Clear terms for website use and membership

1. About IMCC and These Terms

The Integrative Medicine Chamber of Commerce (IMCC) is an Alaska nonprofit corporation recognized by the IRS as a tax-exempt organization under Internal Revenue Code Section 501(c)(6). These Website & Membership Terms ("Terms") govern use of imcc.us, IMCC website accounts, paid membership subscriptions, the authenticated member directory, the Member Forum, and other website-operated services that expressly reference these Terms.

By using the website or creating an account, you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, do not create an account or use member-only features. Separate written agreements may apply to sponsorships, events, purchases, or other programs.

2. Membership Disciplines and Membership Levels

IMCC uses five disciplines/pathways to help members identify their area of participation:

• Health Professionals
• Organizations and Institutions
• Industry and Service Partners
• Students and Emerging Professionals
• Community and Advocates

A discipline/pathway is not a price tier and does not restrict paid website access. Access and benefits are controlled by the selected membership level across the IMCC website and all active IMCC pillars.

Founding Sponsor is a separate one-time sponsorship/founding opportunity currently offered at $100,000 and limited to seven positions. Founding Sponsor rights are governed by the applicable Founding Sponsor agreement and are not subject to the regular membership introductory-discount program described below.

3. Introductory First-Year Rollout Pricing

To support the initial rollout of the regular membership program, each regular membership level has its own independent introductory-discount sequence. The sequence is applied separately to Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze, General, and Access memberships.

The introductory discount applies only to the first membership year. The first renewal and every later renewal are charged at the regular full annual price then in effect for that membership level. The discount does not create a permanently grandfathered membership price and does not apply to Founding Sponsors.

4. Signup, Payment, and Activation

Paid membership is subscription-driven and is not subject to routine application approval. A membership activates immediately after the required signup steps and successful payment. Paid membership dues are processed through Stripe. IMCC does not store full payment-card numbers in its website database.

• There are no application, initiation, setup, or mandatory processing fees for regular membership.
• Members pay the published membership-level dues unless they separately purchase an optional product or service.
• A paid membership term lasts one year unless it ends earlier under these Terms.
• Board accounts are free, non-expiring, and not placed into Stripe billing.
• Employee accounts are free and are provisioned or adjusted by the primary administrator as needed.

5. Required Renewal Choice

Before payment, every paid member must affirmatively choose one of the following renewal methods. Neither option is selected by default:

• Manual Renewal - the member will initiate renewal payment before the membership expires.
• Automatic Renewal - the member authorizes IMCC to charge the saved payment method for annual renewal until automatic renewal is turned off.

Members may change their renewal preference at any time up to 24 hours before the scheduled automatic renewal charge. A change made after that cutoff applies to the following renewal cycle.

6. Renewal Notices and Renewal Price

• Manual Renewal: IMCC will send reminders approximately 30 days and 7 days before membership expiration.
• Automatic Renewal: IMCC will send reminders approximately 30 days and 7 days before the scheduled renewal charge.
• Introductory rollout discounts apply only to the first membership year. Renewal is at the regular full annual price then in effect for the selected membership level.

Applicable law may require additional disclosures, notices, or cancellation methods. IMCC will follow mandatory legal requirements even if they differ from the general process described in this draft.

7. Cancellation

An authorized member representative may cancel through the account dashboard or by a verified request to IMCC. Cancellation stops future renewal. Unless IMCC has separately terminated or suspended the membership, paid-member access continues through the end of the already-paid membership term and ends when that term expires.

Obligations that by their nature should survive cancellation or expiration - including payment obligations already incurred, content responsibility, intellectual-property obligations, and provisions intended to protect IMCC or other users - remain in effect to the extent stated in these Terms and permitted by law.

8. Refunds

Membership dues and fees are nonrefundable after payment except for:

• a duplicate charge;
• a refund required by applicable law; or
• another exception expressly approved by IMCC.

Cancellation prevents future renewal but does not create a prorated refund for the current paid term. Administrative termination for a violation of these Terms does not create a refund unless required by law or expressly approved by IMCC.

9. Membership-Level Changes

A membership-level change takes effect immediately when completed. The production Stripe integration will calculate proration from the unused portion of the current paid level and the remaining portion of the new level for the current term, and will display the resulting charge or credit before confirmation. Any legally required tax is handled according to the production tax configuration and applicable law. Introductory first-year pricing does not create a continuing discount after the first membership year.

