Planning and Conservation League
(PCL)

Typical.

Sort of.

"Mama-bear" sized.

Two staffers on ZEV issues.

Mid-range equipment.

An intense desire for Internet connections.

To the Circuit Rider, an e-mail listserv was the obvious solution. But before jumping in with both feet, PCL needed to get a handle on the process. The Circuit Rider spent several hours in basic e-mail and listserv training with the media and outreach coordinator of PCL.

First you learn to use what you've got.
Then you expand.
Armed with new knowledge and enhanced capability, PCL could confidently advertise its activist network. In very short order, they boasted 300 names on their new listserv.

But PCL just didn't take direction. They gave good feedback. Their advice: realize that information is at least as valuable as a direct route to the information. Their suggestion: establish a topical electronic library on LEV-ZEV issues.

About halfway through the project, we did just that. Through a LEV-ZEV Gopher site, we presented users a library of related reports, news clips, EPA documents and such.

A good idea. A good deal too late.

By the time we'd created the site, we didn't have much to fill it with because the ZEV mandate faced certain defeat. Still, the concept has great potential. Next go around, setting up either a Gopher or WWW site could be a first order of business. We'd use the listserv to promote it. And we'd encourage project participants to "stock" it.

Perhaps an easier alternative course would have been to set up an "infobot," an e-mail on demand system. (Messages would have gone to tcn and the infobot would automatically relay an e-mail message of limited information, typically a few pages, with directions on where to learn more.)