Subject: WELCOME to the FERGHANA-VALLEY discussion list!!
From: Ferghana Valley Development Programme (fvdp@elcat1.osh.su)
Date: Sun Apr 04 1999 - 09:59:16 EDT
To the Members of the FERGHANA-VALLEY Discussion List:
I want to welcome you to the Ferghana-Valley discussion. As we mentioned
in our invitation, this list is meant to further the interests of
development in the Valley -- especially to promote harmony and prosperity
in the region. The goal is to provide a forum where a diversity of views
are heard -- a forum where it will be possible to exchange views and
promote cooperation and coordination among all those who are interested in
harmony and prosperity in the Ferghana Valley.
For some days now we have
been building the membership, and now the discussion will begin -- we
wanted to have a group assembled so that the majority at least will be
together from the beginning, and not have to join in the middle of the
conversation. Now the list has approximately 200 members! -- rather more
than I expected to begin with.
Meanwhile, we are anxious to have as broad
a membership as possible. In particular, we would like to see greater
representation from among those who actually inhabit the Ferghana Valley,
and live and breath the issues that this forum is meant to discuss.
Therefore, we STRONGLY ENCOURAGE you to mention the list to others,
especially in the Valley, who might be interested (and who have e-mail
access). If you send us e-mail addresses, we can send out
invitations.
Note that a strong knowledge of English is NOT a requirement
to participate. The list will carry discussion in Russian and in English
-- and there is no requirement that the English be very good -- only that
it can be understood.
One thing that we have encountered in building the
list membership is just how unreliable e-mail can be in the Ferghana Valley
at times. We were particularly unlucky just at this time and lost possibly
a hundred messages when our provider changed some equipment. We hope and
trust that this will not happen in future, but we ask your patience. If
you find that the list is not carrying something you have sent to it,
please send it again, and send it to our address directly
(FVDP@elcat.osh.su) so that we can be sure that it gets through.
I expect
that a wide range of topics will be discussed on the FERGHANA-VALLEY list,
and this is very positive. Meanwhile, I would like to remind all, first,
of the importance of keeping discussion focused on matters that that can
contribute to the broad goals of the list -- harmony and prosperity in the
region -- and of keeping it constructive by keeping it respectful (for some
reason, some people can get very nasty when they are writing e-mail
messages, and in the context of such a difficult region as the Ferghana
Valley, one can only imagine how things might get out of hand).
If you
have any suggestions or questions that you would like to put directly to us
at the Ferghana Valley Development Programme, please don't hesitate to
write to us (FVDP@elcat.osh.su).
As mentioned in our invitation, we would
encourage members to send a few words about themselves and their interests
in the Ferghana Valley to the list so that we may all have a sense of who
is participating in the discussion.
Thank you for your interest! May the
discussion that now begins be a very fruitful one!
Sincerely,
John Schoeberlein
_________________________________________________
U.N. Ferghana Valley Development Programme
Osh, Kyrgyzstan
E-mail: mailto:FVDP@elcat.osh.su
Tel./Fax: [996](3222)5-52-24
This archive was generated by hypermail 2a22 : Sat May 29 1999 - 07:34:13 EDT