Important Notice about Anonymity on the F.W.S. Website
A PDF Version of this notice can be downloaded at http://www.slaafws.org/NEWSLETTERS/2011-05/Anonymity-FWS-WebsiteArticle22May11.pdf
Anonymity and confidentiality are of utmost importance to the Fellowship of S.L.A.A. This is especially true on the Fellowship-Wide Services (F.W.S.) website. The display of personal phone numbers, mailing addresses, mobile phone numbers, and email addresses on the F.W.S. Online Directory contradicts the committment of S.L.A.A. to member anonymity and safety. It is the policy of the Board of Trustees and F.W.S. Office to not post personal information on the F.W.S. website even if your contact person is okay with it.
Identifying information includes:
- Personal email addresses, with or without a name, such as petejones@myisp.com or sparklegirl21@someisp.net
--SUGGESTION: A general contact email address should be made with one of the many free services out there like yahoo.com or gmail.com, using the name of your Group or Intergroup, as in somecityslaamonday@yahoo.com. This email address can then be checked by a designated contact person without compromising their anonymity. Another benefit to this is that your Group/Intergroup email address won’t change with every new contact person. - Residential Phone Numbers, with or without an accompanying name As in Call John Q. at 555-123-4567
--SUGGESTION: There are a few free phone number options out there such as Google Voice or SKYPE that can mask your real number and route calls to any phone. People can call this Google number without divulging anyone’s home phone number. http://www.google.com/googlevoice/about.html - Personal mobile phone numbers, with or without an accompanying name
--SUGGESTION: Again, consider a service such as Google Voice or SKYPE. If this is not an option for you, you could choose email as your public contact method. (see email suggestion above) - Private residential mailing addresses
--SUGGESTION: There is no reason to post a personal mailing address online. A P O Box may be obtained if a mailing address is necessary.
A deadline of August 31, 2011 was set for all Lone Groups and Intergroups that have listings on the F.W.S. website displaying personal content to send new contact information. Since this date has passed, all personal information is being removed from the F.W.S. website. This could leave your Lone Group or Intergroup without a listed contact method, so please do not delay. If your listed contact method does not contain personal information or if your Group is not listed directly on the F.W.S. website at http://directory.slaafws.org, contacting F.W.S. is not necessary.
Please do not give the F.W.S. Office phone number as the Group/Intergroup contact.
Send new email address and/or phone number through the form at: http://www.slaafws.org/contact/Website+Questions
--PLEASE include the FULL name of your Lone Group or Intergroup with the CITY, STATE, COUNTRY and ID number in the message. If you do not have a new 8-digit Group or Intergroup ID number, please register for one at http://www.slaafws.org/register including your new contact info.
Thank you for your cooperation and service,
Fellowship-Wide Services