Questions about mailman

[Mark Phillips]

I tried to get some answers from the mailman docs and users' list, but no one 
responded. So, I thought I would see if someone on the list knows how to use 
mailman. Mailman is what is available on our shared web server at Deru.

I am setting up some email lists for a large little league with a 
player/family base of about 1200. I need 
to create several email lists. For example, on the softball side, we have 5 
divisions of 6- 8 teams per division. That is 40 email lists just for players 
and their families, not to mention lists for commissioners, team managers, 
team coaches, team moms, and other volunteers. The baseball side is twice as 
big.

I don't want mail for one team to always go to the other teams. Nor mail for 
the commissioner and managers in one division to necessarily go to the other 
divisions. Do I have to create a separate email list for every possible 
combination of players, coaches, managers, teams, commissioners, etc.? Is 
there a way to simplify this and pull addresses from a mysql database based 
on some criteria? For example, send an email to all the players, coaches, 
managers, and commissioner to the Chicago Colleens in the Farm division. Or 
send mail to all the softball managers and commissioners.

I am a Java programmer, not a python programmer, so I may be out of luck if 
the answer is to change the mailman source code. Also, I am pretty sure our 
ISP will not allow me to modify the mailman source and then install it on our 
shared server.

Do I have to build a solution from scratch using jsp/servlets/mysql in Java?  
Can I use mailman to solve my email list problem?

Thanks for any thoughts or suggestions you may have!

-- 
Mark Phillips
Phillips Marketing, Inc
mark at phillipsmarketing.biz
602 524-0376
480 945-9197 fax