Membership in Indivisible Portola Valley continues to grow, and the coordinating council is now updating our principles for communicating with members.
Fundamentally we encourage everyone to share what they think would help inform and educate the group, recognizing that posts are each member’s own views, not an official IPV statement.
We are posting these “Updated Guidelines for Posts” with additional specifics and asking all members to observe them.
Interests
The coordinating council has identified four basic interests:
- Broad Access. Providing access to credible, useful, actionable information for IPV members is one of IPV’s fundamental purposes;
- Selectivity. While we all have limited time for absorbing new information, some (but perhaps not all) may want to be regularly kept up to date on important developments;
- Accuracy. Accuracy is of paramount importance to preserve IPV’s reputation as a respected source of reliable, trustworthy information; and
- Identification of Affiliations. It is important for readers to be able to distinguish personal views from those endorsed by IPV, which wants to preserve its reputation as a broad coalition that welcomes disagreements within a fundamental commitment to democratic norms and procedures.
Guidelines
- Broad Freedom to Post. All members are welcome to post articles, links to websites, or other materials likely to be of general interest and not otherwise widely available;
- Selectivity. There is a limit to how much anyone can read and absorb, so we ask those posting to be selective and use their best judgment about how much to post;
- Identify the Source. The source of the information should always appear in the post’s subject line (if space permits) or the first line (if not). For example:
- For articles: the author, date, and the publication it appeared in;
- For websites: brief identifying information about the entity behind it; and
- For news items: evidence that it comes from a reputable publisher, such as confirmation by a second source, etc.
- Identification of Affiliations. Members are free to identify whatever personal affiliations they wish to, and are asked not to imply they are speaking for IPV unless the council has endorsed such a post.
(Updated: 2025-09-01)