Creation of newsgroup uk.rec.lepidoptera

[D.P.Howson]

Well, I guess we all know pretty well by now what Chris and Neil are against. But the fact remains that few people are involved from the UK, and it could be that the new newsgroup would stimulate more to communicate.It is a little scary you know , to join an international club, where experts appear ready to pounce and rubbish your contributions. It takes time to realise that amateur contributors are usually treated very nicely.

Perhaps we should now turn to devising some positive ideas  to persuade more people to take to this medium. In the UK could Butterfly Conservation, for example, run a regular column in its News giving interesting snippets from lep line? Plus a mention on how to join? I notice they have already run items on the Internet.

It is noticable that teachers, pupils and friends of pupils regularly join in from the States. This does not seem to happen from UK- how can we raise the profile in the schools? Perhaps some university biology department, circulating material to all schools, might give the lep line a mention?

There are so many people interested in leps, many with access to computers, that some initiatives could be very rewarding in the UK and elsewhere.

Dave