Chicago Area Alcoholics Anonymous Website Policy

Date: 4 October 2003
http://www.ChicagoAA.org

Purpose

The Chicago AA website is built as another mechanism to inform people about Alcoholics Anonymous in the Chicago Area (primarily Cook County). The website currently provides

  1. Time and location of AA meetings in the Chicago Area.
  2. Service information in the form of a service calendar and web pages for each of the service committees.
  3. Information about AA in Chicago, such as contact numbers and general structure and an events calendar.
  4. General information about alcoholics anonymous and links to the GSO web page.

General Content Guidelines

  1. In keeping with anonymity, no names will be published on the website. email addresses will be general contact addresses, like webmaster@ChicagoAA.org.
  2. No paid advertisements will be posted to the website.
  3. The primary external link on the website will be to the GSO website at http://www.aa.org and the AA Grapevine website. We also link to mapquest for directions to meetings, and some events may have registration or information websites that will link from the calendar.

Calendars

  1. The service and events calendars will be maintained by the staff at CASO.
  2. The service calendar will contain service events run by the Chicago Area, one of its committee, or one of the districts. Additional events, such as the AA World Convention, can be added at the discretion of the office.
  3. The events calendar will contain local-to-Chicago events.
  4. Event flyers can be posted to the Chicago AA website, with hyperlinks to the event flyer in the description of the event. Entries in the calendar may refer to web pages where there is more information about the specific event, such as registration.
  5. In general, events are not to be listed on the ChicagoAA.org home page. Special events may be posted at the discretion of the committee and CASA/CASO.

Website Administration

Website Committee

The website committee is an ad-hoc committee formed by the Area Chairperson to manage to area website. The committee will consist of a chairperson and any additional members who wish to participate. The committee is responsible for creating this policy and for managing the area website. The website committee has two primary functions:

  1. Editorial: responsible for general oversight and handling queries about what should be on the website when not covered by comments elsewhere in this policy.
  2. Technical: responsible for the day-to-day maintenance of the website, including modifying layout and content. This is typically the webmaster. Major changes to layout and design will not happen without consulting the full website committee. Paid technical consultants may be necessary for advanced programming of the website. Hiring of technical consultants is subject to approval by the appropriate bodies (Finance).

Website Review

The website and the website policy shall be reviewed at least once a year to ensure that the website continues to fulfill its mission of providing information about Chicago Area AA. The review will be announced to the fellowship for a month preceding the meeting. This review will include discussion of the current content and layout of the website, as well as plans for the future of the website (new features and capabilities).

Granting Access

The website committee chair has the authority to create new accounts for website access and for managing the calendar and creating new email addresses.

Removing Access

The website committee chair can remove access to anyone who no longer does website work.

Revocation of the website committee chair's access must be done through the Internet hosting provider via the CASO manager.

Internet Hosting Provider

The current Internet hosting provider is Top Notch Hosting (http://www.topnotchhosting.com). CASO pays the regular maintenance fees for the account. Primary support for the host server is maintained through Top Notch Hosting, and the webmaster is the primary contact with them. Emergency contact is made through the CASO manager to support@topnotchhosting.com.

Website Registration

Top Notch Hosting also maintains our domain name registration, www.ChicagoAA.org.

eMail Handling

Each committee, the area leadership (Chair, GSC Delegate) and the office staff will have its own email address at the ChicagoAA.org domain. Members with email addresses should contact the webmaster@ChicagoAA.org to determine the best way to retrieve their email.

END OF POLICY

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