Internet Elmer Terms of Service

As a volunteer Internet Elmer, I agree to:

A period of service of not less than 6 months

(Obviously this isn't like enlisting in the Army. I'm only asking that you have a reasonable expectation that you will be around this long. This is necessary because I have to have a reasonable amount of time between verification emails, and I've chosen 6 months for this. In other words, every 6 months you will be asked to verify that you are still at the email address(es) you've given. Any email address that is not verified within 2 months of the email going out will be disabled/removed (and when all of them quit working, you get disabled (but probably not removed)). Paul (and I) figured that 6 months is infrequent enough to not overload you OR the server.)

Promptly keep the Elmers list maintainer (VIA these pages!) notified of any content changes, especially E-mail addresses and Web URL's.

Reasonably manage incoming E-mail correspondence (possibly via automated techniques such as E-mail filtering programs) and promptly respond to any correspondence either from me, or from an individual requesting assistance.

(I'm not going to impose hard deadlines, but here are some general guidelines about reasonable turnaround times:

• Complex questions: 60 days (with a 30 day assurance to the requester, if necessary, that you are working on it)
• Simple questions, or complex questions that need to be referred: 30 days
• Questions that obviously can't be answered or referred: 30 days (please also let me know about it)
• Questions that eventually turn to out to be unanswerable, or unreferrable: 90 days (with 30 day followups to the requester, if necessary; please also let me know about it)
• Correspondence from the Elmers list maintainer (these pages) : 30 days (You should at least be able to reply to me within a short period of time. I generally don't make complex demands, and only correspond either to pass along or request relatively important information that requires an explicit response or acknowledgment)

The one exception to this rule is individuals who maintain some sort of high-profile, publicly-accessible WWW page or archive site, where the reasonable expectation is self-service, and the self-service addresses are provided and clearly labeled as such. However, even those individuals should at least be able to promptly reply to me. If your entry falls into this category, please let me know so I can insert an appropriate disclaimer to avoid confusing users.

If many of the questions received start to fall into the frequently-asked category, please consider making some sort of self-service "Frequently Asked Questions" or "FAQ" resource on your topic of specialty, assuming one doesn't already exist.

I would also prefer to delete entries in small amounts as the need arises, rather than have to deal with them all at once every two years.)

Promptly keep the Elmers list maintainer (using the elmers.org web pages) notified of any changes to my availability for Elmering

(I recognize the voluntary nature of amateur radio and Elmering. However, by volunteering, you are agreeing to live up to some expectations, and you will be relied upon, both by me and those requesting assistance, to fulfill them. If there are any changes to your availability, either temporarily or permanently, please let me know and I'll be happy to accommodate you by rewording, suspending, or permanently removing your entry. As stated above, I would prefer to deal with changes as they arise rather than in large batches, often because I had to chase you down for confirmation. To encourage prompt updating, I promise to be understanding.)

Questions or Comments

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Copyright 2002-2003, Carroll D. Carruth, Jr (aka N7IKQ, aka Elmer Id 1)
Portions Copyright 1991-2000, Paul W. Schleck. (aka Elmer Id 88)

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