10. Failed Payments, Lapse, and Account Retention

• Automatic Renewal: after a failed charge, IMCC will use a seven-day payment-recovery period. If payment remains unpaid after that period, paid access is cancelled.
• Manual Renewal: if the member does not initiate payment by the end of the membership term, paid access expires at the term end without an automatic charge.
• Inactive accounts and profiles may be retained for at least 90 days for recovery and may thereafter remain inactive for operational or recordkeeping purposes, subject to the Privacy Policy and applicable law.
• A user may request account deletion after identity verification, subject to records IMCC must or reasonably needs to retain.

11. Membership Benefits and Future Features

Members receive the active benefits assigned to their membership level. IMCC may label unbuilt benefits or programs as "Planned" or otherwise identify them as future features. A planned feature is not promised as currently available and may change before launch unless a separate written agreement states otherwise.

Events, public advocacy participation programs, expanded educational resources, and unbuilt networking tools are not represented as active launch benefits unless and until IMCC activates them.

12. Authenticated Member Directory

The IMCC Member Directory is an authenticated member feature. Directory entitlement is determined by membership level:

Directory profiles may include approved professional or business information supplied by members. IMCC does not verify degrees, licenses, certifications, professional affiliations, or other credentials merely because information appears in the directory. Directory inclusion is not an endorsement, referral, guarantee, or professional credentialing decision by IMCC.

Members are responsible for keeping their own profile information accurate. Directory data may not be scraped, bulk-downloaded, exported, or used to create a competing database or unsolicited marketing list.

13. Member Accounts and Security

• Account holders must provide truthful information and keep account credentials secure.
• Members may not impersonate another person or organization, share access in a way that defeats IMCC account controls, or attempt to bypass membership-status restrictions.
• IMCC may require password resets, identity verification, or other security steps when reasonably necessary to protect accounts or the website.
• Administrators are subject to multi-factor authentication requirements established by IMCC.

14. Member Forum and Member-Generated Content

The Member Forum is a member-only discussion space. It is not ordinarily moderated in advance by IMCC. Members are responsible for their own comments, statements, uploads, and other content, including any legal responsibility that may arise from that content.

• Member-generated content reflects the member's own views and does not represent an endorsement or statement by IMCC.
• Members may read, start, and reply to discussions in the forum areas available to their account.
• Member forum rules may establish editing windows, deletion-request procedures, attachment limits, notifications, reporting, nesting, and other operational features.
• IMCC may remove prohibited content or suspend access when needed to enforce these Terms, Forum rules, safety, security, or applicable law.

By posting content, a member grants IMCC a nonexclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to host, reproduce, display, format, and technically process that content as reasonably necessary to operate the forum and website. The member retains ownership of the member's original content, subject to this operational license and any rights of others.

15. Professional Conduct and Prohibited Use

IMCC members are expected to provide truthful information and communicate professionally. Prohibited use includes unlawful conduct, fraud, impersonation, harassment, threats, malicious technical activity, attempts to access another person's account or restricted data, deceptive health claims, and misuse of IMCC systems or content.

IMCC may issue a warning, restrict a feature, suspend access, or terminate membership when necessary for payment failure, security, fraud, abuse, violation of these Terms or Forum rules, or legal/compliance reasons.

16. No Membership Voting Rights

Membership carries no voting rights of any kind. No membership level or discipline grants Board, corporate-governance, organizational, program, working-group, advocacy, or other voting authority. Members may participate in available IMCC programs and activities, but participation does not create voting rights.

17. Sponsorships, Partners, and Endorsement

Sponsorship, coalition partnership, organizational membership, and public endorsement are distinct relationships. Sponsorship supports IMCC operations but does not, by itself, constitute IMCC endorsement of a sponsor, product, service, or health claim. Sponsors do not control IMCC editorial, governance, membership, or advocacy decisions.

Founding Sponsors are governed by separate written agreements. The regular membership introductory-discount program does not apply to Founding Sponsors.

