Us are less than a handful. It is only with you being part of this effort that it really becomes us.

Creating an Internet community is no easy task. On our part, we have tried to make it as easy as possible for you to share in our commitment to the well being of the Arab-American community and communities back home.

First, by offering you all the components of an Internet community that you can build on. Second, by offering you high quality products through the market place at reduced prices or at added value to you and the non-profits.

You may select to add one brick in building this virtual community by just purchasing one item. You may also select to volunteer, write a news letter, help edit news letters, manage a bulletin board, promote the community to others, and share your life experiences and what worked for you with other members. Either way, all will benefit and should be fun.

It is our hope that this Internet community will help Arab-Americans and their friends maintain cohesiveness and in the process benefit and contribute to Non-Profit organizations assisting families, women, and children.

AVVF, through its Acceptable Use Policy, is a very inclusive environment and should not be limited to persons of Arab descent.

The Friend component is of importance since a large portion of the population identifies with Arab-Americans and shares with them many of their values.  

The community will be composed of the following: chat server (Community Forum), Email server (Community Post Office), Market Place, Publications, Bulletin Board, Member Services (Community Public Services), Encrypted voting server (Community voting), Petition Form and Procedures, Suggestion box, Volunteer Opportunities, Common Interests (non-profits).

Whoever joins the community will have the freedom to pick and choose their level of involvement and participation. Hopefully, through the use of the above-mentioned components and your efforts, the community will be transformed into a vibrant, positive, and expanding environment. Other than providing the basic building blocks to expanding this community, the management of  AVVF will not interfere in the direction the membership wishes to take the community as long as it conforms to the Mission Statement and Terms of Use Policy.

The Arabian Virtual Village and Friends is operated by Arabian Virtual Village, LLC, later referred to as AVV, a Connecticut based partnership that follows the laws of that state in conducting its business.

The management of the community will be very transparent in conducting its business. As the managing partner, I will be available to you through various means, direct chat through the website, suggestion box, chat room channel, mail, phone, and fax to answer any of your questions. There will also be a web page for frequently asked questions (FAQ’s).

Due to the fact that AVV, in a major part of its efforts, will be conducting commercial activities for the benefit of non-profit organizations, AVV has to follow the rules of the Department of Consumer Protection (DCP) for the state of Connecticut, which regulates such activities. The following is a summary of the rules; any commercial activity has to clearly identify the benefits to the non-profits, an annual audit by a Certified Public Accountant should be supplied to the DCP, a clear contract should be supplied to the non-profits meeting DCP requirements with a copy to the DCP.

In addition to that, AVV will invite the leading 5 non-profits to form an advisory board to AVV that will have the right to review the audits, review other activities relating to non-profits, and provide advice. If any of the leading 5 non-profits is incapable of joining such board, AVV will approach the 6^th and so on. Such meeting will take place every six months and would be held through the Chat Server after supplying the various board members with the hard copies of the required information.

Other than inclusiveness that I mentioned earlier, having non-profits assist in guiding this community will add to the transparency of this effort.