Community Rules & Etiquette and Privacy Guidelines
Thank you for being part of our community. To ensure the best possible experience for all members, we have established some basic guidelines for participation.
By joining and using this community, you agree that you have read and will follow these rules and guidelines. You also agree to reserve discussions, shared files, and content to those that are best suited to the medium. This is a great medium with which to solicit the advice of your peers, benefit from their experience, and participate in an ongoing conversation. Questions should be directed to our member services department via the Contact Us link on this site.
Please take a moment to acquaint yourself with these important guidelines. If you have questions, contact the member services department. In order to preserve an environment that encourages both civil and fruitful dialogue, we reserve the right to suspend or terminate membership in this community for anyone who violates these rules.
The Rules
- Respect others. Focus on the content of posts and not on the people making them. Please extend the benefit of the doubt to newer guests and members; there’s no such thing as a stupid question.
- Respect the purpose of the community. Use the community to share successes, challenges, constructive feedback, questions, and goals instead of products or services that you provide. If you’ve found a product or service helpful, please share your experience with the group in a respectful way.
- Use caution when discussing products. Information posted on the discussion groups and in the libraries is available for all to see, and comments are subject to libel, slander, and antitrust laws.
- All defamatory, abusive, profane, threatening, offensive, or illegal materials are strictly prohibited. Do not post anything that you would not want the world to see or that you would not want anyone to know came from you.
- Respect intellectual property. Post content that you have personally created or have permission to use and have properly attributed to the content creator.
- When posting items in our collaborative environment, please indicate if the item is not available for reuse. It’s also advisable to contact the owner of any material if you would like to reuse it.
- Post your message or documents only to the most appropriate communities. This helps ensure all messages receive the best response by eliminating "noise."
Discussion Group Etiquette
- State concisely and clearly the topic of your comments in the subject line. This allows members to respond more appropriately to your posting and makes it easier for members to search the archives by subject.
- Send messages such as "thanks for the information" or "me, too" to individuals, not to the entire list. Do this by using the "Reply to Sender" link in every message.
- Do not send administrative messages, such as “remove me from the list,” to the group. Instead, use the web interface to change your settings or to remove yourself from a list. If you are changing email addresses, you do not need to remove yourself from the list and rejoin under your new email address. Simply change your settings.
Legal Requirements
This site is provided as a service for the members of The Vision Council. The Vision Council is not responsible for the opinions and information posted on this site by others. We disclaim all warranties with regard to information posted on this site, whether posted by The Vision Council or any third party; this disclaimer includes all implied warranties of merchantability and fitness. In no event shall The Vision Council be liable for any special, indirect, or consequential damages or any damages whatsoever resulting from loss of use, data, or profits, arising out of or in connection with the use or performance of any information posted on this site.
Do not post any defamatory, abusive, profane, threatening, offensive, or illegal materials. Do not post any information or other material protected by copyright without the permission of the copyright owner. By posting material, the posting party warrants and represents that he or she owns the copyright with respect to such material or has received permission from the copyright owner. In addition, the posting party grants The Vision Council and users of this site the nonexclusive right and license to display, copy, publish, distribute, transmit, print, and use such information or other material.
Messages should not be posted if they encourage or facilitate members to arrive at any agreement that either expressly or impliedly leads to price fixing, a boycott of another's business, or other conduct intended to illegally restrict free trade. Messages that encourage or facilitate an agreement about the following subjects are inappropriate: prices, discounts, or terms or conditions of sale; salaries; profits, profit margins, or cost data; market shares, sales territories, or markets; allocation of customers or territories; or selection, rejection, or termination of customers or suppliers.
The Vision Council does not actively monitor the site for inappropriate postings and does not on its own undertake editorial control of postings. However, in the event that any inappropriate posting is brought to the attention of The Vision Council, we will take all appropriate action.
The Vision Council reserves the right to terminate access to any user who does not abide by these guidelines.
Privacy Policy
Any personal information you provide to us, including and similar to your name, address, telephone number, and e-mail address, will not be released, sold, or rented to any entities or individuals outside of our organization except as noted below.
