Welcome to the APPA Community
The APPA Community is a members-only space where facilities professionals at colleges, universities, and K-12 schools ask questions, share what works, and learn from each other. By joining and using the community, you agree to follow these guidelines and terms.
The community is open to:
- Current APPA members
- APPA Business Partners, in the communities open to them
- APPA staff and volunteers who support the community
Access ends when APPA membership ends.
Community guidelines
Be respectful. Focus on ideas, not people. Assume good intent and welcome newer members; there's no such thing as a dumb question. Defamatory, abusive, harassing, threatening, or illegal content is not allowed.
Share experience, not sales pitches. The community is for sharing what works, not for promoting products or services. Business partners are welcome to answer questions and share expertise, but not to advertise. Don't use the member directory or private messages for unsolicited sales outreach.
Describe vendor experiences fairly. You're welcome to share your experience with products, vendors, and contractors. Stick to facts and your own experience, and avoid claims you can't support. Remember that business partners can read many communities.
Protect sensitive information. Don't post details that could compromise safety or security, such as access control or security system details, keys and codes, drawings of sensitive areas, or infrastructure vulnerabilities. Don't share personal information about students, employees, or others, or confidential procurement information such as bids under evaluation.
Keep private communities private. Some communities are limited to specific groups, such as credential holders, boards, and committees. Don't forward or repost what's shared there without permission.
Respect intellectual property. Share content you created or have permission to share, credit your sources, and note when something shouldn't be reused. Ask the owner before reusing someone else's materials.
Post in the right place. Use the APPA Open Forum for questions for all members, your region or chapter for local topics, and special interest groups for focused topics.
Review AI-assisted posts. If you use AI tools to help write a post, check it for accuracy and make sure it reflects your own experience before posting.
Using discussions and email
- Write a clear subject line so others can find and answer your post.
- Choose Question when you need an answer, and mark the best answer when you get one. Use Discussion for open-ended conversation.
- Replying to a community email may post your reply to the whole community. For "thanks" or "me too" messages, use Reply Privately.
- Don't post requests like "remove me from this list" to the community. Change your email settings anytime in Manage Notifications, or contact community@appa.org.
Antitrust guidelines
APPA complies with antitrust laws, and so must everyone who participates in the community. Discussions must never lead to, or appear to lead to, agreements that restrain competition.
Don't use the community to discuss or reach agreement on:
- Prices, discounts, or terms of sale, including what you will pay or bid
- Salaries, wages, or benefits your institution plans to offer
- Dividing up customers, territories, or markets
- Boycotting or refusing to work with a vendor, contractor, or institution
Sharing your own experience and publicly available information is generally fine. Agreeing with others on future prices, pay, or vendor decisions is not. When in doubt, don't post, and contact community@appa.org.
Content, responsibility, and moderation
Your posts are your own. Opinions in the community belong to the members who post them, not to APPA. APPA isn't responsible for member content and makes no warranties about its accuracy or completeness.
Posts aren't professional advice. Community posts aren't engineering, legal, code-compliance, or other professional advice. Confirm requirements with your authority having jurisdiction and qualified professionals before acting.
Content you share. You keep ownership of what you post. By posting, you confirm that you have the right to share it, and you give APPA and community members a non-exclusive license to view, share, and use it within APPA's programs. APPA will ask before featuring your post outside the community.
Moderation. APPA staff don't review posts before they appear, but may edit, move, or remove content, and may limit or end access for anyone who doesn't follow these guidelines. To report a post, use Flag as Inappropriate or email community@appa.org.
Privacy
APPA's privacy policy explains how APPA collects and uses personal information, including information in the APPA Community.
- Your profile: you control what other members can see in your profile's privacy settings.
- Your email: change or turn off community emails anytime in Manage Notifications.
- Your posts: anything you post is visible to everyone who can view that community.
Questions and changes
Questions about these guidelines or the community? Contact community@appa.org.
APPA may update these guidelines from time to time and will post a notice in the APPA Open Forum when it makes significant changes.
Effective October 6, 2026.