On Fri, 9 May 1997, Allen Dick wrote:
 
> Date:F     Fri, 9 May 1997 08:55:17 -0400
> From:      <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject:   Message ("Your message dated ...")
> To:        Allen Dick
 
> Best of Bee now has 225 subscribers and that group seems pretty stable and
> grows steadily -- with sudden spurts right after any unpleasantness.
>
> Perhaps the number on Best of Bee should be added to the BEE-L numbers to
> arrive at the true BEE-L total, but I doubt it; I assume that many
> (most?) have a BEE-L subscription too, unless setting BEE-L NOMAIL also
> turned off the renewal reminder and they are lurkers who seldom post and
> would thus not get a message that they are not BEE-L subscribers.  MAybe
> someone would like to compare the two membership lists?
>
> At any rate, I would appreciate any thoughful comments on this and ideas
> as to where we should go from here.
>
   Hi Allen and All,
 
   I have a couple of ideas.
 
 First , This time of the year is very busy for most of us.I bet many have
just not re-subed because they are up to there armpits in other things ,
this time of the year.
 
 Second, There are many web pages that they can gather information on
beekeeping from. We have a small % that are active on the list.You can see
that even some of the regulars have not paticipated as much latley.The net
is changing as it goes. Web pages will have much more info on them in the
future. That will not take away the need for an open forum.
 
  We have a force that will help the list. The public is becoming more
awhare of the depletion of wild honey bees. We are getting more people
that want to have a couple of beehives. The back order time on woodenwhare
is a good indication of what is really going on in beekeeping. Some old
equipment needs to be replaced by the big boys , who now have a couple of
extra $'s to spend do to honey prices. The bottem line is , we need an
open forum that we can share ideas and discuss problems that face all of
us. Beginners have a wealth of info that looks at this screen.The
variance in bee behavior can not be put into a book.We see different
things all the time. So we can use the list to shake out an answer or a
lot more questions.
  The last flame thrower that we had is a lot less of a problem than many
would think. It is an opinion problem and everyone has one. We can't learn
much if we don't cross the line and look at a different opinion. Thank God
were not all the same. He did a great Job making us different so we can
grow. We can all grow from this list, I know that I have ,and I will
continue to grow from this list. I had a 2% loss last winter. That is the
best I have ever done in over 30 years. This list made it happen.New ideas
come up all the time. This is not a dead place ,it is a place for us to
express our own ideas and gain from the reseachers that participate in the
list.
 So Allen,MY opinion is , the list is OK and not to worry.I do tend to
look at the positive , because you can build only on the positive. I don't
have time for the negative. If something is really wrong, then we will
need to fix it.You have done a great job setting this up and I would like
to thank Aaron for his time that he has spent over seeing this listserver.
 
  Best Regards
  Roy