Code of Conduct

Community Rules & Etiquette

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

This is a great medium with which to solicit the advice of your peers, benefit from their experience, and participate in an ongoing conversation. By joining and using this community, you agree that you have read and will follow these rules and guidelines. You also agree to reserve discussions and shared files and content to that best suited to the medium. Questions should be directed to our community manager at community@acacamps.org.

Please take a moment to acquaint yourself with these important guidelines. If you have questions, contact the member services department. In order to preserve an environment that encourages both civil and fruitful dialogue, we reserve the right to suspend or terminate membership in this community 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’s no such thing as a stupid question.
  • Don't post commercial or self-promotional messages. ACA Connect messages should not contain commercial or self-promotional material (including books or webinars), special offers, job offers, product announcements, or solicitation for services. ACA reserves the right to remove such messages and potentially ban sources of those solicitations. If you’ve found a product or service helpful, please share your experience with the group in a respectful way.
  • Don’t post camp job openings. ACA’s two services, Year-round Jobs @ Camp and Summer Jobs at Camp are the dedicated areas where we direct job seekers. Open positions at your camp should be posted in one of these services instead of in these communities.
  • Events. Posts about camp-related events should almost always be posted to a local community and not to the Member Open Forum.
  • 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, and illegal materials are strictly prohibited.
  • Respect intellectual property. Post content that you have personally created or have permission to use and have properly attributed to the content creator.
  • Use judgment. 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.

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.
  • 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 in every message.
  • Do not send administrative messages, such as “remove me from the list,” to the group. Instead, use the web interface to change your settings or to remove yourself from a list. 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 settings.
  • Post your message or documents only to the most appropriate communities. This helps ensure all messages receive the best response by eliminating "noise."
  • When posting items in our collaborative environment, please indicate if the item is not available for reuse. It’s also advisable to contact the owner of any material if you would like to reuse it.
  • Transparency is very important in gaining trust in online relationships, therefore be clear who you are and where you work. Including a profile picture is highly recommended.

The Legal Stuff

This site is provided as a service for the members of American Camp Association. American Camp Association 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 American Camp Association or any third party; this disclaimer includes all implied warranties of merchantability and fitness. In no event shall American Camp Association 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. You may not use this site to violate any applicable local, state, national, or international law. Further, do not upload any viruses, worms, Trojans, or other malicious code or otherwise take actions that disrupt the ordinary operation of this site.

You must comply with all applicable intellectual property laws, such as copyright, trademark, patent and trade secret laws, when posting to this site. 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 American Camp Association 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.

Do not compile other site users’ personal information, such as names, addresses, and email addresses, for the purposes of creating a marketing list and sending those users unsolicited marketing materials. You also may not send other site users’ personal information to third-parties for marketing purposes. Your use of site users’ personal information to transmit unsolicited marketing materials may constitute violations of state and federal anti-spam laws.

American Camp Association 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 American Camp Association, we will take all appropriate action.

This site is not intended for persons under the age of 13. We do not market to and do not knowingly collect any personally identifiable information from or about a child under the age of 13 without the consent of the child’s parent or legal guardian. No information should be submitted or posted on our site by children under the age of 13. If we discover that we have inadvertently collected information from a child under 13 years of age, we will promptly take all reasonable measures to delete such information from our systems.

American Camp Association reserves the right to terminate access to any user who does not abide by these guidelines and report individuals who use this site to violate any applicable law to appropriate law enforcement and government authorities.