Registration Agreement

This registration agreement (“Agreement”) forms a binding contract between the Episcopal Church Foundation (“ECF,” “us,” or “we”), and you, the individual who registers via the ECF Vital Practices website at www.ecfvp.org (the “Website”) as a user (“you” or “User”). You enter into this Agreement with us by providing requested information (“Registration Information”) and completing your user registration. You cannot register if you are not able to form legally binding contracts or do not agree to the terms of this Agreement.

Introduction

Via the Website, ECF offers a forum to disseminate information and share ideas related to the mission of the Episcopal Church Foundation in supporting Episcopal congregations, dioceses, and related organizations. Some features of the Website may include:

  • New articles and archives from the Vestry Papers (“Vestry Papers”)
  • Practical tools for parish leaders (“Tools”)
  • A blog with multiple bloggers (“Vital Posts”)
  • Congregational materials and resources submitted by readers (“Your Turn”)
  • Stories about changing congregations (“Fieldwork”)
  • Live webchats (“VP Talks”)

Registering is free and allows you to upload and post content and participate in discussions. As a registered User of the Website, you agree to abide by the policies, guidelines, and other instructions promulgated by ECF from time to time. In particular, you agree to the Terms of Use, which form part of this Agreement. However, if there is a conflict between this Agreement and the Terms of Use, this Agreement will control.

ECF may immediately terminate or limit without notice your use of all or portions of the Website and/or your registration if ECF considers, in its sole discretion, any conduct by you to be unacceptable or in breach of this Agreement. Such termination may occur without notice to you.

Content Submission

You may only upload or post content, for which you hold copyright, for which you have a valid license, or which is in the public domain, in a format accepted by ECF. You represent and warrant that you hold copyright or a valid license to upload or post any such content and license its reproduction, distribution, performance, and display to ECF and its affiliates and ministries and to all Users and visitors to the Website.

You grant ECF and its affiliates a non-exclusive, worldwide, perpetual, royalty-free license to exercise all copyright, trademark, publicity, moral, and database rights, and the right to sublicense such rights (through multiple tiers), in any content uploaded or posted by you, in any media now or in the future.

ECF generally will not modify your content or postings. However, you understand and agree that ECF may modify the format, size, or quality of your content or postings in order to display your content and postings on the Website.

ECF may use any ideas, concepts, know-how, or techniques contained or described in your content or postings in any manner, for any purpose, without credit or compensation.

ECF does not undertake any obligation to display your content in any specific manner or to promote your content using any level of effort.

ECF reserves the right to remove any content or postings from the Website, at any time, with or without notice to you.

License to Visitors

You hereby grant to any visitor to the Website a perpetual, non-exclusive, and irrevocable license to reproduce, distribute, perform, and display any content you upload or post. The terms on which ECF allows visitors to use content available on the Website are described in the Terms of Use, and you agree that ECF may allow such use.

You understand and agree that ECF cannot and does not accept responsibility for the use of your content after it has been downloaded by a visitor. You agree to indemnify and hold harmless ECF and its affiliates and ministries for any matter related to the use of your content by any third party.

Restrictions

In addition to the prohibited uses listed in the Terms of Use, you shall not:

  • Violate any laws;
  • Violate any intellectual property, publicity, or other rights of any third party;
  • Violate our policies, guidelines, or instructions;
  • Provide false, inaccurate, or misleading Registration Information;
  • Transfer your ECF membership or username to another party;
  • Use our Website if you are under the age of 13;
  • Use our Website if your membership is temporarily or indefinitely suspended;
  • Resubmit content or postings that we have removed;

Privacy

We may collect and use information about you as described in the ECF Privacy Policy, and you agree to such collection and use.

Liability

You will not hold ECF responsible for actions or inactions of Users or visitors. You acknowledge that the Website merely provides a forum for congregations to share ideas related to the mission of the Episcopal Church. ECF has no control over and cannot guarantee the quality, legality, or safety of any content provided by Users, the right of a User to license content, or the truth or accuracy of Registration Information.

ECF does not guarantee continuous or secure access to the Website. Numerous factors outside of ECF’s control may interfere with operation of the Website. Accordingly, to the extent legally permitted, we disclaim all implied warranties. ECF is not liable for any loss of money, loss of information (including loss of your content), goodwill, or reputation, or any special, indirect, or consequential damages arising out of your use of or access to the Website. Some jurisdictions do not allow the disclaimer of warranties or exclusion of damages, so such disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you.

