Membership Policy
While the mission, subject matter and activities of MDAH center around the
lives and interests of fathers who stay home with their children, any person is
welcome to join MDAH regardless of gender, religion, race, sexual preference or
any other categorization. Membership is free. However, membership is a
privilege and can be denied or revoked for any reason including but not limited
to criminal activity or history, abuse of MDAH's privacy policy, or other
behavior deemed offensive or destructive to the MDAH community. All MDAH
activities are open to members at their own risk.
Privacy Policy
MDAH respects the privacy of its members and will never share or make public
any information about a member without the member's expressed consent. With a
member's consent, contact and other optional personal information will be made
available to directory eligible MDAH members for the sole purpose of networking
and building the MDAH community. With a member's consent, they may be included
in a restricted access Google Earth map of member locations.
Login information to access the MDAH membership directory and login information
to access the MDAH Google Earth map is confidential information for the
personal use of that eligible member and and may not be further distributed by
the member. Copies of the MDAH membership directory or MDAH Google Earth map
data downloaded by an eligible member are for the personal use of that eligible
member and neither the directory or map nor information contained in the
directory or map may be further distributed by the member.
MDAH Directory
Eligibility
To be eligible to receive the MDAH directory the member must have: registered
themselves with MDAH through the MDAH website or a printed MDAH registration
form (signing up for the Yahoo MDAH group email list does not qualify as
registration), agreed to allow their own contact information to be included in
the directory, established themselves by attending several playgroup sessions
with their children and identifying themselves to the Local Area Dad, indicated
current or ongoing interest in MDAH, and agreed to the Membership Policy and
Privacy Policy.
Google Earth Map Eligibility
To be eligible to access the MDAH Google Earth map of member locations, the
member must be eligible to receive the MDAH
membership directory plus they must supply a street address for their own
location and agree to have that location indicated on the map.
Nickname
The name you prefer to be called by rather than your first name. If you
participate in the MDAH Google Earth map, then your nickname will label your
location.
Street Address
Please use a numeric house number, street name, street type and directional,
and apartment or unit number if appropriate. MDAH uses this information for
planning purposes and it allows geocoding for the MDAH Google Earth map (if you
participate in the map). MDAH never surface mails anything to members so a
mailing only address (a PO Box) is of limited use. If you have good reason to
prefer a PO Box anyway that is fine, but please explain in the 'Comments' entry
of the form.
Phone number
A phone number, either landline or cell is required. Most MDAH communication
occurs via email however in the event your email starts bouncing or it is
time-critical to get in touch with you or your family, then a phone number is
essential to make contact. Use format like 763-867-5309.
Name, gender, birth month and year of children
This information helps other MDAH dads remember the names of your children and
determine if they might be appropriate age play partners for their own
children. A birth month and year allows calculation of the approximate current
age of those children and development of some statistics regarding the age
range of childern of MDAH members. MDAH is aware of the sensitivity of detailed
information concerning your children and does not request (or record in the
member database) the day of the month your children were born. In spite of the
central role of children in MDAH, child information is an optional entry
because MDAH is open to all meeting the MDAH Membership Policy and some meeting
those requirements may not have children. Use format like: Sally (F 12/2001),
Harold (M 4/2003)
Professional Background/Education
This entry helps MDAH members identify other dads with similar interests and
backgrounds or that might be interesting to meet up with at a playgroup or Dads
Night Out. If after review of the directory you decide you want to edit or add
to your existing description for this section (or any other section), just send
email to the MDAH membership coordinator with your requested changes to appear
in the next directory.
Member Date of Birth
This information allows MDAH to calculate statistics on membership age which
might be interesting. There was thought to use the month and day information to
announce members' birthdays, but to date this has never been implemented.
Wedding Date
There was though that MDAH might be able to do something special for a couple
on their anniversary, but to date this has not been implemented. Statistically,
we could say something about the average length of marriage of MDAH couples.
