Q: What is vhs-pr?
A: VHS Public Relations is a working group to receive 'contact us' messages for VHS, and respond to these messages in a mature fashion that will keep our image positive in the community.

Q: Who can join?
A: VHS-PR is for Members Only™

Q: Should all messages be responded to?
A: All messages should receive at least one reply to the public list. Possible replies:

• “Spam” - useful to signal that others can ignore. Use your judgement wisely.
• “Forward to vhs-members” - Sometimes the message should be forwarded to vhs-members or vhs-general for broader reach. Use your judgement wisely.
• Some messages will require a short response to answer a question. vhs-pr members are encouraged to answer people's questions and connect to other members of the VHS and our extended community. See “Response Guidelines” below for more details.
• Any other messages for VHS will require discussion within vhs-pr before replying.

• Be polite and helpful. No snark. You are representing VHS, and even if you feel the person deserves the response, that public image WILL be conveyed to others.
• If they are possibly trolling us, try to troll hug them.
• Give yourself an Official Title of the VHS like “Director of Community Outreach” or something that strikes your fancy.
• Always CC vhs-pr, for transparency and to feed the hivemind.
• Extract common responses into a template and share them on this page.

3D Printing/Laser Cutting Requests

Hi,

Thank you for contacting us, but we do not offer any services (such as 3D printing or laser cutting). VHS is a member-ran organization and does not have any staff nor volunteers to fulfill requests. But feel free to come down on an open night to check us out, and maybe even sign up as a member - once trained, members have access to our equipment and may 3D print and laser cut on their own! It's fun!

If you need commercial services, please feel free to check out the Member Offered Services section on our Wiki.

Donations of Equipment

Response here.

Here is a sample script for receiving large donations