Tweeters,

I am unsubscribing from Tweeters for several reasons. First, the
revelation that I was among the "top ten" in correspondence was
unsettling to me. Although I generally read my email prior to and after
work hours, the perception of my having "too much time on my hands" is
pretty obvious. I need to go birding in my spare time.... :-)

Second, the volume on Tweeters has just overwhelmed my email box, during
a busy time for me at work and at home.

Lastly, I am aware that I tend to be "firm in my opinion" on a lot of
subjects, and pretty darned verbose on most of the others. However, I
have taken a serious look at my postings, and my level of postings. My
sole access to the 'Net is from my work station. Even when I am on "my
own time", the email service is somewhat of a 'perk'. When I use it beyond
the scope of my work, I realize that I am not costing the agency anything.

But, when I give my opinion on whatever subject, when I forward
'conservation alerts', when I provide my thoughts, etc on things germaine
to other divisions of the agency I work for, I have the responsibility to
realize that having a xx at xx.wa.gov address identifies me - to many folks
- as a representative of that agency. Stuart, in his "more meaningless
statistics" post, identified me as "Our Man in Government". That is not
the position I wish to be in when posting on Tweeters.

Recently, I gave my opinion on a subject that - although I claimed that I
was not speaking to a political subject - I feel crossed the line of my
ethics and responsibilities to the agency, and my opinion was given in a
manner that could be construed as the opinion of the agency. As much as
I would like to be on Tweeters and other forums as Jon. Anderson, my
email signature precludes that.

I think that Tweeters is a great (superlatives are hard to come up with)
discussion group, due to its breadth and diversity of people and
subjects. I plan to re-join the group when I obtain my own private email
account, and am looking forward to that time. I have gained a lot of
good information from you folks, and really enjoy the Tweeters community
(live and on the screen...). Thanks.

Jon.