Welcome to www.UMCom.org, the website of United Methodist Communications (UMCom). UMCom.org is designed to provide Internet communications tools (the "Tools") to members and employees of The United Methodist Church, as well as, anyone involved in supporting the mission and ministry of The United Methodist Church, for the sole purpose of supporting the mission and ministry of The United Methodist Church. When using UMCom.org CommTools services (the "Service"), you agree to the terms and conditions listed on this page (the "Terms of Service Agreement"), which may be updated by us from time to time.

The Service may provide, or third parties may provide, links to other World Wide Web sites or resources. Because UMCom.org has no control over such sites and resources, you acknowledge and agree that UMCom is not responsible for the availability of such external sites or resources, and does not endorse and is not responsible or liable for any content, advertising, products, or other materials on or available from such sites or resources. You further acknowledge and agree that UMCom shall not be responsible or liable, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with use of or reliance on any such content, goods or services available on or through any such site or resource.

You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account number and/or password. You are responsible for all uses of your account, whether or not actually or expressly authorized by you.

UMCom grants you a non-exclusive, non-transferable license to create an account for and use the Service in accordance with this Terms of Service Agreement. The Service and any associated documentation are and shall remain the sole and exclusive property of UMCom.

You may not: (1) modify the Service, (2) publish, display, disclose, rent, lease, modify, loan, distribute, or create derivative works based on the Service or its Documentation or any part thereof without the express written permission of UMCom, (3) remove, obliterate, or cancel from view any copyright, trademark, confidentiality or other proprietary notice, mark or legend appearing on the Tools, (4) reverse engineer, decompile, translate, adapt or dissemble the Service, nor shall you attempt to create the source code from the object code for the Service without the express written permission of UMCom, or (5) assign the license for the Service.

To enable UMCom to protect our customers and respond to customer needs and complaints you consent to UMCom employees being able to access your account and records on a case-by-case basis to investigate complaints or other allegations or abuse. UMCom shall not disclose the existence or occurrence of such an investigation unless required by law.

All chat, e-mail, and bulletin boards communications, even though intended for a private audience, are subject to public access. Although we reserve the right to remove without notice any bulletin board posting for any reason, we have no obligation to delete content that you may find objectionable or offensive.

Information and opinions expressed in bulletin boards or other Forums are not necessarily those of UMCom. Users alone are responsible for the contents of the messages they communicate when using our services as well as the consequences of any such messages.

However, you agree not to use the Service to:

1. upload, post, email, transmit or otherwise make available any content that is unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, tortuous, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, pornographic or sexually explicit, libelous, invasive of another’s privacy, hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable to UMCom.

2. upload, post, email, transmit or otherwise make available content  that violates laws or regulations designed to protect minors.

3. impersonate any person or entity, including, but not limited to, the UMCom webmaster, forum leader, guide or host, of falsely state or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with a person on entity;

4. forge headers or otherwise manipulate identifiers in order to disguise the origin of any Content transmitted through the Service;

5. upload, post, email, transmit or otherwise make available any content that you do not have a right to make available under any law or under contractual or fiduciary relationships (such as inside information, proprietary and confidential information learned or disclosed as part of employment relationships or under nondisclosure agreements);

6. upload, post, email, transmit or otherwise make available any Content that infringes any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright or other proprietary right ("Rights") of any party;

7. upload, post, email, transmit or otherwise make available any unsolicited or unauthorized advertising, promotional materials, junk mail, spam, chain letters, pyramid schemes, or any other form of solicitation.

8. Intentionally upload, post, email, transmit or otherwise make available nay material that contains software viruses or any other computer code, files or programs designed to interrupt, destroy or limit the functionality of any computer software or hardware on telecommunications equipment;

9. Disrupt the normal flow of dialogue, cause a screen to scroll faster than other users of the Service are able to type, or otherwise act in a manner that negatively affects other users’ ability to engage in real time exchanges;

10. Interfere with or disrupt the Service or servers or networks connected to the Service, or disobey any requirements, procedures, policies or regulations of networks connected to the Service;

11. Intentionally or unintentionally violate any applicable local, state, national or international law, including, but not limited to, regulations promulgated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, any rules of any national or other securities exchange, including, without limitation, the New York Stock Exchange, the American Stock Exchange or the NASDAQ, and any regulations having the force of law;

12. Stalk or otherwise harass another, or

13. Collect or store personal data about other users.

If, in using the Service, you become a manager of one of the Tools, you agree to respond in a timely manner to all requests, queries and complaints from that Tool’s users, and that you will comply with any directives from UMCom regarding the proper use of the Tool.

