To join a list, send an email to the address shown. To learn about listservs, read the article below.
General CPS practitioners/technicians discussion: CPSP Listserv
This list for general CPS interest has served the CPS community for well over 20 years, with much thanks due to the list’s moderators, particularly Merritt Nenneman. The moderator sent current members an invitation to the new group, which is hosted by Groups.io. To join (or, for members of the former Yahoo list, to check on the status of the invitation) send an email to CPSPList+subscribe@groups.io or visit the group page at https://groups.io/g/CPSPList.
CPS in the healthcare setting: CPS in Healthcare
https://groups.google.com/g/cpsinhc
This list, first launched in 2004 and now supported by SafetyBeltSafe USA, brings together anyone in healthcare who is interested in CPS. Moderator Heidi Heflin says the listserv particularly aims to connect CPSTs with non-CPST nurses and others in healthcare settings whose work involves aspects of CPS. Members of the group’s Yahoo listserv were shifted in December to a new Google list. Others who would like to join should send an email to carseatRN@gmail.com or visit the site at https://groups.google.com/g/cpsinhc.
Special Needs CPS issues: Special Needs Transport
ajmcgove@iu.edu (Put “special needs transport FB page” on the subject line.)
What is a listserv? Why should CPSTs join one?
There is much to learn from your fellow CPSTs. A listserv is a great way to connect.
In general, a listserv is a way for people with a common interest to communicate with each other via email. Member emails are sent to a “reflector” email address, and the software sends the email to all of the group’s subscribers. One or more moderators monitor the messages to ensure that they are professional in content and tenor, on topic, and noncommercial.
For broad topics like CPS, a listserv can be general purpose or focus on one of many subinterest topics. Members can pose questions to the group, crowdsource solutions, share successes, make relevant CPS announcements, survey others, and compare experiences. Many members of CPS listservs have a high level of expertise and qualifications, so posts are typically quite useful and reliable.
The earliest listserv for CPS was set up in the 1990s through a grant from NHTSA, and a handful of specialty CPS listservs have also operated for many years. Although social media and other online forums have since emerged and have largely supplanted listservs for this type of communication, there is still a demand for listservs, nonetheless.
Perhaps the most important reason listservs remain viable is that employers of many CPSTs prohibit (or severely limit) workplace use of social media. Therefore, without a listserv, many CPSTs would not have a way to tap colleagues for input when questions arise. In particular, hospital systems commonly limit employee access to social media on work computers—and also happen to be the workplace of CPSTs who are, arguably, among the most likely to benefit from reaching out to (and sharing with) other CPSTs because they regularly deal with complex and challenging CPS situations.
Over the past decade, Yahoo has hosted the CPS listservs. At one time, in addition to the Yahoo listserv group for general CPS, there were CPS listservs for healthcare, special needs issues, school bus transportation, and EMS. SRN was unable to confirm the ongoing viability of the EMS group at this time. The school bus group, moderated by SRN, has been essentially dormant, though SRN has plans to reboot it in the future.
Moderators of the remaining popular listservs recently shifted to new providers so that these valuable communication tools can continue to function. Members needn’t worry about overfilling their inbox, as they can control their settings to receive emails according to their personal preference: individual emails, periodic emails in digest form, or no emails at all.