*MANDATORY READING***
Failure to abide by the rules and etiquette may result in your membership
being canceled.  Please pay extra attention to Rules #8 and #13.


Dear Freecycle™ Member,

Thanks for being a part of The ever-expanding Freecycle™ Network. We're
changing the world one gift at a time! This message is sent to all subscribers
upon joining.

If you're new to the group or want a quick refresher on making the most of
freecycling, please read on! (Yes, this is a long message, but it contains
essential knowledge for all freecycle members and will answer MANY common
new-user questions, so please take the time to read through it.)

Begun on September 3, 2004, the Grey/Bruce Area Freecycle™ group is a branch of
an incredibly fast-growing international Freecycle™ movement, which began in
Tucson, AZ on May 1st, 2003 and now boasts over 1,353 offshoots from Japan to
Wichita, with more than 454,004 members and our local list continually growing
(with lots of great people in our community, as you know!) And if you tell your
friends and relatives about it, and they tell theirs...well, you get the idea.     

USING THE FREECYCLE™ LIST
To post a message, simply click on "messages" at the Grey/Bruce Area Freecycle
group web site (see link below).

To post, read or reply to messages or to manage your membership settings
(including email delivery options), visit the group site (a/k/a main page):
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/greybrucefreecycle

For more information on how to freecycle™ in general and a list of other
freecycle groups, visit http://freecycle.org/ (Highly recommended!) You can
also find freecycle.org/ along with other related recycling-related sites by
visiting the Grey/Bruce Area main page and clicking on "links" on the left.

The following list rules have been adapted from the original freecycle™
etiquette sheet; For a refresher, read on. A certain structure definitely makes
the group run smoothly and effectively for everyone's benefit. Remember, the
success of this group depends on all of us, and that means each of us need to do
our best to keep on task and, well, be nice and patient. Good Luck, Have Fun &
Keep on Freecyclin'!

Grey/Bruce Area FREECYCLE RULES:

1 - NO POLITICS & NO SPAM - All new - member posts will be moderated.
Please do not take offense as this is our way of eliminating the spam!

2 - SUBJECT LINE and location- You want your post/ad to be noticed!
Give details or the post will not be approved. For example, please use
these phrases:

OFFER: old couch
TAKEN: old couch
WANTED: old couch
ADMIN: new idea

...and please indicate your general location...ei: 10 minutes south of
Owensound, or located in Hanover, or well you get the point.

What does ISO mean? This simply means: In Search Of

3 - WANTED POSTS - If you're looking for an item, please state the
item you are looking for and leave it at that. There is no reason to
give life details and huge explanations as to why you want the item
... a simple please and thank you is nice. Also, please limit your
'WANTED' posts to ONE PER WEEK.

4 - REPLYING TO OFFERS - Please reply directly to the person offering
the item, not to the group. Please, please... and I cannot stress this
enough - common courtesy goes a long way! A simple please and thank
you to the person offering is greatly appreciated. Again, there is no
need to give life details as to why and you should not be expected to
do so! Also, just because you are replying to the offer, it does not
mean it will automatically go to you. Also, just because you've picked
up items from the same person before, it does not mean the item is
automatically yours and does not give you the right to show up at the
person's home and expect it. With that said, please limit your replies
to offers and give other members a chance to receive items they are
looking for.

5 - OFFERING - If you are offering an item, please state the location!
It is important for people reading the 'offers' to know what area you
are in and your approximate location. The decision is yours, as to who
you give the item to. Feel free to use the 24hr rule, first come -
first served, etc... it's up to you! What is the 24hr rule? Some
members choose to wait 24hrs before making a decision on who they are
giving the item to. This gives people that are not at computers
throughout the day or only have limited computer access, to read the
posts and a chance to reply to the offers.

6 - CAN WE POST OFF-TOPIC POSTS? No! If your post is not an 'OFFER' or
a 'WANTED ITEM', it does not belong here.

7 - CAN WE USE FREECYCLE TO FIND NEW HOMES FOR PETS? Yes, keep it
legal & be lovingly careful and animal must be free.

