Dear WE MOVE Chat Participant:

The WE MOVE chat rooms were created to help people with movement disorders. The chat rooms assisted users to make connections, obtain support, exchange information, and share advice and fellowship. As a small not-for-profit organization, we anticipated the cost of setting up and running the chat room and budgeted for these costs each year. However, within the past year, WE MOVE has incurred a substantial increase in unanticipated and unbudgeted costs related to problems with the chat room. These problems were both technical and administrative. There were also difficulties related to a small number of participants who refused to follow the rules set forth by the WE MOVE Chat Room Conduct Policy. These chatters repeatedly exhibited offensive conduct and, after being banned from the rooms, re-registered a number of times from different e-mail addresses and continued their offensive behavior. As a result of these problems, WE MOVE had to expend increased staff work hours while reviewing transcripts, communicating with the offenders, and banning the offending users. WE MOVE has spent a great deal of money in additional substantial software upgrades and technical support expenses.

As a small not-for-profit with very limited financial resources, we can no longer sustain the chat rooms and, as such, we must close the rooms. As of September 30, 2008, WE MOVE will regrettably close the chat rooms as they currently exist. We are in the process of working on the possibility of opening moderated chats for a few hours a day in the future. When we are ready to do so, we will post notices on our home page.

Thank you for your understanding and continued support.