POLICIES

WhatsApp Community Agreement

We maintain the WhatsApp community to make it easy for HWIS families and parents to talk to each other and stay informed. To keep the community helpful and welcoming to all families, we ask everyone to abide by the basic guidelines below.

By joining, you agree to the following:

1. Please post in the right group. Stay on topic and share information relevant to the group:

   • Announcements: events, important reminders, and urgent information shared by HWISPA officers

   • Corners: talk about topics specific to families and parents, moderated by HWISPA officers

   • Committees: planning discussions and volunteer needs, moderated by HWISPA officers

   • HWISPA organizational groups (officers, board, homeroom parents), moderated by HWISPA officers

   • Homeroom groups

2. Take individual concerns offline. Issues about a specific teacher, student, staff member, parent, or family member should go directly to that person, HWIS admins, or HWISPA officers, not the group chat. Consider the impact of your words and actions on the school and community.

3. No promotion or solicitation in the WhatsApp community.

4. Keep it non-political. Political and religious campaigning isn't appropriate in this setting.

5. Be kind and respectful. Disagreement is fine; personal attacks are not. Assume good intent.

6. Respect other families' privacy. Don't post photos of other people's children without their parents' permission.

7. Respect everyone's time and attention. Avoid posting after bedtime and on weekends.

HWISPA officers are volunteers who keep things running and serve the whole community. To moderate discussions and groups, we may remove posts or members who don't follow this agreement. Thank you for your understanding and help!

Tips for using WhatsApp:

• You can mute notifications for the WhatsApp app, each community and group, and each chat. If you have WhatsApp notifications on, you will still get @- mentions to you. Don't forget to check your messages regularly.

• All languages welcome. Feel free to post in other languages. WhatsApp's translate feature can help everyone follow along.

• In each group chat, you can add a member tag to identify or describe yourself e.g. "Parent of XX"

Questions or concerns? Email hwispa-nj@hwis.org