WENDELL — The privately run email list of town residents has been granted permission by the Selectboard to use an email address with the town’s domain.
“It really is just about wanting to have a permanent address that people can use to post to the listserv so that they don’t have to change it again,” said Brian Kendall, the listserv’s technical administrator. “And the reason I thought of using the wendellmass.us domain was because I thought it would just be nice to have one Wendell domain for everybody.”
He described the listserv as an email list.
“It lets people in the town post messages that everybody will receive,” he explained. “Sometimes it’s official notices. Sometimes it’s about groups and programs happening in Wendell. Sometimes it’s just people chatting or asking about their day.”
Kendall attended Wednesday’s Selectboard meeting to make his case. He was joined by Christine Heard, who, along with Kathy-Ann Becker, is one of the listserv’s two moderators.
Kendall explained that he volunteered as technical administrator after Robert Heller retired as the listserv’s host two years ago. He said he selected a different provider, meaning every subscriber had to set up a new email address for the mailing list.
“And it seemed simple enough, but not everybody is technically inclined, and email apps have been getting steadily more confusing as the years have been going on,” he said. “So what I’d like to do is find a permanent email address that we can use for the listserv. It would just be something that would forward to whatever our mailing list provider is. So there would still be a third-party provider handling all of that.”
Selectboard member Adam Feltman, who had voiced opposition when the subject was broached at a previous Selectboard meeting, asked if using Gmail was a possibility. Kendall replied that there are ethical concerns regarding privacy and not wanting to support massive tech companies.
“You’ve persuaded me,” Feltman said to Kendall before addressing Selectboard Chair Laurie DiDonato and member Paul Doud, “and I feel like it’s important to you that we do this, and that matters to me.”
DiDonato asked Feltman what his biggest concern is.
“It’s the co-mingling of private and public resources,” he responded. “It’s just a slippery slope. That’s what concerns me.”
But he also said the listserv provides an admirable and functional value to the community, and this issue is “not the hill I want to die on.”
Doud’s motion to grant permission to the listserv included a stipulation that Kendall and Heard return in six months to a year to give the Selectboard an update.
The listserv is described on the town’s municipal website as “Townsfolk E-Mail List.” There is also a disclaimer that the email list is not maintained or administered by the town, and opinions expressed are those of list subscribers. Residents can sign up at tinyurl.com/WendellListerv2.
Wendell Country Store owner Patti Scutari, who volunteered about two years ago to pay the roughly $75 fee per year to the current provider, said the listserv is a valuable resource.
“To me, it’s such an amazing service to the town, and I use it to advertise my events,” she said. “It’s a tremendous, tremendous service.”