Terms and Conditions

Terms and Conditions

Community Etiquette and Legal Rules

Thank you for being part of MyNASW, the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) members-only online community. To ensure the best possible experience for all members who use MyNASW, we have established some basic rules for our community, which users of this community must review and accept to participate. Please take a moment to acquaint yourself with these important rules.

Code of Ethics

Foremost, we look to the NASW Code of Ethics to shape interactions in our community. The Code of Ethics is the standard for defining the values and principles that guide decision-making and everyday professional conduct of social workers and social work students in all practice areas, functions, and settings. In our member community, we agree to adhere to the Code of Ethics in all our interactions. Additional specific expectations are listed below.

  

NASW’s work is based on defined positions that are determined by the Member Delegate Assembly. The Association’s positions that guide NASW’s work are presented in the Code of Ethics,  Social Work Speaks, official news releases and statements, NASW leadership columns in Social Work Advocates magazine, sign-on letters and coalition statements, and in our advocacy work.

  

NASW established the MyNASW community as a space for use by NASW members  to ask advice of their peers, benefit from other’s experience, share knowledge, and discuss relevant topics. NASW recognizes that MyNASW members hold a range of views that may differ from NASW’s positions. We respect the right of MyNASW users to hold and express their own views. The statements, information, and views expressed on this site are solely those of the user and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of NASW or its affiliates, subsidiaries, managers, officers, employees, agents, or representatives.

  

NASW reserves the right to close off conversations that we determine are potentially harmful to other users, limit user participation, or temporarily suspend or terminate membership in this community for anyone who violates the Terms and Conditions, or more broadly, anyone whose participation is bullying or harassing, at our sole discretion for any reason or no reason, and without notice to you.

  

NASW envisions the MyNASW community as an open space for all NASW members and seeks to foster a collaborative space for civil and fruitful dialogue. We encourage users to engage in authentic dialogue and to genuinely express the diversity of viewpoints within the profession. Given the diversity of opinions and perspectives, life experiences, and walks of life represented in our membership, MyNASW Community users have an ethical duty to each other to demonstrate respect and professionalism and remain open to new ideas by listening to learn and understand rather than simply listening to respond. Respectful participation includes thoughtfulness about the number and length of posts, and avoidance of repetition.

 

Beyond polite language, respectful treatment of other users includes recognition of the impact of one’s language and tone, and the humility to understand the extent a post is potentially triggering or re-traumatizing for people who have been impacted by oppression, racism, exploitation, and discrimination.

  

By Clicking “I Agree,” you acknowledge that you have read and will follow these Terms and Conditions. We welcome your questions and comments. Contact NASW Member Services at membership@socialworkers.org or 800-742-4089 or via the Contact Us link on this site. You may also wish to review NASW’s Privacy Policy.
 

