A mail sent by you to your best friends, early in the morning, to share with them how you feel that day, and what you are thinking of. Can also be used to lighten up a bit when the day got started the wrong way. It is also known to be a big stress relief at work !

Somehow, Good Evening Mails don't work that well. Anybody an idea why ?

PS: More information about a specific implementation of a Good morning mail system can be found in the node GMm.

GMm is not a new concept, but an adaptation of an old sung theme. GMm stands for Good Morning mail (remember the song fron 'Singing in the rain'?)

The point is that mail is used much too often to pass on serious information (mostly work- or family related). GMm is a way to wish people in all earnest a sincere Good Morning (not like what you say every morning to your two hundred collegues when you enter the building). It is the sincerity that counts.

The experiment started three years ago and has since then taken more and shape. The concept has proven its worth in creativity (although sometimes employers may differ in opinion with that statement). The groups are best managed from a private mailing-list. Practically groups should not have more than 20 members.

GMm is not made for everyone to send a mail to everyone in the group. That is the task of the GMmMan. He will send a mail to the group containing the day's greeting and a thought about a subject. The subject can be about a bird flattened by cartires lying on the street, some sociological observation about license plates commonalities, a party announcement... basically the GMmMan is the conversation starter. Mailthreading about one (or maybe others?) subjects is allowed and encouraged.

Since it is impossible to keep up a perfect health record in our society, the GMmMan has a backup to start conversations in his absence. This person is preferably of the opposite sex and has no physical relation with GMmMan. It is advisable to have someone in the group who has technical knowledge (access to a mailserver) - this person occupies him- or herself with the tech-aspect of running GMm and is referred to as the PostalLord or PostalLady. However he or she is not forbidden to partake in the GMm threads.

Preferably GMm conversations are held in a kind of Lingua Franca (in our case most of us are Dutch-speaking,) so keeping the GMm's English encourages us to improve our knowledge of another language - another unexpected beneficial aspect!

The rules are simple: they are all unwritten and mostly improvised on the spot and as necessity arises. The main factor is fun & sincerity. Any minion trying to start a flame war is immediately expelled for 1 or more days. Should a GMmMan or GMmWoman try to use GMm to gain control or use it for its own dictatorial purposes, the Minions have a right to call a vote and try to expel the misbehaving GMmM or GMmW. However the eaiest solution in this case should be to drop the miscreant and start a new GMm elsewhere.

GMm could also extend in communal breakfasts - given that the physical distance between the members is not an obstacle - it is or never was a condition that all the members live in the same country. Which inspires me to propose the next idea: a communal breakfast in cyberpubs over keyboards? I'll think about it.

It might be envisioned to start a GMmcentral where GMmWomen and GMmMen might exchange ideas. But please keep the GMmSpirit as it is - do not turn it into a halfwitted webring full of people with self-proclaimed importance. Being a GMmMan or GMmWoman is a responsability and should be handled in a humble way.

Note: the GMmMan should not necessarily be a man - if the person is of the female sex, she can address herself as GMmWoman. In this case her backup companion should be designated as GMmMan. GMm is not about traditional rolepatterns in society - although that has been one of my better threads if my memory serves me well.

I have known threads to start in the morning and expanding throughout the day to 60 or more mails, as well as developing as developing quite a few sidethreads.

Ideas and suggestions are more than welcome, but please keep them civil. I sincerely thank you for the patience you have developed in reading this and hope somehow that you yourself might one day be included in a GMm (or maybe you will want to start one yourself)!

Peace & Long Life,

GMmMan (the original! - sic)

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