The LA Wheelmen club has established a club e-mail list on Yahoo!groups. The purpose of this list is to share information, ask questions, express opinions about club activities, other club matters, and bicycling in general and alert members to last-minute changes to rides, meetings, etc. or other short-notice news.

Any member of the Wheelmen is eligible to join the list, post messages and receive messages posted by others. Please do not apply if you are not a member, as you WILL be rejected (we check the roster).

When you send a message to the list, everyone else on the list will receive a copy. There are options to select whether you wish to receive each individual message, a single daily digest of all messages, or other choices. Your email ID and email address will be displayed when you send a message, and whoever receives your message can reply to you individually and/or to all.

Please be courteous and respectful to fellow members, even if you happen to be very angry about something. Keep the focus on cycling and refrain from posting messages about politics (except as they concern cycling), your favorite charity, or jokes. We want the list to be helpful, not overwhelming.

JOINING THE LIST

So, how do you join the list group?

1. You must be a current member of the LA Wheelmen, so make sure your dues are paid up. Non-members will be rejected. No exceptions.

2. Get a Yahoo!groups ID if you don't already have one. Visit http://www.yahoogroups.com/. Near the top are links that say "Sign in / New user? Sign up." The latter link will take you to a page where you can enter information (some of it optional, some required) and choose an ID and a password. Follow instructions to complete the registration procedure.

3. Go to our group home page at http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/LAWheelmen/ and click on the button "Join this Group!". The next page will allow you to set a couple of options about receiving messages and to type in a comment to the owner of the group; PLEASE TYPE IN ONLY YOUR FIRST AND LAST NAME (no other comments required) so that the group moderator can verify that you are a Wheelmen member. We will then approve your registration and notify you, normally within a day or two unless the list manager is out of town. That's it!

The membership requirement protects Wheelmen club members from spammers, freeloaders and possibly viruses. If you fail to type your name in the comment box, your application cannot be processed and you will get 3 flats on your next ride. The only information which Yahoo groups sends to the list moderator for consideration is your e-mail address and ID and your comments, so without your name in the comments box, we don't know who you are. (See photo of poor wretch who didn't follow instructions!)

POSTING MESSAGES

To post a message to the list, just email it in the normal way to LAWheelmen@yahoogroups.com. To view previous messages, visit the group home page mentioned above (you'll have to sign in first).

Note that you must send messages from the email address which you registered when you signed up. If you have several email addresses, you can register them all. If you try to post a message from an address which you haven't registered, it will be refused by Yahoogroups.

When replying to a message, hit the "Reply" button to respond to the individual sender. If you wish to reply to the whole group, hit "Reply All" (but then it would be nice if you removed the original sender's address from the To: list so he or she doesn't get two copies of the message.)

Please sign your postings with your real name, ESPECIALLY if the name shown in the "FROM" box is a pseudonym. This is courteous to all, especially new members.

Keep your messages short to increase the likelihood that others will read them. You can post links to pages with additional information.

Put a relevant subject in the subject box. If you are going to post a link to more information, put at least a capsule summary of what the link is about so that readers will know whether they're interested in following up.

Please don't send attachments with your postings, as they are automatically removed. We have chosen this option because of the risk that attachments may carry viruses or spyware, and they make the message much bigger and slower to download. However, your message can certainly contain links to web pages or files already on the web. And you can upload photos and other files to the "files" section of the group and view photos and files that others have uploaded.

Finally, if you're not happy with this e-mail group, you'll find a link to unsubscribe at the very bottom of each message.

Please keep your club dues current to remain a member of the email group.

CHANGING YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS AND DELIVERY OPTIONS

You don't have to use a Yahoo email address in order to receive messages from the group. You can use any of your other existing email addresses, and you can change them as needed. Here's how:

1. Go to the group home page (use the link in "Joining the List" above).
2. Beneath the banner ad at the top of the page is a small link to "Edit Membership." Click it.
3. In the Edit Membership page is a section to add a new email address . Yahoo will verify that it's valid. Then you can return to this page and select it to receive group messages.

On this page you can also change whether you get each individual message when it is sent, get only a daily digest, or other delivery options.

If you have questions or problems, please contact the webmaster (see Contact Us).