SPAM anyone?

AT DHI HEADQUARTERS, WE USE A NUMBER of different vehicles to communicate with our members. Emails, faxes, phone calls and direct mail are all valuable tools for staying in touch with, and receiving feedback from, members scattered across the country and around the world. Over the years, we've found that the most effective, convenient and cost-effective means of communication is faxing. Unfortunately, the spammers have discovered this as well.

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We've all been frustrated by spam. It seems to be everywhere these days. You go to work and your email inbox is filled to capacity with messages promising everything from instant weight loss to a new head of hair. You need to send a fax, but are forced to wait while the machine receives an ad for a discounted cruise to the Bahamas. You sit down to eat dinner with your family and are interrupted by a phone call from a telemarketer offering you a deal on a timeshare or long distance service.

We all have our ways of fighting back, but they bring with them new problems and annoyances. Installing filters for your email can help decrease the number of junk emails you receive, but they can also cause problems with receiving legitimate email. Caller ID can tell you if the call is from someone you know, but it can't tell you if the "Out of Area" number is someone calling long distance or a telemarketer trying to sell you long distance.

Until recently, though, there hasn't been a way to prevent spam from being faxed to you. But in July 2004, the FCC stepped in with a new regulation promising to fix this annoyance once and for all. As of July 1, 2005, there will be a total ban on all unsolicited faxes. Companies that violate these regulations will be fined $500 to $1500 PER PAGE.

Now before we all get excited over the prospect of eliminating spam from at least one area of our lives, we have to read the fine print. As it turns out, this new rule has the potential to be an enormous headache for all businesses, large and small, including this association.

Under the FCC's proposed fax rules, every business would be required to obtain prior written approval from each individual to whom they fax commercial material. This consent would have to be signed by the individual recipient, and include the specific fax number being used. Simply telling a company that it's ok for them to fax you is not sufficient. You must fax or mail them permission in writing. They aren't even allowed to fax you a form asking if you'd like to receive information. You would have to grant permission to every single business you have dealings with. Those companies, in turn, would have to keep detailed records of who has granted them permission in case they were later audited or fined by the FCC.

Even Associations are not exempt from the new regulation. Though it would seem like common sense that if you pay membership dues, you would like to receive information from that group; all associations and charities must abide by the same rules as businesses. Forms must be signed, records kept, fax lists monitored--all this to keep ads for home equity loans and cheap trips to Disney off our fax machines.

In response, associations and businesses across the country are petitioning Congress to restore the Established Business Relationship exemption to this law so that legitimate businesses and associations can continue to fax marketing materials and information to existing customers and vendors. The new Congress will convene in early January and have six months to decide just what lengths are reasonable to combat spam. But even if the stringent FCC regulations are upheld and new laws are put in place to punish fax spammers, I suspect it will only increase the number of emails, phone calls and junk mail we receive every day. We may win the battle and lose the war....

Jerry S. Heppes, Sr., CAE