MEMBER RULES AND TERMS OF USE

Welcome to the NPN community! The following rules are in place to help us keep our community a positive, constructive, open, and safe place to share information and connect with other members.  Please review and accept the following terms of use and member rules in order to activate and start using your membership.

1. MEMBERSHIP, DISCUSSION FORUM AND BLOGGING GUIDELINES

• You will receive an email 30 days before your membership is due to expire, regarding your automatic membership renewal. You may opt out of automatic renewal now in your membership profile.
• NPN reserves the right to remove or edit all content submitted to the site for any reason. NPN is not responsible for material submitted to it or posted on the site by users/members. By communicating with NPN or participating in any forum in the Site you grant NPN an irrevocable right to use, reproduce, sublicense, or sell any information communicated to NPN for any purpose without providing compensation or notice.  
• Please refrain from posting any items for sale, swap, or donation that violate federal laws and/or Illinois state law.  This may include, but is not limited to: cribs with drop-down side rails, used car seats, open containers of formula or other food products, and prescription medication. 
• When completing your membership profile, you agree to accurately represent yourself in your name and contact information. You agree to use a profile image that represents you or your likeness or an image that is not deemed inappropriate for this site and is not an image or likeness of another person.  Membership profile images may be removed for any reason by NPN.  
• Users affiliated with a business, home-based business, home-based daycare, school, or organization must accurately identify themselves as such when participating in the NPN community and when posting content to the Site.  Users of this nature may not impersonate third parties to comment favorable on their business or negatively on the business of another.  

2) As a user of this site, I agree to:

• Accurately represent myself in my member profile and in all posts I make to the Site.  Example of such unauthorized misrepresentation would include, but are not limited to, posting a comment about a business in which you represent that you are a customer but you are, in fact, the owner or representative of the business.
• Treat other members with courtesy and respect and agree not to harass or defame anyone.
• Not post any profanity or offensive language or imagery.
• Not share my membership login and password with another individual.
• Not collect, use or disclose data, including personal information, about other users without their consent or for unlawful purposes or in violation of applicable law or regulations.
• Be solely responsible for the content of my messages and behavior.
• Not post copyrighted material without the written permission of the owner of that material.  
• Maintain an active and valid email address on my NPN account so NPN is able to reach me with important announcements and account related communications.
• Adhere to the NPN forum guidelines (click here to view).

3) PHOTO AND VIDEO WAIVER - NPN may photograph or video me or my child during our participation at an NPN event. NPN may use my or my child's likeness in a promotional capacity, including, but not limited to: print material, web site, print online, out-of-home media, or any other mediums later developed.  NPN may also share photography and video including my or my child's likeness for use by media publications and/or institutions that fund NPN's operations and programs.  Through member/participant registration for and attendance at an NPN event, you consent to the Photo and Video Waiver.

4) EVENT LIABILITY WAIVER - Physical activities at an NPN may involve risks and dangers of serious bodily injury, including permanent disability, paralysis, and death ("Injury").  This Injury may be caused by my action or inaction or the action or inaction of others at the NPN event.  In consideration for being permitted to participate in any way in activities at an NPN event, all members’/participants’ registering for and/or attending the NPN event, discharge, and covenant not to sue NPN or any involved businesses, their administrators, directors, agents, officers, members, volunteers, employees, other participants, any sponsors, advertisers, and, if applicable, owner and lessors of premises on which these and all other Activities take place for any Injury that may occur to me or my family. Through member/participant registration for and attendance at an NPN event, you consent to the Event Liability Waiver.

5) USE OF MATERIALS

• The contents of this site, including, but not limited to, text, graphics and icons, are copyrighted materials (“Contents”) owned or controlled by NPN, or entities which have granted certain rights to NPN. The Contents may also contain NPN's or such other entity’s name, trademarks, service marks, and trade names, as well as product designs covered by United States and foreign design patents. You are hereby granted a nonexclusive, nontransferable, limited license to view, download, and print portions of the Site and the Contents of the Site, for your personal use in learning about the topic discussed at the Site, in evaluating or acquiring NPN's services or products, or in learning about and evaluating other services and products described at the Site.
• Except as specifically provided herein, NPN does not grant permission to you to print, copy, reproduce, distribute, transmit, upload, download, store, display in public, alter, or modify the Site or the Contents.
• Use, duplication or disclosure by or for the United States Government is subject to the restrictions set forth in DFARS 252.227-7013(c)1(ii) and FAR 52.227-19.

6) THIRD PARTY LINKS - NPN assumes no responsibility for material created or published by third parties. This included links to third party sites posted on the NPN site by its members.

7) SUBMISSIONS

• All information submitted to NPN via this Site, NPN’s Social Media outlets, or via any postal or any e-mail submission to any NPN employee or volunteer, shall remain the property of NPN. NPN will credit all submissions to the legal author, if the submission is published by NPN.  NPN reserves the right to review and edit all content posted on the website and remove material which is objectionable to NPN, in its sole  discretion.
• You warrant that all information submitted by you is fit for publication, and is not libelous, defamatory, protected by an existing copyright and/or pornographic.
• You agree to indemnify NPN if any third party takes action against NPN, and agree not to take action against NPN, in relation to any material you submit, regardless of form.
• By submitting information, you warrant that NPN may publish the information, and/or incorporate it or any concepts described in such information, without liability to you or any other or entity.