Comments
This is the place to present your expectations for MDAH and to present any
special issues that you would like the MDAH Planning Committee and Local Area
Dads (especially the LAD assigned to you) to know about. If you chose to use a
PO Box rather than a street address in the Street Address box of the Directory
Information Table then please explain the reason here.
How did you find MDAH?
The MDAH Planning Committee is interested to know how people find out about
MDAH so public awareness efforts are targeted appropriately.
Include in MDAH membership directory?
Selecting 'Yes' for this entry means that the information you entered in the
Directory Information Table portion of the registration form will be included
in the membership directory which is published quarterly. The membership
directory is only available to MDAH dads that have 'active' status, that are
'established' members and that have agreed to have their own information
included in the directory. An active member is one who has registered through
the MDAH website or through a printed form distributed at an MDAH function, has
not actively resigned from MDAH and has indicated their continuing interest in
MDAH when queried about it. An established member has attended several
playgroup sessions with their children and identified themselves to the Local
Area Dad for the playgroup. LADs make the determination on who is established.
Under extenuating circumstances (such as an isolated dad in a remote part of
the state) different 'establishment' criteria may be applied. As a consequence
of answering Yes to this query, if you have not 'established' yourself with
MDAH, your information will be included in the directory but you will not be
eligible to receive the directory.
Selecting 'No' for this query means the information you entered in the
Directory Information Table will not appear in the directory and you will not
be eligible to receive the directory containing information about other members
either.
Include on Google Earth map?
Selecting 'Yes' for this query means your home location will be plotted on a
restricted access Google Earth (GE) map depicting MDAH member locations *if*
you have also selected 'Yes' for the previous question, 'Include in MDAH
membership directory?' Because the GE map displays a limited amount of
membership directory information, the qualifications necessary for an MDAH
member to access the Google Earth map are the same as those to receive the
membership directory (active and established status, included in directory)
plus that member must also allow their own (street address) location to be
indicated on the GE map. Members answering 'Yes' to this query that provide
only a PO Box address will be indicated on the map by an icon at the centroid
of the associated zip code area, but are not eligible to access the GE map with
the more accurate locations of other members.
Selecting 'No' for this query means you will not be included on the GE map and
you will not be given access to it either. More
information on the
MDAH Google Earth are available through the MDAH web site.
Add to the MDAH Yahoo email list?
If you select 'Yes,' the MDAH Membership Coordinator will sign you up for the
MDAH email list on Yahoo. This list is a primary means for MDAH members to
communicate and receive news on MDAH activities. If you select 'No,' then you
will have to sign up with the MDAH group on Yahoo yourself. If you need help to
sign up later, just send email to the MDAH Membership Coordinator.
Method to receive MDAH Yahoo email
Individually - you will receive each email sent to the MDAH list and any
attachments that were with those messages. This is the recommended choice.
Daily Digest - the email messages sent to the list for the day are concatenated
and sent as a single message. No attachments are included. This is the second
most popular option. If you want to receive a particular attachment, then visit
the MDAH group at Yahoo, search the archive for the appropriate messsage and
download it with the attachment.
No Emails - No messages from the list are sent to you. You must visit the MDAH
group at Yahoo to see messages.
Membership and Privacy Policy acknowledgement
By entering your name here you attest that the information you entered in the
registration form was truthful and that you agree to abide by the MDAH
Membership Policy and
Privacy Policy.
Preview your registration
Mashing the Preview button validates the form content and displays the entered
information in a table if the information entered into the registration form
meets the minimum submission requirements and format. A number of fields in the
form are mandatory and others require a particular format; the validation step
identifies fields that need editing before the form can be successfully
submitted. Saving the preview table as a file will allow you to save the
entered data even if the form isn't completed for submission.
Submit registration & email a copy to self
If the form validates, it will be submitted to the MDAH Membership coordinator
and a copy will be sent to you at the email address you indicated on the
Registration form. If it doesn't validate, then you will be presented with a
list of elements in the form that need to be edited before submission can be
accomplished.