Re: Re: Source of Response? Please clarify

**"Mike McGrath" M*@PTD.net**

Dear Adam and fellow members,

    While it is true that the ACGA, its list, and its website are
invaluable to the promotion of community gardening and deserving of
our financial support, it is also true that there is no obligation,
stated or implied, for anyone who wants to ask a question on the list
to join the ACGA.  We should answer those questions we can without
strong arming the questioners to pay dues.  Obviously we should
invite anyone who is interested in the work of the ACGA to join, but
we should not make that joining a quid pro quo for engaging in dialog
or asking a question through this medium.  That sends the wrong
message -- one of exclusion rather than of inclusion.

    In my job with a municipal parks and recreation department, I answer
questions every day from people from other cities and even from other
states who do not pay taxes to support our department.  I and my
department consider this service a valid use of my time, because
customer service does not stop at our city limits.  Any one of the
people whose questions I answer may one day be a resident of our
city, or there may be an occasion for me to call on one of them for
an answer to one of my questions, or our lives may never intersect
again.  Whatever the case may be, they know that their questions were
answered courteously and will have the impression that Bloomington,
Indiana is a friendly place to live (which it is).

    I praise the ACGA for its good work and for its value as a resource
at every opportunity.  I would like for the people I send to this
list for information to see the organization in the positive light in
which I have presented it.  If we are open and welcoming, those
people who share our interests and values will join.  Those who do
not join will still have a positive impression of the organization
which may be of great service down the road.

    Adam, your advocacy for the ACGA is laudable.  I hope that you will
continue to invite people to join, but I also hope that those
invitations may be couched in less confrontational language.  Let's
give people a positive impression of one of the most positive
organizations of which I am a member (dues paying, of course).

H. Michael Simmons