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[Last updated on: Tue Mar 18 23:31:34 1997]
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PLEASE SAVE THIS LETTER FOR FUTURE REFERENCE. AND, PLEASE HELP SAVE
ADMINS' TIME AND ENERGY BECAUSE THEY ARE WORKING FOR FREE, AND THEY
HAVE THEIR LIVES AND CAREERS TO TAKE CARE OF FIRST.
THANKS.
ADMINS
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Tha^n cha`o ca'c anh chi. :-),
On behalf of the VN-Families Admins, we would like to thank you for
reading this message.
For those of you who specifically applied for membership, we would
like to thank you and express our appreciation for your interest in our
family.
For those of you who read this message out of curiosity, we would
like you to read carefully the vision, mission, values, objectives, and
methods of VN-Families. If you feel like sharing the values and dreams
of VN-Families, we would like you to apply for membership. All you need
to do is sending your request to majordomo@saigon.com with the following
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
line in the message body:
subscribe vn-families
Attached is the VN-Families by-laws. Please take time to read it
thoroughly, especially the postings guidelines. If you have any
questions or suggestions for improvement, please send them to
VN-Families-Adm@saigon.com.
Cha`o tha^n ai' va` chu'c quy' anh chi. va` gia -di`nh va.n an :-).
VN-Families
Continuous Improvement is Our Best Friend
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GIA DINH VIET NAM
VN-Families (v. 4.11, 19-Mar-1997)
VISION:
The Vietnamese community must last forever. Since strong families
are the foundation of a strong, viable community, the community should
take steps to ensure that its members, single as well as married, find
opportunities for growth, prosperity, and happiness. Those members who
have already found these opportunities should, in turn, share them with
the rest of the community.
VN-Families is a non-political, non-profit, semi-closed family. It
exists to serve members' needs for happiness, growth, and fellowship.
VN-Families is committed to facilitating, building, and maintaining
healthy Vietnamese families for members.
MISSION:
To provide married Vietnamese members with opportunities to network
and exchange useful knowledge and experience in the area of family life.
To provide unmarried Vietnamese members with opportunities to learn
from married members.
To provide unmarried Vietnamese members with opportunities to meet,
know, befriend, or marry other singles who are likely to share similar
values.
To provide all members with opportunities for fellowship and mutual
support.
VALUES:
Caring,
Consideration (eg., praising in public, but criticizing in private),
Constructivity,
Continuous improvement,
Democracy,
Efficiency,
Harmony (eg., no personal feud, no personal attack on public channels),
Honesty,
Honor,
La`nh ma.nh (eg., no obscene language, no dirty story/joke),
Loyalty,
Modesty (khie^m nhu+o+.ng),
One-for-all and all-for-one, in that order,
Openness,
Patience,
Peacefulness,
Politeness (eg., no unkind remark/joke against women),
Positive thinking,
Progressivity,
Respect (eg., giving due respect to the audience, especially the senior
and the silent ones),
Responsibility,
Sensitivity to the diversity among us,
Seriousness of purpose,
Trustworthiness (but don't rule out verification),
Unity,
Vietnamism (eg., integrating the best of Vietnamese values with
the best of the world's).
OBJECTIVES:
(Quality and quantity should go hand in hand. But, when a conflict
between these two may arise, the former will be favorably
considered)
More than 95% of articles posted should meet the VN-Families "standards".
More than 95% of members should find value, ownership and pride in
belonging to VN-Families.
Five hundred (600) members in 1997.
Seven hundred (1000) members in 1998.
METHODS:
VN-Families has 3 public forums that you may want to subscribe to:
VN-Families@saigon.com
VN-Families-Digest@saigon.com
VN-Families-Gen@saigon.com
VN-Families and VN-Families-Digest are semi-closed lists.
Only members of either list can post. The posting address
is VN-Families@saigon.com.
VN-Families-Digest is a digest version of VN-Families. Members of
this digest list will receive one long message a day instead of multiple
individual messages.
VN-Families-Gen is an OPEN list. First, it provides a place where
anyone can raise questions or seek help and advice. Second, it offers
an opportunity for members to answer these questions or provide advice
by sharing their experiences and the lessons they've learned. Finally,
it provides a place where all members can make small talk and find
opportunities for self-expression and fellowship.
To apply for membership, an applicant sends her request to the
Admins at VN-Families-Adm@saigon.com. Or she can subscribe by
herself. For examples, to subscribe to all forums, she will send
a request to mailman@saigon.com:
subscribe vn-families
Similarly, to unsubscribe, she can ask Admins to help or she
can unsubscribe by herself.
