Growth is good. Change is inevitable. Since the early 1990’s, those of us in the UTMB research community have used the Research ListServ to communicate about research resources, concerns and solutions. The List Serv includes lists for faculty, staff, different schools and centers, postdocs, students, animal use researchers, human subject researchers, those seeking funding, those managing grants and more. The ListServ was designed to allow the Research Community to share problems and solutions within certain areas (channels).
Unfortunately, the Research ListServ is no longer meeting the IS security standards. With this in mind, we decided to migrate the Research ListServ to a Microsoft Teams environment. The UTMB Research Community Team has been established as a new way to allow research areas (channels) to communicate and share. This will mean several things to ListServ users.
- Communication will be SO much easier. Faculty, staff, different schools and centers, postdocs, students, animal use researchers, human subject researchers, those seeking funding, those managing grants, etc., will now have their own channel under the UTMB Research Community Team. Announcements germane to an individual channel will be posted within that channel. Each channel will also have a place to share files, ideas, and posts. Community posts will be shared under the General channel for all to see.
- Announcements will not inundate your email inbox. Most of us get more mail a day than we can read. The new UTMB Research Community Team can be set up to keep the announcements out of your inbox and on the Team page for you to read at your convenience. Of course this means that if you are used to receiving Grants for Lunch announcements, Blog Updates, meeting reminders, etc. in your inbox, it will now be necessary to check the UTMB Research Community Team and your channel for these announcements.
On the evening of September 30, you will receive messages in your Teams activity app on all devices telling you that you have been added to the General team and to each channel of which you were a member in the Research ListServ. For some of you that may necessitate multiple notifications. If you carry your Teams on your phone - for that night only – you may receive several alerts. This will only happen as we complete construction of the Team.
If you have questions or want to know more about how this change may affect you, please do not hesitate to reach out to Melodi Moore (mdmoore@utmb.edu) or Pamela Petty (pbpetty@utmb.edu) for answers. If you are sharing this with someone who did not receive it directly, please have them contact one of us to be added to the Team and the appropriate channel(s). If you are unfamiliar with the way Teams works, please review the Information Services Teams Training page.