Information and General Guidelines
INTRODUCTION
The Westwood Hills email network began in June 2001. It is currently on Groups.io, which is a service that gives groups the ability to communicate easily and also provides a basic website for each group. As of June 2020, we have more than 900 members on our neighborhood email network.
Our email network has evolved over time. We have developed some general operational guidelines, which are always subject to being revised in response to changes in circumstance, requests, suggestions and experience.
Groups.io is a very flexible system, and there are many parameters with different optional settings that a group can choose to govern itself—so it is entirely possible that if you are on other groups, they may be run differently than the Westwood Hills group.
Fully Moderated. The Westwood Hills neighborhood email network is fully moderated, which means that every message and every reply that uses the network is first reviewed by the moderators, who have the sole discretion to approve, reject or modify any text before sending it out to everyone. The moderators also troubleshoot, to the best of their ability, any problems or questions you might encounter with the email network.
We currently have four neighbors who volunteer as co-moderators for the network: Carole Magnuson, Debbie Nussbaum, Carol Lifland and Terry Tegnazian. They also have many other obligations and commitments in their lives, so please be patient if your email to our neighborhood network is not immediately attended to.
Closed Network. Ours is a closed, private network. Our group is not listed in the Groups.io directory. It is open only to those who live in our neighborhood. The moderators must approve all new members, and only those who provide us with their name, street address in our neighborhood, and telephone number are added. The list of members and their email addresses is visible only to the moderators, and the moderators do not provide a member’s name or contact info to any third party without the member’s permission.
Members of the network must also be or become members of the Westwood Hills Property Owners Association. Tenants of Association members may also be added to the email network. In addition, it is also possible for a tenant living in a home our neighborhood whose owner is not a member of the Association, to be added to the email network—if that is your situation, please request details from the moderators.
While the network is open only to those in our neighborhood, we do share information and resources with leaders of nearby neighborhood homeowner associations.
Network Identifier. Groups.io automatically attaches the identifier “[WHPOA]” at the beginning of the Subject line of every message that goes out to our email network.
Function. The Westwood Hills email network functions more like a community newsletter—it is neither a chat room, nor a forum for political debate. From time to time the Association, acting through its board, after due consideration will take a position on an issue or pending legislation that may impact our neighborhood, and request that neighbors lobby government officials or otherwise support such position. Similarly, we may provide information on issues or pending legislation that could impact the neighborhood.
One of the Association’s most important functions is to advocate for our neighborhood, consistent with its articles of incorporation to preserve the characteristics and conditions of the neighborhood. The board uses its best judgment to make decisions that it feels will benefit the greatest number of families in Westwood Hills. Rarely will emails set out all sides of an issue in a neutral manner, and we understand that not everyone will agree on every issue. Therefore, in all cases, neighbors should do their own research and make their own decisions.
Critical Communication Tool. Our goal is to get and keep as many neighbors as possible on the network, because it is such an important method of communication for our neighborhood—especially in the event of an emergency and other issues that impact the security, safety, property values, quality of life, and welfare of our neighborhood.
In order to encourage as many people as possible to join the email network, and forestall people from unsubscribing, we are very concerned with not overwhelming our neighbors with general commentary and opinion, repetitive requests, administrative matters that the moderators can answer, numerous individual responses to a request, etc.
In fact, the general network probably sees about one-third to one-half of all the messages that the moderators get, as we are able to deal with many messages directly. We are cognizant of the fact that many of our members are busy professionals; many use their business email address for the network; others simply don’t have the time or inclination to wade through dozens of messages from various neighbors. This is the reason we became a fully moderated system: initially we were unmoderated, but there was so much email traffic that members began unsubscribing.
Website. The address for our neighborhood website, which is provided to us by the Groups.io system, is:
https://westwoodhills.groups.io
This is a private, unlisted website not open to being viewed by the general public. The first time you access this website, you will need to input your email address and then click the box that says “Email me a link to log in.” The link is good for 2 hours and you can set your own password. Thereafter you can access the site by logging in with your own email address and password.
If you have any problems in accessing the website, please let the moderators know. They will do whatever they can to help you.
We also have a public website which can be accessed at either of these URLs: https://whpoa.org/ or https://westwoodhillspropertyownersassociation.org/
GENERAL OPERATING GUIDELINES
With experience, the moderators have developed the following general operating guidelines for our email network:
a. Sending a Message to the Neighborhood. Address your email to westwoodhills@groups.io. It automatically goes first to the moderators for approval, and if okayed as is, is automatically posted to the entire group under your own email address as you wrote it.
Another alternative occurs if your message is edited before going out to the entire group. In these cases, the moderators have to copy and paste your message into a new email, in which case your message will be posted to the entire group but will show the moderator’s email address in the “sender” line at the top.
NOTE: All messages to the group must be approved by the group moderators, and may be rejected or modified in their sole discretion.
b. Replies. When you hit “reply” to a message from our email network, the reply comes only to the moderators, not to the entire network. The moderators will handle it as seems most appropriate, e.g., forward it on to the person who requested information, answer any questions, etc.
