Terms and Conditions

What is Virtual Communities? 

Virtual Communities is a forum intended for the NACCHO community to engage in discussion, seek and receive feedback, or resources from other professional peers throughout local public health. NACCHO encourages our community members to come prepared to share successes, resources, challenges, provide constructive feedback, bring questions, and provide perspective in all manners related to public health.

Community Rules & Etiquette

Thank you in advance for being part of the NACCHO community. To ensure the best possible experience for all members, we have established some basic guidelines for participation.

By joining and using this community, you agree to follow the below rules and etiquette to ensure Virtual Communities remains an open space to discuss issues and topics related to public health. You also agree to reserve discussions, shared files and content to that best suited to this format. This is a great format with which to solicit the advice of your peers, benefit from their experience, and participate in an ongoing conversation. Questions should be directed to our Membership department via the Contact Us link on this site. 

Please take a moment to acquaint yourself with these important guidelines. In order to preserve a climate that encourages both civil and fruitful dialogue, we reserve the right to suspend or terminate membership in this forum for anyone who violate these rules.

The Rules

  • Don't challenge or attack others. The discussions and comments are meant to stimulate conversation not to create contention. Let others have their say, just as you may. 
  • Don't post commercial messages. Contact people directly with product and service information if you believe it would help them. Do not post on any discussion, post thread reply, resource library entry, or other area publicly viewable areas.
  • Posts should not contain promotional material, special offers, job offers, or product announcements. NACCHO reserves the right to remove such messages and potentially ban sources of those solicitations.   
  • Use caution when discussing products. Information posted on the lists and in the libraries is available for all to see, and comments are subject to libel, slander, and antitrust laws. 
  • All defamatory, abusive, profane, threatening, offensive, or illegal materials are strictly prohibited. Do not post anything that you would not want the world to see or that you would not want anyone to know came from you. 
  • Send your message only to the most appropriate platforms. Please note that members are part of multiple groups, posting to 1-2 groups per message should reach all the members you seek to get feedback from.
  • Remember that other participants have the right to reproduce postings to this site unless you specify otherwise.
  • Post your message or documents only to the most appropriate lists or libraries. Do not spam several lists or libraries with the same message.
  • All messages must add to the body of knowledge. We reserve the right to reject any message for any reason.
  • Do not post personally identifiable information (PII) or protected health information (PHI) in the discussions (e.g., screenshots with PII/PHI).

Discussion Group Etiquette

  • Include a signature tag on all messages. Include your name, affiliation, location. 
  • State concisely and clearly the topic of your comments in the subject line. This allows members to respond more appropriately to your posting and makes it easier for members to search the archives by subject. 
  • Include only the relevant portions of the original message in your reply. Delete any header information, and put your response before the original posting. 
  • Only send a message to the entire list when it contains information that everyone can benefit from. 
  • Send messages such as "thanks for the information" or "me, too" to individuals--not to the entire list. Do this by using the "Reply to Sender" link to the left of every message.
  • Do not send administrative messages, such as remove me from the list. Instead, use the web interface to change your settings or to remove yourself from a list. If you are changing e-mail addresses, you do not need to remove yourself from the list and rejoin under your new e-mail address. Simply change your settings. 
     

The Legal Stuff

This site is provided as a service for the members of National Association of County and City Health Officials.  National Association of County and City Health Officials is not responsible for the opinions and information posted on this site by others. We disclaim all warranties with regard to information posted on this site, whether posted by National Association of County and City Health Officials or any third party; this disclaimer includes all implied warranties of merchantability and fitness. In no event shall National Association of County and City Health Officials be liable for any special, indirect, or consequential damages or any damages whatsoever resulting from loss of use, data, or profits, arising out of or in connection with the use or performance of any information posted on this site.

Do not post any defamatory, abusive, profane, threatening, offensive, or illegal materials. Do not post any information or other material protected by copyright without the permission of the copyright owner. By posting material, the posting party warrants and represents that he or she owns the copyright with respect to such material or has received permission from the copyright owner. In addition, the posting party grants National Association of County and City Health Officials and users of this site the nonexclusive right and license to display, copy, publish, distribute, transmit, print, and use such information or other material.

Messages should not be posted if they encourage or facilitate members to arrive at any agreement that either expressly or impliedly leads to price fixing, a boycott of another's business, or other conduct intended to illegally restrict free trade. Messages that encourage or facilitate an agreement about the following subjects are inappropriate: prices, discounts, or terms or conditions of sale; salaries; profits, profit margins, or cost data; market shares, sales territories, or markets; allocation of customers or territories; or selection, rejection, or termination of customers or suppliers.

National Association of County and City Health Officials does not actively monitor the site for inappropriate postings and does not on its own undertake editorial control of postings. However, in the event that any inappropriate posting is brought to the attention of National Association of County and City Health Officials we will take all appropriate action.

National Association of County and City Health Officials reserves the right to terminate access to any user who does not abide by these guidelines.