Discussion Group Etiquette Rules

  • Respect others. Focus on the content of posts and not on the people making them. Please extend the benefit of the doubt to members; there’s no such thing as a silly question. Do not post anything that you would not want the world to see, or to know it came from you. Contradictory opinions are welcomed, but please be thoughtful and respectful rather than insulting or angry. Personal remarks about the sender are not appropriate.
  • Respect the purpose of the community. MyNASW is a forum for sharing information and building community around the practice of social work – and communications should be focused accordingly. Use the forum to share successes, challenges, constructive feedback, questions, and goals. Information posted on the discussion groups and in the libraries is available for all to see, and comments are subject to libel, slander, and antitrust laws, among other laws (see discussion under Legal Requirements below).
  • Keep marketing efforts separate. Help us to keep MyNASW as a learning tool and do not post purely commercial messages in the community discussions, libraries, or to an individual’s inbox. "Commercial" in this context refers to posts in which the primary purpose appears to be advancing the business or financial interests of any person or entity. Harvesting users’ email and contact information is strictly prohibited.
  • We encourage you to share relevant resources and to relate your experiences with products and services if others can truly benefit, but we want to ensure that the perspectives shared within the community are as objective as possible. If you are posting about a tool or service that compensates you in any way, you must disclose the nature of your affiliation with the product or service (i.e., ownership stake, employment status, referral commission).
  • Please do not send commercial messages directly to individual participants in this community unless specifically invited to do so by the individual. Complaints about unsolicited commercial messages will be taken seriously and may result in suspension or termination of access to the community.
  • Do not post job postings to community discussions. Instead, use NASW’s JobLink to reach member and nonmember social workers and search job seekers’ resumes.
  • Use the MyNASW Community Directory only for personal or professional contacts with other members and not for commercial purposes.
  • If you post material that should not be copied or shared, please state that clearly. It’s advisable to contact the owner of any material if you would like to reuse it.
  • Post your message or documents only to the most appropriate communities. This helps ensure all messages receive the best response by eliminating "noise."
  • State your topic in the subject line, concisely and clearly. This allows members to respond more appropriately to your posting and makes it easier for members to search the archives by subject.
  • Do not send individual messages to the entire list. For example, for messages such as "thanks for the information" or "me, too," use the "Reply to Sender" link that appears in every message.
  • Do not send administrative messages to the group. Change your settings or your contact information to make adjustments in where and how you receive messages. For example, if your email address changes, you do not need to remove yourself from the list and rejoin under your new email address; simply update your email address in your profile.

  

Legal Requirements

  

Disclaimer of Liability

This site is provided as a service for the members of NASW. NASW is not responsible for the opinions and information posted on this site by others. NASW disclaims all warranties regarding information posted on this site by NASW or others; this disclaimer includes all implied warranties of merchantability and fitness. In no event shall NASW be liable for any damages, including special, indirect, or consequential damages, resulting from loss of use, data, or profits, in connection with the use or performance of any information posted on this site.

   

Defamation

All defamatory, abusive, profane, threatening, offensive, or illegal materials are strictly prohibited.

NASW does not pre-screen posted content, but we reserve the right to remove any content that we believe, in our sole discretion, violates MyNASW’s Terms and Conditions, and to restrict, suspend or terminate access of users whom we conclude have violated the letter or the spirit of these Terms and Conditions.

  

If you see what you believe is inappropriate content in MyNASW discussion forums, resource libraries or member profiles, notify NASW by clicking on the “Report Inappropriate Content” link or e-mailing membership@socialworkers.org

  

Copyright

Do not post material protected by copyright without the permission of the copyright owner. By posting material, you warrant and represent that you own any copyright to such material or you have received permission from the copyright owner. Referring to an article or news item with typical reference citations, providing a brief quote, or offering a link to legitimate online published content is permissible. Otherwise, posting material without the permission of the author or publisher may result in copyright infringement. Please see provisions below regarding claims of infringement, under “Notice and Procedures for Making Claims of Copyright Infringement.”

  

By posting material on this site, you grant NASW and site users a nonexclusive right and license to display, copy, distribute, and use that material.

  

Antitrust Concerns

NASW complies with all antitrust laws and reminds all users to guard against activity that could violate these laws. Antitrust laws are broad and complex, but on a very basic level they operate to prohibit anticompetitive agreements between competitors. Professional associations like NASW are almost by definition a group of competitors that has come together to pursue common interests. That is, under antitrust law, social workers can be viewed as competitors. Where their common interests involve agreement on aspects of competition such as rates, salaries, and other issues of the marketplace, the antitrust laws apply.  Accordingly, do not post any material that:

  • References specific fees charged or paid for professional services
  • Discusses prices, discounts, terms or conditions of sale with regard to vendors or terms and conditions of provider agreements relating to reimbursement levels, bonus payments, and other price or cost-related items
  • Addresses specific current or past salaries or terms of employment relating to a particular employer (although it would be permissible to discuss, for instance, average salaries in a particular region)
  • Attempts to allocate patient markets or encourage collective or coercive activity with regard to third party payers, hospitals, other health care providers, or suppliers
  • Includes information that could be construed to impose a restraint on trade or inhibit free and fair competition
  • Encourages or helps members to arrive at any agreement, either express or implied, that leads to price fixing, a boycott of another's business, or other conduct intended to illegally restrict free trade

  

Client Privacy/HIPAA

In order to protect client privacy, if posting about a situation with a client, do not disclose protected health information. Avoid or mask information that might be used to identify the client.  For instance, refer only to the general region (e.g., Pittsburgh area) rather than a specific town, a general age (e.g., elementary school age) rather than 9-year-old, and avoid specific identifiers (e.g., he is a professor of archeology).

