Westland PTA Listserve
Westland-Net, the Westland Middle School e-mail network, has more than 900 members. Membership is limited to current and incoming Westland families and Westland teachers and staff. Similar to networks for a number of other schools in Montgomery County, including Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School, Westland-Net is for communicating about school matters and education in general. When you join Westland-Net, you are agreeing to abide by the Acceptable Use Guidelines set forth below. Westland-Net moderator for the 2011/12 school year is Melissa Urofsky.
Join Westland-Net
- Click the Yahoo Groups button below..
- You will see instructions at the Yahoo Groups site, and receive a confirmation email.
- When you receive the confirmation e-mail, click on the link provided in the body of the message or copy the link into the address
bar of your web browser.
- When that link opens a YahooGroups web page, look at the bottom of the page and click on the "join the mailing list instead" link.
- That will open a screen in which you can make a "Comment to Owner". You MUST enter your name. If you are the parent of a student at Westland (or soon-to-be), enter your child's name, grade, and current school. If you are not the parent of a Westland (or soon to be) student, please describe your connection to Westland and why you want to be on the list. If you do not provide this information, it will significantly delay your approval for Westland-net membership. Click on "Continue" when you are done.
- Once you submit that information, you should receive a message within a day or two informing you that you are subscribed to Westland-Net.
- Note: The first time you use the Yahoo Groups Westland-net website, you have to register and record a password (set up a free Yahoo account that has no effect on your email), even if you've already been receiving and sending messages from/to a Yahoo Group e-mail network.
Click the YahooGroups button to Subscribe to Westland-Net
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Acceptable Use Guidelines - Effective June 16, 2011
Adapted with permission from the B-CCnet Acceptable Use Guidelines
STATEMENT:
Westland-net is an electronic message board for those affiliated with Westland
Middle School (WMS) owned and maintained by the Westland PTA. Its primary purpose is to communicate
information about school events and activities, and provide a forum where
members can ask questions and share ideas on education and other issues
directly affecting middle school students.
While the school and the PTA will place notices on Westland-net, it is
only an informal means of distributing information and does not supplant other
communications from the school or PTA.
Postings on
Westland-net do not reflect the opinions or views of any entity related to the
State of Maryland, Montgomery County, Montgomery County Public Schools, or any
teacher or parent organization.
MEMBERSHIP: Westland-net is open to members of the Westland Middle School community: (1)
faculty and staff, (2) parents of students attending Westland and (3) students themselves.
Exceptions require the approval the PTA President or Executive Vice President.
APPLICABILITY:
These Guidelines apply to all members of Westland-net. In joining Westland-net, members agree to
abide by these Guidelines as well as the Yahoo! Groups Terms of Service and
Yahoo! Group Guidelines.
GUIDING
PRINCIPLES:
1. The subject matter of messages posted to
Westland-net is primarily limited to information about school events and
activities, education and issues directly affecting middle school students.
2.
Departments, clubs, teams, and other groups within the Westland community should not rely on Westland-net
as their primary means of communications, but should seek to develop their own
internal communications tools.
3. While Westland-net is not a general interest
community bulletin board, the PTA, at its discretion,
may allow posting of community events that are free, open to the public, and
are of interest to middle school students and their families, as well as
fundraising and other events that benefit Bethesda-Chevy Chase cluster schools.
4. Posting
of commercial notices, business solicitations, and all other marketplace advertisements
is strictly prohibited, as is the request for referrals for such products or
services, except that members may
request information or referrals for education and youth related services, including but not limited to
tutors, test-prep, camps, study programs, etc.
Replies to requests for such referrals should not be sent to
Westland-net, but should be sent directly to the person requesting the
information.
5. While
civil discussion about issues related to the education and well-being of middle school
students is permitted, appropriate language, behavior and style are expected
from all Westland-net members at all times and in all messages. Extended discussions between or amongst
members should be taken “off-line.”
6. Members
may not post on behalf of anyone else, although parents may post for their
students.
ADMINISTRATION: Ownership of Westland-net is vested in the
PTA Board of Directors. The PTA manages
Westland-net through parent /volunteer moderators whose role is to ensure that
membership is limited to those eligible to belong to Westland-net and that
postings fall within the appropriate use guidelines.
Those
seeking to join Westland-net will be asked for their school affiliation
(faculty, staff, parent, guardian, student). Names will not be added to
Westland-net without permission. The PTA will not share membership lists or
email addresses with other organizations.
Only members
of Westland-net can post messages, receive messages, or review messages on the
Yahoo! Groups web site.
Messages
posted to Westland-net may be screened by PTA-appointed moderators to ensure
that they are in accordance with the PTA’s guidelines.
Attachments
to email messages are not allowed.
RESPONSIBILITIES: Each member may express views freely;
however:
1. You must
sign your name to your posting and state your affiliation with WMS.
2. You may
NOT advocate on behalf of any candidate for political office or engage in
legislative advocacy except as allowed under PTA bylaws and Section 501(c)(3)
of the Internal Revenue Code.
3. You may
NOT use language that constitutes libel, slander, defamatory claims, or hate speech.
4. You may
NOT advocate for nor deride particular faiths or beliefs.
5. Westland-net is not the proper forum to
handle a dispute with a particular teacher or to question the value of a class or assignment.
ENFORCEMENT: Repeated violations of the Guidelines may
result in the restriction of status to
“read only” or removal from the list-serve. For households with a student
enrolled in WMS, a change of status requires the approval of the PTA
President.
RESOURCES:
Yahoo!
Groups Guidelines http://groups.yahoo.com/local/guidelines.html
Yahoo!
Privacy Statement http://privacy.yahoo.com/privacy/us/
Yahoo!
Terms of Service http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms
APPROVAL:
PTA Executive Committee
REVIEW
CYCLE: Annually, or as needed at the discretion of the PTA Executive Committee.
How to Post Messages
To send a message to everybody on the list, address an e-mail to Westland-net@yahoogroups.com. Westland-net does not allow attachments to messages. You must sign your message with your name, student's name and graduation year. (For example, Mary Smith, Bill '08). Messages posted to Westland-net are reviewed prior to posting to ensure compliance with the Acceptable Use Guidelines.
Daily Digest Option
Generally, list members receive each e-mail message as it is sent. If you would prefer, you can receive a single daily e-mail (containing the text of all messages sent the previous day). To sign up for this option, send a blank message to westland-net-digest@yahoogroups.com
Unsubscribe
To leave Westland-net and stop receiving messages, send a blank message to Westland-net-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
This page is maintained by the Westland Middle School's Web Team