our first lawyer
resided).
Current members of the panel of directors with their areas of responsibility/expertise are
[NOTE: please delete spaces for correct address]

Paul Harrison (President)                                             - harrison @ dircon.co.uk
Walt Mandell (Vice-president, USA)                            - hawkwing @ stratos.net
Tor Myrvang (Vice-president, Europe)                       - t.myrvang @ ifad.org
Sue Williams ((Vice-president, Africa)                         - fallow @ mweb.co.za
Hilary Caws-Elwitt (Secretary)                                     - hce @ epix.net
Steve Cox  (Treasurer)                                                    - StevenMCox @ earthlink.net
Gudrun Schindler (Membership secretary)                 - gudrun @ GPCOM.NET
David Wright (Design)                                                   - stansted @ bizjet.com
Beryl MacLachlan (Legal)                                             - BZMacL @ aol.com
Ray Lee                                                                              - raylee @ spokeshave.karoo.co.uk
Tony Kilner                                                                       - glw95 @ POP.DIAL.PIPEX.COM
Mike Dolph                                                                      - dolphinjm @ hotmail.com

THE MOST COMMON LISTSERV COMMANDS.
--Send all list commands about your subscription to
LISTSERV@LISTSERV.AOL.COM,
*not* to the list (pantheism-l@listserv.aol.com). No subject line is
necessary. The
command goes in the message body. (You can combine multiple commands in
one letter).
--By default you receive daily digests. If you would prefer to get each
post individually: SET PANTHEISM-L MAIL
-- To suspend delivery of mail (for a vacation, for example) without
quitting the list: SET PANTHEISM-L NOMAIL
--To resume mail: SET PANTHEISM-L DIGEST (or MAIL)
--To leave the list: SIGNOFF PANTHEISM-L
--For information on more complex commands, like searching the archives and
retrieving logs: INFO REFCARD
--If you have any trouble, please contact Hilary Caws-Elwitt
hce@epix.net.

MECHANICAL PROBLEMS
1. Some people's e-mail programmes do not wrap lines, or produce very
very long lines stretching several screens wide which are hard to read.
When you've posted, check that this is not the case and if it is,
adjust your options accordingly.
2. Some mail programmes send out a double post - one ordinary, second
one in HTML. When you post, check that this is not happening, and if it
is, alter your options accordingly.

Best wishes,
The List Administration Committee
[Sue Williams, Hilary Caws-Elwitt, Paul Harrison, Jocelyn Markey]

Page updated February 1999