UVLists:About

UVLists (short for Upper Valley Lists) is a volunteer-run nonprofit based in South Royalton, Vermont. We look after the town email discussion lists that neighbors across the Upper Valley of Vermont and New Hampshire have relied on for more than twenty years.

Our mission is to preserve locally controlled online community discussion forums throughout the Upper Valley.

What we do

UVLists runs 38 town discussion lists, from Barnard to Woodstock. Each list is a shared email conversation for one community: a place to find a lost pet, recommend a plumber, sell a couch, read the select board agenda, or hear about a road closure.

The lists are local. Each list serves one town, and its guidelines ask that posts relate to that town, be signed, and stay civil.
The lists are run by neighbors. Each list is looked after by volunteer list administrators from its own community, with support from UVLists.
The lists are free and ad-free. There is no advertising, and subscriber information is used only to run the lists. It is never sold.
The lists work through email. You do not need a social media account, an app, or a password. Just the email address you already have.

The lists run on open-source software (GNU Mailman) on servers maintained by UVLists volunteers.

Our history

ValleyNet and the first lists (1994 to 2014)

The town lists trace their roots to ValleyNet, which introduced local dial-up internet service to the Upper Valley in 1994. In 2004, ValleyNet took over the Thetford list. From there, the free discussion lists spread from town to town, eventually covering 38 towns and more than 21,000 subscribers.

The lists soon became part of everyday life, and at times much more than that:

In 2008, the lists were an important tool in getting ECFiber started, when 24 towns voted at town meeting to join the community broadband network.
After Tropical Storm Irene in 2011, the lists were critical in coordinating volunteer recovery efforts.
Towns came to use them to post agendas, minutes, and road closures, and nonprofits and emergency services used them to reach their neighbors.

The Vital Communities years (2014 to 2026)

In 2014, Vital Communities, a regional nonprofit, took over administration of the lists from ValleyNet and stewarded them for more than a decade. Throughout, each list continued to be run day to day by volunteer list administrators. Together, list administrators past and present have given an estimated 75,000 hours of volunteer time since 2004 to keep the lists local, civil, and non-commercial.

UVLists is formed (2026)

In August 2026, word came that the town lists might close. A concerned group of list administrators, some of whom had looked after their town's list for many years, began discussing the future of the lists and how to keep them running in community hands. Longtime subscribers joined the conversation, and offers of help poured in from across the Upper Valley. That group became UVLists.

August 23, 2026: UVLists published its first website, explaining who was involved and what a handoff would take.
August 24: UVLists met with Vital Communities to talk about keeping the lists online.
August 27: An ad hoc executive committee of list administrators and volunteers sent Vital Communities a proposed memorandum of understanding that drew on the thoughts of all 38 list administrators. The same day, UVLists put out a call for committee members.
September 12: The UVLists-Announce list began sharing news with the public.
September 30: At its first board meeting, UVLists elected officers, adopted its bylaws, and approved a transition agreement with Vital Communities.
October 1: UVLists and Vital Communities signed the transition agreement, under which UVLists took over administration of the 38 town lists.
Late October: UVLists began moving each list to its own system. Every town list was given a new address ending in -discuss@lists.uvlists.org (see Renaming Lists), and subscribers came along with their existing delivery settings.

ECFiber, whose own start the lists helped make possible, became a key sponsor of UVLists.

Vital Communities continues to run its Upper Valley-wide and topic lists, which were not part of the transition.

We are grateful to ValleyNet and Vital Communities for their many years of stewardship, and above all to the volunteer list administrators who have kept these lists going all along.

What comes next

For now, our first job is to keep the lists working the way people know them. Over time, we hope to help communities do more with them: for example, giving a town separate lists for announcements, discussion, or items for sale, if its residents want that.

UVLists plans to hold its first annual meeting by January 31, 2027, and to begin asking subscribers for financial support in early 2027.

Who we are

UVLists, Inc. is led by a volunteer board of directors and officers, listed on the Executive Committee page. The day-to-day work is done by volunteers: list administrators, moderators, and people who help with the technical systems, this wiki, and outreach.

UVLists is always looking for more help. See Get involved.

Learn more

Mailing address: UVLists, Inc., 95 S Windsor Street, P.O. Box 934, South Royalton, Vermont 05068