The Workfam Newsgroup
How to Join & History

  How to join: Send an email to drago@psu.edu asking to join workfam, being sure to include your email address. Also send an email if you wish to unsubscribe. 

How to send a message: Send an email to workfam-l@lists.psu.edu. The group is moderated and limited to one message per week, so any message you send will typically be heavily edited and sent with others. 

  History: Workfam was an outgrowth of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation's initiatives on Working Families. Workfam was initiated in 1995 at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, with a dozen graduate students from around the U.S. participating, and the group named “redfam” for work REDesign/work-FAMily. It grew to include around 50 academics in 1996. The group was more personal then, with new members introducing themselves, and the group was not moderated. In 1997, the newsgroup was renamed “workfam,” to provide a more inclusive and neutral title. By 1998, the group had grown to over 100 members, including more practitioners, policy-makers and members of the media. As the volume of messages rose, there were complaints about the inability of some members to keep up, so the newsgroup became moderated and a limit of around three messages per week was imposed.  The limit was later reduced to one message per week.  By the summer of 1999, workfam had grown to 180 members when it was moved to Penn State University.  As of  October of 2000, there were over 400 members, and there are currently around 1000 members.  Current messages are of two types. First are conference announcements and summaries of recent research which members email for distribution. Such contributions are greatly appreciated! Second are summaries of articles and books I’ve received and read, so please feel free to send anything relevant for review (Bob Drago, LSIR, 133 Willard, Penn State University, University Park PA 16802 USA).