An online magazine, Trao Doi (Exchange), which is published on the
second and fourth Sundays of each month, provides an opportunity for
Admins to communicate to members, and for the members to learn, share,
and exchange with each other. One of many columns in the magazine, Ket
Ban Thu Tin (Making Friends) column is where the Market-Thyself info is
posted (information posted on behalf of yourself or of others).
Posters are responsible for the content of what they post. Abuse of
this column by anyone, poster or receiver, may result in one's losing
privilege in this family. Admins may condense/edit postings.
Postings can be in Vietnamese or English. VN-Families encourages
every member to be as fluent in Vietnamese as in any other language.
Since VN-Families is more idealistic and focused, and has higher
aspirations than most forums, it is likely that some new members may
unknowingly act in such a way that, while acceptable in other forums, is
nonetheless contradictory to the philosophy of this family. Thus, it is
advisable that new members delay their first attempt to post long enough
(eg., three weeks) until they have had a chance to observe for
themselves the common practices in this forum. All members (especially
the more senior ones) should familiarize with and act in accordance with
the latest by-laws, because they above all others should set a high
standard and model the ideals for this family.
In fact, VN-Families is a family (of families), not just a group of
forums. The forums (VN-Families, VN-Families-Digest, VN-Families-Gen,
and VN-Families-Adm) are just some of the means to the end -- best
Vietnamese families for members.
Please do not post anything that may not interest
that may not be helpful toward building the best Vietnamese families.
VN-Families constantly encourages members and Admins to look for
ways to build up VN-Families and to take concrete steps to make more
positive and beneficial differences in members' individual lives and
families. In whatever way we can, let's work together to contribute our
hearts, minds, and energy to make VN-Families so beneficial that a day
will come that almost all members will choose to be with VN-Families for
life. This is one-for-all, and all-for-one -- at its best.
DISCIPLINE:
Any member who seriously or persistently violates this by-laws may
be removed from this mailing list. The removal usually occurs after
one, two, or three friendly criticisms from Admins have been sent (the
number depends on the severity of the alleged offense). When a
membership is terminated, notification and an explanation will be
provided.
ETIQUETTE FOR POSTINGS ON VN-FAMILIES:
Respect the VN-Families' values.
Any posting should begin with a respectful greeting (eg., Cha`o ca'c
anh chi.; or Cha`o ca'c ba.n; or Dear all) and end with a signature.
Also, please do not precede one's signature with an indication of
modesty (eg, "my two cents"). I think it is unnecessary because if
modesty is practiced, it will show in the content of the message.
Besides, VN-Families encourages writers to think before they write, and
when this happens, their messages are worth more than "two cents."
If one feels compelled to criticize another, please do so in
private. (This rule does not apply if the perceived wrong-doer belongs
to Admins).
Be considerate of the audience's time and their mailboxes' space
limitations. If you respond to a message, please include AS LITTLE
AS possible the original message.
If the message is a pure "me too" statement, or if the message does
not add any useful knowledge or effects to all or most of the audience,
please do not post on the main forum. Such a message, however, can have
a place in VN-Families-Gen or be sent directly to the initiator. For
example, a new member unaware of this guideline, poses the question:
How big is the earth? If you choose to reply, please send your reply
directly to that person with a "carbon copy" (CC) to VN-Families-Gen.
Subjects for discussion, depth of discussion, and languages used
on the main forum and in the magazine should be tasteful to the whole
audience. When in doubt, be conservative. VN-Families does not want to
embarrass or corrupt anyone (eg., children, young teens, the elderly) who
may read VN-Families postings.
When writing for the main forum, try to inform, educate, and
inspire. It is hoped that in the process of writing, the author tries
to make friends to most of us too. Keep in mind of the ultimate
objective of VN-Families is to build best Vietnamese families.
Remember when writing for the main forum, you are addressing to the
whole audience, not a person or a small group of persons. Why? Because
even though a subject is initiated by a person, once it is posted, it
becomes a public subject. Thus, it is nice if a "Dear XYZ" letter is
written as "Dear all" before it is sent to the main forum. Else, it
should be sent privately to XYZ.
Finally, when writing, it helps to think that you are speaking to an
audience of 1000+ people. They want respect, and so do you.
MISCELLANEOUS:
The homepage (and FAQ, etc.) can be accessed at:
http://mail.saigon.com/mailman/vn-families.
VN-Families archives are available at http://mail.saigon.com/mailman/vn-families,
To get the latest VN-Families by-laws, send one or more of the
following lines as needed:
info vn-families
info vn-families-gen
info vn-families-adm
to mailman@saigon.com.
To see the collection of prior postings to the list,
visit the Vn-families
Archives.
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