[CEUS-earthquake-hazards] The Purpose of this discussion group and the flurry of emails

[Eugene S Schweig]

While I understand and share some of Jim's concerns, I need to point out 
the stated purpose of the listserve, beautifully written by me some years 
ago:

The purpose of the group is twofold. First, it is to exchange ideas on the 
reduction of earthquake hazards through the discussion of earth science, 
engineering, emergency management, and planning topics. Now that most 
people involved in these topics have access to e-mail, we feel that the 
group can provide a simple and effective means to disseminate ideas to a 
broad range of people, including those outside of our own fields.

The second purpose of the group is to provide a means of distributing news 
and announcements of meetings, workshops, requests for proposals, etc. We 
know from first-hand experience that it is often impossible to remember 
everyone who ought to be informed of such information. We hope that this 
mailing list will allow most interested parties to get the information 
they need. 

I know that some people have been annoyed by the quantity of e-mails, but 
it is not that hard to delete them while the debate is ongoing.  Some of 
the participants in the debate have been the usual suspects on both sides, 
but others have not participated in the past.  Although I am no longer the 
moderator in chief of this list, I would ask that anyone who submits or 
responds be sure that what you are saying is important for the whole list 
to know or should just go to a select group of your colleagues.  Also, try 
to not send large attachments.  Delete as much of the "History" part of 
your message as possible.  Finally, just send the email to 
ceus-earthquake-hazards at geohazards.usgs.gov; if you reply as well to the 
originator, he or she will get multiple copies.  Thanks!

Buddy Schweig

__________________________________________________________________
Eugene Schweig
Chief Scientist
Earth Surface Processes Team
U.S. Geological Survey
___________________________________________________________________




"Jim Wilkinson" <jwilkinson at cusec.org> 
Sent by: ceus-earthquake-hazards-bounces at geohazards.usgs.gov
02/15/08 04:36 PM

To
"Emitt C Witt" <ecwitt at usgs.gov>, "Allen Jones" <jonesal at myuw.net>
cc
ceus-earthquake-hazards at geohazards.usgs.gov, 
ceus-earthquake-hazards-bounces at geohazards.usgs.gov
Subject
Re: [CEUS-earthquake-hazards] reply to Joe Tomasello;   buildings codes 
and earthquake hazard






I would like to offer a point of support to the discussion, while at the 
same time a word of caution. 
 
The discussion surrounding the hazard is important and needs to be 
addressed.  From my perspective these issues are fundamentally research 
based and as such should be debated within the research community.  This 
list serve, while sponsored by USGS and designed to allow such discussion 
among professionals, it is not exclusive to the scientific community, 
meaning any and everyone who wants to join can, i.e. elected officials, 
media, emergency management, business owners, etc., most of which have an 
interest in the hazard in the central US but no seismic 
research/engineering background.  This mix can be unintentionally 
problematic with discussions like these currently taking place, because it 
breaks from what I would consider the proper forum to be in resolving such 
an issue and adds to the overall confusion. 
 
There is a ?time and place for everything? as the saying goes and I don?t 
feel this list serve is the place for this discussion.  The topic is to 
technical and the end results of the debate, whichever way they may go, 
need to be decided off line and within the scientific community. 
 
Jim Wilkinson
Executive Director
Central United States Earthquake Consortium
 


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