In some cases, you will see a “Moderator’s Note” at the top of a message asking you to respond directly to the person posting. These are situations where the moderators do not need to be in the middle of the correspondence. There will be an email address and/or phone number of the person posting, usually at the bottom of the message. This requires that you either call/text the person, or if there’s an email address given, then you must copy and paste the email address of the person posting into your response instead of hitting reply.
c. No Anonymous Messages. We do not post anonymous messages, with minor exceptions. Please include your first and last name, and your street (but not your street number) at the end of your messages. Also be sure to include other contact or identifying info, if relevant, in the closing of your message. This is one important way in which we build a sense of community within our neighborhood.
d. Subject Headings. Please indicate a subject for every message in the “Subject” line.
e. One Subject per Message. In general, we ask that you discuss just one subject (or “thread”) in a message. This practice makes it easier to deal with replies that may come in response to a message.
f. Simple Format. Please use plain text and basic fonts for your messages, because fancy fonts, graphics, pictures or elaborate formatting do not always come through and/or take a longer time to download. If you have pictures or something with elaborate formatting, one alternative would be to request that the moderators upload the item to a file on our website where neighbors can go to look at it. Images should be kept to 100 KB or less in size.
g. Short, Succinct Messages. In general, please keep your messages short and to the point.
If you have a personal situation that requires a long explanation, one technique would be to briefly outline the general issue, and ask people to contact you directly (with your email address or phone number) for more information or to discuss.
h. Scope of Topics. Please remember that our email network is for the benefit of the people in our neighborhood, so the moderators will generally not approve messages seeking information or referrals for people outside our area, or that otherwise do not appear to be related or of benefit to our neighbors or neighborhood issues.
This also means, for example, that we normally do not post various sorts of warnings that are going around the internet generally, or messages that deal with general news or political issues that are covered in the wider media unless they might have an immediate impact on our local area.
We also tend to restrict commercial, charity and religiously-oriented messages, but will consider events or matters if a neighbor is principally involved, or if a special offer is being extended to our neighborhood.
The moderators use their judgment and discretion in determining appropriateness of messages. They have to balance the different needs, considerations and interests involved. In a questionable case, they will consult among themselves, and sometimes they will request more information or suggest modifications to the person requesting the post.
i. Attachments. Our email network permits attachments; however, in general, we discourage attachments and ask that you include the info in the body of your email. Also, with people checking emails on smartphones, attachments are often difficult to read.
Another possibility, depending on what the attachment is, would be to send the attachment directly to the moderators, for uploading to our Google Docs site. A URL can then be given for people to click on to access the information.
j. Courtesy, Please. Remember that we are a small community. The moderators will not allow complaints about specific neighbors, threats, flaming emails or personal insults to be sent over the entire email network. Fortunately, we have rarely had to reject a message for these reasons.
If you are having a problem with a neighbor, it is up to you to resolve it between yourselves. If you aren’t able to reach some amicable agreement, then please consider using mediation or arbitration services. You can check with the L. A. County Bar Association for referrals.
k. Referral List. We have set up on our website a complete listing of all the referrals for various services that have come in over the email network since its inception. These referral lists are open to all members of our email network, and can be found at
https://westwoodhills.groups.io/g/main/files/REFERRALS
You can access these referrals (and all the other files on our website) directly yourself, once you’ve logged into the Groups.io site.
l. Requests for Referrals. When we get a request for a referral, we first determine whether it is a service that is already on our website. If it is already on our website and the referrals are fairly recent, we generally email the person back and ask them to check the existing referral list—and thereby save our members from repeated requests for the same service.
m. Six-Month Rule of Thumb. However, if it’s been more than six months since the last update for the requested service, we will generally send the request to the entire email network to see if there are any more up-to-date referrals.
n. Responses to Referral Requests. Referral requests are one situation in which we usually want you to hit “reply.” When you respond to a referral request in this way, your response comes only to the moderators, who do two things: (1) forward every response to the person who made the request; and (2) eventually add the response to the list of referrals on our website.
In this way, the person who requested the information gets it right away, the information will eventually be made available on our website for all to access at any time in the future, and our members are spared from receiving and having to sort through numerous individual responses which may come in over a period of several days to various requests.
This is why your responses to a referral request do not generally show up on the entire network. However, you can be sure that they are very valued and needed—so please keep sharing with your neighbors!
This is also why, if your original referral request included your contact info, the moderators may have deleted the contact info before posting your request to the entire network. In this way, all the responses will go through the moderators, which enables them to capture the information so it can be uploaded to the website, instead of going only to the person who made the initial request.
We also follow this methodology of forwarding responses to the requester rather than posting to the whole network on other types of requests where appropriate.
o. Shopping Corner. Occasionally, neighbors have items that they would like to offer for sale or give away to others in our neighborhood, or that they are seeking to purchase. Such messages will usually have “Shopping Corner” as the lead-in of the subject line after the network identifier.
If you are interested in any such items, you must reply directly to the seller. Do NOT just hit the “reply” button on Shopping Corner items, because your response will come to the moderators who will not forward responses on such items.
THANKS TO ALL OF YOU!!
Finally, thanks for your participation and generous good will toward your neighbors, which makes ours a very special neighborhood indeed, and is the main reason for the success of our email network!