WELCOME!

ABOUT THE "NJ 11th FOR CHANGE MEMBERS OFFICIAL" FACEBOOK PAGE

How does this Facebook page fit in?

• This Facebook page is an online gathering-place for NJ 11th for Change members—a place to visit when we are not out in the world making change. Facebook is NOT the core of our group; chatting on Facebook is not our primary (or even secondary) purpose. This Facebook page is simply intended to help us:
  
  • support one another,
  • build community,
  • communicate about our activities,
  • educate one another about news and issues related to our mission, and
  • alert members to actions and volunteer efforts going on in our district.
    
• As much as we understand the need to vent about national news, we are not a “general politics” page. Discussion of anything and everything under the sun, politically speaking, is not our goal. There are many other forums for unfettered general political discussion; the primary focus here is on taking action to make change, especially in our district and state. We make room for some discussion of general politics, but will take measures as needed to ensure that debating national issues does not drown out our primary goals.
  
• The NJ 11th for Change Facebook page is not a public forum; it is a private group, with private rules intended to facilitate our group goals. Members who are willing to work within our guidelines are welcome to participate in the conversation. Members who do not work within our guidelines may be muted temporarily, blocked, or permanently banned from the group.
  
• We look forward to hearing from you on Facebook. But most of all, we hope to meet you out in the real world, working shoulder-to-shoulder with us to MAKE CHANGE!
  

Here are some amazing and important ways to get involved with NJ 11th for Change beyond chatting on Facebook:

• Subscribe to our email newsletter for incisive big-picture commentary, local activism events, volunteer opportunities, and just a little bit of snark by clicking here: http://www.nj11.org/join
• Follow us on our public page on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/NJ11thForChange.
• Visit our website at http://nj11thforchange.org.
• Check out our Twitter feed at https://twitter.com/nj11forchange. Our Twitter handle is @NJ11forchange.
• Donate to support our work at www.nj11.org/donate.
  

GROUP GUIDELINES

What is appropriate content for this group?

• CALLS TO ACTION Calls to action are very welcome; please make them detailed and specific (for example, include the phone numbers and email addresses for elected officials you're asking people to contact). The more information you can provide to help people DO what you’re asking, the more impact your CTA will have! NOTE: Please do not spam the page with repeated CTAs about the same event, or repeat occurrences of the same event. Repetitious CTAs will not be approved.
  
• NEW JERSEY STATE AND LOCAL ISSUES We continue to focus on state-level and district-level issues that we can influence, from our own congressional representatives to our state government in Trenton, county issues, and municipal politics. It does not include deep-dives into news specifically about other states, unless you do the work of explaining and establishing national significance or a clear connection to our own state or district and include that in your original post.
  
• NATIONAL-LEVEL and INTERNATIONAL-LEVEL ISSUES This board is open for conversation about national-level issues that affect our district. This includes substantive, informative discussion of the current administration, upcoming elections, the Senate and the House of Representatives, and the Judiciary; domestic policy, foreign policy, Supreme Court decisions, climate change, civil rights . . . you name it.
  
• EVENTS We love events! A moderator may reach out to you if we need you to clarify the relevance of the event to our group. Be sure to include all the details members will need in order to participate—in an introduction readers can see without having to click on a link.
  
• FUNDRAISERS Fundraisers for candidates are not permitted.
  
• ABOUT GENERAL RANTS AND RAVES We get it. We really do. The near-daily outrages from Washington DC are enough to test anyone’s restraint. But this board doesn’t exist as a space to vent or post angry memes. Keep things informative and substance-based please!
  

About Post-Approval

• All posts require post approval. When you write a new post, it will not appear on the board until a moderator has approved it. This is to make sure that the post’s content is relevant to our group and adheres to our standards of respectful dialogue.
  
• Moderators are volunteers, and their moderating duties must be balanced with their outside lives. We will try to approve posts as promptly as possible, but we ask for your patience.
  
