Mary Shkut
Marvin Councilor
EMAIL FAQs
1. Do you use the official Village 'Resident List' to send out newsletter from you and your website?
No. That would be impossible for me to do. However, the ‘Urban’ Development Squad; Liquor License Annexors and Gate Crew have this one story they like to tell about me. Because it's the only story they have (in the face of my many years of service - mostly volunteer!) it's a drum they beat often. I suppose they keep hoping it will matter more than other essential items of concern in the Village. It's a silly story, with no merit and the complete opposite is true. The real story is a testament to the old saying: "no good deed goes unpunished!".
Click here for a full-page that addresses this "Email Myth". Complete coverage of the issue is supported by primary documentation and resources so you'll have access to the actual facts. Click here for a "Email FAQ" page dedicated to the
same subject matter.
2. If they weren't obtained from the Village, how have email address for Newsletters been obtained?
Anyone asking themselves, "how did they get my email address", is likely to find the answer here.
Many Marvin families, interested in good government, have provided batches of emails to construct emails distribution lists in circulation today. It is a gross mistake to believe the emails on any of these lists are from Village Subscriber Lists, post-2011. (Only Village Subscriber Lists post-2011 are regulated by more stringent NC Statutes - see above). If you find your email address is on one of these lists its very, very likely another resident in Marvin provided your email address as part of one of these batches. There are many records available to illustrate this point. Few examples illustrate this more perfectly than the following example:
Example: On Nov. 14, Councilwoman Vandenberg published a post on Nextdoor.com eluding to the fact that all emails in circulation were obtained through me, as an employee, and/or from a Village Subscriber List. This has been the premise of Ms. Vandenberg's 'call' for an investigation into 'email address usage', through the Board of Elections. Believing that Ms. Vandenberg's insinuations had merit, Mr. Marino, of Firethorne stated, in part: "I've been trying for years to find out who got both my work and personal emails...it looks like Kim is on the right track here. I support [Kim's] efforts..." (See the full post below.)
Mr. Marino may be surprised to learn that Ms. Vandenberg is not on the right track at all. For example, his personal and work email addresses were not provided by any Village Resident List. The email below, and the contents of the email provide a true testament to this: (all other email addresses have been 're-dacted to protect privacy)
The image below, depicts a true email record. In it you can see that a 'batch' of emails containing, Mr. Kenneth Marino's home and work email addresses was provided by Mayor Joe Pollino in 2015. At the time, Pollino was a defacto member of Marvin families interested in good government. Mayor Pollino contributed approximately 250 Firethorne Country Club members' email addresses.
Therefore, it is a grave mistake to believe the emails on any of these lists are from post-2011 Village 'Resident Lists'. If you find your name or email address on a newsletter list it's likely because another resident of Marvin provided your email address(es) as part of one of these batches. The following example perfectly illustrates this likelihood.
I have compiled other records where I could, to illustrate this point. However, in the end, I decided not to present them publicly here because I felt it might cause many residents unnecessary embarrassment. However, please know that a compilation of similar records, like this, are available for inspection, upon request.
Suffice to say, no Village Resident List was required to obtain Mr. Marino's personal or work address. Nor is a Village Subscriber list required to obtain the email addresses of other Marvin residents. All it takes is for one Marvin family to contribute a batch of email addresses, and many of them can be obtained.
If you would like to understand more about the difference between pre-2011 and post-2011 Resident Lists, please see my "Email Myths' page.
3. Will opting out of your list mean I will no longer receive Village notifications?
No. Unsubscribing from one entity’s email list (like, Pottery Barn, for example) will not result in an inability to receive email notifications from another entity (like, Target). No one should be concerned that unsubscribing from an email from my private list would result in an inability to receive meeting notifications from the Village. This would be a spurious correlation between variables and not how technology works. Newsletters which are signed by my private email addresses originate from a privately compiled list of email addresses - despite what the ‘Urban’ Development Squad; Liquor License Annexors and Gate Crew will tell you.
5. I noticed you don't post on Facebook or on Nextdoor.com often. Aren't newsletters a less private means of communication?
If you have a sincere interest in personal privacy it's important to know that social media sites consistently mine personal data and track personal online activity. They then correlate this data with the ‘personal email address’ you use to ‘sign-in’ to these services. Ironically, the two means by which I communicate with fellow Marvin residents (webpage and occasional newsletters) are much more secure and private than any exchange carried out on a social media platform, including Nextdoor.com. That doesn't mean I'm against these methods, I just know they are not the 'secure' means some people believe them to be.
6. When I send you an email, where does it go?
To protect privacy, and because emails I receive are public record, your email first goes to a close and trusted friend. She notifies me, and then I typically answer via email or by phone -- depending on your preference! If no preference is specified, I typically default to writing an email.