Regardless of the previous paragraphs, if ECF is found to be liable, our liability to you or to any third party is limited to $100.

Release

If you have a dispute with any other Users or visitors, you release ECF and our affiliates (and our officers, directors, agents, and employees) from claims, demands, and damages (actual and consequential) of every kind, known and unknown, arising out of such dispute.

Indemnity

You will indemnify ECF and our affiliates and other ministries (and our officers, directors, agents, and employees) from any claims and costs, including reasonable attorneys’ fees, arising out of your breach of this Agreement, or your violation of any law or the rights of a third party.

Dispute Resolution

If you have concerns regarding our Website, we encourage you to contact us at ecfvp@episcopalfoundation.org or ECF Vital Practices, Episcopal Church Foundation, 475 Riverside Drive, Suite 750, New York, NY 10115 for prompt resolution of your concerns before pursuing dispute resolution procedures. You and ECF agree to resolve any claim or controversy at law or equity that arises out of this Agreement or the Website (a “Claim”) in accordance with one of the paragraphs below or as we and you otherwise agree in writing.

Forum for Disputes – You and ECF agree that this Agreement is entered into and is performed entirely within the State of New York. You agree that any Claim you may have against ECF must be resolved by a state or federal court located in New York County, New York. You agree to submit to the personal jurisdiction of the courts located within New York County, New York for the purpose of litigating any Claim.

Arbitration Option - For any Claim (excluding a Claim for injunctive or other equitable relief) where the total amount of the award sought is less than $10,000, the party requesting relief may elect to submit the Claim to binding, non-appearance-based arbitration through an established alternative dispute resolution (“ADR”) provider mutually agreed upon by the parties. The ADR provider and the parties must comply with the following rules: (a) the arbitration must be conducted by telephone or online, and/or written submissions, the specific manner to be chosen by the party initiating the arbitration; (b) the arbitration must not involve personal appearance by the parties or witnesses unless otherwise mutually agreed by the parties; and (c) judgment on the award rendered by the arbitrator may be entered in any court of competent jurisdiction.

Improperly Filed Claims – You and we agree that any Claim filed or brought contrary to this Disputes Resolution section will be considered improperly filed. Should you file a claim contrary to this Disputes Resolution section, ECF may recover attorneys’ fees and costs from you to have the Claim dismissed, provided that ECF has notified you in writing of the improperly filed Claim, and you have failed to promptly withdraw the Claim.

Amendment

ECF reserves the right to amend the terms of this Agreement (including the policies referred to in the Agreement), with or without notice to you. Any changes will take effect 30 days, or such lesser time notified to you, after being posted to the ECF website. Your continued use of the Service will be acceptance of this Agreement as amended. This Agreement may not be otherwise amended except in a writing signed by you and ECF.

Termination

This Agreement remains in effect as long as you are registered. You may notify us at any time to cancel your registration, which we will do within 15 days. ECF may cancel your registration at any time, with or without notice to you. Any obligations of either us or you that accrued during the period of your membership, and any licenses granted by you to ECF or to Members, survive termination of this Agreement. Furthermore, the provisions of the Agreement entitled “Fees,” “Release,” “Liability,” “Indemnity,” and “Dispute Resolution” will continue to apply after termination.

Miscellaneous

Our address is ECF Vital Practices, Episcopal Church Foundation, 475 Riverside Drive, Suite 750, New York, NY 10115. Except as legally required, legal notices must be served on ECF at this address. You agree to accept legal notices at the email address you provide in your Registration Information. Notice will be effective 24 hours after email is sent. Alternatively, we may give you legal notice by mail to the address included in your Registration Information. In such case, notice will be effective three days after the date of mailing.

If a court of competent jurisdiction holds any provision of this Agreement to be invalid or unenforceable, such provision will be deemed to be struck from the Agreement and the remaining provisions will remain in full force. In our sole discretion, we may assign this Agreement. Section headings are for reference only and do not limit or expand the scope of such section. Our failure to act with respect to a breach by you or others does not waive our right to act with respect to subsequent or similar breaches. We do not guarantee we will take action against any or all breaches of this Agreement. No employment, agency, partnership, or joint venture, is intended or created by this Agreement.

The laws of the State of New York govern all matters arising out of this Agreement, without regard to conflict of law principles.

This Agreement, including the Terms of Use, Privacy Policy, Copyright Policy and other policies or other documents referred to herein, forms the entire agreement between us with respect to the Website and your relationship as a registered User.