ERCHA - Yahoo Group

Policies & Guidelines for the Yahoo! Group Email List
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ERCHAmembers/

A Yahoo Group has been established to encourage ERCHA members by helping them communicate and network with one another. Members are encouraged to share information or opportunities that might benefit homeschooling families. Messages posted on the ERCHA Yahoo Group are not to be forwarded to other Yahoo Groups or individuals as this list is a benefit of your ERCHA membership.

There are two ways to sign up:

Send a blank message to ERCHAmembers-subscribe |at| yahoogroups.com.
With this option you do not need to create a Yahoo account, but you will not have access to the Members Only section (archived messages, calendar, files, or database).
Go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ERCHAmembers/ and click "Join This Group!"
This option will give you access to the Members Only section of the Yahoo Group. You can also have messages sent to the email address of your choice and choose how frequently to receive the messages.

Yahoo How-To
For a visual How-To, please click here.

Go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ERCHAmembers/
Click "Join This Group"
Yahoo! Groups lets you choose how you stay in touch:
- Individual Email - if you want to get each group message and special notice individually and immediately, as it is posted;
- Daily Digest - if you want to see all messages but limit the amount of email you receive. Yahoo will compile an email of up to 25 messages and send daily;
- Web Only - if you don't want ERCHA messages to come to your email in box. This option will require you to sign into the ERCHAmembers Yahoo Group to keep up with announcements (this feature is helpful if you are going to be away from your computer for several days).
Sign In to Yahoo with your Yahoo! ID and Password.
If you do not already have a Yahoo Account, click "Sign Up", fill in the blanks and click "Create My Account".

At this point, messages will go to your newly established Yahoo email address (i.e. you will have to login and check your new Yahoo mail to get ERCHA news unless you change this feature). To direct communication to a different address (i.e. your regular email address), please follow these steps once back at the ERCHAmembers web page (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ERCHAmembers/):

In the upper left, click Edit Membership
In Step 1. Your Contact Information and under Email Address, click (Add new email address)
Enter the email address to which you would like group messages sent and follow the directions.

To curtail Yahoo and Yahoo's 3rd party advertising, follow these steps:

Click on My Account (at the top left of the page next to the Yahoo! logo)
Click on Edit Marketing Preferences (click 'clear all' to avoid junk mail)
Click on Privacy Policy (at the bottom of the page)
Click on Opt-out under Special Topics (left side of page) so that Yahoo doesn't track you for "customized advertising".
Hit the Finished button.

Email Guidelines

Subject line
Please clearly state the content of your message in the subject line for ease of use for all members (i.e. "Bowling this Friday", “Ice Skating Day Change", "Prayer Request", “Ballroom Dancing for 7th grade and up”, etc.).

Activities/Events
Members may plan and/or post events. Field trips and activities with on-going participation (class or club) require approval through the ERCHA Board before posting. Please send your request to our Social Activities Chairman for social activities/field trips and our Education Chairman for educational activities.

Replies
By clicking “reply”, your message will be sent to the ERCHA Yahoo Group. Before doing so, please determine if it will benefit the entire Yahoo Group to read your response or if you should reply to the individual privately. Please refrain from emailing group-wide messages containing only words of congratulations, agreement or thanks.

Advertising
Every Friday is "Flea Market Friday" and all emails addressing something to sell or buy may only be posted on that day. As a courtesy, please include the words “for sale” or “want to buy” in your subject line. ERCHA members may list their occupation or home-based business in the “database” section of the Yahoo Group if they would like to make their services known to other members.

Content
Only messages and legislative alerts that directly pertain to home education, with the exception of Flea Market Friday items, are allowed on the list. Forwarded messages from HSLDA (Home School Legal Defense Association) and APHEA (Alaska Private and Home Educators’ Association) are permissible. The ERCHA Yahoo Group is not a venue for promoting a lifestyle or personal agenda. Political campaigning is not allowed.

If you have a question about something you wish to post, please send it to . The ERCHA board reserves to right to moderate messages and/or remove a member from the Yahoo Group if if guidelines are violated or the content of the messages is not for the encouragement of ERCHA members.

Members Only section

Messages
Archives of all messages posted to the group. This list is sortable and searchable.

Files

Member Directory - A list of ERCHA members will be posted here. This directory is restricted to current ERCHA members and is for the sole purpose to help with communication. It is not to be shared outside of ERCHA or used for mailing lists, political purposes, sales or any other unauthorized purpose.
Newsletters - ERCHA Newsletters will be posted here. All ERCHA members will receive an email once a newsletter is added. We will no longer mail out newsletters as members can access them from the Yahoo Group. Newsletters should not be forwarded to non-members; the ERCHA Board reserves the right to remove from the Yahoo Group any member who does so.
Planning sheets for field trips, classes and clubs.

Photos
If you have a photo of your family or ERCHA event, please post it here. Due to Yahoo limitations on file sizes, please reduce your photo's file size before posting (less than 100K is good). If you do not know how to do this, email your original photo to and she will do this for you and email it back to you for posting.

Database
This is the appropriate location for members to list their occupations or home-based businesses as well as any Youth Resources. ERCHA will not be responsible for any business transactions nor will be held liable, financially or otherwise, for any business listed. Listing any business on the Yahoo Group does not indicate endorsement by ERCHA or its Board. The ERCHA Board reserves the right to remove any entry from the list for any reason.

Poll
Periodically, we may have member polls to gauge the response about a certain issue, topic or event. Any polls will be announced through the list.

Members
A complete list of those who belong to this Yahoo! Group. However, we encourage you to be sure your name is on the above Directory as Yahoo only publishes User IDs which may or may not include individual names. Like the Directory above, this list is for member to member networking only, not necessarily full names. It is not to be shared outside of ERCHA or used for mailing lists, political purposes, sales or any other unauthorized purpose.

Calendar
ERCHA-sponsored events will be posted here and kept up to date. If an event is not listed, it could be because it is not an official event. Non-official events may be posted to the list as an email to the group; just be sure to not call it an ERCHA event without prior board approval.