Social Work SIG Listserv Guidelines

Association for Contextual Behavioral Science
Social Work SIG Listserv Guidelines

Our listserv is a collaborative space for social workers to explore the intersection of social work theory, practice, and contextual behavioral science. We hope that this discussion group will help us share ideas and resources with the goal of building a diverse and compassionate online community, connected by our internationally shared social work principles of social justice, human rights, service to others, and the right to self-determination.

Please contribute to this community by adding your voice to the discussion. Be courageous, curious, and compassionate in your posts. And write with an awareness of both the power of language and the limitations of this online medium. We are representatives of the field of social work, this special interest group, and ACBS--let’s work together to create a safe and respectful listserv environment.

1. Be mindful of others. Post thoughtfully and occasionally. Consider our global audience, and post inclusive, prosocial content that invites engagement from members of diverse and intersecting identities including: language, country of residence, national origin, race, ethnicity, sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, occupation, age, marital status, political belief, religion, and physical abilities.

2. Keep posts confidential. ACBS lists are not confidential, and posts can be reviewed by any ACBS member on the website. If you’re writing about a clinical issue, please omit any identifiable information.

3. Identify yourself with your full name and country of residence on all messages. Include credentials and business contact information if you’re comfortable sharing this information.

4. Stay on-topic and do not start new posts using someone else's subject line.

5. Search ACBS for past discussions related to your topic or question to review the history of the topic before posting and to avoid duplication.

6. Communicate with your values. Before posting, it may be helpful to ask yourself if your response is motivated by values you've chosen freely (e.g., curiosity, creativity, collaboration) or by something more automatic (e.g., the urge to look good, to be right, to sound scientific, etc.).

7. Question and challenge. Facilitate discussions related to contextual behavior science, practice, and contextual philosophy of science. Consider the overall vision of ACBS – the alleviation of human suffering and the advancement of human well-being through research and practice grounded in contextual behavioral science. Ask yourself whether your post is aligned with this vision.

8. Backchannel to limit email traffic and target your audience. If your response doesn’t need to be seen by other members, go off-list to continue the conversation. For example, thank you’s and brief comments should be directly emailed to the individual, not the listserv (members’ email addresses are near the top of their post).

9. Solve problems or contact moderators. The listserv moderator is responsible for observing interactions on this list and offering gentle reminders about the spirit of the list and the guidelines. Please resolve problems off-list by directly emailing the member. If you need support or have questions about listserv posts or problems with listserv members, please contact the SIG listserv’s volunteer moderators, a SIG board member, or the ACBS Listserv Lead Moderator by using the Contact form on the ACBS website.

10. Pause before posting: actions have consequences. Hostile or discriminatory content in posts will not be tolerated. If the moderating team has asked you to try writing with a different tone or to take an argument off-list and the request has been ignored, you may temporarily lose your posting privilege until we can discuss the matter further with you. Please note that ACBS reserves the right to suspend ACBS listserv posting privileges at any time.

11. Limit marketing. You may give a one-time post to market for-profit trainings and books you produced. You are welcome to post about free materials that could be beneficial to the community.

12. Use the Digest feature to receive one daily email with a compilation of daily posts. You can opt into this format by going to My Account on the ACBS website, and clicking on Manage Group Subscriptions.