Except as otherwise expressly permitted under copyright law, you agree not to reproduce, retransmit, disseminate, sell, distribute, publish, broadcast or circulate the information received through the Service to anyone, including, but not limited to, others in the same company or organization, without the express prior written consent of UMCom.

We may modify or discontinue of services or your account with us, with or without notice, without liability to you, any other user or any third party. We reserve the right to terminate your account if we learn that you have provided us with false or misleading registration information, interfered with other users or the administration of UMCom’s services, or violated these Terms of Service.

You understand and agree that UMCom’s services are provided AS-IS. UMCom assumes no responsibility for the timeliness, deletion, mis-delivery or failure to store any user communications or personalization settings.

YOU UNDERSTAND AND EXPRESSLY AGREE THAT USE OF UMCOM’S SERVICES ARE AT YOUR SOLE RISK, THAT ANY MATERIAL AND/OR DATA DOWNLOADED OR OTHERWISE OBTAINED THROUGH THE USE OF UMCOM’S SERVICES IS AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION AND RISK AND THAT YOU WILL BE SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGE TO YOUR COMPUTER SYSTEM OR LOSS OF DATA THAT RESULTS FROM THE DOWNLOAD OF SUCH MATERIAL AND/OR DATA.

EXCEPT AS EXPRESSLY SET FORTH ON OUR SITES, UMCOM DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION ANY WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR NON-INFRINGEMENT AND IT MAKES NO WARRANTY OR REPRESENTATION REGARDING THE RESULTS THAT MAY BE OBTAINED FROM THE USE OF UMCOM’S SERVICES, REGARDING THE ACCURARCY OR RELIABILITY OF ANY INFORMATION OBTAINED THROUGH UMCOM’S SERVICES OR THAT UMCOM’S SERVICES WILL MEET ANY USER’S REQUIREMENTS, BE UNINTERRUPTED, TIMELY, SECURE OR ERROR FREE.

UMCOM WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES OF ANY KIND RESULTING FROM THE USE OF OR THE INABILITY TO USE UMCOM’S SERVICES, RESULTING FROM ANY GOODS OR SERVICES PURCHASED OR OBTAINED OR MESSAGES RECEIVED OR TRANSACTION ENTERED INTO THROUGH UMCOM’S SERVICES, RESULTING FROM LOSS OF, UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS TO OR ALTERATION OF A USER’S TRANSMISSIONS OR DATA OR FOR THE COST OF PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS AND SERVICES, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF PROFITS, USE, DATA OR OTHER INTANGIBLES, EVEN IF UMCOM HAD BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

You agree to indemnify, defend and hold harmless UMCom, its affiliates, officers, directors, employees, consultants and agents from any and all third party claims, liability, damages and/or costs (including, but not limited to, attorneys fees) arising from your use of our services, your violation of the Terms of Service or your infringement, or infringement by any other user of your account, of any intellectual property or other right of any person or entity. The Terms of Service will inure to the benefit of UMCom’s successors, assigns and licensees.

These Terms of Service will be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Tennessee. Any action brought to enforce this agreement or matters related to the site shall be brought in either the state or federal courts of Tennessee. If for any reason a court of competent jurisdiction finds any provision or portion of the Terms of Service to be unenforceable, the remainder to the Terms of Service will continue in full force and effect.

These Terms of Service constitute the entire agreement between the parties with respect to the subject matter hereof and supersedes and replace all prior or contemporaneous understandings or agreements, written or oral, regarding such subject matter. Any waiver of any provision of the Terms of Service will be effective only if in writing and signed by UMCom.

Please report any violations of the Terms of Service to websupport@umcom.org