Emailed announcements go to tech-squares@mit.edu, a moderated MIT Mailman list. You can authenticate to the admin interface by password (the password is on the officers-only Passwords wiki page) or (for those who have Athena accounts and are listed as moderators) MIT web certificates. The top right corner of the admin interface links to "pending moderator requests" (emails that haven't yet been sent through or rejected) and the list archives (in case you want to look at past emails). We currently have everybody moderated and use the approval step as an opportunity to san-check the email a final time, but if that's too inconvenient, it's possible to remove the moderation flag for somebody regularly sending announcements.
As a random note, as of September 2015, goo.gl links are likely to get spam filtered by MIT, so you should use full docs.google.com instead for things like forms.
Emailed announcements can be long and should be inclusive. Specifically, they should include date/time/location, caller and cuer, early rounds topic, upcoming dances (both Tech Squares affiliated & not), and (optional) fun stuff. Some weeks may have additional announcements. Alex has been trying to have a short table of contents (perhaps one to four words per item) at the top and similar headings before each item; it's not clear that's better than the historical "just a bunch of ---- separated items" approach, but it seems like it might be.
Sample email:
The general format of the emailed announcements goes like this:
Greetings everyone! Tech Squares will be meeting this Tuesday, September 29th in Lobdell. 7pm early rounds will have Veronica teaching tamaras, followed by Ted calling squares and Veronica cueing rounds at 8pm.
Announcements this week:- Upcoming badge order- Rounds- New announcements coordinator----Upcoming badge order:The company through which we normally order our badges, Majestic Badge, has closed. They have passed along our design information to another company, and so we would like to try placing a test order before we place the class badge order for graduation.
If you would like to order a badge, please fill out the spreadsheet at
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-AbFIsvdFm2I9NWAvAnzAcSnzyVZ--FsFmBT62414mg
We don't have exact pricing yet, but it will probably be about $8 for a pin-backed badge and $11 for a magnet-backed badge.
Tech Squares badges generally have the name printed in all-caps; make sure to use the capitalization that you would prefer.
Please respond by the end of Tuesday, October 6.----
Rounds:
This week, Veronica will be teaching dances with tamaras. That's a round dance figure from the beginnings of modern round dancing. She will start with easy waltz and two-step dances so we can put our attention on the tamaras which are totally unique in round dancing. See the bottom of this email for Veronica's history of this figure.----
New announcements coordinator:
We have a new announcements coordinator! Martha Ingols is taking over. Thanks! -Alex
We’re still accepting adjectives (and interesting facts): <https://docs.google.com/forms/d/12Hzx_Bsb7jdWVk-5U6z4zUljdHZbxKCUqx1wBZwjk6k/viewform>. Adjectives will most likely continue for as long as somebody else suggests them. Thanks!----Fun stuff!
Today in 1777, Congress adopts the 'Stars and Stripes' as the official Flag of the United States. On a more technical bent, today in 1822, Charles Babbage proposed his difference engine in a paper to the Royal Astronomical Society.
(End of sample)
Rounds
From Andy Latto concerning rounds:
I'll try to send you info each week or each month, and I encourage you to nag me if I forget, but here's a way to generate default announcements.
Look at http://www.mit.edu/~tech-squares/schedules/rounds-sched.html for the schedule of what rhythm goes with what month. So Foxtrot for December, Waltz for January.
If the rhythm is X, the announcements are:
Week 1: Jessica will teach a class in X technique. Open to all, especially those planning to take Phil's X course this month.
Week 2. Phil will start a class in X. (Add something about who it's appropriate for **).
Week 3. Phil's X class continues. If you missed the first class, talk to a Rounds Coordinator, and we'll help you catch up.
Week 4 (and 5 if there is one).
**. For Beginning Waltz and Two-step; open to everyone. No rounds experience required. If you've ever thought of trying rounds, this is a great time to start! Put in whatever enthusiastic thing you like that you think will make people take the class.
Rumba, Cha Cha, and "Other Rhythms" (which will cycle between Slow Two-Step, Tango, and Jive); open to all; no rounds or X experience required.
The classes labelled "intermediate", "Cuer's choice" and foxtrot are not the best classes for a beginner. I'll try to give you some appropriate wording for who the class is for when those come up.