NSC - Web Policy

1.0 Authority and Responsibility

1.1 Authority

This policy has been approved by the Board of Directors in accordance with Article 5.7 of By-law No. 1 of the Nepean Sailing Club ("NSC" or "Club") and is effective as of February 2005.

1.2 Responsibility for Policy

The Public Relations Director is responsible for the operation of this policy and shall be assisted by the Club's Webmaster and Webteam.

2.0 Objectives

The NSC Web constitutes the electronic information medium of the Club whose primary purpose is to promote the goals and objectives of the NSC by providing Club Members and the public at large access to electronic up-to-date, accurate, and pertinent information. In the context of this document, information means the club's organization, structure, activities, rules and regulations, events, training programs, schedules, and any other area of interest to, or business of, the NSC.

3.0 Definition of NSC Web

The NSC Web includes, but is not limited to:

  • The NSC Web Server: the public and private areas on a Web Server Provider's host machine allocated to the NSC.
  • The NSC Web Site: All the directories, files, images and scripts contained in the Web Server public area,
  • The User and Management accounts used for mail and/or to access the Web Server's management Utility,
  • All the Archives of the NSC Web Server, and
  • All the available documentation on the NSC Web.

4.0 Management of the NSC Web

4.1 Nature of The NSC Web

The NSC Web Site is a free service offered to its members and the public, unless otherwise stated in this document.

The NSC Web operations' costs shall be financed through the Public Relations' Budget. Any additional revenue opportunities may be considered from time to time in conformance with appropriate NSC policies.

4.2 Management of the NSC Web

A Webmaster, appointed by, and reporting to, the Director of Public Relations shall be responsible for the operational status and content of the NSC Web.

The Webmaster's primary responsibility shall be:

  • To develop, maintain, and enforce the procedures required to implement the policies described herein,
  • To modify, update, expand and maintain the NSC Web infrastructure and content in a timely manner to meet the NSC goals and objectives,
  • To liaise with the Web Server Provider for all matters related to the administration, security and operations of the NSC Web, and
  • To maintain the www.nsc.ca domain name registration in good order.

The Webmaster may put together a team (the "Webteam"), to assist with the management of the NSC Web and may delegate specific tasks, roles and/or areas of responsibilities to members of the Webteam. The Webmaster may also be assisted from time to time by qualified individuals, who are not members of the Webteam, for the purpose of maintaining special interest areas and pages such as, but not limited to, Sail training, Adaptive Sail, Racing, and Real-time Weather.

Due to the private or confidential nature of some of the information posted on the NSC Web, the Webmaster, every member of the Webteam, and any other individual who is entrusted with access to the Web Server, shall be a member in good standing of the Club, unless this requirement is specifically waived by the Public Relations Director.

The Webmaster or Webteam members have the discretion to post notices, images and any other information on the NSC Web Site in keeping with the NSC goals and objectives. The posting of any matter related to the management and operations of the club shall need the approval of a Board Member.

4.3 Hosting of the NSC Web Site

The NSC Web Site may be hosted on a commercial or private Web Server Provider system. In all cases, the Provider's Web Server Infrastructure is required to provide the following minimum level of service:

  • A secure environment protected by an active, current suite of access control and anti-virus package(s),
  • A Backup Strategy to ensure that no information is lost through malfunctions,
  • System, Operations and Network Management to ensure a 95% access availability,
  • 8 hours, 5 days a week Telephone and/ or Email Support,
  • A secure access-controlled mechanism for the protection of private information,
  • A bandwidth and throughput consistent with current market standards.

4.4 Access to the NSC Web Server

The Webmaster shall control and regulate access to the Web Server.

The Webmaster is the only individual who may release the passwords or any other information related to access to the Web Server components. All other Web Team members or individual entrusted with access to the Web Server shall keep such information as strictly confidential.

4.5 Access to the NSC Web Site

The NSC Web Site structure and implementation shall permit access by as wide an audience as possible, using standard Web Browsers hosted on standard PC technologies.

The adoption of new Web standards is permitted and encouraged as long as a common denominator is maintained with the previous standard(s) to allow uninterrupted access to members with older technologies.

Any member of the NSC shall have equal access to the NSC Web Site Public Discussion and Posting areas, which will be developed when appropriate, and may or may not be a permanent feature of the NSC Web Site.

