Joining the Forum:

North Georgia maintains three "mandatory" e-mail lists for the purposes of distributing official communications to its employees: faculty-staff@northgeorgia.edu, faculty@northgeorgia.edu, and faculty-staff@northgeorgia.edu. Employees are required to subscribe to these distribution lists, and their use is limited to official campus business. For a copy of the NGCSU policy (P&P Manual #1302.00) that governs the use of these lists, please click here.

The NG Discussion Forum is a private "Google Group" whose membership is also limited to North Georgia faculty & staff, but participation is voluntary.  To subscribe, simply open up your Google Mail account, look for the options at the upper-left, and choose "Groups." A browser page will open, and toward the bottom, you will see a heading that says "Find a group." At this point, you can either type "DiscussNorthGeorgia" into the window and click the button that says "Search for a group," or you can click the "Browse all groups" link and choose "DiscussNorthGeorgia" from the list.

You will note that the group has a restricted membership, so I have to enroll you manually. Click the group name, and you will see a page comes up with a link that gives you the choice to "apply for membership" or "contact the owner." Take the first option, because that will send me an automatic e-mail that a membership request is pending. You can do it the other way too, but "apply for membership" means a simple, 1-click operation for you and for me. In any case, it may take me a few days to get around to enrolling you, but If you make the request and don't get a confirmation within a week, please let me know.

   Posting to the Forum:

At the point you get an e-mail confirming your enrollment, you will receive messages posted to the group and can also post messages to it. To do that, you will need to need to click on "Compose Mail" just as you would for any email message, and enter the group's email address. It is discussnorthgeorgia@northgeorgia.edu. Once you send a message to the list, it should come up via the autofill feature when you start to type the word "discuss."

Important Note: If you were also a member of the old discussion list, you will have to be sure that your autofill feature does not default to the old list address, which was discussion@northgeorgia.edu. Once you've entered the new address manually, however, at worst you should get a choice between the two in your autofill window. You can then, if you choose, just delete the old one from your address book.

  Appropriate Topics for Discussion:

Topics that are appropriate for discussion include (but are certainly not restricted to) the following:

• Current issues of interest at NGCSU

• Inquiries, concerns, or observations about teaching, research, and service at NGCSU or elsewhere

• Reviews or opinions on articles, books, films, software, concerts, sporting events, etc.

• Announcements of or invitations to conferences, workshops, or other events & meetings not related to general faculty/staff concerns

• Opinions on local, state, national, and international events, affairs, and politics

• Thanks, kudos, suggestions, critiques, or other recognitions of individual or group achievements, conduct, and efforts

• Items wanted, for sale, or for rent are also permitted. However, if you are interested specifically in houses or apartments for rent, Dr. Barry Friedman maintains a website with such information in a different location.

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  Inappropriate Conduct:

The Discussion Forum Committee believes that as a constitutional right and fundamental principle to democracy, free speech should be supported and encouraged in this forum. However, the Committee is also duty-bound to strongly discourage the following:

• Using the list to distribute obscene materials or circumvent copyright restrictions

• Revealing another's personal or professional information inappropriately

• Intruding on or revealing another's private or professional affairs

• Name-calling or other "ad-hominem" attacks

• Offensive, threatening, or otherwise harassing language

• Threats of violence or harm of any kind

• Any form of conduct prohibited by NGCSU Faculty & Staff Handbooks, NGCSU & USG policies, or applicable laws and statues

• Finally, if a discussion thread points out the need for administrative or other attention to human or physical resources at the university, please don't assume that mere discussion will result in such services being performed. These needs should always be communicated through normal university channels (immediate supervisors, help desk, etc.).

Subscribers engaging in such conduct should realize that they are subject to the same sanctions, disciplinary actions, and prosecution they can expect in any other institutional or public domain. The committee encourages members to consult the the State of Georgia's AUP (Acceptable Use Policy) for information technology resources at the following URL for any questions they might have:

http://www.northgeorgia.edu/uploadedFiles/Administrative/IT/Inforamtion_Security/Information%20Systems%20Acceptable%20Use%20Policy%20_v2.1.pdf
 

  Some "Netiquette" Tips:

The following helpful hints will help make discussions more substantive and pleasant and, as more subscribers come on-line, keep the overall volume of communications at a tolerable level:

• When you respond to a posting, consider whether you should address the whole list ("Reply All") or respond to the sender privately ("Reply"). Making a mistake on this can cause a lot of embarrassment, or worse, compromise your credibility or your employment status. I fully support free speech, but since this organism is in fact the property of the State of Georgia, I recommend caution. In the electron stream, it's often less about what you say than it is about your choice of addressees.

• When you're ready to post to the forum, reread your message. Considered composition and correct spelling lend it credibility, giving you time to think about what you are sending. Once you hit "send," it's too late!

• Before you forward a message or other content from someone else to the list, consider whether or not s/he sent it to you in confidence. If s/he did, you may lose a friend or gain an enemy!

• Remember that what you write may live in someone's archives until it comes back to either lend you glory or haunt you forever!

  Unsubscribing from the Forum:

This is very easy. Simply go back to the "more" link on the upper-left of your e-mail account, choose "Groups" again, and under "My Groups," click on "DiscussNorthGeorgia." When it opens, over on the right-hand side, you will see "Edit my membership." Click that link and find the button that says "Unsubscribe." Click it and say goodbye to to your fellow co-listers!