Community Rules, Etiquette & Privacy Guidelines

Thank you for being part of our ISACS Connect community. To ensure the best possible experience for all members, ISACS has established guidelines for participation.

By joining and using this community platform, you agree that you have read and will follow all rules and guidelines. You also agree to reserve discussions, content and shared files to those best suited to the medium. This is a great medium with which to solicit the advice of your peers, benefit from their experience, and participate in an ongoing conversation.

Please take a moment to acquaint yourself with these important guidelines. In order to preserve an environment that encourages both civil and fruitful dialogue, ISACS reserves the right to suspend or terminate membership from the ISACS Connect community platform for anyone who violates these rules.

The Rules

• Respect others. Focus on the content of posts and not on the people making them. Please extend the benefit of the doubt to newer guests and members; there is no such thing as a stupid question.
• Respect the purpose of each community. Use the community to share successes, challenges, constructive feedback, questions, and goals instead of products or services that you provide. If you have found a product or service helpful, please share your experience with the group in a respectful way.
• Use caution when discussing products. Information posted on the discussion groups 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 (content or files) 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.
• Respect intellectual property. Post content that you have personally created or have permission to use and have properly attributed to the content creator.
• When posting items in our collaborative environment, please indicate if the item is or is not available for reuse. It is also advisable to contact the owner of any material if you would like to reuse it.
• Post your message or documents only to the most appropriate communities. This helps ensure all messages receive the best response by eliminating "noise."
  
  

Discussion Group Etiquette

• 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.
• Do not send messages such as "thanks for the information" or "me, too" to the full list/group/community. Instead, use the "Reply to Sender" link in every message to send to individuals.
• Do not send administrative messages, such as “remove me from the list,” to the group. Instead, log into the ISACS Member Portal, edit your profile, and remove the community from your list of selections. If you are changing email addresses, you do not need to remove yourself from the list and rejoin under your new email address. Simply change your email address in your account.
  
  

ISACS Professional Learning Communities Policies & Disclaimers

• Community of Learners
  I expressly acknowledge as a participant that I will enter each community as a listener, learner, and thoughtful contributor with a focus on understanding as opposed to debating. I will participate with a willingness to respectfully listen and learn while also supporting a variety of perspectives.
  
  
• Intellectual Property
  I expressly acknowledge the intellectual property of the presenter(s) and resources where applicable and the understanding that creating any form of recording or copying, including but not limited to video, audio, or photography is a violation of the intellectual property as well as a violation of the terms of participation in this community. I expressly agree not to independently record/copy, or knowingly let anyone else record/copy, any part of the event. I expressly agree that my school and its constituents will not share the event, recorded links, resources, or content with anyone outside of our school community. The links will be used solely by myself and those in our school community when permitted.

• Media Release
  I expressly acknowledge that registration, attendance at, or participation in ISACS events or ISACS Connect constitutes an agreement by the registrant to ISACS’s use and distribution (both now and in the future) of the registrant or attendee’s image or voice in photographs, videos, electronic reproductions, and audio of such events and activities.

• ISACS Recordings & Resources
  I expressly acknowledge that all recordings and presenter resources provided are only for member schools or participants that have registered for that professional learning event. By accessing the recordings and resources, I acknowledge that these recordings and resources and its contents should not be copied or distributed to those outside of my school community or to anyone who was not registered for that event. No recordings or screenshots may be taken without explicit permission from ISACS & the presenter. All content is protected by copyright law and recording and/or taking screenshots are both violations of those laws. 
  
  

The Legal Stuff
ISACS Connect is provided as a service for the members of Independent School Association of the Central States (ISACS). ISACS is not responsible for the opinions and information posted on this site by others. ISACS disclaims all warranties with regard to information posted on this site, whether posted by ISACS or any third party; this disclaimer includes all implied warranties of merchantability and fitness. In no event shall ISACS 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 ISACS 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.
  
  
• ISACS 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 ISACS, the Association will take all appropriate action. ISACS utilizes the Higher Logic "self-moderating" feature to scan and report all postings for inappropriate language. 
  
  
• ISACS reserves the right to terminate access to any user who does not abide by these guidelines.
  

Privacy Policy
Any personal information you provide to ISACS including and similar to your name, address, telephone number and e-mail address will not be released, sold, or rented to any entities or individuals outside of our organization except as noted below.

With Whom Does ISACS Share Personal Information That ISACS Collects Through This Site:

• Service Providers
  ISACS may share your personal information with companies (including our affiliates) that perform services on our behalf, for example, companies that help process credit card payments. ISACS service providers are required by contract to protect the confidentiality of the personal information ISACS shares with them and to use it only to provide specific services on ISACS behalf.
  
  
• Business Transfers
  Your personal information may be transferred to another entity (either an affiliated entity or an unrelated third party) in connection with a merger, reorganization, dissolution or similar corporate event. If such a transfer were ever to occur, the acquiring entity’s use of your personal information will still be subject to this Privacy Policy.
  
  
• Government and Legal Disclosures
  ISACS may disclose the personal information collected through this Site, when ISACS, in good faith, believe disclosure is appropriate to comply with the law (or a court order or subpoena); to prevent or investigate a possible crime, such as fraud or identity theft; to enforce ISACS Terms and Conditions or other agreements that govern your use of this Site; or to protect the rights, property or safety of ISACS, ISACS users, or others.
  
  
• External Sites
  ISACS is not responsible for the content of external internet sites. You are advised to read the privacy policy of external sites before disclosing any personal information.
  
  
• Cookies
  A "cookie" is a small data text file that is placed in your browser and allows ISACS to recognize you each time you visit this site. Cookies themselves do not contain any personal information, and ISACS does not use cookies to collect personal information. Cookies may also be used by 3rd party content providers such as news-feeds.
  
  
• Remember The Risks Whenever You Use The Internet
  ISACS does its best to protect your personal information, ISACS cannot guarantee the security of any information that you transmit to ISACS and you are solely responsible for maintaining the secrecy of any passwords or other account information. In addition, other Internet sites or services that may be accessible through ISACS Connect have separate data and privacy practices independent of ISACS, and therefore ISACS deny any responsibility or liability for their policies or actions. Please contact those vendors and others directly if you have any questions about their privacy policies.
  
  

Questions?
For any other information, please contact ISACS using the Contact Us page.