Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Jonathan Robie <jonathan AT texcel.no>]

I am very pleased to announce the Chairs of B-Hebrew, who will be
responsible for most of the day-to-day operation of the B-Hebrew list.
Because their role is so important, it has taken me a long time to choose
the Chairs of B-Hebrew, because 
I wanted to choose carefully and to choose well. I think I have done that.
The chairs of B-Hebrew are:

   Bryan Rocine <596547 AT ican.net>
   Lewis Reich  <LBR AT sprynet.com>
   Kirk Lowery  <KirkLowery AT xc.org>
 
When I chose these people, I was looking for both expertise in Hebrew and a
certain kind of social maturity. I was also looking for a group of people
who would enjoy working together. The Chairs are responsible for creating
the web page for B-Hebrew, keeping the discussion going, making sure that
questions get answered, helping people feel welcome, and making the list
interesting and friendly. 

The first two messages anyone posts have to be explicitly approved by the
Chairs; this eliminates spam and gives us a chance to screen the first two
messages so that newcomers won't post things that are completely off-topic.
Another role of the chairs is to deal with troublemakers, especially those
who are intolerant of the views of others, disparage others, or just can't
handle civil discussion. We can exclude such people from the list, as a
last-resort measure. But the goal is always to teach people to participate,
not to exclude people. We hope that we will rarely have to kick people off
the list.
 
I should also mention my role as list owner. I run the software, and
ultimately, I have veto power, but using veto power is usually a really
stupid thing to do unless things are at a catastrophic state. I also choose
the chairs. But it is the chairs who actually run the list, except for
running the software. On B-Hebrew, I will read the posts and monitor for
tone, etc., but I'm frankly unable to even understand much of what is
posted on B-Hebrew, since my Hebrew is *very* rudimentary. In general, it
is the chairs that run the list, not the list owner.

Of course, without you, the participants, there is no list, and no need for
a list. I hope that B-Hebrew will be a rewarding place for us all, and that
we will all learn from each other and appreciate each other. And I trust
that the Chairs will help us to do so.

Jonathan
jwrobie AT mindspring.com
List Owner, B-Hebrew

 
jonathan AT texcel.no
Texcel Research
http://www.texcel.no