Terms and Conditions of Membership

AGREEMENT BETWEEN USER AND THE RAPID LEARNING CYCLES INSTITUTE WEB SITE (RLC-RC)

The Rapid Learning Cycles Institute Resource Center (RLC-RC) consists of various Web pages operated by Rapid Learning Cycles Institute, Inc. (RLCI) and managed by the Rapid Learning Cycles Institute Executive Director, Katherine Radeka ("Director").

The RLC-RC is offered to you conditioned on your acceptance without modification of the terms, conditions, and notices contained herein. Your use of the RLC-RC constitutes your agreement to all such terms, conditions, and notices.

MEMBERSHIP ELIGIBILITY

The RLC-RC is a free public service for active product developers, academic researchers with an interest in product development, and full-time students. Individuals become Members of the RLC-RC ("Members") by completing the RLC-RC membership sign-up form, providing a valid email address, and consenting to receive emails from the Rapid Learning Cycles Institute, or by doing business with the Rapid Learning Cycles Institute or one of its affiliates.

This site also includes private groups that are open only to Rapid Learning Cycles Certified™ Professionals, verified owners of The Shortest Distance Between You and Your New Product,  or people registered for our classes and workshops.

Members are free to cancel their membership by unsubscribing from our emails at any time. If they cancel or unsubscribe, we may remove their membership from this site. If they are a Professional Member, we will continue to send emails related specifically to their Rapid Learning Cycles certification, unless they choose to revoke their certification.

Individuals or companies who directly compete with RLCI by providing products or services to product development organizations, or products and services that use the principles and practices of lean, agile, product development and/or innovation practices anywhere in the enterprise, are not eligible for membership without a personal invitation from the Director. The Director reserves the right to revoke anyone's membership at any time for any reason.

CONDITIONAL PERMISSION TO SHARE RESOURCES

For members of the Rapid Learning Cycles Certifed® Professionals Community, the terms of your License Agreement supercede the below terms, for those resources that you have licensed via your Certification.

Members of the RLC-RC may share Community Resources, such as Knowledge Briefs, Articles, Examples, Templates and other Resources (collectively "Resources") available through the RLC-RC with non-members within product development organizations and academic institutions subject to the following restrictions:

1. Resources must be shared in their entirety, as downloaded from the RLC-RC, with all copyright notices, attributions, acknowledgements, and branding intact.
2. Resources may not be shared with anyone who provides products or services that directly compete with RLCI's products or services, including anyone who provides products or services to product development organizations.
3. Academic members must request express written permission from the RLC-RC to incorporate Knowledge Briefs and other resources into workshops, seminars and courses for enrolled students.
4. Resources may not be used in any public setting, such as a publication, speaking or training event that is open to the general public or any event that is being conducted by an external service provider for hire, without obtaining express written permission from RLCI.
5. No one may use more than three Knowledge Briefs, examples or templates in any internal training program or academic course without obtaining express written permission from RLCI.
6. Templates that are designated as such in the Resource Center may be adapted for use within a member's product development organization, as long as the member's company does not sell products or services to product development organizations that directly compete with any offering from RLCI.

PROCESS TO OBTAIN ADDITIONAL PERMISSIONS

Members of the RLC-RC may request permission to use Resources or portions of Resources in ways that exceed the Conditional Permission granted above (for example, to incorporate a visual model from a Knowledge Brief into an internal presentation) by using the following process:

Send an email to the Director via the RLCI Contact Form that specifies the Resources or portions of Resources that the Member proposes to use, and describe how these materials will be used, a valid phone number, and several times when the Member will be available by telephone to answer any clarifying questions.

Once approval is granted, you must follow the directions given in the Director's approval email to properly denote the Resource's copyright, attribution and permission.

The Director may request a licensing fee for the content, especially if the use is commercial, extensive or public. If a licensing fee is requested, it must be paid in full prior to publication or distribution of the licensed content.

LINKS TO THIRD PARTY SITES

The RLC-RC may contain links to other Web Sites (“Linked Sites”). The Linked Sites are not under the control of the RLC-RC and the RLC-RC is not responsible for the contents of any Linked Site, including without limitation any link contained in a Linked Site, or any changes or updates to a Linked Site.

NO UNLAWFUL OR PROHIBITED USE

As a condition of your use of the RLC-RC, you warrant to the RLC-RC that you will not use the RLC-RC for any purpose that is unlawful or prohibited by these terms, conditions, and notices. You may not use the RLC-RC in any manner which could damage, disable, overburden, or impair the RLC-RC, RLCI, Whittier Consulting Group, Inc. or any content author, or interfere with any other party’s use and enjoyment of the RLC-RC. You may not obtain or attempt to obtain any materials or information through any means not intentionally made available or provided for through the RLC-RC.

