Some other user groups have evolved to become mouths of their "sponsors". To prevent that from happening, we decided to limit
the influence of commercial entities. In general:
- Sponsoring is limited to a specific GNHLUG event, product, or service.
- In the spirit of cooperation, there will be no exclusive sponsorships.
Another term we use is "contributor". These are typically individuals who have given services, money, product, or something to GNHLUG. These can also be companies who let GNHLUG, for instance, use their meeting facilities, web sites, ...
Whichever, sponsor or contributor, all are mentioned in the keynote of events, meetings, and on our web site.
It is
forbidden to give any sponsor or contributor a copy of or access to our membership lists. (Mailing lists, web logs, ...) Doing so would violate the trust of our membership, as well as the privacy policies of our web site and email providers. If a sponsor/contributor/vendor wants to send a notice to our membership, then they need to find a member that [is foolish enough] to send it to the mailing list.
Some vendors offer useful services to our membership. They are not the same as a sponsor or contributor and are not entitled to any benefits that contributors or sponsors are. However, a member can list them in the "Reviews" section of the web site.