Guiding Principles & Posting Etiquette

Guiding Principles for B.E.S.T. Jaguar:

1.       We believe that striving for excellence on all fronts is God’s will, and that we should expect excellence from ourselves and our school, by any measure.  Where we fall short, we must learn from our failures and seek a better way.

2.       We believe that parents, teachers, pastors, and administration are all vital stakeholders in our school’s success and our children’s education.  All are welcome to participate, comment, and author on this site, freely, without risk of retribution or retaliation against themselves or their children.

3.       We believe that complacency is unacceptable, and that convenient excuses have no place from those who strive to be the B.E.S.T.  We don’t want to hear, “why we can’t,” but rather, “how will we?  Here’s how we can.”  Together there is nothing we cannot accomplish.

4.       We believe in candid, open dialogue, celebration of our strengths, frank and humble acknowledgement of our challenges, and strong fortitude and speed in finding the best resolution to them.

5.       We believe in seeking out the best ideas, regardless of the source.  

6.       We do not believe in making a profit from this site.  All the time, resources, and effort that goes into it is strictly voluntary.  We will never allow paid advertising to benefit the site operators.

Posting Etiquette

By posting to our message board, you agree to the following:

1.       We’re here to build the Community of St. Joseph’s.  This forum is to celebrate our success as well as seek continual improvement – both are required for B.E.S.T.

2.        This is a Catholic, Christian community.  We expect you’ll uphold those values.  Excellence is the standard.  Foul language or mean-spirited personal attacks on other posters will not be tolerated.  Attack the issue being discussed, not the poster.  If you cannot express your opinion without calling someone a name, you need to be on a different site and your post will be deleted from ours.

3.       No mindless baiting.  While dissenting opinions are certainly welcome and add to the character of the forum, posts whose purpose is solely to get a rise out of the forum participants are not permitted.

4.       Inevitably, any criticism, however constructive, means that someone or some group responsible for the item in question is being critiqued.  The buck’s gotta stop somewhere.  That’s OK -- by the very nature of their positions, leaders at all levels need to be strong enough to handle it, whether it’s the lunch lady, the PTO president, or the principal.  But be objective.  Don’t make it personal.  Bring facts.  Think through both sides of the situation, walk a mile in their shoes.  Think about how to solve the problem.

5.       If you’re going  to tee up a problem, you need to have thought through and have proposed some solutions, and you should expect support from the community to refine those solutions.  It’s also in good form to be willing to throw in your own resources in helping to correct the issue at hand.  By meeting these conditions, we promote positive change for the betterment of our school and our community, and we won’t have it any other way.

6.       Disagreements are inevitable on any discussion forum. Opinions are welcome--we won’t all agree--but we expect you to keep things civil.  Good natured, intelligent banter is encouraged, but grudge matches are subject to deletion.  If banter goes past 10 exchanges it will be considered a grudge match.  Mindless insults are subject to deletion.

As a corollary to this rule, the concept of "prospective parents read this board so we should only talk nice" is not considered valid.  Parents are not stupid.  A school that is highly desirable, with great vision, strong momentum, clear advantages, and active, engaged constituents will not likely be scuttled by negative opinions on a message board, and all the posted sunshine in the world will not counterbalance said school’s rainy day.  Have faith in the intelligence of our parents and our prospective parents at SJCS.

7.       No obscene material or references.

8.   No posting of advertisements or links for products, services, or other web sites not related to St. Joseph Catholic School, without permission from the site administrators. This includes promoting your blog or website. It's not our job to send eyeballs to your site.

9.  Soliciting personal information from board participants is the height of rudeness.  People will share what they want to share; the rest is their own business.  So don’t ask for name, rank, and serial number if it’s not volunteered. Some people want to remain anonymous with good reason.

10.  Posts that utilize excessive "web slang" or “chat speak” or similar abbreviations/emoticons/etc. will be deleted without warning. We expect a higher level of communication by the users of this site. Spell words. Use punctuation. Express yourself intelligently -- this isn't junior high.

11.  "There's nothing else to talk about" and "I was angry/frustrated/[insert other euphemism here]" are never validations for posting anything.

12.  As an extension of the above, levels of intoxication are not a valid excuse for violations of protocol. You will be held just as responsible for your actions as you would sober.

13.  DO NOT POST IN ALL CAPS. (we don’t like yelling)

14.  Site operators reserve the right to amend these rules at any time.

Violation of any of these rules will result in posts being deleted. Repeated or especially egregious violations will result in revocation of posting privileges.

This list is presented as a work in progress.  We welcome your feedback and suggestions for improvement.  This is OUR site, let’s make it the BEST it can be!

Love it?  Hate it?  Want to Author an Article?  Got a Suggestion for Improvement?  Give us your feedback  bestjaguar.2010@gmail.com