Background

Since I made FHSFalconAlumni.us available to the alumni community of Farmington High School of Farmington, Michigan - in March of 2004, the membership has grown significantly. This site is operated as a hobby for the sole purpose of providing like-minded FHS Alumni, an opportunity to reconnect.

The information, tips, and policies found here, were developed after the first year of operation. Each are a result of action, inaction, or responses I received.

The information or policies contained here, define how we handle or respond to "issues" on the site. They are not meant to handle all legal instances... we are a community of adults, and we should act as adults. FYI: I don't mean the lawsuit happy types that seem to be filling our world, today...

This site IS NOT a business - it IS about the formation of a community. For the community to grow - everyone must make life easier for everyone. If you don't believe that - you do not belong here.

Common Sense Issue Handling

As the site grows - flexible & helpful alumni who want this site to flourish and be valuable to the FHS Alumni Community - will make the site a breeze to maintain.

I operate this site, like much of life - using the "80:20 or 90:10 rules". In most cases, these rules actually end up being 95:5, 99:1, etc. Not familiar with these rules? Think about the phrase "you can't please everybody..." - its usage here means:

That 80 or 90% of the people who register... read the instructions, registered, got activated, and is happy the site exists.

I always seek out this group and do everything I can to make life easier for them. This effort is nearly always returned (aka "the golden rule").

A distinct minority (1, 2, 5, or 10%) of the people who register will NOT read the instructions, will have issues with the whole registration process, and generally make me wonder why I started the website.

I can think of many ways to spend a lifetime... pleasing these few percent, is not one of them. If the shoe fits... find your happiness elsewhere! Here for example...

Registration

Yes! Proof that you lived in the Farmington area and attended FHS is required to register.

Some registration questions/comments I have received - relative to security...

I don't want to give out all that info, online...
The site is not secure...
Why the "Fort Knox" style security...

I created this website AND the registration process specifically because I was tired of getting junk mail as a result of my participation on other alumni sites (especially those sites where I paid a fee to participate).

The act of proving that you lived in the Farmington, Michigan area, attended FHS, and one or more other schools in the area, etc. should reinforce that we do not want non-FHS'ers here.

It is impossible for commercial sites to validate your "proof" - specifically because their business model is one of getting as many people as possible to participate on their site for the purpose of viewing and taking action on the displayed advertisements. As a result, junk mailers are at all of them.

We do our best to play "hall monitor" - if you're a Falcon... Welcome.

Is validation/security infallible?

Absolutely not! Nothing is 100% - there is always room to grow, get better, etc. Have you ever heard the phrase "Locks are only good for honest people"...? Well that is always true for anything in the computer/Internet world. You do enough to stop the general Internet Riff-Raff, or make it hard enough that the idiots of the world seek out other easier targets. Same as you do with your house or your car.

Do your part - always use the SSL Secure method (e.g. link below login fields). Your transmissions will be encrypted... resulting in less of a chance for Internet Idiots to do harm.

What is SSL?

SSL is available for FHSFalconAlumni.us via a shared 128 bit certificate from my personal website. Depending on your browser type, when SSL is active, you should see some sort of "lock" or "shield" in your browser's status bar or possibly a color change to your address bar (e.g. newer browser versions). Your address bar should change to something like:

https://secure530.sectorlink.com/ aUJSproduction/fhs/....

Note: in short, the HTTPS part is what determines that SSL is active vs. the normal web HTTP protocol.

Record Removal

Any alumni records we store here can be removed. We certainly hope to help reunion committees by being a long-term source of contact info for alumni; however we also respect the privacy of every alumni.

If you are registered here, and you no longer want to be listed in any fashion on this site, please contact us and let us know. Best method is by e-mailing John Burns directly, via the anonymous e-mail option on my profile page, within the website. If you cannot login - then just use the Contact Us form and identify yourself.

Of course, we don't want to remove records in a willy-nilly fashion - so you will need to identify who you are - with information that we can match to your record, so we know we have the correct record.

NOTE: Record removal is a permanent "event" - which means, although we maintain backups of data - if we must revert to any of those backups - we will process all removal requests before making that backup data "live".

If you change your mind - down-the-road, you are welcome to re-register.

Record Updates

Alumni are responsible for keeping their own profile - current. Easy as clicking the Profile menu option - change and then save the data.

It is especially important that you keep your e-mail address correct. If an e-mail address fails to receive our occasional messages - your account will be set to inactive.

Coming back to us after a long time and you can't use the "Forgot Login" option to retrieve your login/password - because your e-mail address has changed? Use the ContactUS e-mail form to help us know who you are and we will get you "re-connected".

Note: having correct contact info makes the life of a reunion committee so much easier. Please help them out - update your profile when you experience a change in your life (viz. name, address, phone, e-mail, etc.).

Contact Info Access Policy

Other than the information the alumni makes available, via their profile, the only valid sharing of alumni information is to one member of an active reunion committee or with FHS or the Farmington Public School District.

The noted reunion contact will have access to an e-mail form page, which will enable them to send group mails to their specific class. Additionally, that form will reveal e-mail addresses to them, to enable them to send follow up e-mails, on an individual basis.

If the reunion committee requires postal mailing addresses or phone numbers for alumni in their class, we can arrange to export that information and provide it in one of two formats: MS Excel file, or a Comma-delimited (CSV) file. Requests for this data "should" come from at least 2 members of the committee for that specific class year - the e-mail request should designate who will receive the data. I will disregard ALL requests for alumni data from 3rd parties (this includes planners you may have contracted with...) - it is up to you to request it, and then transfer the ownership of the data to them.

Reunion Committee

How would you identify reunion committee members? Please use the site's Forum - Reunion Category. If your class is not set up already - then use the Subject link to create it.

List the members of the reunion committee, and their participation roles, in that forum section. Relative to other site policies - only registered & active alumni for a class can be considered a member of a reunion committee. You must be prepared to assume this role - do not toss your hat in the ring, just to be on the list.

Copyrights/Trademarks

3rd party trademarks & copyrights, if/where used, are the property of their owners and any usage here is strictly for demonstration or example purposes.

All other content, code, and design is the property of FHSFalconAlumni.us via its owner: John Burns.