Guidelines for Legion Websites

Approved by Concilium at the December 2005 meeting

1. No commercial advertising permitted – never make use of so called “free” sites.
2. Opening page should identify website as belonging to Legion of Mary (use Vexillum or Tessera or both) and the name.
3. National flags should not be included in the website.
4. Opening page should include the name of the council and say whether Senatus, Regia, Comitium, Curia or Praesidium.
5. The higher Councils should oversee the contents of any Legion website in their area.
6. Legion website addresses should be notified to the next highest council.
7. Content of website should be reviewed regularly and should be looked at as part of the visitation of a council.  The site should bear reference to the most recent update.
8. Legion Prayers should be included on the website.
9. Include items about the Servant of God Frank Duff, Venerable Edel Quinn, the Servant of God Alfie Lambe along with local news and events.
10. The work of legionaries in sensitive areas of the world should never be referred to in a Legion website.
11. Links may be made to other dedicated websites which comply with these guidelines.
12. Care should be taken in regard to other links since the Legion has no control over their contents.
13. Personal addresses or contact information should not appear on Legion websites.
14. Remember to preserve the confidentiality of people and not to publish their photographs without their consent.
15. Have in place a procedure for the updating of the site at regular intervals and to remove dated content.
16. It is better not to make use of number counters on the webpage itself as it can be counterproductive, e.g. one website boasted 425 hits in 15 years.
17. Have a procedure in place whereby email arising from the website is responded to promptly in a supervised way.
18. The use of gimmicks is not recommended.
19. Do not make use of the webpage to harvest email addresses – people resent unsolicited email and in many countries it is illegal to issue it.
20. For the same reason, never participate in the generation of spam.
21. Remember to respect the law in relation to copyright.
22. Keep your system safe.  Remember to have anti-virus software installed and to update it regularly.  It is best to make use of software that automatically checks for and installs its own updates whenever you connect to the Internet.