THE BLACK AND GOLD POST

No, I'm not talking about a sudden need for Carly Simon tunes. But anticipation appears to be the buzz word as our Mighty Steelers begin play this season at their new home, Heinz Field. The Black 'n Gold themselves will likewise have a decidedly different look in 2001. Gone are long time team leaders Dermontti Dawson and Levon Kirkland. Rookie second round pick Kendrell Bell has earned a starting spot alongside Earl Holmes at the inside linebacker spot. Kevin Gilbride's Phd. offense has been replaced with the Mike Mularkey "simplified" version.

Training Camp has seen a marked maturation of Tee Martin that will likely spell the end to Jeff Graham's days as a Steeler. Number 1 draft choice Casey Hampton has performed well after a short holdout and the Defense has practiced more variations of a 4-3 than at any time in recent memory.

We, as fans, are also full of anticipation. Sunday mornings will once again include a bounce out of bed as if it were Christmas Day. A rush of adrenalin will fill our veins as we make our way to our favorite PSFCOB establishment and will be at fever pitch when Kris Brown tees up the Opening Kickoff. What more is there to say? This is the time of year that we have eagerly waited for and now it's upon us. LET"S GET IT ON !!!!!!

This past June 2nd, the PSFCOB held our annual picnic. The hard copy newsletter announcing it did not arrive at my house until after the fact. The only way anybody knew about it in time was via the PSFCOB Group e-mail list, our website, or word of mouth. The soft copy of the newsletter was up on our website on the Wednesday night before the picnic.

These events point out the following problems with our current way of keeping our members informed of club activities. The printed newsletter is too costly and time consuming to produce in a consistently timely manner. As such, we need to take advantage of e-mail and web pages to get information to our members as fast as possible. The solutions include our PSFCOB website and the PSFCOB Group e- mail list.

Currently we have 60 members on this e-mail list. This is a little more than 2% of the Club's 2282 members. I know everyone does not have e-mail but I think that if we spread the word we can increase the Group e-mail list membership by leaps and bounds. This will allow us to spread the word on club activities at a much faster pace than through the US mail as well as give us an opportunity to exchange thoughts and ideas on anything and everything Black 'n Gold. I am not talking about eliminating the newsletter but just a better means of communicating with our members and for all our members to communicate with everyone else.

This Group list has some nice features. Any member can send an e-mail to all other members by using the post message address. and you can view all past e-mail postings by going to the PSFCOB e-mail group page.

I have not put this on the website, except in this newsletter, because then anyone could join the e-mail list. I would like to limit it to our club members. I am leaving it up to our members to forward this only to other club members who have e-mail but are not members of this list.

Thanks very much for your anticipated interest. To subscribe to the PSFCOB Group e- mail list, simply send an email to the PSFCOB mail group subscribe address and you'll be all set.

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