Wisconsin Conference
e-mail and Internet Policies

WisconsinUMC.org internet services are provided to Wisconsin United Methodists as a service of the Wisconsin Annual Conference for the following purposes:
1. enhancing communications among Wisconsin United Methodists;
2. sharing ideas both inside the United Methodist connection and in the wider community.

WisconsinUMC.org internet services include email accounts, listservers, web hosting, domain hosting, web conferences (message boards), IRC ("chat") services, web email, streaming media, instant messaging, and database hosting. These services are available to all Wisconsin United Methodist-related persons, churches, organizations and workgroups free of cost. By using our services, WisconsinUMC.org account holders (including hosted domains) agree to the following Terms and Conditions.

WisconsinUMC.org internet services are controlled and operated by the Wisconsin Annual Conference through the Office of Communications and Technology and specifically the Communications Coordinator/Director, and funded through the Annual Conference budget.

The Wisconsin Annual Conference makes no representation that materials in any of the sites hosted on our servers are appropriate or available for use in other locations, and access to them from territories where their contents are illegal is prohibited. Maintenance and monitoring of individual web site and email accounts are the responsibilities of the account holders.

In addition to the internet services listed above, each staff workstation in the Conference Center in Sun Prairie is provided with a full-time ethernet connection to the internet (which includes the WisconsinUMC.org servers) and an automatic WisconsinUMC.org internet email account. We assume that use of internet services during work hours will be related to conference work with the normal anticipation of occasional necessary personal correspondence (similar to telephone use). Use of WisconsinUMC.org internet services by conference staff outside work hours is not restricted to official Conference business in any way. Use of a WisconsinUMC.org email address does not imply official Conference correspondence.

As a condition of use of WisconsinUMC.org internet services, all account holders will agree not use the services for any purpose that is unlawful or prohibited by these Terms and Conditions. In addition, because our services are part of the ministries of the people of the Wisconsin Conference United Methodist Church, account holders may be asked to remove materials or links to materials/web sites deemed offensive or counter to the broad operating principles of the United Methodist Church.

We respect the privacy of our users. If account holders have any concerns regarding privacy, please contact us at Communications@WisconsinUMC.org for more information. We will not sell or provide any personal information to any third party, unless we believe in good faith that the law requires it. We have filters in place on our servers to help reduce to an absolute minimum unsolicited junk email going to WisconsinUMC.org or hosted domain email accounts. Although it is possible that email held for pickup on our servers can be viewed by someone with administrator privileges logged into the server (true for any email account anywhere), administrator privileges are held only by the Communications Coordinator/Director, and held in escrow by one other person outside the United Methodist system, and those privileges will not be used to view email except for when specifically requested by the account holder.

If absolute email privacy is required, the office of Communications and Technology will help account holders set up PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) which will enable the strong encryption of email so only the sender and the intended recipient will be able to read it. It is important to remember that all email possibly goes through dozens of servers along the way from the sender's computer to the recipient's computer, and that some of those systems may not respect privacy.

Text, data, or graphics may not be copied from someone else's web site and incorporated into your web site hosted on the WisconsinUMC.org servers without permission of the source and attribution on the web site in which it is used.

This is legal stuff that attempts to get us out of legal trouble ahead of time. WisconsinUMC.org account holders (including hosted domain accounts) assume all responsibility and risk for their web sites and use of the internet in general. The Wisconsin Annual Conference is providing these services on an "as is" basis. There may be delays, omissions, inaccuracies, or other problems with the materials posted on WisconsinUMC.org web sites, on those of hosted domains, or information sent via list servers or email; if you rely on the materials available through this service, you do so at your own risk. The materials are provided "as is," without any express or implied warranty of any kind including without limitation warranties of currentness, correctness, completeness, merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement of intellectual property, and freedom from errors, viruses, bugs, or other harmful components. In no event shall the Wisconsin Annual Conference (including its employees, directors, and agents) be liable for any damages whatsoever (including, without limitation, any special, indirect, or consequential damages, and damages resulting from loss of use, data, or profits, or interruption of church business or ministry) arising out of the use of or inability to use the materials or any hyperlinked web site, even if the Wisconsin Annual Conference has been advised of the possibility of such damages.

Having said all that, we do strive for such quality of service as to make the above disclaimers completely irrelevant and we expect our account holders to help us maintain the highest standards of Christian behavior.

WisconsinUM Communications welcomes your feedback. If you have questions or comments about our policies, feel free to send us an email at Communications@WisconsinUMC.org. If you have questions or comments about the technical matters related to this web site feel free to send us an email at Communications@WisconsinUMC.org.