Mailing List Admins: How to write a sanction letter
I had to, for the first time in a few years, write an email to a list member to sanction them for something. As I’ve been teaching a team to take over the list, it made for a good, quick, tutorial on how to do this to minimize the chance of making things much worse while trying to fix a problem. Since I think this might be of use to other admins, I’m posting it here for posterity (and the search engines):
Once you decide it needs to be done, stop, close your email and walk away from it for a while. this is especially true if you feel any kind of emotional reaction, like being annoyed, or wanting to rain fiery hailstones down on a person.
Think through what action you intend to take, then stop and think about what action is one step below that. Consider which one is more appropriate -- and wherever possible, take the lighter sentence.
If you are going to implement a sanction, as opposed to a warning, implement it now. There's nothing worse than sending out an admin letter and having that person respond with hate mail to the list before you get the sanction implemented. That turns a routine thing into a dumper fire rather quickly.
Start drafting the email. I STRONGLY recommend doing it in an editor to a file, not in the email system (you really don't want premature sendings). Any time you feel that emotion/annoyance welling up at all, stop and walk away.
When you're done with the draft, close the file and pretend it doesn't exist for at least one hour.
Come back and re-read and review the draft. Have you successfully kept your anger out of the letter? Is it clear? does it stray from the specific issue being discussed? Have you successfully kept your anger out of the letter? Are you sure? Does it make clear what the action was, why it is being sanctioned and what the sanction is? Is it clear what the future holds if the behavior is repeated? I have found that writing it in a more formal style helps me get across a point and express my annoyance/disappointment at the person without it sounding like I'm flaming them. (they may choose to read it as such anyway, of course)
When you're satisfied, walk away again for a while.
Come back later. Review it again. Log it to the event file and send it.
An admin that reacts to the emotion of the moment will almost always make it worse. Avoiding that can be easier said than done. Making sure you put some time between decision and action can help a lot -- and it's really, really rare that these kinds of sanctions are time critical. If you put the sanction on place, you protect the list from any further problem, and you can then talk to the person more at convenience. There's a rare chance they may discover the sanction by accident and that may force you to react to their response, but that's a lesser evil than throwing gas on a small fire to put it out.
By the by -- the fact that someone complained about the email doesn't mean it warrants sanction. The fact that someone requested (threatened?) to unsubscribe doesn't mean it warrants sanction. The complaint needs to evaluated on its own, not on what it might cause to happen -- it's very possible the complainer wants the list to be something it isn't, simply over-reacted and needs to be talked to to hopefully settle them down a bit, or just isn't a cultural fit for the group. I considered these options as well, but what that email implied is an attitude to other birders I never want to see displayed within shouting distance of SBB. I'm really done with this whole "arrogance of a few senior birders" thing leaving a stain against all of us.
Your mileage, of course, may vary.
