Member communication becomes an important factor for the health of the organization. Specifically in the era of technological revolution, internet, facebook, myspace etc., communication has taken a new turn. While that gives everybody a faster and better communication strategy, it also demands greater responsibility for the communicators. Any simple mistake on the part of the communicator can be rectified to create a big mess. We request all OSA members to communicate with each other and in forums being responsible citizens of OSA.
Current Communication Medium: OSAnet
Use OSAnet and Protect Yourself from Abuse
Currently OSAnet is used for discussion related to OSA affairs (check below). Please help in making this an effective medium of communication, not a gossiping forum by adhering to OSAnet Guidelines.
While you communicate as a member of OSA, please remember the ethical rules. Please read an example scenario and judge yourself.
We have created a facebook site for OSA to communicate with the Oriyas globally. We are collecting photographs of early years of OSA. Please share the photographs and the story material with it such as the people in picture and when and where the picture was taken. Specifically pictures of inauguration events, cultural events and meetings will be greatly appreciated. You can send them to orissasociety@gmail.com.
Please check OSA at http://www.facebook.com/people/Osa-Samaja/
Respect, Respect, Respect. Respect each other member, respect yourself and respect the organization, its rules, its procedures and its standards.
Public Communications: While publicizing OSA events such as Annual Convention, cultural performances, achievement of OSA members and OSA developmental activities in other mediums are highly recommended, we expect members to strictly limit the discussion of any OSA issues to OSA forum only, and absolutely do not discuss OSA issues in other forums. While discussing OSA issues in OSA forums such as OSAnet, please discuss issues only, not individuals.
Representing OSA: Unless authorized by OSA executives, please refrain from representing OSA and giving public statements on behalf of OSA.
Conflicts of Interest: There are many activities that have the potential for conflicts of interest. You may do something without being aware of its relationship to some types of conflicts. Please take quick action to correct any errors.
Personal Bias: You may have personal bias, liking or disliking for specific OSA members. Please do not let that become a factor to influence your judgment in organizational matters. Please be objective while judging issues and analyze facts, not the people.
OSA Events: We expect every member to be respectful to other members in every OSA event and OSA medium. Please be assertive in stating your concerns and giving comments/suggestions. Please use proper gesture, tone and words.
Appropriate Behavior: OSA urges its members to behave professionally and appropriately in all OSA events, forum discussions and communications. Ethical violation includes behavior such as derogatory remarks, chain emails with uncivilized language, character assassination, harassment letters, lawsuits, physical harm and actions of similar nature.
Nurture the Organization: Nurture our organization to grow. Be caring for 2nd and 3rd generation Oriyas and the new immigrants from Orissa.
All members of OSA are eligible to become members of OSAnet and participate in OSAnet discussions. After your membership is verified by the treasurer, please subscribe to OSAnet by sending a message to OSAnet owner with a copy to the treasurer.
| Post message: | OSAnet@yahoogroups.com |
| Subscribe: | OSAnet-subscribe@yahoogroups.com |
| Unsubscribe: | OSAnet-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com |
| List owner: | OSAnet-owner@yahoogroups.com |
While you communicate as a member of OSA, please follow the guidelines.
Use OSAnet and Protect Yourself from Abuse
Step 1
Go to
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OSAnet/
Step 2
Click on “Sign In”
Step 3
Sign in with your userid and password
(Not sure how it would do with non-yahoo email ids such as gmail.com)
Step 4
Then click on “Edit Membership” and in “Step 2” of this section, select “Web Only”
Step 5
After you make the selection, click on “Save Changes”
Step 6
You may click “Sign Out” to logout or read messages.
That’s it. If you do not have yahoo email address, it may not work. The other option is you may create a yahoo email address for OSAnet purposes.
To read OSAnet emails at your leisure time or at your convenience, you may follow steps 1-3 above and then click on “Messages” at your left.
Update January 16, 2008
Mission: To provide an internet based communication forum for the Orissa Society of the Americas (OSA) including all its chapters.
· To disseminate official information and news that may be of interest to its members;
· To solicit feedback/survey or volunteered-resources from members on OSA issues deemed pertinent by the OSA elected executives;
· To make General Body Meetings (GBMs) more effective by providing time based discussions and feed back; and
· To provide the members with an outlet to express and start discussions on topics of interest related to OSA with other members.
Scope: Topics and discussions started either by the executives or its members should be OSA specific. In addition OSA executives and the moderators can send OSA official information. Members will not be allowed to post anything unrelated to OSA, personal, or commercial for soliciting business directly on OSAnet. Members may send unrelated to OSA topics to the moderators and moderators may accept the topic if it is of interest to Orissa, India, North America, NRO Diaspora, or of interest that the moderators believe may be of interest to OSA members. Moderators may accept or reject the topics within 7 calendar days and if the moderators accept the topic to be disseminated, it would be sent for publication in OSAnet. There should be no posting that contains vulgar or demeaning language and inappropriate contents.
