Does your community have an email list of some sort?  If so, what is it typically used for?  Do you know anything about who started it, how, or why?

We don’t have a community list, per se.  (Well, actually, we do, but it doesn’t get any activity except to announce “First Friday” in the city.  This is an event many cities participate in, to help grow awareness of the arts and local businesses.)  But the “homeschool support group” in this area consists of an email list spanning several counties.  I’ve seen academic co-op announcements, prayer requests, does-anyone-have-this-book-that-I-could-borrow? requests, mentions of Outer Banks vacation rentals for “sale” (where someone can’t make use of his timeshare), announcements for local productions, etc.

Whether or not you have something like this, where do you get your information about upcoming events and things in your area?  (We used to get this from a little local weekly newspaper, but it’s no longer being printed.)