Online Community Rules and Etiquette

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

What is the NBEA Online Community (aka “The Community”)?

The Community is an online community for NBEA members to engage in discussion and seek and receive feedback and resources from other professional peers around the business education profession.  NBEA encourages members to come prepared to share successes, and challenges, provide constructive feedback, bring questions, and provide perspective in all manners related to business education.  Members are asked to agree to follow the below rules and etiquette to ensure The Community remains an open space to discuss issues and topics related to business education

NBEA has many outlets for our members to provide information, we encourage you to select the correct outlet amongst our many offerings. Here are some examples of other locations NBEA provides:

Promotions or advertising options can be found with NBEA Advertising.  Promotional messages are not permitted in the Community.

Finding or seeking a job?  Please go to http://careers.nbea.org.

General questions or information about NBEA? Reach out to Member Services at 703.860.8300 or NBEA@NBEA.org

In order to preserve a climate that encourages both civil and fruitful dialogue, NBEA reserves the right to utilize the stated Community Violation Policy listed below on The Community members who violate these rules.

The Rules

• Don’t attack others. The discussions on the community platforms 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. Vendors should also avoid scraping bulk contacts for marketing messages. Vendors are welcome to participate in the conversation or contact others individually if they think they can help or answer a question.
• Community messages should not contain promotional material, special offers, job offers, product announcements, or solicitations for services. NBEA reserves the right to remove such messages and potentially ban the sources of those solicitations.   
• Use caution when discussing products. The information posted on any platform 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 and will be removed.
• Send your message only to the most appropriate channels. Please note that members are part of multiple channels, posting to 1-2 groups per message should reach all the members you seek to get feedback from.
• 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.
• Please note carefully all items listed in the disclaimer and legal rules below, particularly regarding the copyright ownership of information posted to the Community.
• Remember that NBEA and other participants have the right to reproduce postings.

Some general tips to help you maintain good etiquette when reproducing content.

• Be courteous. Please ask participants for permission to republish their words elsewhere (especially if elsewhere would be a publicly viewable setting).
• When citing Community discussions, please include a link back to the original discussion or to the Community homepage. 

• Transparency is very important in gaining trust in online relationships, therefore be clear about who you are and who you work for when posting on any platform. This means including your real name on your Facebook and Twitter accounts disclosing your employer and using a profile picture of your likeness and not your company’s logo.  

Legal

These social media pages, accounts, and sites are provided as a service of NBEA. NBEA is not responsible for the opinions and information posted on these sites by others. NBEA disclaims all warranties with regard to information posted on these sites, whether posted by NBEA or any third party; this disclaimer includes all implied warranties of merchantability and fitness. In no event shall NBEA 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. In addition, by posting material, you grant to NBEA and the members of this community the nonexclusive, worldwide, transferable right and license to display, copy, publish, distribute, transmit, print, and use such information or other material in any way and in any medium, including but not limited to print or electronic form.

Content should not be posted if it encourages or facilitates 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. Content that encourages or facilitates 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. NBEA does actively monitor these sites for inappropriate postings. In the event that any inappropriate posting is brought to NBEA's attention, NBEA will take all appropriate action.

NBEA reserves the right to block any users who do not abide by these guidelines.

Policy for Member Community Violations

The Collaborate community rules and etiquette should not be seen as all-inclusive, but rather to give our members a general idea of the guidelines one should follow when participating in the online community. In order to preserve a climate that encourages both civil and fruitful dialogue, NBEA reserves the right to suspend, remove content, or terminate participation on all lists for members who violate these rules.

Taking action against one of our members, particularly in regard to removing an account, is something we would like to avoid, but realistically may have to happen in order to protect the quality of service we strive to provide to our members. This restriction is not intended to limit in any way the professional networking and educational advantages of Collaborate.

When unsure whether the content is consistent with these policies, please err on the side of caution and do not post the content in Collaborate. If there are any questions on what content is appropriate to post please contact the community manager.

The Community rules and etiquette may be revised from time to time and it’s the member’s responsibility to stay abreast of any changes.

Possible actions for Terms of Agreement/Rules and Etiquette violations

• An email, private message, or phone call is communicated to the member that explains the violation that occurred.
• An email or phone call is communicated to the member who violated the guidelines. The member’s Collaborate community account may be put into moderation. Member may be placed in a 30-day moderation queue, where messages from his/her account are reviewed by the community manager before they are posted online.
• An email/private message warning is communicated to the member who violated the guidelines. The member’s Collaborate community account may be put into moderation. Member may be placed in moderation for three months; where messages from his/her account are reviewed by the community manager before they are posted online. Member may be subject to removal from The Community
• A formal written letter is sent to the member who violated the guidelines. The member may be removed from participating in The Community.
• NBEA reserves the right to edit or delete a post. However, NBEA generally will not edit or delete posts for members, unless there has been a severe violation of the rules and etiquette (as mentioned).
• To clarify or edit a message posted, we recommend the original poster to reply to the existing message. At NBEA’s discretion, older messages that may cause confusion or contain outdated information may be archived or deleted.

These terms and associated policies have been adapted from the American Society of Association Executives Community Terms and Conditions.