4.6 Layout of the NSC Web Site

Standardized page layouts shall be implemented for all the permanent NSC Web pages. The layouts shall clearly identify the source and ownership of the page as the NSC. Pages of a transient nature such as notices, posters and ads, or pages imported from other documents, are excluded.

The format, layout and presentation of the NSC Web Site shall follow ergonomic principles that take into consideration the visual and auditory capabilities of the diversified NSC membership population.

4.7 Content of the NSC Web Site

The content of the NSC Web Site shall be appropriate for viewing by all age groups. In no circumstances shall the NSC Web Site contain profanity of any kind, or any racial, social, political, gender, or religious bias, nor shall it contain links or references to sites that do.

The NSC Web Site may contain links to commercial sites' Web pages, but it shall not actively promote or support any commercial site in particular for monetary or other reasons. Equal opportunity shall be given to all sailing-related commercial sites to post a Universal Resource Locator (URL) link in a common NSC commercial site links page. The NSC Site shall not contain prominent commercial ad banners or other form of dynamic advertisement, except for NSC Club's products,services or sponsored activities and events.

The NSC Web Site may contain links to other sailing-related clubs and Web Sites that promote and share similar interests, goals and objectives.

Web Sites that contain both free sailing-related information and for-sale services may be handled as either related interests sites or commercial sites at the Webmaster's discretion.

4.8 Restrictions On Usage Of The NSC Web

The NSC Web Site shall not promote or serve the monetary gain of any of its members except to advertise the intent to purchase or sell personal, marine-related equipment via a public Classified Ads page. The NSC may charge non-members a nominal fee for such advertisement as set by the NSC Board of Directors.

The NSC Web Site may advertise for the NSC Sailing School and other activities and events as long as such activities support the goals and objectives of the NSC. The NSC Web site may also be used to conduct limited commerce for the NSC's regalia, wares and other marketable products, as well as display sponsors' logos and links as they relate to NSC hosted events or sponsored activities. No advertising or commerce devices (banner, button, text or dynamic animation) shall take precedence over other, or otherwise change the nature of, the stated primary Web Site purposes.

The NSC Web site may be used to generate and send Email notices and advisories to the membership. However, this means of distribution shall be used sparingly, and only when there are no other readily available alternatives to reach the membership in a timely manner. Only NSC Board Members shall authorize use of this capability. The NSC Members targeted by this facility shall have the right to have their email address removed on demand from the list used to generate the distribution list(s).

The NSC Web shall not contain individual or personal information other than as stated below, in conformance with NSC's Privacy Policy. The NSC Web's on-line storage shall not be used by individuals with authorized access to store personal documents or images.

The NSC Web may use cookies to facilitate a server-browser interaction during an active session. The NSC Web shall not use cookies to collect statistics or other records on individual usage.

4.9 Confidentiality of information on the NSC Web Site

The overall confidentially of information is governed by NSC's Privacy Policy.

A secure access mechanism shall protect:

  • Any information deemed confidential by the Board of Directors including, but not limited to, financial statements, bid proposals, membership details, and budgets.
  • Information containing personal data including, but not limited to, age, gender, marital status, telephone number(s), email address(es), boat name, street address and children's names, or as directed by the Board of Directors.

No information of a personal nature, other than basic Membership Information, shall be posted on the NSC Web Site without the prior consent of the person(s) concerned. Any person who submits any information in written or electronic form for display on the NSC Web Site shall be deemed to have consented to the posting of such information.

At a Member's request, any personal piece of information shall be removed from the web site.

4.10 Retention of information on the NSC Web Site

The NSC Web Site shall be archived to permanent off-line medium to preserve its information for the official NSC record archives. This archiving is independent from the Incremental or Full Backups performed by the Web Server Provider. The frequency of the archive may be based on the amount of information present on the Web Site, and by the off-line storage media capacity, but shall not span a period of more than 12 months.

Once archived, obsolete on-line information may be deleted. The retention period of such information shall be determined based on the usefulness and pertinence of the information, the audience coverage, and the Web Site free space requirements and limitations.

5.0 Policy Review

This policy shall be reviewed as least annually by the Public Relations Director and Web Master and recommendations made to the Board of Directors for changes as required.

  Comments to the Webmaster