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The Virtual Community Association (VCA) is intended to provide a forum for individuals resident in the National Capital area to share ideas and concerns which affect the entire community or a large portion of it. It strives to raise community issues for discussion, debate, analysis and resolution through democratic means.
The VCA exists only in cyberspace - it has no meetings, executive, membership dues, affiliations (political or otherwise), or other existence outside of this virtual space. It is an experiment to determine if it can conduct its activities solely in electronic form. Being experimental, it will try various means and methods of operation, and these will evolve as circumstances require if participants agree. (For example, it may spin off subsidiary discussion groups on particular topics should the volume of interaction warrant.)
The VCA exists to complement and strengthen individuals and existing neighbourhood community associations who may have common concerns or are looking for additional support on an issue.
In order to facilitate the operation of the VCA, several individuals have volunteered to assist with some tasks. These are detailed separately under Roles and Responsibilities.
1. Topics for discussion may cover anything which affects the life and environment in our community, such as as traffic planning, zoning, inappropriate property development, environmental issues, teen programming, community policing, communications, cycling, health, etc.
2. The subject of a posting should, as much as possible, represent the issue being discussed. Subsequent postings on the same issue should retain the exact subject wording so as to allow proper "threading" by the news reader.
3. The person who starts a thread on an issue may undertake the responsibility for moderating it until closure. Closure means the person who starts the thread (or another individual) summarizes the discussion and any consensus at the end (ie. when people lose interest), and then does something with it (eg. proposes a resolution, forwards the item to another person or body or newsgroup for possible action or for information, prepares a write-up for media, etc.).
4. Participants should indicate their affiliation (eg. in their signature file) with any existing group if it is relevant or material to the subject under discussion. They should also ensure there is a clear distinction between their personal views and those of their organization.
Date of last revision: 1997-04-30