Gaggle Groups & Rules of Use

The CCAA operates four email groups for member attorneys addressing general, human services, property tax, and county sheriff issues via Gaggle (collectively, the “Groups”). The Groups are provided for the benefit of CCAA member attorneys and governed by the CCAA Executive Board (the “Board”). All CCAA county attorney members may subscribe to some or all of the Groups. To ensure the best possible experience for all Group members, the Board has established these basic guidelines for participation.

By joining and using the Groups, you agree that you have read and will follow the rules and guidelines set for these discussion groups. You also agree to abide by all relevant CCAA policies and procedures, including those related to confidentiality. Furthermore, you agree to reserve Group discussions for topics related to the representation and defense of county government. The Groups are a phenomenal way to solicit the advice of your peers and offer your own, benefit from the experience of the collective membership, and participate in an ongoing conversation.

Please take a moment to acquaint yourself with these important rules and guidelines. If you have questions, contact the Board. In order to preserve a climate that encourages both civil and fruitful dialogue, the Board reserves the right to suspend or terminate Group membership for members who violate these rules or for any other reason deemed appropriate by the Board in its discretion.

The Rules

Only CCAA members, which includes county attorneys, deputy county attorneys, assistant county attorneys, and special county attorneys in their county representative capacity may access the Groups. Attorneys who no longer represent a county or wish to not be subscribed to some or all Groups must contact the CCAA Secretary/Treasurer to be deleted from the Group. Non-attorneys, such as paralegals, legal assistants, and other county staff are not allowed to use the Groups. Any questions they may have should be directed to their respective county attorneys. Notwithstanding the foregoing, the Board reserves the right to allow membership to appropriate, pre-approved parties who share a common interest but may not meet the above use requirements.

Group communications are to be private conversations among members. Such communications will often times contain privileged, work product, and other non-public material used by the members in the representation and defense of clients with common interests. Accordingly, members should not forward, post, or share Group communications without prior permission from the original poster(s) to anyone outside the CCAA. Members may utilize information learned in Group communications, but should incorporate such information in their own documents and opinion letters when discussing with non-members. The forwarding or sharing of Group communication with non-members without prior permission from the original poster(s) will be grounds for removal from the Groups.

Notwithstanding anything else in these Rules, the Board makes no warranties regarding the confidentiality of messages sent via the Groups. Confidentiality is desired and intended but simply cannot be guaranteed. Members should use their own legal judgment about what is appropriate to post to the Group. Although confidentiality should always be attempted, members cannot assume that confidential or sensitive information will remain so. Members should treat all Group communications as confidential absent explicit permission from the sending party to do otherwise.

The Groups are designed to facilitate communication among county attorneys on county legal issues, including relevant announcements and discussion of specific topics. Users are responsible for the material they submit and have full responsibility for the message, including its legality, reliability, appropriateness, originality, and copyright.

When participating on the Groups, and in order to ensure compliance with the requirements of the Colorado Rules of Professional Conduct (Colo. RPC), including Colo. RPC 1.6, which governs the confidentiality of client information, members should make reasonable efforts to prevent the inadvertent or unauthorized disclosure of information relating to the representation of the client. General inquiries concerning legal issues in a case, a statute, court rule, court opinion, court procedures, advice concerning legal research, or requests for information about particular judges or opposing lawyers or other similar matters do not raise issues under Colo. RPC 1.6, so long as the inquiring lawyer does not disclose information related to the representation of the client.

Members who are adverse to another county in their private practice capacity should not post questions or topics regarding that private practice representation. Any emails received by such attorneys are expected to be immediately destroyed as an unintended confidential disclosure. Additionally, questions or topics which concern disputes between two or more counties should not be posted.

The Board asks users not to use language or post content that is unlawful, harassing, abusive, defamatory, obscene, scandalous, inflammatory, pornographic, or profane. All users should observe netiquette in all posts.

The Board reserves the right to modify or discontinue the Groups at any time. Complaints about compliance with these Rules should be sent to the Board directly.

While not an exhaustive list, the following specific rules apply to use of the Groups by CCAA members:

1. Do not use language or post content that is unlawful, harassing, abusive, defamatory, obscene, scandalous, inflammatory, pornographic, or profane.

2. Include a signature tag on all messages and state concisely and clearly the topic of your comments in the subject line. This will allow members to search archive conversation chains by topic.

3. Do remember that CCAA is a diverse group with many views. While you don’t have to agree with another member, you do have to be respectful of their opinion.

4. Don’t use the Groups to post commercial messages.

5. Keep posts on-topic and to-the-point.

6. Most importantly, do participate. Your ideas and experiences are important to hear.

How to Gaggle

Signing Up. CCAA members understand that by signing up or using the Groups, they agree to be bound by the above-outlined Rules and may sign themselves up to participate in Groups at the links below, subject to administrator approval:

General: https://gaggle.email/join/ccaa-general@gaggle.email

DHS: https://gaggle.email/join/ccaa-dhs@gaggle.email

PTAG: https://gaggle.email/join/ptag@gaggle.email

CSAG: https://gaggle.email/join/csag@gaggle.email

When signing up, please enter your name for your Gaggle account in the following format: First Last (County). If you are the county attorney in your county, please use: First Last (County CA). This, along with an email signature, allows other members to quickly identify you and your messages and your county.

Using the Groups. Once you sign up for a Group or Groups, messages should reach your county email inbox seamlessly and you can reply to the Group as a whole as you would reply to any other email. If you would like to reply only to the sender, you can scroll down to the bottom of the Gaggle email message in your inbox - “Reply To Sender” allows you to both email the sender through Gaggle and to see the original emailer’s email address if you prefer to email the original emailer through your email provider. We urge you to reply to the Group as a whole as that is the best way for everyone to benefit!

Archives and Documents. Archives (including those from before the February 2023 transition to Gaggle), messages, and associated files are available in a searchable database to all members who have created a Gaggle account. If you are only a member of one CCAA Group, logging into Gaggle.email should direct you to the Group page. On the left side of the Group page, you will see options for Messages and Files - both are searchable using the search bar at the top of the page. If you belong to more than one Group, please just select the Group for which you would like to access the message or file archive and follow the same instructions.

Need help? Please email Rebecca Klymkowsky (rklymkow@jeffco.us) for assistance!