PerchChat provides a forum where teachers, students, and anyone else involved with the Sea Perch program can communicate. It is intended to host questions on anything from basic technical support about tool use, parts and assembly, to advanced questions on sensor use, to ideas for classroom and curriculum integration.

A PerchChat discussion group has been set-up using Google Groups, where members can read and reply to eachother's messages. In order to read the archives or post a message, you must be a member of the group (see instructions below).

1. If you haven't done so already, you must register your email address with Google. This creates an account that you can use to access Google Groups, Google Alerts, and other personalized services from Google. You don't need a Gmail account to register your address, but you can sign up for one if you want.
2. Use the box below to subscribe to the PerchChat group:

	Subscribe to PerchChat
	Email:
	Browse Archives at groups.google.com

3. Check your email for the confirmation message from Google, and click on the link to confirm that you are the owner of the email address.
4. On the web page that appears, answer the membership request question and click the button to send the membership request to the group moderator (here at MIT Sea Grant).
5. Wait (usually less than 1 working day) for the moderator to approve your membership request. You will get an email when your request has been approved.
6. Go to the group website, sign in with your email address and password, and you are ready to read and send messages!

Instructions for using the group:

Posting Messages: You can post a message to the group either by using the reply links in the group website, or by sending an email to the group email address (perchchat@googlegroups.com). When you post a message, it will first be sent to the moderator for approval, and will then be emailed to ALL the members of the group once it is posted. Please keep that in mind when posting messages.

Email Options: Although we expect this to be a low volume group, you can choose if you want to get an email everytime someone posts a message, or if you would prefer to get digest emails or daily summaries instead. You can also choose not to receive emails at all, in which case you can only read messages when you go to the website yourself. These options can be changed through the group's subscription page.

Page Last Updated Sept 29, 2005