Community Guidelines

(formerly called Terms of Use and Online Community Guidelines)

Revised: October 11, 2010

Your agreement with the Community Guidelines is required with your membership.

Please scroll to review the guidelines before clicking the agree box.

The purpose of the FUNMC online community is to support our mission. We are a non-profit organization that supports and encourages the exchange of information, ideas and experiences relating to the birth, care and rearing of children and our experiences as parents.  The following guidelines shall govern the use of our online forum by the members of the Club:

1. The forums subject matter does not need to be limited to issues concerning children or parenting issues. Big Tent Forums are available to our members as a resource connecting similarly situated individuals and families in the Tri City area. Discussing club related activities and business is encouraged as well.

2. The advertising of a member’s personal business is NOT permitted in the forums and is ONLY permitted in the Business Directory and Daycare Directory Resource Guides that are posted in the files section of Big Tent.

3. The sales and advertising of a FUNMC member’s personal used baby equipment, child or household related items are permitted and encouraged, and are restricted to the section named Classifieds in Big Tent. This includes items listed for free, and items available for trade or exchange.

4. When replying to a Forum post, please note that the default setting is to Reply back to the Club as a whole.  Should you prefer to reply to one member personally, please delete the Club’s email address and address your email accordingly.  In addition, it is helpful to delete the original message from your reply for those members who receive messages in digest format or read them on the web.

5. Links to websites without any explanation of what a member will find at that website are strictly prohibited.  Please explain what information you are sharing before posting a website link.

6. If your discussion has generated a lot of back and forth replies, but the subject matter has become only relevant to a few members (such as beginning playgroups, subgroups, meeting for playdates, etc.), please consider taking your conversation off the forum and beginning a subgroup for your interested group members.

7. The following types of forums/threads are strictly prohibited: i) Jokes, unless they are truly child or parent related; ii) Chain emails iii) Spam: repeated copies of the same message or incessant irrelevant posts iv) Religious comments or any theological beliefs.

8. Requests for individual or business references such as handymen, hair stylists, cleaning services and babysitters are allowed and encouraged in our regular chat forum.  We encourage members to review the Club’s Business Directory and Daycare Directory Resource Guides.

9. Members should refrain from any personal attacks or use of profanity and should conduct themselves with courtesy, respect, and in accordance with the Code of Conduct.

10. The forums are not intended to be a substitute for the medical advice of a trained and licensed professional.  If you seek medical advice, please contact your health professional.

11. Any posts by members that fail to adhere to these guidelines, or that otherwise violate the Club’s Bylaws or Code of Conduct, will be subject to removal immediately by the Moderator.  The Moderator will issue a written reminder to any member who does not adhere to these guidelines. The Board reserves the right to terminate the membership of a member violating these guidelines.

12. Board members are designated as such in their profile and their contact info is listed in every newsletter. We encourage you to contact the appropriate Board member through tent mail, email or by phone with any questions, comments or concerns you may have about Club business and activities. All members are welcome to attend Board meetings.

13. The Club used to prohibit political discussions, but the Board decided to allow them again. The following is a synopsis of the Board decision to allow political discussions on the forums.

“In the past, it was prohibited due to members being unable (at times) to remain respectful of each other when discussing controversial topics.  The board decided we are willing to allow such discussions again. Many issues are facing our communities that affect our families and children and we think it would be useful to have intelligent, informative discourse in order to educate each other about the issues. This is in accordance with our Bylaws (see below) and does not put at risk our non-profit status. As before, the Club as a whole cannot endorse, financially or otherwise support an issue or candidate, but our members can certainly discuss current issues and express their opinions.

Again, we urge everyone to be informative while being respectful of the fact that there will be members who have varying opinions and differing viewpoints from your own. We expect everyone to be polite at all times, keeping in mind that nuances, joking and sarcasm cannot be expressed well in an email format.

Our forum moderator will monitor any political discussion(s) and retains the right to close any topic that does not adhere to these guidelines. If a topic is exhausted, or becomes disrespectful and is therefore closed by the moderator, the topic should not be opened for discussion under another thread.”