FCF Guidelines

FCF operates in an informal neighborly way, without needing much in the way of rules and regulations. Nevertheless, we have found it helpful to use the following guidelines. If you have some thoughts on how these guidelines might be improved, please join in the discussion in the FCF Guidelines conference.

Email list:

• Anyone who requests to be put on the email list is put on.

Community groups which partner with the Form :

• The community group will have a name that it will use consistently.
• The topic, purpose, issue, or scope of the community group must be Freeland-specific and have an understandable relationship to at least one of the Forum's overall purposes.
• The community group will designate a person to represent it in the Liaison Group, and that person will regularly attend Liaison-Group meetings.
• In communications with the press and the general public, the community group will speak only for itself and not speak for the Forum.
• The community group will report regularly on its activities to the rest of the Forum at Liaison-Group meetings and through the communications system.
• The community group will encourage all of its members to join the FCF email list.
• Any two or more people who are on the email list and who agree to these guidelines can form a community group in partnership with the Forum.
• Recognition of a community group as an FCF partner will be proposed by the Hearth Group and approved by the Liaison Group.

Community groups are entitled to:

• Have their own online conference on the FCF website.
• Have their own web pages on the FCF website.
• Communicate with and appeal for help from the rest of the Forum through the communications system.
• Participate in the Liaison Group.

The Liaison Group:

• Helps the community groups keep in touch with each other and coordinate the timing, resources, and process of their various projects with each other.
• Has a member from each community group plus members from the Hearth Group.
  

The Hearth Group facilitates the Forum as a whole by:

• Maintaining the e-mail list, the website, and the online conferences.
• Staying aware of how well the guidelines are functioning and recommending changes where appropriate.
• Providing a contact point to the Forum as a whole.
• Providing a spokesperson for the Forum as a whole when needed.
• Facilitating Liaison-Group meetings.

Liaison-Group meetings are :

• For the purpose of coordination and planning among the community groups and dealing with any Forum-as-a-whole business.
• Facilitated by the Hearth Group .
  
  

Use of the e-mail list is:

• Available to the members of the Liaison Group.
• For content that is Freeland-specific and related to the purposes of the Forum.

Decision-making:

• Decisions about Forum-as-a-whole policy questions (such as modifying these guidelines) will be made at the Liaison-Group meetings.
• Decisions about Forum-as-a-whole functional and administrative questions may be made by the Hearth Group.
• Decisions about the activities of a community group are made within that community group.