  

Monitoring and Enforcement

NASW reserves the right to terminate access of any user who does not abide by these Terms and Conditions. NASW does not actively prescreen, verify, edit or monitor the content posted by users.  However, in the event that any inappropriate posting comes to the attention of NASW, we will take all appropriate action.

  

Notice and Procedures for Making Claims of Copyright Infringement in Accordance with Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)

In accordance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the text of which may be found on the U.S. Copyright Office website at https://www.copyright.gov, NASW will respond expeditiously to address notices of alleged copyright infringement submitted to NASW’s designated copyright agent identified below. As part of our response, we may remove or disable access to material residing on this site that is claimed to be infringing. In that case, we will make a good-faith attempt to contact the person who submitted the affected material so that they may make a counter notification, also in accordance with the DMCA. This page describes the information that should be present in these notices.

  

Notice of Infringing Material

If you are a copyright owner, or are authorized to act on behalf of an owner of the copyright or of any exclusive right under the copyright, and believe that your work has been copied in a way that constitutes copyright infringement, please report your notice of infringement to NASW by providing us with the following information:

  • Provide a physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed;
  • Identify in sufficient detail the copyrighted work that you believe has been infringed or, if multiple copyrighted works at a single online site are covered by a single notification, a representative list of such works at that site;
  • Identify the material that you claim is infringing the copyrighted work listed in #2 above and that is to be removed or access to which is to be disabled, and information reasonably sufficient to permit NASW to locate the material;
  • Provide information reasonably sufficient to permit NASW to contact you, including a name, address, telephone number and email address;
  • If possible, provide information sufficient to allow NASW to notify the owner/administrator of the allegedly infringing content;
  • Include the following statements:
    1. "I have a good faith belief that use of the copyrighted materials described above as allegedly infringing is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law."
    2. “I swear, under penalty of perjury, that the information in the notification is accurate and that I am the copyright owner or am authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed."
  • Sign the notice;
  • Send the notice to naswceo@socialworkers.org, and include “COPYRIGHT NOTICE” in ALL CAPS in the subject line of your email;
  • Please note that a copy of this legal notice will be forwarded to the person who provided the allegedly infringing content.

  

Counter Notification

The administrator of an affected site or the provider of affected content may make a counter notification pursuant to sections 512(g)(2) and (3) of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

To file a counter notification with us, you must provide a written communication that sets forth the items specified below:

  1. Identify the specific URLs or other unique identifying information or material that NASW has removed or to which NASW has disabled access.
  2. Provide your name, address, telephone number, email address, and a statement that you consent to the jurisdiction of Federal District Court for the judicial district in which your address is located (or the District Court for the District of Columbia if your address is outside of the United States), and that you will accept service of process from the person who provided notification under subsection (c)(1)(C) or an agent of such person.
  3. Include the following statement:
    1. "I swear, under penalty of perjury, that I have a good faith belief that the material identified above was removed or disabled as a result of a mistake or misidentification of the material to be removed or disabled, or that the material identified by the complainant has been removed or disabled and will no longer be shown."
  4. Sign the notice;
  5. Send the notice to naswceo@socialworkers.org, and include “COPYRIGHT NOTICE” in ALL CAPS in the subject line of your email.

  

Please note that we will send any complete counter-notifications we receive to the person who submitted the original DMCA notice. That person may elect to file a lawsuit against you for copyright infringement. If we do not receive notice that a lawsuit has been filed within ten (10) business days after we provide notice of your counter-notification, we will restore the removed materials. Until that time, your materials will remain removed. We will provide a copy of the original DMCA takedown notice upon request.

Copyright 2019