Java EE (Java Enterprise Edition) General Discussion

I would like to pass a parameter to my getter method in the backing bean.The code I am using is below:

<h:selectOneMenu id="dateTimeMaskMenu">
		<f:selectItems value="#{userBean.list}" />
		<f:param value="DateMask" />  // is this valid? 
                 // I wud like to pass the String value "DateMask" 
                 // to the method getList(String value) of my backing bean
</h:selectOneMenu>

so in other words my getList() method gives me the list depending on the value I pass it. How do I acheive this? Do I need to set somethings in the managed-beans.xml fime as well? or just pasing parameters thru JSF is good enuf? Also how do I access it in my Bean?