JALT Group Public Online Presence Guidelines

These guidelines apply to all official JALT websites and, as far as possible, official JALT social media pages as well (especially regarding the “Identity” and “Cooperation” sections). 

Identity

The site or page is expected to:

• Prominently identify the group by its full name in addition to any acronyms
• Include the full name “The Japan Association for Language Teaching” and 「全国語学教育学会」
• Include an unedited JALT logo or logo edited with approval based on the relevant guidelines (logos and guidelines are available in the Officers Resources area.)
• Include a link or text of the main JALT site (jalt.org)
• Describe the relationship of the group to JALT accurately with either: “[Group Name] is a chapter of the Japan Association for Language Teaching” or “[Group Name] is a Special Interest Group of the Japan Association for Language Teaching.”
• Note current names of group officers or site administrators.

Membership

The site or page must describe membership accurately by:

• Linking directly to membership information on the JALT website (http://jalt.org/joining)
• List only accurate membership rates and policies (amend within two weeks of any changes)
• Display information on JALT membership at least as prominently as local membership options, if any.

Maintenance

All sites should be maintained and kept up to date. For example:

• Make updates to the site at least once every six months.
• Make sure it is timely. Within one month of an event being held, deadline passing, or other content identified by date, change language to the past tense, move content to a clearly identified archive page off the front page, and/or add new information that supersedes previous content and appears first.
• Provide current owner/administrator access to multiple individuals and JCO. Options include designating jco@jalt.org as an admin and recovery email for the site, or by securely sending login ID and passwords to JCO yearly within one month after the annual international conference.

Cooperation

The site or page is expected to demonstrate cooperation with the national organization. Sites or pages should:

• Feature a logo or graphic for the next annual international conference on the site within one month of the logo or graphic being announced on Basecamp.
• Link to the annual international conference page (http://jalt.org/conference)
• For SIGs involved with PanSIG, feature a logo or graphic to the http://pansig.org website with information about the upcoming PanSIG conference. (The PanSIG publicity page has logos and images you may use.)
• Follow JALT advertising policies as described by the Business Manager.
• When sites represent an official voice of the group, they should avoid disparagement of JALT, individual JALT members, or JALT partners anywhere on the site. Member-to-member sites may include expressions of concern, debates about issues, etc., but these should be monitored and possibly moderated to maintain a professional and respectful tone.

Nesting

Where reasonably possible, all sites or pages should comply with the guidelines. However, in some instances it may be impractical due to the nature of the platform to do everything described above. In these cases, a link back to a main page or site that does comply, including the group’s landing page on jalt.org, can be considered sufficient.

Monitoring

The Board of Directors, and the Director of Public Relations more specifically, have a responsibility to JALT to maintain a positive public image of the organization, and may monitor the public online activity of any constituent group. If a group is found to be in contravention of these guidelines, attempts will be made to contact the group to encourage changes.

In the case of continued non-compliance (e.g. non-responsiveness to multiple requests to make updates, etc.), any JALT director can request that the Board freeze the group’s funds. This request must include a brief description of the problem(s) and the attempts that have been made at rectification, and the president or coordinator of the group should be sent a copy via email. If a majority of the Board agrees, the funds will be frozen. Access to funds will be restored when either the Director of Public Relations and one other JALT director or a simple majority of JALT directors agree that the group has appropriately addressed the concerns and is following the guidelines.

If a group has repeated and/or continued problems, the Board of Directors may choose to refer them to the Executive Board for discussion of further action on a case-by-case basis.

---

Document history:

In Thomas Bieri’s 2017 DoPR report for the 2nd EBM, he wrote that “the following guidelines have been adopted by the Board of Directors.”

This document was available as a Google Doc, and was moved to the JALT website March 3, 2022 by DoPR Bill Pellowe. Updates include references to Basecamp rather than EBM-net, and adding PanSIG information for SIGs.