Many months ago the board approved setting up a discussion group
through the chapter website for the freelancers’ group. The
agreement was that this discussion group would not be public, but
would be open to those who participate in the freelancers’ group
that meets approximately monthly, and that the moderators —
Stephenie and Hazel — would control access.
Work on that has proceeded, albeit at a slow pace. But recently
leaders of the group have been discussing a statement of terms of
use for the group and I thought the board should see this before it
is sent to freelancers who will participate. The current version
follows. If you have any questions or comments please let Stephenie
(saoverman@comcast.net) and/or Hazel (hazel@by-words.com) know.
D.C. SPJ Freelancers Group Forum
This discussion forum is available to all
members of the
D.C. SPJ Freelancers Group. Membership is not restricted to
members of the
Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) or to the D.C.
Professional chapter
of SPJ. However, only bona fide freelance journalists with
professional ties to
the Washington, D.C., region may become members.
The group’s leaders – who are members of the
D.C. Pro
chapter of SPJ – will approve membership requests on a
case-by-case basis. Click here to request membership
The primary purposes of this discussion forum
are:
1.
to notify
members of meetings, events, and information of interest to
freelance
journalists; and
2.
to
provide a forum for discussion among members about issues of
importance to
them in conducting their freelance businesses.
This is not a
moderated list. That
means any member may send a message/post at any time, and
messages/posts will
be delivered as soon as they are processed. Therefore, we ask all
members to
follow a few rules.
Participation in this forum is a privilege, and group
members must
follow these rules to maintain their privileges. Group leaders
reserve the
right to remove members from the group if they do not follow the
rules.
This forum is to be used only for members to discuss topics of
interest to
freelance journalists running independent businesses.
No promotional posts (commercial or political)
are allowed.
Do not use this email list or website to attempt to sell goods or
services–yours, or anyone else’s. Do not send any “jokes,” or
other
“interesting” items that are off-topic.
Members’ information shared in this forum is confidential.
Do not forward emails received, or otherwise
share
information, from this list/forum to others who are not members of
the group
unless the provider of the information invites you to do so.
We will conduct our discussions with decorum.
Please don’t use offensive language, and please
do treat
others with respect. No flaming, spamming, or other abusive
practices.
A caveat
Although the administrators and moderators of
this group
will attempt to keep all objectionable messages off this site, we
won’t always
find such posts before you do. We reserve the right to remove any
post that, in
our judgment, does not follow the rules. Please help us by
notifying us of any
post that needs attention.
All messages express the views of the author,
and neither
the administrators/group leaders nor the D.C. Professional Chapter
of the
Society of Professional Journalists will be held responsible for
the content of
any message or post.
Suggestions to make this forum more useful
·
Make the subject line
meaningful. Many people
only read an email if the subject interests them. Keep it short
and to the
point – but accurate, and full enough to be useful.
·
When replying to a
message/post, only include excerpts
from the original message that are relevant to your reply.
·
Avoid single-line replies
(like “Me
too” or “I agree” or “Thanks”). Limit your replies to
those that forward a discussion.
·
Limit your attachments to
.PDF files smaller
than 8 MB. We can’t accept Word or Excel files because they can
spread viruses
and malware so easily.
When replying to an announcement of
a D.C. SPJ
Freelancers Group meeting, take note of the “reply to” line on the
message/post
and reply only to that person. This will ensure that the
information gets to
the organizer without cluttering up the mailboxes of other
members.
-- ___________________________________________________________________ Robert S. Becker Phone & Fax (202) 364-8013 Law Offices of Robert S. Becker Washington, D.C. Website http://www.dcappeals.com E-mail: rbecker@dcappeals.com Practice concentrating on legal issues affecting the media & appellate litigation ___________________________________________________________________