Please read and review the POMLA guidelines.
1. POMLA membership is limited to parents, expectant parents and primary caregivers of:
a. Multiples, and
b. Children who are not more than 6-months apart,
whether by virtue of adoption, surrogacy or natural birth.
2. Members must reside in the greater Los Angeles area, with two exceptions that are at the discretion of the Membership Chair (membership@WLAPOM.org):
a. In the event that a member in good standing, i.e., a member who adheres to the POMLA Guidelines and Code of Ethics, moves out of the greater Los Angeles area and wishes to remain active on our club’s forums, they may do so provided that their membership remains in good standing.
b. In the event that a prospective member from outside the greater Los Angeles area is interested in joining prior to their planned relocation to the greater Los Angeles area, they may do so after speaking with our Membership Chair (membership@WLAPOM.org) and their membership must remain in good standing.
3. Be respectful and kind. please remember that POMLA is primarily a support group and that we are all here to support each other
a. The POMLA is a large group of approximately 400 members on an annual basis who are diverse in terms of race, class, sexual orientation, religious affiliation, political beliefs, parenting styles, etc.
b. The POMLA Board of Directors aims to create a supportive environment where members can feel safe contributing, asking and replying to questions in an open, kind, caring, and considerate environment.
c. Please use respectful language when sharing your opinion and experience, be thoughtful in how your written reply may be perceived given that it is difficult to extract tone from email, and remember that we are here to support and learn from one another on our parenting journey.
d. Respectful discussion benefits everyone. New and long-term members are encouraged to post to our forums to share their questions and opinions and enrich our community. We want to hear from you!
e. Please operate under the assumption that each person is well intentioned.
f. Inform the moderators (info@POMLA.org) if a forum thread appears offensive or inflammatory, or if you would
like to discuss an issue or concern raised, rather than responding to the entire forum. Offensive or inflammatory threads will be halted by a moderator (also see section 5a below).
4. Privacy. The following guidelines keep our forum and membership private:
a. Do not share POMLA members' contact and personal information with those outside the group.
b. The identity of members should remain confidential when discussing topics from this forum with people outside
the group.
c. Directly quoting posts or forwarding emails with email addresses or actual names to non-members or to the press without the explicit permission of the writer is not allowed.
d. Do not copy non-members when sending an email to the forum. The only address should be the appropriate POMLA address.
e. Membership may be revoked at the discretion of the POMLA Board of Directors (board@WLAPOM.org) if a member is found engaging in any practices that jeopardize member privacy.
5. Moderating the forums.

a. Inform the POMLA President or board member of your choice if you have a general concern about a forum thread, topic, or recommendation. If warranted, the POMLA President or board member may relay this information to the forum while protecting your anonymity.
b. Membership and our forum discussions are closely moderated by POMLA member-volunteers (info@POMLA.org). While we strive to address member needs and inquiries in a timely manner, please keep in mind that volunteer resources may be limited at certain times.
6. Members are asked to be mindful of our POMLA Guidelines and Code of Ethics at all times.
a. POMLA Guidelines and Code of Ethics will be disseminated on a recurring basis to help ensure that membership qualifications and expectations are transparent.
b. If you have questions, comments, feedback, or suggestions for the POMLA Guidelines and Code of Ethics, please email them to board@WLAPOM.org.
c. Members who fail to respect the POMLA Guidelines and Code of Ethics may have their membership temporarily suspended or permanently revoked at the discretion of the POMLA Board of Directors (board@WLAPOM.org).
Forum Best Practices
1. We encourage new members to introduce themselves when joining or posting for the first time.
2. Consider signing your emails with your name and the names and ages of your children, unless you prefer to keep
that information private. This keeps our ever-growing online community a bit friendlier and makes it easier to bridge the gap between the online and in-person community that the POMLA represents.
3. When replying to an email, please remember that we have a large number of members and consider whether you need to reply to all versus the original sender.
a. Some responses are informative for the whole group and others are appropriate for the original sender only.
b. Short replies with content like “I totally agree” and “Thanks” should be sent off-list to avoid cluttering threads.
c. Consider whether your reply needs to go to the whole forum. If it doesn’t, please respond to only the person who asked the question.
d. Please take the time to look up someone’s email address so that you can reply to them directly when you need to respond to them privately.
4. Off-topics posts should have “OT” at the beginning of the subject line. Please remember to include your personal email address so members may reply to your off-topic post directly as opposed to our general forum.
5. You may use the POMLA member business directory file for business promotion. Contact Christina Pitcher, our file coordinator, at cpitcher37@gmail.com to add your business to our business directory file.
a. Members are discouraged from using the forums for self-fulfilling business or work promotions: However, it is fine to comment about your own business in response to a question.
b. It is inappropriate to use our forum for promoting services or products, marketing or research, or publishing.
c. The exception here is services that directly apply to our children; e.g., if you teach a class that you think other parents might be interested in for their children, it is acceptable to send out an email about that. Please use good judgment and do not abuse this exception.
d. A significant violation of these guidelines is grounds for removal from POMLA at the discretion of POMLA Board Members (board@wlapom.org).
6. When offering information as fact, please include your source(s) when possible or make it clear that the source is your own experience. It may be valuable to check www.snopes.com prior to relaying questionable information.