OnlineParents GroupThrives

ByLorettaJimenez

Potrero Hill Parents Association (PHPA) is a listserv for Hill parents interested in building a supportive parent community, and a great neighborhood for families. The listserv was launched in 2005, and has grown to 543 members.

The listserv emerged from a collaboration between the wellestablished, but dwindling in size, PHPA and a group of new parents who’d started to create sociallysupportive gatherings on the Hill. Natalie Freeburg, organizer of the new parents group, began the yahoo group that eventually merged with and rejuvenated PHPA. Freeburg served as moderator until 2008, while continuing to organize playgroups and community events.

In 2007, PHPA members engaged in heated online debates over listserv management, which resulted in a lull in membership and activity. Today the online community shares parenting and travel tips, free and for-sale clothes and children’s items, nanny and child care availability, play dates, job openings, and familyoriented neighborhood gossip. In 2008 Freeburg and her family temporarily moved to Texas. Sara O’Neill, a Hill parent and founder of Slippery Fish Cooperative, took over as the listserv’s moderator.