Comments:

April 14, 2004 Office of the Secretary VIA E-MAIL TRANSMISSION Federal Trade Commission 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20580 RE: Ohio School Boards Association/ CAN-SPAM Act Rulemaking, Project No. R411008 The Ohio School Boards Association (OSBA) represents 5,413 public school officials in Ohio, including 3,410 locally elected school board members. As outlined below, OSBA has significant concerns about the FTC's development of regulations implementing the CAN-SPAM Act. OSBA encourages the FTC to develop regulations implementing the Act that specifically address the unique roles and responsibilities of tax-exempt nonprofit organizations. The term "commercial electronic mail message" ought to differentiate between tax-exempt nonprofit organizations and taxable for-profit entities. Communications from a tax-exempt nonprofit organization to its membership or other constituencies are the result of associations freely and willingly elected by the recipients. This is very different from commercial messages that for-profit businesses send to persons lacking any voluntary transactional or other relationship. OSBA supports the more detailed comments submitted by John H. Graham IV, President and CEO of the American Society of Association Executives, on April 12, 2004, and by Michael Resnick, Associate Executive Director of the National School Boards Association, on April 15, 2004. We also wish to provide a very practical perspective on the regulations. The individual school board members of OSBA are part-time local elected officials. These persons make great sacrifices of time and energy to assist in the governance of school districts. To carry out their responsibilities in the most effective manner possible, they look to their membership association, OSBA, to provide an increasing volume of information about complex state and federal education laws, including the No Child Left Behind Act and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, in a timely manner. These school board members have made a voluntary commitment to join OSBA. In return for their dues money, they not only anticipate, but often expect and demand, e-mail communications on a wide variety of relevant matters. E-mail affords OSBA's members the discretion to receive information on their schedules, whether a school board member is a farmer who checks messages at 4:00 a.m. or a parent who reads e-mail after working 8-10 hours at his or her "other" job and putting children to bed late in the evening. The freedom to e-mail the part-time school board members composing the core of OSBA's membership is becoming more and more of a business necessity. This trend appears to be irreversible. As a matter of efficient business practices, it also is greatly preferable to communicate with our members by e-mail rather than by telephone or facsimile. The Federal Communication Commission's proposed "do not fax" rules, if implemented, also may present a further obstacle to use of that mode of communication. Like many tax-exempt nonprofit organizations, OSBA has a relatively lean staff and limited financial resources. Any regulation of e-mail that increases administrative burdens and inhibits membership communications would do violence to our core mission of serving Ohio's school boards and the communities and children whom they represent. For these reasons, please exempt tax-exempt nonprofit organizations from the requirements of the CAN-SPAM Act. Sincerely, Patrick J. Schmitz Ohio School Boards Association Deputy Director of Legal Services