Rydal-Meadowbrook Civic Association

Rydal-Meadowbrook Civic Association (RMCA) presents this web site as a service to Members and our local community. The purpose is to keep everyone informed about the news that may have an impact on our quality-of-life. The site will be kept as up-to-date as possible, with the help of volunteers as their schedules permit. Board Members, Life Members and authorized Community Leaders may submit content after logging-in. When anyone posts content, their identity will be visible to visitors of the site.

There are eight available user types on this site: Visitor (not logged-in), Authenticated User, Annual Member, Life Member, Board Member, President, Treasurer, Administrator. For more details, please visit the Membership page.

This web site represents the desire of the Board of RMCA to enable members to participate and members to stay involved. There are six types of content that the site contains:

Types of Content : Petitions, Polls and Surveys
RMCA may prepare a petition that calls for some specific action that is already supported by the Board of RMCA. If the Board has not formed a majority opinion, the web site may present a poll or survey that enables the membership to express its wishes. The Board is not obligated to have any of the above on the web site at a given time and government officials are not obligated to change their votes or intentions based on results. However, RMCA does want to allow the community to participate and have access to useful information.

Types of Content : Featured story on a page
With the exception of webforms, petitions, surveys, polls and events, all other pages have text and images. Most content has been prepared by one or more volunteer members of the Board of RMCA. This content is based on the general direction of the Board and/or President and is published directly onto the site for an ongoing review and editing.

On issues that are controversial, the Board may ask for members of the community or experts to submit opposing points-of-view or additional facts. These opinions are designed to allow visitors to the site to form their own opinions. RMCA will ask for submissions to be succinct, and may include it as part of the featured story on a page.

RMCA does not have the responsibility to warrant or guarantee that content is free of typos or statements that are open to interpretation but does work hard to present facts and ask guest commentators to do the same. It may not be possible to fully authenticate information provided by Abington Township or other government officials that are used as the basis for featured stories. Life members and Board members are asked to play an active role in testing the validity of content. (See Copyright Statement below.)

Types of Content : Web Pages with Comments
Comment field on each page are designed to allow life members and board members to comment on a featured story. These comments may point-out typos, misleading statements or facts that are not fully substantiated. This allows RMCA to improve the featured story on the page, but does not necessarily mean that the comment will be posted for public viewing or will necessarily result in a change or edit to the featured story.

Comments submitted to the site must be no more than 300 characters in order to conserve computer server capacity and be easily reviewed by a moderator. RMCA is all-volunteer and unlike newspapers, does not have editorial staff to run the web site. RMCA also asks comments to be limited to two submissions per day per life member.

Opinions may be submitted as long as they are respectful and supported with facts. There are differences of opinion between good people. RMCA does sponsor and encourage a public forum that allows facts to be shared that inform the opinions of those who visit and read. The Association does not encourage fear-mongering, paranoia or false rumors. If such information is being spread by any parties elsewhere, this site may be used to set the record straight.

Ad hominem attacks will not be tolerated. Content that is posted on this site is expected to be factually-accurate and the Member who submits the post should cite the source of facts. RMCA does not have the resources to fact-check complicated matters and asks Members who read the site to provide feedback if content appears to violate these principles.

The Association will periodically check comments and if suggestions for improvements to the site are feasible and if approved by the Board, they may be made to the web site. Some comments may also be posted directly to the site and visible to the public. It is very important to note that these comments do not necessarily represent the opinions of the Association or a majority of its members and may not be truthful. RMCA does not endorse any comments or links to other web sites when publishing them and reserves the right to remove them at any time.

Types of Content : Events
Community Calendar Events, public hearings and time-specific activities may be posted in the Calendar in the Community section. The poster should post the date and day of the week, start and finish time, location (with street address and nearest intersection) and a summary of the event. Ideally, there should be a URL (web site address) provided for the event or for the host organization. RMCA reserves the right to not post or remove posts that are political in-nature, are inappropriate marketing offers or do not appear to be legitimate community events. RMCA also reserves the right to modify policies and enforcement and to limit the number of posts from an individual and the length of posts.

Types of Content : Email Updates
RMCA may send-out email messages to Authenticated Users, Members and Community Leaders which may include links to specific pages on the web site. Recipients may opt-out of future emails.

Types of Content : Volunteer Opportunities and News Feeds
News feeds presents a list of local organizations that are considered to be a good place to start if anyone would like to make a contribution of their time or other resources. These are not endorsed by RMCA, however we do encourage authorized users to submit comments about these organizations and make additional suggestions.

News feeds are automated and cover a range of topics from a range of sources, such as Times Chronicle, Philadelphia Inquirer, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and Government. Accuracy and editorial perspective of these feeds are the responsibility of their respective sources.

Privacy and Copyright
All content posted to Rydal-Meadowbrook.org by Board Members, Life Members and Community Leaders will be attributed to the person or organization listed on the account. It is the responsibility of each person who has access to the site to log-out when done and keep their user name and passwords secure. The public will be able to see the username of the person. No posts will be accepted from "Anonymous" or similar user-type.

This site will not become part of an anonymous blogosphere. Once posted on to the Rydal-Meadowbrook.org web site, the content becomes the copyright of the Association.

Because the content is evolving and new facts may be found that change featured stories, pages or content on the site may not be copied or used by any third-party without the written consent of the Board of Governors of the Association. All content is the copyright of RMCA. The Association will not resell the content or membership list to third-parties, however reserves the right to maintain demographic information and a site log. RMCA also reserves the right to share general statistics with businesses that may want to be profiled on the site. 

Questions or Concerns
The Board of the RMCA asks for members of the community to use the Contact Form to express concerns that require attention by the Board. The all-volunteer Board typically meets once a month, therefore, it may some period of time before you hear back. 

The “comments” field on each page will not necessarily be reviewed by an officer or the full Board.

Moderator Contact
Any questions or concerns about the posting of content may be directed to the Moderator through the Contact Form.