Limitation: OSAnet is limited to sharing information. The initial focus is to enrol all the OSA members as OSAnet members and share the OSA related information. It is possible that in future OSAnet may be linked to the OSA web page or supporting General Body Meetings thus eventually replacing the annual General Body Meeting or conduct surveys, etc. During this initial focus phase, none of these advanced alternatives are possible under the scope. Therefore guidelines pertaining to these future options are not included at this time.
Process:
1. Any change to the policy or guidelines shall be approved by the OSA General Body Meeting (GBM) with the recommendation of the OSAnet moderators.
2. The bona fide members of OSA irrespective of their membership category are automatically members of OSAnet and shall abide by the guidelines of OSAnet.
3. Members may choose not to subscribe to OSAnet and existing OSAnet members may unsubscribe from OSAnet at any time.
4. Any time a person joins OSA or changes his/her annual membership status, the secretary will forward his/her name, member category and any available email-id to the moderators. The moderators will add the members to OSAnet and send a welcome message with the OSAnet guidelines.
5. The secretary shall provide the moderators with name, member category and email information for all current OSA Members by July 31 of every year. After allowing for a 30 day grace period, the moderators will remove those members from OSAnet with expired membership status. Members may post and/or reply to any previous posting as per the scope and guidelines of OSAnet.
6. If a member violates the guidelines of OSAnet, the member shall lose the privilege of posting on OSAnet without moderation and the member shall be put on probation. Any member under probation shall have the “read-only” privilege and need authorization from a moderator to post. When a member under probation sends a message, the message shall be routed to the moderators for approval before it is posted.
7. A member under probation may send a request to all the moderators to remove his/her probation status. The moderators will use common sense and the majority of the moderators must agree to remove the probation status from a member.
8. OSAnet will be available as a list server and/or in digest format. Digest format will be available as the default format in which a daily digested edition will be made available to the members instead of individual emails. Members may switch to list server if they want to receive individual emails. Members may request the moderators to change the subscription mode based on their preference. OSAnet moderators will move all the members of OSAnet immediately to digest format.
9. Members may chose to access the messages directly through the internet by logging into the Yahoo!® groups.
10. Members may not upload files directly to the group. However they can request the moderators to upload the files related to the interest of members. Or, the moderators can refer a site or link to be viewed by the members.
11. A panel of 5 moderators shall be appointed by the OSA elected executives to facilitate and maintain the OSAnet. The duration of appointment is for 1 year renewable for at most 3 consecutive years. Further role and responsibilities of the moderators, such as potentially one non-voting representation in the BOG, will be defined after the anticipated OSA constitution reform. There shall be a chairperson of moderators who shall coordinate with the OSA executives and the moderators. (Chairperson’s position can be on rotation as needed and determined by the moderators.) Moderators, as they are OSA members, can send their own messages or reply as any other members however their postings will be approved by other moderators.
12. At any time OSA executives and the BOG can send an official communication. Any mail coming from OSA executives should be easily identifiable as official so that members don’t delete them without reading.
13. The executives or moderators or members can start a topic for discussion of interest to OSA and get members’ feedback. The discussion shall continue for a stipulated period of time as defined by the moderators. Any feedback received from discussion unless otherwise initiated by the members shall be sent back to OSA executives and the BOG. It is up to the moderators to decide if they include the member-initiated discussion topics, questions and/or feedbacks for forwarding to OSA executives. This feedback/summary, if any, will be sent once every two weeks to the OSA executives.
14. Opinions expressed in OSAnet may not be the official opinion of OSA officials or moderators.
15. Once OSAnet is seen to represent a true, democratic and naturally diversified voice of the whole of OSA general body, legitimacy and expanded role for OSAnet can be further determined. A monthly statistics of the postings shall be analyzed by the moderators to help make objective decisions in this matter.
16. If a member disagrees with a moderator’s action, the members and moderators should try to resolve the disagreement and if it cannot be resolved, the members may request the moderators to conduct a poll to decide the disagreement. A member can only request 3 such votes a year.
OSA executives declare that Mr X is appointed as the chairman of committee Y. Mr X’s last name coincides with the last name of one of the OSA National executives
M1: Sends an email saying
I think OSA National executives are feeling insecure and keeping their own people and relatives in important positions. Why is Mr X appointed as the chairman of committee Y? What credibility does he have?
M2: Sends an email saying
The corruption in OSA politics should stop. “Priya-priti-toshana” attitude will not do any good to the organization..
M3: sends an email saying
In Bhagabat Gita it says, “A person in charge should use Gita’s guidance in selecting the right person to the right position. Otherwise, the society, the kingdom, the organization would fail.
M4: sends an email saying:
I had met Mr X in convention C. He was very hospitable and greeted us nicely. I know his brother who is an IAS officer. He is like my younger brother.
M5: sends an email saying:
Mr X’s wife W is my wife’s classmate. His father was a Congress leader and was jailed for 2 years.
All the above statements/emails are junk, just junk and pollute the decorum of the network. If a member has questions about Mr X’s appointment, the following could have served the purpose.
The correct correspondence:
Dear OSA Members
I am sharing my views on the announcements made by OSA executives on the appointment of Mr X as the chairman of Committee Y. I would appreciate to know:
Sincerely,
A Good Member (Member's Name)
(Membership Status)