• Late-night posts may not be approved until the following morning. We all gotta sleep. (Well, most of us.)
  
• PLEASE NOTE: Making substantial edits after your post is approved as a strategy to sneak in inappropriate material will result in immediate banning. If you have more to say, new material or link to add, or if your position has evolved through discussion, please address it in the comments.
  

Being a Good Citizen of the NJ11FC Community

• Treat everyone with respect. That means:
  
  • no ad hominem attacks
    
  • no talking to people as if they are stupid or ignorant
    
  • no insulting people for their ideas, for the amount of volunteering they are able to contribute, or for the candidates they support
    
  • no reductive or pejorative labeling (“Bernie bro,” “neolib,” “troll,” “bot,” etc.).
    
  • No vote-shaming. The only thing that is a vote for Trump is an *actual* vote for Trump. Expressing concerns about a blue candidate does not mean someone "wants Trump to win."
    
  • ABSOLUTELY no attacking anyone for their race, color, religion, national origin or citizenship status, sex, gender identity or expression, pregnancy, sexual orientation, age, body size, or disability
    
    Doing these things makes the board a hostile place and deters other members from participating, which is a loss for us all. Instead, when you disagree with someone—and sooner or later you will—explain the reasons YOU think the way YOU do. Take it as an opportunity to persuade the other person—and (even more importantly) everyone else in the community who ends up reading your post.
    
    
• Be willing to learn from others. None of us knows everything or has an infallible crystal ball. Each of us has limited life experience, and we can learn from those whose lives and backgrounds are different. When discussing situations affecting others (particularly people of color, women, LGBTQ+ people, and other groups whose perspectives are often dismissed), respect their explanations of their lived experience. If someone points out that a comment you’ve made demonstrates bias or is based on stereotypes (or that you’ve used words that have loaded or coded meanings), listen and try to build your understanding—even though that can be uncomfortable.
  
  Similarly, avoid dismissing other people’s concerns, worries, and priorities. Remember that one person’s “political distraction” is another person’s life-and-death issue. It all matters.
  
  
• Be sensitive to the concerns, feelings, and needs of others. Serious subjects such as rape, abuse, and bigotry should be treated with gravity, respect, empathy, and thoughtfulness, and not as an opportunity for being dismissive of others' feelings and experiences, being flippant, assuming you know better, or making personal attacks.
  
  If you are considering making a post or a comment about traumatic subjects, be kind and begin it with a content warning, indicating the topic you'll be addressing, for those who would like to prepare themselves or avoid those statements.
  
  We urge kindness in all things; this especially.
  
  
• Observe general rules of polite conversation.
  
  • Don’t hijack someone’s post by launching a new topic in the comments; start your own post instead.
    
  • Don’t be “that guy” who beats the same point to death in hopes of making everyone concede; make your point as best you can and move on.
    
  • Avoid “what about-ism” or “sea-lioning”: harassing posters with questions that delve into irrelevant minutiae with the intent of undermining their points.
    

Important DON’Ts

• DON’T suggest or promote actions that are illegal. Posts or comments that do so will be deleted.
  
• DON’T advocate violence or harm to others. This will not be tolerated, even if it is intended in jest. Sarcasm and hyperbole are never as easy to read on the internet as they are in person.
  
• DON’T initiate posts that are redundant or that rehash old grievances. This includes rehashing the 2016 election without applying its lessons to 2020 and beyond.
  

User confidentiality rules

• Absolutely no doxxing (revealing personal information about another person; phone numbers, addresses and email addresses, workplace information, family information, or other personal facts).
  
• No harassing or stalking fellow members via Private Message or other forms of communication. Want to take conversation off the page with someone? Make sure the feeling is mutual.
  
• No copying other members' statements to share outside of the group without seeking and being granted permission.
  
• No citing other members by name outside of the group without permission.
  
• Absolutely no screenshotting or sharing screenshots outside of our group.
  