USE OF COMMUNICATION SERVICES

The RLC-RC may contain bulletin board services, chat areas, news groups, forums, communities, personal web pages, calendars, and/or other message or communication facilities designed to enable you to communicate with the public at large or with a group (collectively, “Communication Services”), you agree to use the Communication Services only to post, send and receive messages and material that are proper and related to the particular Communication Service. By way of example, and not as a limitation, you agree that when using a Communication Service, you will not:

• Defame, abuse, harass, stalk, threaten or otherwise violate the legal rights (such as rights of privacy and publicity) of others.
• Publish, post, upload, distribute or disseminate any inappropriate, profane, defamatory, infringing, obscene, indecent or unlawful topic, name, material or information.
• Upload files that contain software or other material protected by intellectual property laws (or by rights of privacy of publicity) unless you own or control the rights thereto or have received all necessary consents.
• Upload files that contain viruses, corrupted files, or any other similar software or programs that may damage the operation of another’s computer.
• Advertise or offer to sell or buy any goods or services for any business purpose, unless such Communication Service specifically allows such messages.
• Conduct or forward surveys, contests, pyramid schemes or chain letters.
• Download any file posted by another user of a Communication Service that you know, or reasonably should know, cannot be legally distributed in such manner.
• Falsify or delete any author attributions, legal or other proper notices or proprietary designations or labels of the origin or source of software or other material contained in a file that is uploaded.
• Restrict or inhibit any other user from using and enjoying the Communication Services.
• Violate any code of conduct or other guidelines which may be applicable for any particular Communication Service.
• Harvest or otherwise collect information about others, including e-mail addresses, without their consent.
• Violate any applicable laws or regulations.

The RLC-RC has no obligation to monitor the Communication Services. However, the RLC-RC reserves the right to review materials posted to a Communication Service and to remove any materials in its sole discretion. The RLC-RC reserves the right to terminate your access to any or all of the Communication Services at any time without notice for any reason whatsoever.

The RLC-RC reserves the right at all times to disclose any information as necessary to satisfy any applicable law, regulation, legal process or governmental request, or to edit, refuse to post or to remove any information or materials, in whole or in part, at the RLC-RC's sole discretion.

Always use caution when giving out any personally identifying information about yourself or your children in any Communication Service. The RLC-RC does not control or endorse the content, messages or information found in any Communication Service and, therefore, the RLC-RC specifically disclaims any liability with regard to the Communication Services and any actions resulting from your participation in any Communication Service.

Materials uploaded to a Communication Service may be subject to posted limitations on usage, reproduction and/or dissemination. You are responsible for adhering to such limitations if you download the materials.

MATERIALS SUBMITTED TO RLCI

The RLC-RC does not claim ownership of the materials you provide to RLC-RC (including feedback and suggestions) or post, upload, input or submit to the RLC-RC ("Submissions”). However, by posting, uploading, inputting, providing or submitting your Submission you are granting the RLC-RC, its affiliated companies and necessary sublicensees permission to use your Submission in connection with the operation of their Internet businesses including, without limitation, the rights to: copy, distribute, transmit, publicly display, publicly perform, reproduce, edit, translate and reformat your Submission; and to publish your name in connection with your Submission. No compensation will be paid with respect to the use of your Submission, as provided herein.

By posting, uploading, inputting, providing or submitting your Submission you warrant and represent that you own or otherwise control all of the rights to your Submission as described in this section including, without limitation, all the rights necessary for you to provide, post, upload, input or submit the Submissions.

MODIFICATION OF THESE TERMS OF USE

RLCI reserves the right to change the terms, conditions, and notices under which the RLC-RC is offered, including but not limited to the charges associated with the use of the RLC-RC.

GENERAL TERMS

To the maximum extent permitted by law, this agreement is governed by the laws of the State of Washington, U.S.A. and you hereby consent to the exclusive jurisdiction and venue of courts in Clark County, Washington, U.S.A. in all disputes arising out of or relating to the use of the RLC-RC. Use of the RLC-RC is unauthorized in any jurisdiction that does not give effect to all provisions of these terms and conditions, including without limitation this paragraph.

You agree that no joint venture, partnership, employment, or agency relationship exists between you and the RLC-RC as a result of this agreement or use of the RLC-RC. The RLC-RC's performance of this agreement is subject to existing laws and legal process, and nothing contained in this agreement is in derogation of the RLC-RCs right to comply with governmental, court and law enforcement requests or requirements relating to your use of the RLC-RC or information provided to or gathered by RLC-RC with respect to such use.

If any part of this agreement is determined to be invalid or unenforceable pursuant to applicable law including, but not limited to, the warranty disclaimers and liability limitations set forth above, then the invalid or unenforceable provision will be deemed superseded by a valid, enforceable provision that most closely matches the intent of the original provision and the remainder of the agreement shall continue in effect. Unless otherwise specified herein, this agreement constitutes the entire agreement between the user and the RLC-RC, and it supersedes all prior or contemporaneous communications and proposals, whether electronic, oral or written, between the user and the RLC-RC.

A printed version of this agreement and of any notice given in electronic form shall be admissible in judicial or administrative proceedings based upon or relating to this agreement to the same extent and subject to the same conditions as other business documents and records originally generated and maintained in printed form. It is the express wish to the parties that this agreement and all related documents be drawn up in English.

COPYRIGHT AND TRADEMARK NOTICES:

All contents of the Rapid Learning Cycles Institute web site are Copyright Whittier Consulting Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

TRADEMARKS

The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

Example companies, organizations, products, people and events depicted herein are fictitious. No association with any real company, organization, product, person, or event is intended or should be inferred.

Any rights not expressly granted herein are reserved.