If you are a subscriber, you can post a message to any of the newsletters using the posting forms on the BPN website. You'll fill out the form, and your message will be sent to the moderator for that newsletter for inclusion in the next issue. See How does it work? for details about how this works.

Every BPN newsletter has the web address of its posting form at the top. Or, you can go directly to this page. If you aren't sure which newsletter to post to, see Which newsletter should I post to?

If you aren't a subscriber, and you are eligible to subscribe, you can join the list. It's free. See Who can join the list?. Click here for the subscribe form. Once you have received the "Welcome" message, you will be able to post to the newsletters.

We can't accept postings from people who aren't eligible to subscribe (out of area, or not parents.) For more info see Who can join the list?.

Note: this information is about how to post to a BPN newsletter. If you are wondering how to post a review to the website, see How can I add a recommendation to the website?

How can I find out if you received my posting?

How do I reply to a posting in the newsletter?

What are all the different newsletters?

Here are links to the FAQ for each newsletter: ... Advice ... Announcements ... Childcare ... Household ... Marketplace ... Recommendations ... Schools ... Parents of Teens ... UC Families

Can I post anonymously?

For all the posting forms, we ask for your email address so we can check our subscriber list to make sure that the posting is coming from a subscriber. However, most of the posting forms ask you whether your email address should appear in the newsletter.

You can post an anonymous message to the Advice, Household, Recommendations, Schools, and Teens newsletters. We will only include your email or name if you ask us to. At the end of the posting form for those newsletters, you will have the opportunity to indicate how you want your message signed. If you don't want your email and/or name included, it won't be. You can sign as "anonymous" or "a mom" or however you'd like.

If you want to be anonymous, but you also want to include an email address so people can respond directly to you, you can open a temporary email account at www.yahoo.com or www.hotmail.com and sign your message with that. This is especially useful for sensitive topics where respondents want anonymity and don't want to respond publicly in the newsletter.

For the Announcements newsletter, we require a contact name and email for all postings.

For Marketplace and Childcare, we need either your name and email/phone#, or someone else's.

See also: Privacy Policy?

A recommendation is a review of a specific person, place, or thing. Examples include recommendations for vacation spots, dentists, therapists, breastpumps, carseats and strollers.

Advice is more a "how to" sort of message, usually about parenting. It is some other parent's opinion about how you might address a particular problem or event. For example, questions about your child's sleep, eating, health or play habits,how to get along with your children, spouse, neighbors, medical professionals, how to use a breastpump, how to de-stress the dinner hour.

• Did you fill out the correct posting form? If not, your message was probably lost or it went to the wrong moderator. You should post again using the correct form.
• Did you get an email confirmation? If you didn't get a confirmation after you posted, then we didn't get your post. You should post again (and save your confirmation).
• Has the newsletter you posted to been mailed yet? See List of Recently Mailed Newsletters.
• Did you post after the deadline? Check the posting form for the deadline. If you posted after the deadline then your message will appear in a future issue.
• Did you post a question that did not receive any responses? This happens sometimes, and it may give you the impression that your question never appeared. You can see a list of questions from all the newsletters on the Topic List.

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What is the deadline for posting?

In general, you should try to post your message at least two days before the mailing day if you want your message to appear in the next issue.

Please note! we make every attempt to send out the newsletters at regular times as listed on that page. However, we are all volunteers with kids and jobs - we go on vacation and things come up at work, so you can't really count on us to be always on time the way you can count on advertising you have to pay for.