• Don’t post something you wouldn’t want other people to read. While this is a private group, please exercise basic caution.
  

"Best practices" for effective posting

• Don’t “link-and-dash” unless the content and relevance of your link is explicitly clear to general readers, without them having to click through to find out. A sentence or two that summarizes your link’s basic content and why it matters is the best way to get people to click it! If a moderator requests that you add an intro, it is because these things are NOT sufficiently clear. A teaser (e.g., This is fascinating!, Happening nearby!, I can’t believe this!, etc.) is not an intro.
  If you wish to share a post from another Facebook page or organization, please include your own new written introduction. Intros attached to the original links do not appear for all users on all platforms.
  If the link is about an event, your intro should include a clear statement of what the event is and when and where it will occur so that people can get the basic details without having to click through.
  
• Do your due diligence on the factuality of things you post. Make your best effort to ensure that information you share is verified and accurate, and from reliable sources. We do not want to spread misinformation; no fake news!
  
• No “click-bait” titles please. Click-bait titles are those that are intentionally inflammatory or demonstrably misrepresentative. If you believe an article is legitimately worth sharing despite its title being click-bait, please take a moment to call that out in your introduction.
  
• Before you share a link, make sure it is current. If you choose to share an article that is not recent, please point this out in your introduction.
  
• Before you share a link, make sure it is shareable. If you share a link to a Facebook post you saw on a private or closed page, or a post that came with a “Friends” setting rather than a “Public” setting, it will appear on our page as “Content Unavailable.” Please locate a shareable source before you link.
  
• Do not turn off commenting on your posts or delete them if conversation doesn’t go the way you’d like. The conversation belongs to all who participated in it, not just the member who created the original post. If you feel that discussion has veered off in a way that violates our group guidelines, alert a moderator and we will address it as needed.
  
• Livestream videos of events are permitted, if you establish their relevance. Please make them meaningful by including introductions establishing what the event is, where and when, the topic and its significance. If there are specific sections of the livestream that are most relevant, please make note of their timestamps so members can find them efficiently. Repeated posts of the same event will be deleted.
  

Working with the moderators & admins

• Moderators and Admins on this page are here to help keep conversation productive and respectful.
  
• The moderating team is made up of a group of volunteers who also have jobs, families, and other commitments. We do our best to keep an eye on the page, but sometimes we will miss something important or may be slow to respond to a problem. Please be patient with us. We really do want to help
• Blocking a moderator or an admin is not permitted. Doing so will result in removal from the group.
  
• If you change your Facebook username, please let the moderators know.
  
• The best way to alert us to a problem is to tag a moderator into the post; that allows us to see exactly what portion of a thread concerns you. You can also report the post via the Facebook button.
  
• Please do not report a post or comment simply because you disagree with its political perspective. If you disagree, argue your point. Making your case for you is not the moderators’ job.
  
• If you suspect someone is a bot or is intentionally trolling, do not make accusations on the board. Instead, please alert a moderator. Tagging a mod in the post and then PMing us is the most effective way to do this.
  
• Moderators have discretion in how rules are applied, based on how we assess a situation’s impact or likely impact on the conversation and group dynamics, and informed by our experience in reading ALL the posts and hearing concerns that individual members PM us.
  
• Some moderator actions will be visible, others will be handled behind the scenes.
  
• Moderator actions are rarely solo decisions. Big decisions like post-deletion and muting or blocking members are always discussed as a group.
  
• Moderators reserve the right to close a post to commenting (A) after 24 hours, and (B) if the post becomes too lengthy or unwieldy to monitor effectively because of multiple subthreads.
  
• If you have questions or concerns about how a situation is being moderated, please address it by PMing the moderator involved or one of the lead moderators—not by initiating a public conversation, which serves only to derail conversation from our real focus. We’ll do our best to explain our concerns and our reasoning in a PM, though we will not engage in extensive back-and-forth.
  
• No stalking, harassing, pestering mods about mod/admin decisions, or about anything else.
  