18. Health, Medical, Legal, and Financial Information

IMCC website content is informational. It does not constitute medical advice, diagnosis, treatment, legal advice, financial advice, or tax advice and does not create a clinician-patient, attorney-client, fiduciary, or other professional relationship with IMCC. See the Medical and Health Information Disclaimer for additional details.

Do not send medical records, diagnoses, treatment details, or other sensitive health information through general IMCC website forms. IMCC does not provide emergency services. For a medical emergency, call 911 or the appropriate local emergency service.

19. Third-Party Services and Links

The website may use or link to third-party services including HostGator for website/database hosting and DNS configuration, GoDaddy Outlook / Microsoft 365 for IMCC email, Stripe for payments, Cloudflare for security and bot/traffic protection, Google Analytics 4 for consent-based website analytics, and Google Search Console for search-performance reporting. The production site may also use selected WordPress membership, account, directory, forum, form, consent-management, and embedded-media components. Third parties operate under their own terms and privacy practices. IMCC is not responsible for independent third-party websites or services that it does not control.

20. Privacy and Cookies

IMCC's collection and use of personal information is described in the Privacy Policy. Necessary cookies and similar technologies may be used for authentication, security, payment, consent preferences, and core website operation. Google Analytics 4 is treated as nonessential analytics and will remain off until the visitor gives the applicable analytics consent. Advertising pixels and remarketing/retargeting technologies are not approved for launch. Cookie and tracking practices must match the current Cookie & Tracking Notice and the production consent configuration.

21. IMCC Content and Intellectual Property

Unless otherwise stated, the IMCC name and marks, website design, original text, graphics, publications, and other IMCC-created content are owned by or licensed to IMCC. You may access and use website content for lawful personal or internal professional purposes. You may not reproduce, republish, sell, scrape, or commercially exploit IMCC content except with permission or as allowed by law.

Members and other authorized users retain ownership of original content they submit, but grant IMCC a nonexclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license reasonably necessary to host, display, reproduce, distribute, format, moderate, maintain, back up, and operate that content through IMCC website and member services. A submitter may provide only material the submitter owns or has permission to use.

Copyright or other rights complaints may be sent to info@imcc.us. If IMCC elects to rely on the federal DMCA Section 512 safe-harbor process for user-submitted content, IMCC will formally designate and register a DMCA agent and publish the required agent information before representing that procedure as active.

22. Disclaimers

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, the website and member services are provided on an "as available" basis. IMCC does not guarantee uninterrupted access, specific business results, professional referrals, website traffic, leads, sales, rankings, clinical outcomes, or that third-party content will always be accurate or available. Nothing in these Terms excludes warranties or rights that cannot lawfully be excluded.

23. Limitation of Liability

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, IMCC and its officers, directors, employees, agents, and service providers will not be liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages arising from use of the website or member services when such damages may lawfully be limited. Any additional liability cap, exclusions, or jurisdiction-specific carve-outs must be approved by legal counsel before publication.

24. Indemnification

To the extent permitted by law, a user or member may be responsible for losses, claims, or expenses arising from that person's unlawful conduct, infringement of another person's rights, or material breach of these Terms. Legal counsel should confirm the final scope, procedure, and any exceptions before this clause is published.

25. Changes to These Terms

IMCC will review these Terms at least annually and when website practices materially change. The website will display the current version and a "Last reviewed" date. Material changes will be posted on the website. IMCC will also email active paid members, Board members, and enabled employee accounts when a material change affects rights, payments, renewal choice, directory visibility, or account access.

A change to regular membership terms does not alter any separate contractual rights granted under a signed Founding Sponsor agreement.

26. Governing Law and Disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Alaska, except where mandatory applicable law requires otherwise. Before filing a legal action, the parties should make a good-faith effort to resolve the dispute through written notice to IMCC and a 30-day informal-resolution period. If the dispute is not resolved, it may be brought in an appropriate state or federal court located in Alaska that has jurisdiction. The current launch baseline does not require mandatory arbitration, a class-action waiver, a jury-trial waiver, or a predetermined liability cap; any such provision may be added only after specific IMCC legal review and approval. If any provision conflicts with mandatory law or is held unenforceable, it will be interpreted, limited, or severed as necessary without invalidating the remaining provisions.

27. Contact

Questions about these Terms may be directed to IMCC at 907-248-0602 or info@imcc.us. Do not send private medical information through the website or general email channel.