Guidelines for MAA and MAA-related websites

Guidelines for MAA Online

December 1, 2004

The mission of the Mathematical Association of America (MAA) is "to advance the mathematical sciences, especially at the collegiate level." (The complete mission statement can be found online at /Aboutmaa/mission.html). The goal of MAA Online is to advance this mission both with MAA members and with the general public. To achieve this goal MAA Online must strive constantly to provide the highest level of quality in content, design, and presentation.

Definitions: For the purposes of these Guidelines, a webpage is an HTML document that has its own URL. MAA Online comprises every webpage that represents an MAA activity or service, whether or not the site is hosted on an MAA server. For managerial purposes, these pages are grouped into disjoint components, each with a designated supervisor (see Appendix A). Components comprise a variety of webpages, each with its own webmaster.

Responsibility: Overall responsibility for MAA Online rests with the Executive Director (ED) of the MAA, who may delegate this responsibility as appropriate. Except where otherwise arranged by the ED, supervisors shall be responsible for oversight of their components.

Openness: The MAA Online homepage shall include links to (a) these Guidelines; (b) the MAA Policy on Privacy; (c) a current inventory of MAA Online webpages organized by component with the name and e-mail address of the supervisor and each page's webmaster; and (d) the MAA Bylaws.

Identification, Disclaimer, Policy, and Authorization: All MAA Online webpages hosted on an MAA server shall carry near the top the words "The Mathematical Association of America" as well as the Association's icosahedron logo. These webpages also shall carry a link to a disclaimer describing the limits of MAA's responsibility for MAA Online webpage content, as well as a link to the MAA's policies on discrimination and harassment. All other MAA Online webpages shall fulfill the same requirements to the extent practicable. The appropriate component supervisors shall monitor application of these requirements for their MAA Online webpages and may, when appropriate, authorize exceptions. (A variety of downloadable image (.gif) files with the MAA graphic "signature" as well as samples of how the required links can be integrated with the MAA identification can be found on the signature page /external-archive?url=/style/MAA_online_images.html.)

Approval and Drafts: All documents and reports posted to MAA Online must distinguish clearly between those that have been formally adopted by a committee, a section, or the MAA itself and documents that have not been so approved. MAA entities may create informal private (i.e., not on MAA Online) websites for working drafts by not linking them to anything else and announcing the relevant web addresses to their members only. Drafts of reports posted to MAA Online should be clearly identified (e.g., via headers or footers of pdf files, or background "wallpaper") as "Draft."

Copyright: No copyrighted text or image may be incorporated into any MAA Online webpage unless the webmaster of that page has received permission to use the copyrighted material or has judged it to be within the bounds of "fair use." Either the appropriate component supervisor or the Associate Executive Director of Publications may require written permission before placing copyrighted material on MAA Online.

Links: All webmasters are responsible for verifying that hypertext links on MAA Online webpages are consistent with the mission and goals of the Association. Links from MAA Online webpages to non-MAA-Online webpages shall be coded to open in a separate browser window.

Access: Restrictions of parts of MAA Online (e.g., to members only, or for payment of a fee) must be approved by the Executive Director.

Appendix A