Special rules for special people

• Candidates and campaign staffers:
  
  • If you are a federal candidate, we request that you not post directly in our group.
    
  • If you are running for a local or statewide office, please identify yourself when posting.
    
  • If you are now or become a paid employee of a campaign, or if you are a high-level volunteer with a campaign (i.e., a volunteer involved in any way in the strategy of the campaign), we request that you identify yourself as such in each posting.
    
  • Under no circumstances should you ever post any information that is not already in the public domain.
    
  • We reserve the right to remove any posts from candidates, paid campaign employees, or high-level campaign volunteers.
    
  • Campaign fundraising posts are not permitted. Please consult with your campaign employer or the campaign’s attorneys to determine what posts, if any, are appropriate.
    
  • Campaigns for candidates are welcome to make statements about their positions, and announce non-fundraising events.
    
  • Campaigns for candidates are welcome to issue calls for volunteers.
    
• Journalists:
  
  • Journalists must identify themselves in the intro of a post if they wish to post articles they authored.
    
  • Please remember this is a closed group. While it would be foolish for anyone to operate under the assumption of true privacy, members who are amateur or professional journalists must treat everything and everyone they see and read here as OFF THE RECORD. NJ 11th for Change will practice zero tolerance on this point and ban violators on the first offense.
    

Legal, Copyright and Candidate Guidelines

1. In order for NJ 11th For Change to remain in compliance with FEC rules, we reserve the right to remove any post that could expose the group or its members to liability.
   
2. NJ 11th for Change(R) Name and Logo; Other Artwork. NJ 11th for Change(R) is a registered trademark of NJ 11th for Change, Inc. ("NJ11") and NJ11's logo is the most prominent visual representation of our brand. NJ11's name and logo may not be used in any manner that implies a relationship or affiliation with, sponsorship, or endorsement by NJ11, or that can be reasonably interpreted to suggest editorial content has been authored by, or represents the views or opinions of NJ11, without the express written consent of NJ11. The logo in particular may not be (a) reproduced or reprinted (for commercial or non-commercial use) without the express written consent of NJ 11th or (b) altered, resized, or distorted in any way. On occasion, NJ11 uses images and artwork owned by third-parties. NJ11 has obtained permission from the owner to use these images and artwork and is not in a position to grant permission to third-parties regarding these images and artwork.
   
3. If you are a federal candidate in CD-11, we request that you not post directly in our group. If you are running for a local or statewide office, please identify yourself when posting.
   
4. If you are now or become a paid employee of a campaign, or if you are a high-level volunteer with a campaign (i.e., a volunteer involved in any way in the strategy of the campaign), we request that you identify yourself as such in each posting. We reserve the right to remove any posts from candidates, paid campaign employees, or high-level campaign volunteers. Fundraising posts are not permitted. Please consult with your campaign employer or the campaign’s attorneys to determine what posts, if any, are appropriate. Under no circumstances should you ever post any information that is not already in the public domain.
   
5. NJ 11th for Change is a 501(c)(4) unaffiliated organization dedicated to advocating for all people of New Jersey’s 11th Congressional District. We foster an engaged and informed community with the power to shape our political representation so that it is transparent, responsive and accountable—and so that it reflects the values of fairness, compassion, inclusivity and a decent quality of life.
   

Just for Fun

• Haiku: Haiku are non-rhyming 3-line poems that have 5 syllables in the first line, 7 syllables in the second line, and 5 syllables in the last line.
  
• /Gif/ vs. /Jif/: The correct pronunciation of .gif is hotly contested. Please treat other members with respect, even if they pronounce it wrong. No matter how you pronounce it, .gifs are a great way to chime in. We think www.giphy.com is a fine source of .gifs for all occasions.
  
• Bring on the weird. We love finding new ways to engage and build a positive community. The more creative, the better! If you have an idea, let us know.
  

NJ 11th for Change
Board of Directors

NJ 11th for Change
Team Leads