Hewlett-Packard Alumni Association Membership and Posting Agreement    Click to join the HPAA   Question? Email us: info@hpalumni.org

The Hewlett‑Packard Alumni Association, Inc. (HPAA) is a private, non-profit organization that exists solely for the benefit of its members.

HPAA membership consists of former U.S. HP and HPE employees. The HPAA policies and code of conduct are founded on the traditional HP Way philosophy. What is the HP Way? It is a set of deeply held values that govern and guide our behavior in meeting our objectives and in dealing with each other, our community, our constituents, and others.

These values are that we:

• Have trust and respect for individuals.

• Focus on a high level of achievement and contribution.

• Conduct our business with uncompromising integrity.

• Achieve our common objectives through teamwork.

• Encourage flexibility and innovation.

Code of conduct: By joining HPAA, members agree to the following:

1. The purpose of HPAA is to facilitate professional networking and communication among its members.

2. Any group depends on the members having a common experience. In the case of the Hewlett‑Packard Alumni Association, the bond we share is the HP Way.

Those who were a direct HP, HPI, or HPE employee continuously for at least one year -- and are either no longer a direct employee or are in the process of leaving -- are eligible to join the Hewlett‑Packard Alumni Association.

Examples of eligible applicants:

• HP employee who is in the process of leaving..

• Joined HP as part of an acquisition; left after the acquisition.

• Otherwise qualified; now at a company that HP divested such as Agilent.

• Otherwise qualified; left HP and now under contract to HP.

Examples of ineligible applicants:

• Left Apollo, Compaq, EDS, Tandem, etc. before HP acquired the company.

• Intern, summer, or SEED employee not at HP for more than one year.

• Consultant or contractor.

• Employed by an HP joint venture company.

• Joined Agilent after the divestiture from HP; never an HP employee.

3. Members will conduct themselves with professionalism when posting messages to the HPAA mailing list and when sending private messages to other HPAA members. If another member asks you to cease private communication with them, you will do so at once.

4. Members recognize and assume the risks inherent in internet communication, and will act accordingly. Such risks include, but are not limited to, intercepted messages, lost messages, accidental or intentional forwarding of mail, and so on.

5. Out of respect for members' privacy, members will never divulge another member's identity, address, or email content to a party outside the original communication without that member's express permission to do so except where required by law.

6. Members will not post any content, including any links, which would violate the property rights of others. Such content includes, but is not limited to, unauthorized copyrighted text, images, software, documents, trade secrets, infringing trademarks, or other confidential proprietary information.

7. Members agree not to post any illegal, obscene, offensive, or otherwise inappropriate material to HPAA sites.

8. Members will not post any message that is libelous, defamatory, or which discloses private or personal matters concerning any person (without that person's permission).

9. Members may use the facilities of HPAA for their own professional networking, recruiting, and job search. Members may conduct or participate in discussions of interest to members. You promise not to abuse these privileges.

10. Members will provide HPAA with current and correct contact information. Any member of the HPAA will not share contact information outside HPAA, unless required by law. 

11. Members will not interfere (by mail flood, denial-of-service attack, or any other action) with access or use by other users of the facilities provided by HPAA.

12. Members will not knowingly post any file that is infected with or transmits any virus, worm, "Trojan Horse," or other destructive content. Any member who inadvertently posts such an item, upon its discovery, will take immediate steps to remove the posting, ensure that connection(s) to HPAA are disinfected, notify the members of the HPAA to whom the email was sent of the circumstances and provide a suggested remedy.

13. Members will not post solicitations for donations, political campaigns or actions, petition drives, chain letters, hoax messages, pyramid schemes, and the like. They will not send unsolicited bulk email using HPAA facilities or addresses learned from membership in HPAA, if such e-mail could reasonably be expected to provoke complaints from its recipients.

14. Members will try to stay on-topic in discussion threads. If there is a desire to change the topic, a new thread will be created. You will abide by generally accepted principles of netiquette (RFC 1855) expanded upon in the book "Netiquette" by Virginia Shea.

15. Members will not use HPAA facilities to conduct or solicit any illegal activity nor any activity that infringes the rights (including property rights) of others.

16. Members will not provide their login access to anybody else. Members will be responsible for any statement or action knowingly performed under their login id.

HP Alumni Operating Policies

Your use of HPAA facilities as an HPAA member affirms your agreement to the following operating policies:

1. HPAA Executive Board members volunteer their time. They can assume no liability for the acts of any member or of the group as a whole. Members agree to hold HPAA and its administrators harmless from any legal action they may take against any individual member or members.

2. Unless members are participating in an area that requires anonymity, they will use real names in communications.

3. No member is authorized to speak on behalf of HPAA to the press or any person outside HPAA without the express permission of the HPAA Executive Board. Such permission will be granted only in extraordinary circumstances and then only by a simple majority vote of the Executive Board members. Questions to or about HPAA should be referred to the Board. HPAA is not sponsored by nor affiliated with Hewlett‑Packard Company nor does HPAA speak for HP. The organization has an amicable relationship with HP.

4. HPAA website content is the copyrighted private property of HPAA or of its members; it is specifically not in the public domain. Fair-use rules apply, but you may not distribute such content or derive other works from it without the permission of the copyright holder(s). Some HPAA website content may be available only to members.

5. You may link to the HPAA site (or subsidiary pages) as long as your link identifies the site as HPAA and does not alter the pages' appearance.

6. HPAA may contract with outside providers for some of the services provided to members. While due care is taken to select such providers, HPAA is not liable for their actions. As a member, you must assess the service, the provider, and any risk inherent in your participation; you then decide whether to avail yourself of the service based on your analysis.

7. Violation of any of these policies will be terms for removal from HPAA. Appeal against removal may be made to the Executive Board and reinstatement of membership may be made by a simple majority vote of the Board.

(Revised November 16, 2019. Yahoo > Google May 12, 2021. Reviewed Jan 27, 2023)