With Whom Do We Share the Personal Information We Collect Through This Site:
Our Service Providers
We may share your personal information with companies (including our affiliates) that perform services on our behalf, for example, companies that help process credit card payments. Our service providers are required by contract to protect the confidentiality of the personal information we share with them and to use it only to provide specific services on our behalf.
Business Transfers
Your personal information may be transferred to another entity (either an affiliated entity or an unrelated third party) in connection with a merger, reorganization, dissolution, or similar corporate event. If such a transfer were ever to occur, the acquiring entity’s use of your personal information will still be subject to this Privacy Policy.
Government and Legal Disclosures
We may disclose the personal information we collect through this Site, when we, in good faith, believe disclosure is appropriate to comply with the law (or a court order or subpoena); to prevent or investigate a possible crime, such as fraud or identity theft; to enforce our Terms and Conditions or other agreements that govern your use of this Site; or to protect the rights, property or safety of our company, our users, or others.
External Sites
We are not responsible for the content of external internet sites. You are advised to read the privacy policy of external sites before disclosing any personal information.
Cookies
A "cookie" is a small data text file that is placed in your browser and allows us to recognize you each time you visit this site (personalization, etc). Cookies themselves do not contain any personal information, and we do not use cookies to collect personal information. Cookies may also be used by 3rd party content providers such as news-feeds.
Remember The Risks Whenever You Use The Internet
While we do our best to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of any information that you transmit to us, and you are solely responsible for maintaining the secrecy of any passwords or other account information. In addition, other Internet sites or services that may be accessible through our site have separate data and privacy practices independent of us, and therefore, we disclaim any responsibility or liability for their policies or actions. Please contact those vendors and others directly if you have any questions about their privacy policies. For any other information, please contact us using the Contact Us page.
The Vision Council Antitrust Compliance Policy
The Vision Council (TVC) has a policy of strict compliance with the federal and state antitrust laws. The antitrust laws prohibit certain combinations and agreements among competitors that may restrain trade. A participant’s conduct at all TVC-sponsored or TVC-scheduled meetings and events must strictly comply with the antitrust laws. The penalties for violations of the antitrust laws are both criminal and civil and can be very severe, not only for TVC but also for participant companies and individuals. Participants at industry association events can be considered to be competitors in the context of antitrust challenges even if their businesses are not in the same geographic areas or in the same product lines.
Participants at TVC meetings and events cannot come to understandings, make agreements, or otherwise concur on positions or activities that in any way tend to raise, lower, or stabilize prices or fees, divide up markets, or encourage boycotts. Each individual or company must decide for themselves, without consultation with competitors, how to conduct business and with whom they will do business.
Specifically, event participants and TVC members cannot agree on:
· Current or future prices or fees, price or fee changes, discounting, regulation of production, and other terms and conditions of sale or of providing services. Members should be extremely careful about discussing prices or fees. Agreements on pricing or fees are clearly illegal. Even price or fee discussions by competitors, if followed by parallel action among the competitors on pricing or fees, can lead to antitrust investigations and charges.
· Allocating or monopolizing territories or customers. Any agreement by competitors to “honor,” “protect,” or “avoid invading” one another’s market areas or product lines would violate the law.
· Refusing to do business with those whose legal business practices they oppose. Competitors can discuss the policies or practices of suppliers, reimbursements, and other third parties, but they must never threaten directly or indirectly to act jointly to enforce changes to those policies or practices.
Tariffs are a major concern, and during member sessions, tariff rules and compliance procedures may be discussed. However, participants may not volunteer any comments or suggestions about their pricing strategies or ask other participants about their pricing strategies.
The antitrust laws are complicated and often unclear. If any member is concerned that he or she may be in a “gray area,” that member should consult with TVC’s senior executives or legal counsel.
If the conversation among competitors at a TVC meeting turns to antitrust-sensitive issues, participants should discontinue the conversation until legal advice is obtained, or else leave the meeting immediately.
Prepared by James Anderson, TVC General Counsel, as a component of the TVC Antitrust Compliance Policy.