Policy

1. The ODHA discussion page functionality is available to:

   a.	ODHA Board members;
   b.	ODHA ambassadors;
   c.	Dental hygiene society contact individuals or representatives who are ODHA members; and
   d.	ODHA staff.

   
   
2. A dental hygiene society must designate a single person to participate in the discussion page on behalf of the society. In limited circumstances, where the governance structure of the society is a collective executive, the Executive Director may provide access to more than one representative of the society.
   
   
3. Each discussion thread query will be reviewed and assessed for suitability prior to the thread being opened up for discussion by participants.
   
   
4. The ODHA society liaison will monitor the discussion page and provide a report to each meeting of the Board of Directors.
   
   
5. The user of the functionality or similarly interactive site within the Web site is solely responsible for his or her own communications, the consequences of posting those communications, and his or her reliance on any communications found on the discussion page.
   
   
6. ODHA is not responsible for the consequences of any communications on the discussion page.
   
   
7. Issues of compliance, inappropriate content and misuse will be directed to the Executive Director.
   
   
8. There will be no anonymous postings. All postings will be identifiable to the user with at least a first name.
   
   
9. The following conduct is prohibited by users of the discussion page:
   
   

   a.	use for any purpose in violation of local, provincial, national, or international laws;
   b.	posting material that infringes on the intellectual property rights of others or on the privacy or publicity rights of others;
   c.	posting material that is unlawful, obscene, defamatory, threatening, harassing, abusive, slanderous, hateful, or embarrassing to any other person or entity, as determined by ODHA in its sole discretion;
   d.	discussing pricing issues, e.g., what rates to charge – Canadian Federal Law considers pricing discussions by a professional organization to be "price fixing" which is a federal offence;
   e.	using obscene or offensive language;
   f.	placing a message or material that is libellous, abusive or hateful, an invasion of anyone's privacy, harmful to others, or harmful to the interests of ODHA;
   g.	posting material that violates copyright of a third party -- by posting material (whether text, data, etc.) you are granting fellow participants the right to reproduce this material in original or modified versions;
   h.	copying or cutting and pasting any message, in full or in part, and forwarding it to persons who are not ODHA members unless first receiving approval in writing from the ODHA and the person who posted the message as discussions are considered private;
   i.	posting advertisements or solicitations of business;
   j.	posting chain letters or pyramid schemes;
   k.	impersonating another person;
   l.	distributing viruses or other harmful computer code;
   m.	harvesting or otherwise collecting information about others, including email addresses, without their consent;
   n.	posting the same note more than once or "spamming"; or
   o.	engaging in any other conduct that restricts or inhibits any other person from using or enjoying the discussion page or the Web site, or which, in the judgment of ODHA exposes ODHA to any liability or detriment of any type.

   
   
10. ODHA reserves the right, but is not obligated, to do any or all of the following:
    
    

    a.	record the dialogue on the discussion page;
    b.	investigate an allegation that a communication does not conform to the terms of this policy and determine in its sole discretion to remove or request the removal of the communication;
    c.	remove communications which are abusive, illegal, or disruptive, or that otherwise fail to conform with this policy;
    d.	terminate a user's access to the discussion page and/or the ODHA Web site upon any breach of this policy;
    e.	monitor, edit, or disclose any communication on the discussion page; and
    f.	edit or delete any communication posted on the Web site, regardless of whether such communication violates this policy.

    
    
11. ODHA reserves the right to take any action it deems necessary to protect the personal safety of our permitted users or the public.
    
    
12. ODHA has no liability or responsibility to users of the ODHA Web site or any other person or entity for performance or non-performance of the aforementioned activities.