This is (mostly) recycled from a few years ago, but I offer it as
a farewell as list manager. ;-)

IBCers . . .

I offer some very keepable resolutions for the New Year:

1. I WILL prepare (and use) a useful signature file for my
e-mail -- one that says who I am (and WHERE), that contains my
*real* e-mail address, and that is no more than four lines long
(including joke, if necessary).

2. I WILL NOT shoot from the hip when someone's e-mail
displeases me. Rather, I will think about it, sleep on it -- and
if I am still angry, I will reply -- thoughtfully, BUT PRIVATELY.

3. I WILL use my mouse and my delete key to snip away extraneous
parts of messages I reply to -- ESPECIALLY the end-of-post
message that LISTSERV appends to every message.

4. I WILL try to restrict my posts to the IBC to bonsai-related
material, but if I HAVE to be funny for the sake of being funny,
I will try to tie it in to bonsai -- somehow. I will eschew
off-topic diatribes.

5. I WILL NOT respond to SPAM. I will NOT send a REMOVE message
back to spammers. Most especially, I won't hit "reply" when some
SPAM sneaks through to the list and thereby send my nasty reply
to EVERYone on the IBC.

6. EVEN if I am a founding or dues-paying member of the IHSC, I
will TRY to be polite to every "my-serissa-is-dying-oh, help!"
message we receive. (And also to the 4,999,875,321st
"My-Christmas-juniper-turned-brown-Is-it-dead?" question.)

7. I WILL refrain from pointless posts -- "thanks for the info"
.. . . "me too" . . . "Joe, meet me for coffee at the corner at 10
a.m." --
that will not help anyone, or will mean nothing to ANYone else
(except Joe). Instead, I will send those kinds of messages
PRIVATELY.

8. I WILL NOT give advice unless I'm pretty certain that it is
accurate (at least for me, in my town), and I WILL DO MY DARNDEST
TO NOT BE DOGMATIC -- there actually may BE another way to do
it. By golly.

9. WHEN I go to a bonsai convention, my first stop will always
be the bar -- in case some other IBCers are attending, too.

10. I WILL get to really, really KNOW my trees. I will learn the
scientific (Latin) names of the trees I grow -- and something
about the tree itself: It's natural range, habitat, and habits.

Happy 2004 to every member of the Internet Bonsai Club at
and at rec.arts.bonsai (and
alt.bonsai, for
that matter).

----
Jim Lewis - Tallahassee, Fl. -- your
grateful bonsai list EX-manager

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