Becoming an Affiliate

The VOICE software and these pages are free for anyone to use, change, and share under their licenses. A group that would also like to use the VOICE name and logo, and to work alongside the other groups doing the same, becomes an affiliate by agreeing to the principles on this page. This agreement is a first draft, and the affiliates will revise it together as the network grows.

The Name and Logo

An affiliate shows the VOICE logo with the name of its own place beside it, which can be a city, a town, a county, or a neighborhood. Since the logo already says VOICE, the name beside it is simply the place. A group that has not become an affiliate may still use the software under its own name, with its own logo or the plain logo that comes with the software, since the VOICE logo is not part of the software's open license.

Principles

Every affiliate keeps its services free for the people it serves, so that leaving a message, receiving alerts, using a VOICE email address, and getting help at an in-person session cost nothing. Its volunteers work alongside people as equals, describe people by what they are doing or asking for rather than by their circumstances, and assume nothing about anyone's background, household, documents, or reasons for using VOICE.

An affiliate keeps only the information that delivering a message requires and deletes it on the schedule that the software sets. Every volunteer signs a confidentiality agreement, and no affiliate sells or shares anyone's information.

Each affiliate is run by a nonprofit organization, a fiscally sponsored group, or a volunteer collective, and no one profits from the people it serves. An affiliate uses the VOICE software or other free and open source tools, shares any changes it makes to the software under the same licenses, and publishes its pages so that others can learn from them. Within these principles, each affiliate decides its own services, partners, schedule, and pages.

Since people need to be able to trust every alert, an affiliate sends alerts only about its own area and only from its own address, never presents itself as another affiliate or as a government agency, and corrects any mistake publicly as soon as it is found.

Joining

A group that would like to become an affiliate writes to the VOICE network at info@voicestl.org, describing who is involved, the place it would serve, and the organizations with which it works. Representatives of the group then meet with representatives of the network, and the group attends at least one network meeting before both sign a short written agreement based on this page. The network helps the new affiliate set up the software and its message line, and adds it to the list of affiliates that the network keeps, so that anyone can confirm which sites are part of VOICE.

Taking Part

At least one representative of each affiliate attends most network meetings, which are held online on a schedule that the affiliates set together. Affiliates share what they learn, including changes to the software, revisions to these pages, and the problems they encounter, and a security problem is reported to the other affiliates as soon as it is found. Each affiliate keeps its listing accurate and checks in with the network once a year.

Costs

Using the VOICE name and the software costs nothing. Each affiliate pays for its own web hosting, message line, and other services, which Estimating Costs describes, and affiliates may share costs or resources when they choose.

Ending an Affiliation

Either an affiliate or the network may end the affiliation with written notice. When an affiliation ends, the group stops using the VOICE name and logo and is removed from the network's list of affiliates, and the software remains the group's to use under its license. When an affiliate appears to be acting against these principles, the network raises the concern with the affiliate directly before bringing it to a network meeting, and ends the affiliation only as a last resort.

Changes to This Agreement

Any affiliate may propose a change to this agreement at a network meeting. Changes are decided together, and this page is updated whenever a change is agreed.

Software

The VOICE software is free and open source. Installing the Software describes what it needs, and its source code is available on Codeberg.