? PRIVATE MESSAGES VIA THE FORUM

• All messages sent to NPN members via the Private Messaging services offered through the NPN website are sent at the sole discretion of the NPN member authoring the message and are intended solely for the NPN member to whom the private message is addressed.  NPN does not claim ownership over the material included in those messages.  Furthermore, NPN does not review or censor the content of those messages and makes no representations or warranties regarding the content of those messages.  
• In using NPN's Private Message services, all NPN members agree to abide by NPN's general code of conduct including prevailing state and federal laws regarding the prohibition against slander and libel. 
• All members may opt out of the private messaging services by visiting DISCUSS > FORUM PROFILE MANAGER > PERSONAL MESSANGER and then clicking DISABLE MESSANGER.

9) CONFIDENTIALITY - NPN will maintain with confidentiality all information provided on the site registration page.  This includes e-mail addresses, names, phone numbers and addresses.  NPN will maintain this information for its own use and will, at no time, disclose this information to third parties. NPN will only supply a third party with a participant’s/member’s contact information in the event that member provides NPN with explicit permission.

10) DISCLAIMERS AND LIMITATION OF WARRANTIES

• All contents of materials produced, managed, or owned by NPN are provided “as is,” on an “as available basis.” All warranties, expressed and implied, and all indemnities of any kind, implied or statutory, including but not limited to the warranties of non-infringement of third party rights, merchantability, and fitness for a particular purpose, are expressly disclaimed. NPN and its licensors do not warrant or represent that the information contained in the site is accurate, complete, correctly sequenced, reliable, or timely, or that use of the site will be uninterrupted, or free of errors and/or viruses. You use this site at your sole risk.
• Under no circumstances, including but not limited to breach of contract, tort or negligence, will NPN, any related parties, or its licensors be liable for any direct, indirect, special, punitive, or consequential damages (including lost profits) that arrive out of or in connection with any errors, inaccuracies, omissions, defects, untimeliness or unauthenticity of any content in the site, or the use or inability to use the site or any content therein.  In no event shall NPN’s, related parties’ and licensor’s aggregate liability to you for any loss, damage, or claim related to or arising out of this site exceed the total amounts paid by you to NPN for accessing this site, if any.
• The foregoing limitation of liability includes, without limiting the generality of the foregoing, all damages suffered as a result of (1) errors and/or omissions, typographical errors and technical inaccuracies in or on the Site or on third party websites which are linked to the Site directly or indirectly; (2) the unavailability of this Site or any portion of the Site; (3) your use of this Site for any purpose whatsoever; or (4) any damages to personal property, including computer equipment and software, whether as a result of computer viruses or otherwise.
• NPN makes no representation that the materials contained in the Site are appropriate or authorized for use in all countries, states, provinces, county or any other jurisdictions. If you choose to access this Site, you do so on your own initiative and risk and are responsible for compliance with all applicable laws.
• It is the policy of NPN to allow for open dialogue about parenting techniques and ideas. The members, thus, communicate to NPN and each other frequently. The statements made by members to other members -- at NPN events, on NPN online or public forms or in private -- do not represent the opinions, guidelines or policies of NPN. NPN does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, age, ethnicity, religion, national origin, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, sex, marital status, disability, or status as a U.S. veteran.

11) INDEMNIFICATION - As a registered user, you will indemnify, defend and hold NPN harmless from and against all damages and claims suffered by NPN and arising directly or indirectly from your breach of these Terms of Use. Such indemnification shall include, but are not limited to, attorney fees and other costs incurred by NPN in enforcing its rights hereunder.

12) MISCELLANEOUS

• NPN reserves the right to withdraw or limit access to the Site and revise the Contents and the services and products described in this Site, including these Terms of Use, at any time without notifying you specifically, even if such notice has been requested. NPN may amend or modify these Terms of Use or impose new conditions at any time upon inclusion of a notice on the Site indicating that this agreement has been updated. Any use of the site by you after such update shall be deemed to constitute acceptance by you of such amendments, modifications or new conditions.
• This Site may contain references to products or services which are not available in all locations.
• These Conditions of Use shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Illinois, as applied to agreements made and solely performed in the State of Illinois. Disputes arising hereunder shall be exclusively subject to the jurisdiction of the State and U.S. Federal District Courts of the State of Illinois. You expressly consent to such jurisdiction.
• These Terms of Use represent all of the agreements between you and NPN regarding your use and access to the Site. If any provision of these Terms of Use is deemed unenforceable, unlawful, void, or against public policy, that provisions shall be deemed severed from the remainder of these Terms of Use, which shall remain valid and in full force and effect.

13) DISCLOSURE - Sponsorship of www.npnparents.org includes editorial content. The content is at the discretion of the executive editor of NPNparents.org. Sponsors do not have the right to participate in any aspect of the editorial process, including prepublication approval of stories. Sponsorship does not preclude www.npnparents.org publishing any newsworthy stories that could be construed as negative to any sponsor.

14) TERMINATION OF MEMBERSHIP - Failure to abide by Terms of Use and Member Rules can result in immediate termination of membership.  In the event NPN determines that a member has breached any rules contained herein, NPN may or may not contact that member prior to terminating his/her membership. If your membership is terminated due to failure to abide by this agreement, you forfeit all membership fees to date.

The Membership fee is non-refundable.