Purpose, Procedures and Policies

Welcome to CALODGES.ORG!

PURPOSE:

The purpose of this domain is to provide free Internet hosting to every Constituent Masonic Lodge in the State of California. All Lodges under the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge, Free & Accepted Masons of California, are entitled to space on this server, providing they are willing to adhere to our simple policies and procedures.

We will make every effort to ensure that your online Masonic experience with us is an enjoyable one. It is our hope that by providing this free service, Lodges will be inspired to create and maintain an Internet presence. If you have any questions or concerns, we are more than happy to assist you!

PROCEDURES:

To request hosting on the calodges.org domain:

Determine among your Lodge that you wish to have a website on the calodges.org domain, (by vote of the Lodge at Stated Meeting and recorded in the minutes).

Send an email to support@freemason.org requesting this service. Please be sure to include the following information:

Lodge name, number, address and phone number.

Primary administrative contact's name, address, phone number, email address.

Primary technical contact's name, address, phone number, email address (if different from the above).

Whether the Lodge currently has an existing Internet presence. If so, please provide the URL for that site.

The amount of HTML/website experience held by the primary technical contact (i.e. no experience, little experience, very experienced, expert).

Whether you want the account configured for ftp access or you will be using Microsoft Frontpage.

You will then be contacted by one of the members of our Web Team, who will assist you in taking the next steps.

A directory will be established for you on the calodges.org domain (noxxxx), including a temporary home page. This directory will be limited to 40 MB, which should be plenty of space for you.

Your Lodge will also be given three separate email forwarding accounts. They will be:

masterxxxx@calodges.org

secretaryxxxx@calodges.org

infoxxxx@calodges.org

You may have these addresses forwarded to any email address of your choosing.

Access to your directory will be via FTP or Microsoft FrontPage. If you do not already have an FTP program, you can get a free copy of FTP Commander at http://www.internet-soft.com. Our Web Team will be happy to assist you if you are not sure how to use FTP.

You will be free to create any website you wish, as long as it adheres to the policies described below.

POLICIES

These policies are in place to make everyone's online experience an enjoyable one. We have no intention of dictating to Lodges what to say or how to express themselves online. But we have found it useful to have such policies in place to avoid any misunderstandings. Within the parameters of these guidelines, we will do everything we can to accommodate your needs. If you have any questions, ask!

Each Lodge will be entitled to one and only one directory on the calodges.org domain. You may, however, maintain additional sites for your Lodge on other domains.

Banner advertisements of any kind are prohibited. This includes, but is not limited to, banners from free guest books and other services. An exception to this policy is that link exchange programs with other Masonic Websites is acceptable. The reason for this is that many such banners link to content which is not acceptable on a Masonic website in California (see below). Please contact us, if you have any questions about this policy.

Under no circumstances will any of the content on your site contain or link to anything containing immoral, unethical or otherwise "adult" content. Good judgment and discretion are the key.

Lodges are strongly discouraged from placing personal address and phone information on their sites. This is for the protection of our members. Remember that your site may be seen by anyone. We cannot control who visits a website. Therefore as a part of this policy the Grand Lodge will not host a web site that contains any personal addresses and/or phone numbers. General Lodge telephone numbers and personal email addresses are fine.

We reserve the right to refuse or cancel service for any Lodge which fails to adhere to the above guidelines.

These policies are subject to change, with or without notice, but every effort will be made to notify our Lodges of any significant changes to these guidelines.

If you have any questions about the above policies, please direct your inquiry to the Grand Lodge Technical Support team.

Thank you for your interest in CALODGES.ORG!

Fraternally,

The CALODGES.ORG Web Team

Page Editor's Note: If your Lodge would prefer the email address "webmasterxxxx@calodges.org" rather than "infoxxxx@calodges.org", just let us know!

Download a copy of this page in Adobe Acrobat (PDF) format

Go to the Grand Lodge of California Web Site

Page Updated Monday, March 10, 2008