Oberlin Unitarian Universalist Fellowship

DRAFT POLICIES

At the moment, these policies are still works in progress, and are so indicated. Updates will be posted.

It seemed useful to post the interim works here for consultation and comment, even before their final wording was approved.

Responsibility for Content, Disclaimer

OUUF does not take responsibility for and does not necessarily agree with nor support the opinions expressed in sermons, newsletter content, or other personal statements published on or linked to by this web site. We are a congregation of independent thinkers, on several spiritual paths, and no one can be expected to speak for us all. We welcome the fair exchange of ideas, and publish these materials in the spirit of a responsible search for meaning.

The purposes of the web site and email lists include:

• to provide current information about OUUF's mission, organization, ideas and events, activities, and opportunities to members, potential members, friends, visitors and the larger community
• to facilitate internal communication of Board and administrative decisions to members and friends (defined here as regularly-attending and/or giving non-members)
• to provide external communication to others who are subscribed (those planning on moving to the area, visitors, friends of the Fellowship, other congregations in our community or District) so potential members can observe what we stand for and what our collective personality is
• to provide historical documents for review (growth planning, archives/history, committee reports, Board Minutes, bylaws, previous budgets, newsletters, etc.)
• to provide social opportunities and community-building

Email Policy

Email Lists are inherently not private. For those with concerns about email privacy, using an alternate or "throw-away" email address that does not reveal one's name is a possibility for subscriptions to email lists.

• Create an alternate email address with Gmail or Hotmail (links)
• Application for new web PAGE on the church's webSITE (link)
• Application for new email list for your committee (link)
• Roster of local OUUF email lists currently in use, and summary of purpose (link)
• About Email Lists (including Netiquette, spam protection) (link)

Newsletter and Announcements email lists - The largest email list goes to ~100 members and friends, but every time they feel abused (translation: more than one message, i.e., the Pink Sheet, a week), there is at least one comment or unsubscription. Thus, you may ask for extra messages to go out either due to importance, errors in the original, or due to forgetting to put it in the Pink Sheet, but there is a "cost" and the editor may refuse to comply after weighing those costs.

We can send the newsletter to our blind members in RTF format upon request, so their screen-readers (a computer program that reads the newsletter aloud to them) can read it. (Some PDFs are readable, others are not.)

Not Acceptable on the website

With one exception, it has to be sponsored by our Fellowship, district or the UUA, or happening in our facilities, to get mentioned in the newsletter or web site. The exception will be the page on the web site for "More News Items" which is intended to contain both Fellowship news items which were not printed in the monthly newsletter and community events in and around Oberlin which our leadership feels are of interest to our Members and Friends. Priority for such items is given to activities sponsored by our friends in Oberlin Cooperating Ministries first, followed by other activities as we may see fit. In all cases, such events will be of a non-profit nature or sponsored by non-profit institutions.

Items which will be rejected:

• Commercial endorsements
• Endorsements of a political candidate or party
• Letters to the editor
• Controversial essays by members
• Private street addresses except by explicit permission
• Outside advertising
• Personal events or family news (health, family visits, travel news, recipes...)
• Copyrighted content without permission from the owner
• Content that is abusive, insulting, threatening, obscene, hateful, racially, or ethnically objectionable or that contains inappropriate personal or embarrassing information
• We do not identify photos of children by name on the website

More guidelines:

• if text is in a graphic, it absolutely must also be in plain text on a webpage, or Pink Sheet. Use the “Alt” tag is a minimum requirement
• keep the tables of contents/sitemaps up to date
• committees and groups are encouraged to update their pages with current information on a regular basis
• the webmaster retains the authority to shut down pages (or de-link them) when sufficiently out of date as to be misleading
• we encourage proper Netiquette (link)

Working with the Board

The webmaster seeks to serve the Board and to help the Board to communicate with the congregation. To those ends, the webmaster needs certain specific information and oversight in a timely fashion from the Board Secretary. This could include (but is not limited to):
Minutes submitted for the website within eight days of the next Board Meeting
Camera-ready (=no further editing necessary) updates for policies, Bylaws, restructured committees, committee members, committee charges, and any PR needed for Congregational Meetings and other larger events.

The Secretary (or other Board designate) is encouraged to add such items directly to the website, but the webmaster stands ready to assist.

Membership

Cooperate with the Membership Committee to keep both email list and membership lists and Directory up-to-date. The Membership Committee will keep track of visitor dates for receiving the newsletter, and inform the list managers and membership of changes and withdrawals. To the extent they are comfortable with the process, the Membership Committee is encouraged to update email lists and other online databases directly, with assistance from the webmaster as needed.

Scope

The media to which this policy applies may include written documents, posters hung in the Sanctuary, the OUUF monthly newsletter, the Chalice, the weekly announcement sheet (aka "The Pink Sheet"), Ministerial Search Packets, documents and flyers cosponsoring events in the community, local newspapers such as the weekly Oberlin News-Tribune or the Oberlin College Review or daily newspapers such as the Lorain Chronicle-Telegram or the Elyria Morning Journal. Many of the preceding documents may also be used in electronic media, such as the OUUF website, www.OUUF.org, e-mail or social media such as Facebook. When we say “web pages” we include any of these public forms of announcement.

Website Use By Children

If you are under 13, be sure to obtain your parent’s or guardian’s permission before you send any personal information (for example, your name, address, e-mail address, etc.) to us or anyone else over the Internet. We encourage parents to get involved with their children’s online usage and to be aware of the activities in which they are participating. See COPPA (Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act).

Tracking Website Use

Our website software automatically gathers information from your browser and may set a cookie to determine trends in peak activity, determine the number of visitors, track the frequency that individual pages are accessed, and to ensure our links are working properly. For each visitor to our website, our website hosting server automatically recognizes the visitor’s domain name, IP (Internet Protocol) address, and browser software. It may also recognize the operating system and the site from which the visitor linked to us. It does not harvest email addresses or other personal information. This tracking information is not shared with other organizations.

We do not employ spyware or adware of any kind.

Links to Third Party Sites

This web site contains some hyperlinks to websites operated by parties other than OUUF, for your reference only. The inclusion of hyperlinks to other websites does not imply any endorsement of the material on these websites or any association with their operators.

Information Accuracy

OUUF will make every effort to ensure that the information presented on our website is accurate. If inaccuracies occur, we will make every effort to correct them in a timely manner. To report any web site inaccuracies or for questions about these policies, please contact us.

Ownership

This Website is owned and operated by the Oberlin Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, which is entirely responsible for its content. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License. This policy is a living document and may be changed or updated from time to time. If you have any questions about our Privacy Policy, you can contact us at: webmaster@ouuf.org, by mailing us at P O Box 0354, Oberlin, Ohio 44074 or by telephone at 440-935-3812.