Thank you for joining the OA Community. This is a secure online platform to promote the sharing of advice and experiences and encourage collaboration within the ombudsman community. To ensure the best possible experience for all our members, we have established some basic guidelines for participation.



By joining and using the OA Community, you agree that you have read and will follow our rules and guidelines, and that posting, responding, sharing and/or uploading content will be aligned to the core principle of the Community - to share best practice information, advice, knowledge, and insight.



Please take a moment to acquaint yourself with these important guidelines. In order to preserve an environment that encourages dialogue, we reserve the right to suspend or terminate membership of the Community for anyone who violates these rules.

The Rules

  • Respect others. Focus on the content of posts and not on the people making them. Please extend the benefit of the doubt to newer community members; there’s no such thing as a stupid question.
  • Respect the purpose of the community. Use the community to share successes, challenges, constructive feedback, questions, and goals.
  • Information posted on the discussion forums and in the networks is available for all those within the OA’s membership to see, and comments are subject to usual libel and slander laws.
  • Respect intellectual property. Post content that you have personally created, has been created by your organisation, or that you have permission to use and have properly attributed to the content creator.
  • When posting items in our collaborative environment, please indicate if the item is not available for reuse. It’s also 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 forums and networks. This helps ensure all messages receive the best response by eliminating ‘noise’.
  • Whilst members are allowed to share their experiences of products and services, such as training courses, IT software, and so on, the direct promotion of commercial products and services is not permitted.

Discussion Forum Etiquette

  • State concisely and clearly the topic of your comments in the subject line and use the most appropriate Network ‘tag’. This allows other members to easily respond and makes it easier for members to search the archives by subject / keyword.
  • The topics posted in the discussion forums are often of interest to those working in different functions (e.g. both Casework and those in Human Resources) – so when posting only use the ‘for this Group only’ function rarely and only if necessary.
  • Do not send administrative messages, such as “remove me from the list,” to the Network. Instead, edit the preferences in your profile to change your settings or to remove yourself from a notification list. If you are amending your email address you do not need to remove yourself from the list and re-join - simply change it in your profile.

The Legal Stuff

  • The OA Community is provided as a service for all staff of members of the Ombudsman Association.
  • The Ombudsman Association is not responsible for the opinions and information posted on this site by others. We disclaim all warranties with regard to information posted on this site, whether posted by members or any third party; this disclaimer includes all implied warranties of merchantability and fitness. In no event shall the Ombudsman Association be liable for any special, indirect, or consequential damages or any damages whatsoever resulting from loss of use, data, or profits, arising out of or in connection with the use or performance of any information posted on this site.
  • Do not post any defamatory, abusive, profane, threatening, offensive, or illegal materials. 
  • Do not post any information or other material protected by copyright without the permission of the copyright owner. By posting material, the posting party warrants and represents that he or she owns the copyright with respect to such material or has received permission from the copyright owner. In addition, the posting party grants the Ombudsman Association and users of this site the nonexclusive right and license to display, copy, publish, distribute, transmit, print, and use such information or other material.
  • The Ombudsman Association does not actively monitor the site for inappropriate postings and does not on its own undertake editorial control of postings. However, in the event that any inappropriate posting is brought to our attention we will take all appropriate action.
  • The Ombudsman Association reserves the right to terminate access to any user who does not abide by these guidelines.

Privacy Policy

The aim of the OA Community is to promote collaboration amongst our members; we need to collect and share your contact information to do so.

As a member of the OA Community your professional profile and the email address you designate as your ‘contact’ email will appear in the online Community Directory. As the aim of the OA Community is to encourage and facilitate networking it is a condition that all who sign up to the OA Community feature in the directory. Note: This information (and the member directory function) are not made available or accessible to Associate Members or any current or future commercial providers.

 

In all other regards, the Ombudsman Association will act in line with our Privacy Notice