[LUG] Running a big mailing list

[Simon Williams <simon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I'm trying to sort out the IT system mess for a small charity. The 
biggest problem at the moment is their mailing list. The current setup 
is horrible repetitive Exchange/Outlook and macro mess.

The charity is the Bristol International Student Centre (BISC). The 
total size of the mailing list system is around 2000 people on a weekly 
basis (it's an announce-only mailing list, not one like this).

Unfortunately it's not as simple as just a big mailing list that people 
subscribe and unsubscribe from. When peope sign up they specify an end 
date for their course. Once their course has ended they are emailed to 
ask if they want to be moved to the 'overseas' mailing list or removed 
altogether.

There are currently 2 options:

1. Pay for an external mailing list service and somehow get a date-based 
automated subscription/unsubscription system working with it.

2. Put the mailing list on the fileserver at the BISC centre. The 
problem is that it's a residential connection. At the moment it's 
probably dynamic IP, which isn't really desirable for mass mailing. 
Assuming I can get a static IP, I've still got to make sure we aren't 
going to get blacklisted as spammers. Plus this sort of thing isn't that 
simple, which is a problem considering that the IT system is maintained 
entirely by casual volunteers who usually don't have any experience with 
servers at all.

Any suggestions? Could anyone recommend a mailing list service?

Thanks.
Simon

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