By subscribing to and participating in the Forum of the Association of College Counselors in Independent Schools (ACCIS), you ("User") and your company or other organization agree to be bound by the terms contained in this User Agreement ("Agreement").

If Users do not agree to be bound by this Agreement, do not proceed any further and do not use the Forum. ACCIS recommends printing a copy of this page for your reference. ACCIS may make changes to this Agreement from time to time. ACCIS will use the Forum to notify Users when the Agreement changes and will post the updated Agreement on the ACCIS Web Site. Access to or use of the Forum after the notification or posting of such changes will be deemed consent to such changes.

Use of this Forum is solely at ACCIS' discretion, and ACCIS reserves the right to (a) prohibit anyone from accessing, browsing, supplying information to, downloading information from, or conducting business using this forum; (b) remove content that does not comply with this Agreement; and (c) terminate access to the Forum if a User violates any of the terms and conditions contained in this Agreement.

I. Purpose of the Forum

ACCIS Forum is a space for professional discourse on topics related to the college admission process. The Forum is intended for ACCIS members and related professionals directly involved in the college admission process and college counseling. The Forum is not a consumer-oriented forum.

II. Rules of Behavior

• DO make only truthful statements or opinions.
• DO use good judgment and caution when posting messages to the Forum. Information posted on the Forum is available for all to see, and comments are subject to various laws. Your actions can subject you and your institution, company, or organization to liability.
• DO comply with all applicable laws and regulations regarding your use of the e-list, including defamation, copyright and antitrust laws. A brief description of these laws is described below under "Legal Statements."
• DO use the Forum to engage in discussions related to the college admission process.
• DO be respectful of other Users and their opinions.
• DO use good Forum etiquette (see below).
• DO NOT quote any Forum message without prior approval from the person who posted the message.
• DO NOT post anything in a Forum message that you would not want the world to see or that you would not want anyone to know came from you.
• DO NOT retransmit, publicly display, sell or use the Content other than solely for your personal use.
• DO NOT use the Forum to post or transmit any material that violates or infringes in any way upon the rights of others (such as copyright infringement) that is unlawful, threatening, abusive, defamatory, invasive of privacy or publicity rights, vulgar, obscene, profane, abusive or otherwise objectionable that encourages conduct that would constitute a criminal offense, gives rise to civil liability or otherwise violate any law.
• DO NOT post any confidential information or any information that would infringe upon the proprietary, privacy or personal rights of others.
• DO NOT distribute, post, publish or communicate any material that contains promotional, commercial or advertising messages.

III. E-List Etiquette

• Signature Tag: Include a signature tag on all messages with your name, affiliation and location.
• Subject Line: State the specific topic of your comments in the subject line.
• Respect for Others: Avoid personal attacks on others. The discussions on this Forum are meant to stimulate conversation, not to create contention.
• Requests for Information: The Forum is meant to be a space for professional discourse on topics related to the college admission process and college counseling. Requests for resources, specific programs that meet certain criteria, etc., are permitted, but please do not respond to the entire Forum with each suggestion. Instead, ACCIS prefers that the Users who requested the information post a summary of the responses.
• Attachments: Do not send attachments.

IV. Promotional, Commercial and Advertising Use Prohibitions

A. All postings must be for informational purposes only. Use of the Forum for promotional use, commercial or advertising or other unauthorized purposes, except as provided under section V.C. herein, is prohibited.

B. Subscribers may not use the Forum to solicit or conduct business, including the direct or indirect marketing of products and services, in any manner or to provide information, materials, products, or services in exchange for compensation of any kind.

C. Acceptable employment announcements must:

a. clearly identify announcement as "Employment Opportunity" at the beginning of the subject line,
b. include information about the application process, AND
c. include contact information.

Any postings that do not comply all with these requirements may be rejected.

V. Legal Issues

A. Defamation Laws. Defamation laws, such as laws prohibiting libel and slander, generally prohibit untruthful statements. Truthful statements and statements of opinion are generally allowed.

B. Copyright Laws. Copyright laws protect the copying, modification and display of certain tangible expressions. By posting Content (as defined in Item F, below) using the Forum, Users grant to ACCIS a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, irrevocable license to use, reproduce, distribute, create derivative works of, display, and broadcast that Content. Subscribers agree that ASSIC shall be free to use any ideas, concepts or techniques contained in your Content for any and all purposes. By posting Content, Users represent their ownership of the copyright with respect to such material, and/or have received permission from the copyright owner, or the material is in the public domain.

C. Antitrust Laws. The antitrust laws generally prohibit any agreement or understanding inconsistent with the right and obligation of competitors to exercise independent business judgment in pricing their products or services, dealing with their customers and suppliers, and selecting the markets in which to compete. Subscribers agree not to post any information concerning market shares, salaries, costs, sales territories or profit margins.

D. No Political Activity. Because ACCIS is a Section 501(c)(3) organization, Subscribers may not use this forum to discuss or advocate for the election or defeat of any candidate for political office, whether at the federal, state or local level.

E. Monitoring of Forum. While ACCIS may monitor, remove or delete Content, ACCIS is under no obligation to monitor, remove or delete any transmissions. ACCIS exercises no editorial review and assumes no responsibility for misleading, fraudulent, defamatory, libelous, threatening, harassing, pornographic, obscene or illegal Content supplied to this site; provided, however, that ACCIS may take any action with respect to any Content that ACCIS deems in its sole discretion is necessary or appropriate, including the deletion of any such Content. ACCIS reserves the right to monitor any and all activity using the Forum and may notify the proper law enforcement officials suspicious activity is detected.

F. Disclaimer. The opinions, advice, statements and judgments or other information or content expressed or made available made by Forum Users and the matters discussed using the e-list ("Content") are those of the respective author(s) or distributor(s) and not of ACCIS. ACCIS neither endorses nor is responsible for the accuracy or reliability of any Content.

USERS USE OF THE FORUM OR ANY OF THE CONTENT IS AT THEIR OWN RISK. THE FORUM AND THE CONTENT ARE PROVIDED "AS-IS" AND "AS-AVAILABLE." ACCIS DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES WITH RESPECT TO THE FORUM AND THE CONTENT, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, ANY WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY, SATISFACTION, FITNESS FOR PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE AND/OR NON-INFRINGEMENT.

USERS HAVE THE SOLE RESPONSIBILITY FOR VERIFYING THE COMPLETENESS, ACCURACY, RELIABILITY, QUALITY AND TIMELINESS OF ALL CONTENT. ACCIS SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, INDIRECT OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, OR DAMAGES OF ANY KIND WHATSOEVER, RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OF THE FORUM OR ANY CONTENT.

These agreements were adopted for the ACCIS Forum with written permission from NACAC.