Community Rules & Etiquette and Privacy Guidelines

What is GATHER?

GATHER is a community for NATA members to engage in discussion and seek and receive feedback and resources from other professional peers around the athletic training profession.  NATA encourages members to come prepared to share successes, challenges, provide constructive feedback, bring questions, and provide perspective in all manners related to association management.  Members are asked to agree to follow the below rules and etiquette to ensure GATHER remains an open space to discuss issues and topics related to athletic training.

NATA has many outlets for our members to provide information, we encourage you to select the correct outlet amongst our many offerings. Here are some examples of other locations NATA provides:

Promotions or advertising options can be found with NATA Advertising.  External promotional messages are not permitted in GATHER.

Finding or seeking a job?  Please go to The Career Center.

Have a Research Survey you’d like to be distributed? Please go to the Research Survey Service.

General questions or information about NATA? Reach out to Member Services Center at 214-637-6282 or membership@nata.org.

In order to preserve a climate that encourages both civil and fruitful dialogue, NATA reserves the right to utilize the stated Community Violation Policy on GATHER members who violate these rules.

The Rules

• Don't attack others. The discussions on the community platform are meant to stimulate conversation and not to create contention. Let others have their say, just as you may.
• Respect the purpose of the community. Use the community to share successes, challenges, constructive feedback, questions, and goals instead of products or services that you provide. If you’ve found a product or service helpful, please share your experience with the group in a respectful way. Job opportunities belong in the career center; job posts will be removed from the community. Our community is not to be used as a survey tool; survey requests will be removed from the community. 
• GATHER messages should not contain promotional material, special offers, job offers, product announcement or solicitations for services. NATA reserves the right to remove such messages and potentially ban sources of those solicitations. 
• Use caution when discussing products. Information posted on the discussion groups and in the libraries is available for all to see, and comments are subject to libel, slander, and antitrust laws. Product promotions and/or advertisements are subject to removal. NATA reserves the right to remove such messages to ensure compliance with federal law.
• All defamatory, abusive, profane, threatening, offensive, or illegal materials are strictly prohibited. Any posts found to be in non-compliance with this rule will be immediately deleted and submitted to the Committee on Professional Ethics. 
• Respect intellectual property. Post content that you have personally created or have permission to use and have properly attributed to the content creator.
• When posting items in our collaborative environment, please indicate if the item is not available for reuse. It’s also advisable to contact the owner of any material if you would like to reuse it.
• Remember NATA and other participants have the right to reproduce your postings. NATA will reach out to the original owner to confirm the action prior to reproduction.

Community Etiquette

Transparency is very important in gaining trust in online relationships, therefore be clear who you are and who you work for when posting on any platform. This means including your real name on your posts on GATHER along with disclosing your employer and using a profile picture of your likeness and not your company’s logo. 

State concisely and clearly the topic of your comments in the subject line. This allows members to respond more appropriately to your posting and makes it easier for members to search the archives by subject.

The Legal Stuff

This site is provided as a service for the members of National Athletic Trainers' Association Inc.  National Athletic Trainers' Association Inc is not responsible for the opinions and information posted on this site by others. We disclaim all warranties with regard to information posted on this site, whether posted by National Athletic Trainers' Association Inc or any third party; this disclaimer includes all implied warranties of merchantability and fitness. In no event shall National Athletic Trainers' Association Inc be liable for any special, indirect, or consequential damages or any damages whatsoever resulting from loss of use, data, or profits, arising out of or in connection with the use or performance of any information posted on this site.

Do not post any defamatory, abusive, profane, threatening, offensive, or illegal materials.  Do not post any information or other material protected by copyright without the permission of the copyright owner. By posting material, the posting party warrants and represents that he or she owns the copyright with respect to such material or has received permission from the copyright owner. In addition, the posting party grants National Athletic Trainers' Association Inc and users of this site the nonexclusive right and license to display, copy, publish, distribute, transmit, print, and use such information or other material.

Messages should not be posted if they encourage or facilitate members to arrive at any agreement that either expressly or impliedly leads to price fixing, a boycott of another's business, or other conduct intended to illegally restrict free trade. Messages that encourage or facilitate an agreement about the following subjects are inappropriate: prices, discounts, or terms or conditions of sale; salaries; profits, profit margins, or cost data; market shares, sales territories, or markets; allocation of customers or territories; or selection, rejection, or termination of customers or suppliers.

National Athletic Trainers' Association Inc does not actively monitor the site for inappropriate postings and does not on its own undertake editorial control of postings. However, in the event that any inappropriate posting is brought to the attention of National Athletic Trainers' Association Inc we will take all appropriate action.

National Athletic Trainers' Association Inc reserves the right to terminate access to any user who does not abide by these guidelines.


Privacy Policy

Any personal information you provide to us including and similar to your name, address, telephone number and e-mail address will not be released, sold, or rented to any entities or individuals outside of our organization except as noted below.

With Whom Do We Share the Personal Information We Collect Through This Site:

Our Service Providers
We may share your personal information with companies (including our affiliates) that perform services on our behalf, for example, companies that help process credit card payments. Our service providers are required by contract to protect the confidentiality of the personal information we share with them and to use it only to provide specific services on our behalf.

Business Transfers
Your personal information may be transferred to another entity (either an affiliated entity or an unrelated third party) in connection with a merger, reorganization, dissolution or similar corporate event. If such a transfer were ever to occur, the acquiring entity’s use of your personal information will still be subject to this Privacy Policy.

Government and Legal Disclosures
We may disclose the personal information we collect through this Site, when we, in good faith, believe disclosure is appropriate to comply with the law (or a court order or subpoena); to prevent or investigate a possible crime, such as fraud or identity theft; to enforce our Terms and Conditions or other agreements that govern your use of this Site; or to protect the rights, property or safety of our company, our users, or others.

External Sites
We are not responsible for the content of external internet sites. You are advised to read the privacy policy of external sites before disclosing any personal information.

Cookies
A "cookie" is a small data text file that is placed in your browser and allows us to recognize you each time you visit this site (personalization, etc). Cookies themselves do not contain any personal information, and we do not use cookies to collect personal information. Cookies may also be used by 3rd party content providers such as news-feeds.

Remember The Risks Whenever You Use The Internet
While we do our best to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of any information that you transmit to us and you are solely responsible for maintaining the secrecy of any passwords or other account information. In addition other Internet sites or services that may be accessible through our site have separate data and privacy practices independent of us, and therefore we disclaim any responsibility or liability for their policies or actions. Please contact those vendors and others directly if you have any questions about their privacy policies.  For any other information please contact us using the Contact Us page.