Home exchanging has tremendous potential for creating goodwill among people throughout the world.

In keeping with this philosophy, we believe that if you are on the receiving end of an exchange offer, courtesy requires that you acknowledge each offer, whether or not you intend to explore the proposal.

Even a brief e-mail will suffice, stating simply :

"Thank you for your offer, but exchanging to _______ is not in our plans for this year."
In your own initial invitation you can add:
"May we ask you to express any possible interest in this proposal by (give date 1-3 weeks hence),
after which we will assume our exchange offer does not fit in with your plans".

To help prevent your messages from being discarded as spam :
· Send e-mail messages individually and personalized, using the members' names;
· include the word 'HomeLink' somewhere in the subject line to signify a bona fide message;
· refrain from *bulk* e-mails with impersonal salutations like "Dear HomeLinker";
· and send attachments ONLY if you have forewarned your recipients.