Purpose of the Aspergillus Support discussion group

The Aspergillus Support discussion group is run by the Aspergillus website to provide for the free exchange of help, information and advice to and from all participants.
The subjects appropriate for discussion are all health-related matters associated with the fungus Aspergillus.

This Email discussion group is moderated. This means that there is a small group of people who are members of the group who have a responsibility to ensure the smooth running of the group and to deal with any problems that may arise.

The moderator of this group is Graham Atherton.

There is also a management team which consists of the moderator plus four other group members. Two of these are members of the website team (and are usually silent) and three are list members who have particularly useful skills and who assist the moderation process - James Vellenga, Pam English and June Henriksen.

The moderator has the power to take action in the interests of the discussion group, issuing guidance on what is deemed appropriate behaviour".

Unsuitable behaviour includes:

• Attempts to make personal profit (e.g. selling or advertising)
• Any sort of abuse to fellow members
• Lack of consideration for the views of others - e.g. malicious comments of political, racist or religious nature.

We are a multinational group having members from all cultures in the world - please respect that privilege - we are all fighting the same illnesses

Any member who has a grievance about how this discussion group is run or any other issue arising from their participation in this group can contact any member of the management team who can then either discuss the issue with them directly or refer it to the rest of the team for discussion.

Guidelines for participation

Any behaviour which the moderator feels is not in the best interests of the discussion group (as described by the purpose of the group at the top of this page) is not allowed.
Personal attacks are strongly discouraged.
The moderator also undertake to act within these guidelines.

Procedure for dealing with inappropriate behaviour

The moderator will make every effort to follow this procedure in as fair a way as possible, however the final say on any contentious issues rests with the discussion group host - The Aspergillus website.

1) Attempts will be made to point out the unsuitability of such behaviour to the offender in the hope of obtaining the cooperation of that person.

If no cooperation is immediately forthcoming then:-

2) The member will be suspended until such time as they convince the management team that they will improve their behaviour

If the member does not make an attempt to convince the management team that they will improve their behaviour then:-

3) The offender will be permanently removed and banned from the group.

21st May 2004
The Management Group