General Service Committee of Eastern Massachusetts
(Area 30) Website Guidelines

Purpose

• To carry the AA message to the alcoholic who still suffers, to professionals and the general public, and to members of the fellowship. 
• To serve as a communications tool within Area 30 by providing information about area activities and events. 
• To further general service participation within the fellowship by serving as an exchange of information about opportunities for involvement in area activities.

URL registration and ownership

• Two domain names shall be registered, owned and maintained by Area 30: "aaemass.org" and "aamass.org."
• When a user enters http://www aaemass.org into a browser, the user  shall be brought to the Area 30 home page.
• When a user enters http://www aamass.org into a browser, the user shall be redirected to the Area 30 home page. 
• If and when Area 31 supports a website, entering http://www.aamass.org shall redirect the user to either the Area 30 or Area 31 site, based on a prompted selection.  
• The AA General Service Committee of Eastern Massachusetts shall be named owner / registrant of the Internet domains.  
• The administrative contact shall be the Area 30 Web Site Chair.
• The technical contact shall be the Area 30 Webmaster.
• As a result of this registration, the Area 30 Chairperson and acting web master shall have direct control over the technical access to the website. 

Site Content

• The Area website shall present only publicly available information about A.A.
• The website shall contain information that supports its purpose, including the following:
1. A home page displaying the name of the website as well as clearly identified connections to the other sections of the Website.
2. A list of A.A. events within or connected to the Area.
3. Links to the GSO and the Grapevine website (see Links to Other Sites).
4. A list of submitted Central or Intergroup office phone numbers located within Area 30.
5. A collection of recent area service committee reports
6. The Guidelines for the Website Committee

Links to Other Sites

• In keeping with our 5th, and 10th traditions, the website will only contain material and links which discuss and explain the program of Alcoholics Anonymous as it is defined in conference approved literature. The page will not contain material or links to other pages that may be considered controversial (religious, political, sexual, etc.).
• In the spirit of non-affiliation with entities outside AA, the website shall limit external links to the following:
1. Alcoholics Anonymous World Services and The AA Grapevine sites.
2. Other AA service committees located within Area 30. 

Cost of the Site

• By contributions from the AA groups and AA entities within the Area. 
• By operating within guidelines established and reviewed by the Area Committee.

Anonymity

• In keeping with our 11th and 12th traditions, the site shall contain no recognizable photographs of individuals and no full names of individuals. 
• To the extent possible, the site shall utilize position titles, rather than first names, when referring to officers, committee chairs, and others.  When a contact name is used, the name will contain only the person's first name and last initial.

Endorsement and Copyrights

• The Web site shall include a disclaimer stating that it is neither endorsed nor approved by AAWS, and that all references to AA, AA literature, and the Grapevine are to registered trademarks. 
• To respect and protect AA copyrights, all quotes or excerpts from conference approved literature displayed on the web site shall be attributed to AA World Services, Inc. or The AA Grapevine, Inc.

Email Accounts

• There shall be a minimum of 25 unique email accounts
• Email accounts shall follow the format xxxx@aaemass.org.
• Email accounts shall include a general information account (info@aaemass.org) and accounts for area officers and committee chairs.
• At the discretion of each email recipient, individual email accounts will be accessible by both pop mail clients and web mail, or mail can be forwarded to personal email accounts.
• Mail sent to email accounts that are not active will be forwarded to to chair@aaemass.org.
  

Roles and responsibilities

Website Standing Committee

1. The website Standing Committee shall include a web committee chairperson, an acting web master and other AA members who are involved in the day-to-day managing and editing of content for the web site.  The committee chairperson and acting web master shall be responsible for  the user IDs and passwords to the website's server.
2. The website Standing Committee is responsible to the Area Committee for the layout and content of Area website. 
3. Although the website committee is responsible for the daily maintenance of the website, which requires updating the changing information and implementing changes in the presentation of information posted on our website, the Standing Committee shall consult with Area 30's Cooperation with Professional Community (CPC) and Public Information (PI) committees in determining the accuracy and consistency of information presented on the site.
4. The website shall, in all its matters, always adhere to AA's principles of the Twelve Traditions and the Twelve Concepts for World Service.

Committee Chairperson

1. Responsible for maintaining the registration of the domains
2. Responsible to shop for the best price for cost of services provided for the website.
3. Provides a report at Area meetings and other meetings as requested.  
4. Coordinates, announces and facilitates periodic committee meetings.
5. Ensures the payment of all budgeted expenses incurred by the website according to standard Area policies.
6. Facilitates the selection of the Webmaster and Postmaster.
7. The Standing Committee Chairperson must have a good knowledge of AA's Twelve Traditions and Twelve Concepts and ensure that the Area website operates within these guidelines at all times..

Web Master

1. Responsible for the daily maintenance of the website including updating information and implementing changes in the presentation of information posted on the website.
2. Responsible for ensuring that the information provided on the website is accurate and consistent with information provided by the PI and CPC committees.
3. All events posted on the website must be by AA, for AA and about AA. Any request for information posting that is determined to be questionable by the acting Web Master will be submitted to the Standing Committe prior to posting.
4. Assists the Web Site Chair as necessary

Postmaster

1. Responsible for setting up and maintaining email accounts and passwords.
2. Assists the Webmaster and Web Site Chair as necessary.