8 - KEEP IT FREE - There is to be no money involved! If you're looking
to sell your items, please go to
http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/GreyBruceCheapcycle/ 

9 - NO TRADING PLEASE

10 - PICK UP - This is to be arranged between you and the person
offering the item. If you cannot make it to the scheduled pick-up,
please have the courtesy to let the person know! It is up to the
person wanting the item to pick it up and NOT up to the person
offering the item to bring it to you unless this is your agreed arrangement. If
it's a large item you are picking up, bring a helper with you!

11 - SAFETY - Be aware! It is up to each individual member of Freecycle™ when
arranging for pickup of the item being given away to be appropriately aware of
the potential risk of having "a stranger" come to your home to pick something
up. Freecycle as a listserv assumes no responsibility for this risk. If you, for
example, are a single woman living alone, you may want to say that you'll leave
the item on the front porch while you are not home.  I instead recommend that
you arrange for pick up or deliveries in public places such as Tim Horton's when
possible and have a "buddy" with you instead of going it alone.

12 - NO "FREECYCLING" YOURSELF OR YOUR CHILDREN - Freecycling oneself (or one's
shy friends) is, I'm afraid, not allowed. There are many fine Internet dating
sites better suited to this purpose, or you could try Craig's List or a Burning
Man mixer (just kidding). "Freecycling" your kids is not on the menu either, no
matter how crazy they make you sometimes. Try getting them involved in
after-school band practice.

13 - GOT A PROBLEM WITH ANOTHER MEMBER???  No problem!  Let me know about it and
I can do the "dirty" work.  This IS A RULE.  "Beefs" with other members are not
allowed to be publicly expressed on the boards.  Doing so will result in lost
privileges like unmoderated posts.  If you are mature enough and you see a member
doing something they are not suppose to, take into consideration that they do
not really mean to offend you, and politely and privately message them to inform
them of the rules and their mistake.  Please carbon copy the email to myself at
binary.speaking@... to cover you tracks and make me aware as well.

TIPS TO ORGANIZE ALL OF THE NEW E-MAILS YOU ARE GETTING:

a) CREATE A SEPARATE E-MAIL FOLDER & AUTOMATICALLY HAVE FREECYCLE STUFF GO TO
IT. Create a separate folder in your Outlook Express & have Freecycle™ stuff
sent to it automatically with a new rule under tools/message rules/mail/ 

b) SET TO "DAILY DIGEST" OR "NO E-MAILS" (which means you'll just browse the
messages online). Realize that you can set your personal preferences on the
main page (under Edit My Membership in the top right corner).

IMPORTANT: THERE IS A TIME LAG FOR CHANGES: Whenever a user changes settings,
there is an overlap from the time it takes for Yahoo to process the change,
until emails in the queue waiting to go out to the users are delivered. In other
words, in the six hours it takes for Yahoo to permanently stop the emails from
coming, there are emails already set up to go out, and will continue to go out
until the queue is emptied. (Some people have reported this taking up to three
days.) So please don't email the moderators with comments like, 'I changed my
settings/unsubscribed yesterday, why am I still getting emails?' Just be patient,
and all should be well. Don't make more than one change at a time (each
additional change adds on another day of wait).
If you encounter further problems, you might want to consult the Yahoo! Groups
help pages at:  http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/groups/

Just so you know, you CAN delete your own posts for any reason (for example, if
someone's taken the item you offered, or if you've received the item you wanted,
or if you posted something by mistake). Go back to your original post and bring
it into view on the screen. Right under the Messages bar, where it reads:
Reply/Forward/View Source/Unwrap Lines/Delete

Click on 'Delete.' That should do it. (Note, though, that deleting a post won't
prevent it from showing up in the next digest for those with digest options.)

That should just about do it. Have fun and Keep on recycling my Freecycle™ Friends!

Your friendly neighborhood Freecycle™ moderator and group owner,

Rachel
Group Owner and Creator
Grey Bruce Freecycle and Cheapcycle

If you have any further comments or concerns, please email me personally at

binary.speaking@... with FREECYCLE in the subject line.