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ACB Leadership List Guidelines

Adopted by the ACB Board of Publications, 10/06/2014

Purpose

The purpose of the ACB Leadership List is to provide a forum wherein leaders of the ACB (including Officers, Board members, committee Chairpersons and the organization’s staff and contractors) and up to three members of each of ACB’s state and special interest affiliates can ask and answer each other’s questions and share information and resources intended to inform members about blindness-related issues and/or which will help affiliates and the ACB grow and/or pursue our shared mission.

Structure

This document is divided into two sections: rules, which must be followed, and requests, which constitute common courtesies.

Moderator

The ACB President or his/her designee is responsible for moderation of the ACB Leadership List. The Moderator is responsible for managing subscriptions, for assisting subscribers regarding whether or not specific posts are appropriate for the Leadership List (upon request) and for enforcement of list rules and guidelines.

Rules

  1. Subscribing and unsubscribing
    Eligibility for Subscribing - Any of the following individuals are authorized to be subscribed to the ACB Leadership List:
    1. ACB Officers and Directors
    2. ACB committee chairpersons or their designees
    3. Members of the ACB Board of Publications
    4. Members of ACB’s social media Teams
    5. ACB staff and contractors
    6. Up to three individuals from each ACB state and special interest affiliate, designated by each affiliate’s President
       
  2. Subscribing – Any eligible person identified in categories “A” through “E” above may contact the Moderator to be subscribed to the Leadership List. Those members which are eligible based on category “F” must be nominated by their state or special interest affiliate President, who can subscribe or unsubscribe members from his/her affiliate by notifying the Moderator.

    Approval – Requests for subscriptions will be reviewed and approved within three business days.

    Unsubscribing – Any individual may unsubscribe himself/herself by contacting the Moderator. State and special interest affiliate Presidents may unsubscribe any member by contacting the Moderator.
     
  3. Posting 
    1. Messages must contain either the poster's name or a consistent unique identifier.
    2. Post on this List can be either an original message, a reply to a previous post, or a properly attributed article from a secondary source.
    3. Discretion must be used when forwarding material written by others. The identity of authorship must be shown. If what you are forwarding is from a publication, the name of the publication, the author of the article, and the date it was written should be included. When possible, the link to the article on the web should also be included.
    4. Original or forwarded advertising, surveys, or questionnaires unrelated to blindness or ACB, are not permitted. The List Moderator may be consulted if clarification is needed about the appropriateness of material. A post of this nature is considered a minor list violation and subject to the List Violations set forth herein.
    5. Campaign announcements or posts to, from or about candidates for ACB Board, BOP or affiliate elections are subject to the rules and guidelines set forth in ACB’s Candidate Posting Guidelines which are available on the ACB’s website or by contacting the national office. The List Moderator may be consulted if clarification is needed about the appropriateness of any specific posts. Any violation of the Candidate Posting Guidelines is considered A minor list violation and subject to the List Violations set forth herein.
    6. Remove extraneous headers. Failure to remove them is considered a minor List violation and is subject to the provisions set forth in List Violations herein.
    7. Read receipt requests must not be sent to the List. Read receipts are considered minor list violations and are subject to the List Violations provisions set forth herein.
    8. Forwarding posts from suspended list members is considered a major violation of list rules. If any subscriber knowingly forwards posts from suspended list members, he/she is subject to the List Violations provisions set forth herein.
    9. Mild profanity, used in moderation, is not considered a violation of list rules. However, excessive profanity or explicit language are considered major violations of list rules and are subject to the List Violations provisions set forth herein.
    10. Posts should be designed to raise questions or to provide information relevant to the leadership of ACB and/or its affiliates. Appropriate topics include, but are not limited to: organizational issues, organizational management, questions or information about leadership, non-profit management, conducting meetings, fundraising, public relations, blindness-specific issues (transportation, employment, etc.). The key question is whether the topic is specific to an individual or of general interest to the ACB, an affiliate/affiliates or to some other larger group within the ACB. In general, the latter is more appropriate for the Leadership list.
    11. Conversation threads are under the sole control of the List Moderator. If, in the List Moderator’s judgment, the postings for a particular conversation thread have become unproductive or repetitive, the List Moderator may discontinue that thread. Once the Moderator discontinues any thread, subscribers have 24 hours within which to discontinue posts pertinent to the discontinued thread.
    12. There is a posting limit of five messages per day. Repeated violation of the daily posting limit is considered a minor violation of list rules and is subject to the List Violations set forth herein.
       
  4. Message replies 
    1. To send a reply only to the sender of a message, use the "Reply," "Reply to Sender," or other similar command--depending on the email program in use. If the message is intended for only one person, it must be sent off List with the "reply" command or equivalent.
    2. If a reply should go to all List recipients, use a command such as "Reply to All."
       
  5. List Violations
    Each of the following constitutes list rules violations and are subject to penalties, up to and including suspension of list privileges.


    Minor Violations
        A. Exceeding posting limit of 5 posts per day
        B. Inappropriate topics, e.g. not blindness-related, sending “read receipts” to the list, leaving headers in the body of a message, etc.

    Major Violations
        A. Personal attacks, flaming, etc.
        B. Inappropriate content, including, but not limited to: abusive or threatening language, excessively foul language, sexually explicit content, harassment against any individual or group, or the inclusion of any statements which are intended to denigrate any individual or group based on gender, race, ethnicity, religion, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, etc.

Penalties 

If a list subscriber violates these list rules, the Moderator will:

  1. Minor Violations
    1. First warning – Email sent privately advising the subscriber of the rule or guideline which has been violated
    2. Second violation – On-list warning with a summary of the violation
    3. Third violation – One week suspension of list privileges
    4. Fourth violation – One month suspension from list privileges
    5. Any subsequent violations – One Year Suspension - This suspension may only be revoked by the ACB President or the Internet Oversight Committee, based on an appeal from the subscriber.
  2. Major Violations
    1. First Violation – One week suspension
    2. Second Violation – One month suspension
    3. Third violation– One Year Suspension – This suspension may only be revoked by the ACB President or Internet Oversight Committee, based on an appeal from the subscriber.
  3. Appeals – Any subscriber may appeal a suspension by contacting the ACB President or the Chairperson of the Internet Oversight Committee (IOC). The notice of appeal should include, at a minimum:
    1. Subscriber’s name, phone number and email address
    2. Reason for the appeal along with any supporting facts or documentation
    3. Explanation of any actions which the subscriber has taken or will take to avoid committing similar violations in the future
  4. Appeals will be considered and decided by the ACB President and the IOC within sixty calendar days. Decisions of the ACB President and IOC will be communicated to the appealing subscriber via email and are considered final.

Requests    

  1. ACB Leadership is a public list which is subject to public scrutiny. All list subscribers should exercise discretion when posting any information of a personal nature to this list.
  2. When replying to messages on List, do not include the previous post, unless it must be retained for context.
  3. Keep the subject line relevant to the message body, it is both considerate and helpful to change the subject line of a message to which you are replying if you suspect your reply may generate a new topic of conversation.
  4. Criticism, however strident, is permitted, but a spirit of civility is expected.
  5. While forwards of newspaper and magazine articles as well as other items of interest are welcome on the Leadership list, please keep in mind the following guidelines: 
    1. Remove all extraneous headers which cause major clutter for users of screen readers and screen magnification software.
    2. All forwarded links should be accompanied by either an explanation or some or all of the text contained within.
    3. Please explain the relevance of the forward to this list.