Communications Policy

Passed by the Executive November 2009
Note: All original references to CWSA/ACEF have been changed to reflect the association's new name -- WGSRF.

1. Notices sent to the WGSRF email address by members of the Association shall be disseminated to the membership within (as much as is possible) two working days of their being received.

2. Such notices shall be sent individually, with an appropriate subject heading, clearly indicating that this is coming from WGSRF. Email shall not be simply forwarded to the membership, but shall be put into the body of a separate email and sent out this way. The sender shall ensure that formatting and layout of the message closely approximates the original email.

3. Only notices from Association members, and appropriate to the business of WGSRF, shall be accepted for dissemination. These will include job ads, calls for papers, notices of book publication – either monograph or edited collections (but not individual journal articles or reports). Special guest edited journal issues of journals will also be accepted, as will announcements of films or other performance and creative works by the membership.

4. Notices from CFHSS, SSHRC, and CIHR can also be disseminated, upon consideration of their content. Occasionally, on special arrangement, emails from publishers or interested journals will be disseminated to the membership.

5. Job ads are particularly important and must be sent out immediately. Job ads are the only notice which does not have to come directly from an Association member, but which can be copied from other sources. That said, job ads must clearly relate to Women’s and Gender Studies parameters.

6. The membership list shall not, under any circumstance, be used to disseminate any notices about personal causes or interests. No matter how interesting or potentially relevant to some people, such messages are outside of the purview of WGSRF, can never speak to all members’ interests, and will simply clutter up members’ email inboxes.

7. The membership email list, consisting of the names of all members, shall be put into a separate distribution list that does not disclose names and email addresses upon sending out messages. Privacy concerns of members must at all times be considered.

8. Once a month, the executive of the Association shall hold a conference call to update all participants on news of the Association and activities of the executive. Additionally, on the first day of every month – and especially during the academic year, an up to date membership list shall be disseminated to all members of the WGSRF executive.

9. Amendment of this policy must receive approval from the members of the Communications Committee, WGSRF.