Security Privacy & Integrity

A Message From the Website Administrator

 

Welcome to the FHHS Alumni Association.  Occasionally, I am asked about the safety and purpose of this website.  I would like everyone to know that I'm happy to answer all your security, integrity, and privacy concerns.  I've attempted to cover some points you may be interested in, below:

 

OWNERSHIP

Foremost, please know the FHHS-ALUM.ORG website is held and operated 100% by your fellow alumni (not any outside organization).  It's purposes are soley for your enjoyment, reconnecting, and for facilitating reunion events--with the added feature of an organized effort to provide education awards to college-bound seniors at West Potomac HS.  Our alumni association is the real deal; complete with Board Members and Officers.  The Fort Hunt High School Alumni Association (FHHSAA) is established as a not-for-profit business operating in the state of Virginia.  We have filed 501(c)3 paperwork with the IRS and expect a full approval before 12/31/13, which will make every donation for the 2013 tax-year fully tax deductible.

ADMINISTRATION

I am the lead website administrator.  With Joe Gililland's guidance and at our own personal expense to setup, I registered the site in November 2009, prepared all the active webpages and, with help from many other alumni, populated all the content, including all the class rosters for all enrollment years (and senior photos, where available--scans and uploads are still in progress).  Every activity to maintain this website is a volunteer effort.

BACKEND PROVIDER

"Class Creator" is the software developer behind the site's design and functionality, and they provide the website hosting services as well.  Their ad appears optionally on our home page only because we (FHHSAA) will receive referral awards IF any subscriptions are made through that ad link.  I have the option to remove it if we so choose.  

Classes 1979, 1980, and 1981 also each maintain a website through Class Creator and can vouch for the Provider's integrity.  (Disclosure: I'm also the admin of the FHHS79.COM website, which has over 300 active members and has been in operation since Nov. 2008.)

FEES

Class Creator does not levy any fees upon our individual members.  The Alumni Association pays a website subscription fee to Class Creator, plus a domain name registration fee to ClassNames.net.  As of February 2013, the FHHAA Board Members have elected NOT to require dues to participate as a member of this association.  Rather, we believe our alumni members' voluntary donations will sufficiently meet our financial needs for education award plans, some event expenses, as well as miscellaneous expenses, such as this website subscription and the costs associated with filing state and federal applications, for example.  Your voluntary donations are encouraged and sincerely appreciated.

ADVERTISING POLICY

Besides the solitary Class Creator ad near the bottom of our home page, NO other ads currently appear anywhere on our alumni site.  Since this site is subscription fee based, we (FHHSAA) are the client.  Unlike Facebook, Class Creator is not profit-driven through advertising.  You can have full assurance that Class Creator does not, and will not in the future place any advertising or pop up ads on our web site.

As appropriate, we (FHHSAA admin) do include special mention with logos and links for local businesses (and alumni-owned businesses) that help sponsor our organization. 

CORRESPONDENCE

All website generated email correspondence is delivered through <NoReply@ClassCreator.net> and is limited primarily to registration replies, alumni messages, and our own association announcements.  Upon joining, you will never receive email ads, spam, or other correspondence from Class Creator via our website that is unrelated to our organization's activities.  To help protect the privacy of our members' email addresses, alumni-to-alumni correspondence is delivered through message notifications (similar to Facebook), also sent from <NoReply@ClassCreator.net>.  This email address is not a spammer, and should be "whitelisted" (safe sender / not junk mail) in the event these notices become automatically blocked by your email provider.

PRIVACY

The privacy of our members' profiles is determined by the individual registered user.  Members control their own privacy settings and have the option to allow public viewing of their profile contents (to non-registered visitors on our website).  The DEFAULT setting is Private; a member must actively and knowingly change their Profile Visibility setting to allow public viewing.  With the Profile Visibility checkbox option selected (the default), ONLY other members who are logged into our website may view your profile details.  An additional level of security is provided to give you the option of also hiding your contact information--even from members who are logged in.  Again, the default is set to "hidden".  Even if you elect to share your mailing address and phone number with your fellow alumni, your email address will remain hidden.  Current members can check their privacy settings under MEMBER FUNCTIONS / Edit Profile. (http://www.fhhs-alum.org/member_profile_form.cfm)

LOGIN ID and PASSWORD

Your email address is your Login ID.  When you register and create your profile, you select a password.  Class Creator employes a hashed password system using methods designed to meet contemporary password security standards--meaning that passwords are not saved in a "readable" cleartext format.  Neither Class Creator personnel nor I can view your password.  If you forget your password, you will be emailed a website link through which to reset it.  

If your email address has changed, but you still recall your password, you may still log into the website using your old email address.  Once logged in, you can update your contact info with your new email address--which then becomes your new Login ID.  It is important to keep your contact information current, particularly your email address.  Users have the option of providing an Alternate Email Address.  When provided, correspondence will be sent to both the Primary and Alternate email addresses.  An alternate email address can sometimes be useful to the Website Administrator (me) in helping to manually identify users who have forgotten both their Login ID (Primary email address) AND their password.

MORE INFORMATION

Please read our website FAQs and rules for more information and step-by-step instructions to participate in this website.  If you have any questions not answered clearly on this website, please don't hesitate to Contact Us.  We appreciate receiving suggestions and constructive criticism that leads to a better user experience for all of us!

Thank you!

~Terry

Terry Kinder (Alers), '79

FHHSAA VP (2012-2014) and Website Co-Administrator

Updated 10/27/2013