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​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Acceptance of Terms

www.cooperative.com and the information and materials available through this website are offered to you ("you" or "user") by the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) and such other sponsors subject to the following terms of use, together with any documents expressly incorporated herein by reference (collectively, these “Terms of Use”), govern your access to and use of cooperative.com, including any content, functionality, and services offered on or through cooperative.com, whether available through the public portion or the password-protected portion of the website (the “Website”), whether as a guest or a registered user. In addition, you are also subject to any posted guidelines, rules or policies. All such guidelines, rules or policies are hereby incorporated by reference into these Terms of Use. These Terms of Use, and all guidelines, rules and policies are subject to change at any time without prior notice to you unless otherwise expressly stated otherwise. Your continued use of the Website following the posting of revised Terms of Use means that you accept and agree to any changes.

Please read the Terms of Use carefully before you use the Website. By accessing this Website, you agree to be bound and abide by these Terms of Use and NRECA’s Privacy Policy incorporated herein by reference. If you do not agree to these Terms of Use, please discontinue your use of the Website immediately.

Site Description & Accessing the Website

The publicly available portion of this Website (“Public Website”) is directed toward the public and its contents include news, information and events of interest pertaining to the electric cooperative industry. The password-protected portion of this Website (“Member Website”) is directed toward employees and directors of NRECA member cooperatives, and its contents include news, information and events of interest to electric cooperatives, co-op employee professional resources and communities, conferences and educational offerings, an NRECA membership directory, discussion areas, products, programs and services information, and links to other resources.

To access the Member Website or some of the resources it offers, you will be asked to provide certain registration details. It is a condition of your use of the Website that all the information you provide on the Website is correct, current, and complete. You agree that all information you provide to register with this Website or otherwise, including but not limited to the use of any interactive features on the Website, is governed by NRECA’s Privacy Policy, and you consent to all actions we take with respect to your information consistent with such privacy policy.

If you are provided with a user name, password, or any other piece of information as part of the Website security procedures, you must treat such information as confidential, and you must not disclose it to or share it with any other person or entity. You also acknowledge that your account is personal to you and you agree to not provide any other person with access to this Website or portions of it using your user name, password, or other security information. ​

Proprietary Rights & Copyright Agent

This Website and its entire contents, features, and functionality are owned and operated by NRECA, its licensors, or other providers of such material. You acknowledge and agree that information presented to you through the Website is protected by copyrights, trademarks, service marks, or other proprietary rights and laws. You are permitted to use the Website for your personal, non-commercial use. In addition, you may use the Website content as set forth in the Copyright Policy Statement, incorporated herein by reference, which is subject to change at any time.

NRECA’s name, logo and all related names, logos, product and service names, designs and slogans are trademarks of NRECA or its affiliates or licensors. You must not use such marks without the prior written permission of NRECA or their respective owners.

In providing the Website, NRECA may have included content provided by third parties. NRECA respects the intellectual property rights of others and will remove content that appears to infringe any copyright or other intellectual property rights. NRECA reserves the right to terminate access to the Website for any user who posts infringing content.

If you believe that you or your company’s intellectual property has been copied in a way that constitutes copyright or trademark infringement, or you or your company’s intellectual property rights have been otherwise violated, please contact NRECA’s Copyright Agent and provide the following information:​

  • a description of the copyrighted work or other intellectual property that you believe has been infringed;
  • a description of where that material is located on the Website;
  • your mailing address, telephone number, and email address;
  • a statement by you, made under penalty of perjury, that: (1) you have a good faith belief that the disputed use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; (2) the above information in your notice is accurate; and (3) you are the copyright or intellectual property owner or are authorized to act on the copyright or intellectual property owner's behalf;
  • your physical or electronic signature.

NRECA’s Copyright Agent for notice of allegations of copyright or other intellectual property infringement can be reached as follows:

By mail:
Michael Lynch
National Rural Electric Cooperative Association
4301 Wilson Blvd.
Arlington, VA 22203

By phone: 703-907-5735

Your notice will be evaluated and appropriate action will be taken.

Links and Social Media Features

This Website contains links and pointers to other websites maintained by third parties solely as a convenience to users of this Website. NRECA does not operate or control, in any respect, and does not necessarily endorse or recommend these websites, their operators or content. You acknowledge and agree that NRECA is not responsible or liable for the availability of such third-party sites, their content, or anything obtained through such third-party sites.

The Website may provide certain social media features that enable you to link from your own or certain third-party websites to certain content on this Website, send emails or other communications with certain content, or link to certain content on this Website, or cause limited portions of content on this Website to be displayed or appear to be displayed on your own or certain third-party websites. You may use these features solely as they are provided by NRECA, and solely with respect to the content they are displayed with. Subject to the foregoing, you must not establish a link from any website that is not owned by you. Further, you agree to cooperate with us to remove any such links or content upon NRECA’s request. NRECA may disable all or any social media features and any links at any time without notice in its sole discretion.

Geographic Restrictions

The owner of this Website is based in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. NRECA provides this Website for use only by persons located in the United States. NRECA makes no claims that the Website or any of its content is accessible or appropriate outside of the United States.​

User Conduct, Postings & Submissions​

As noted in NRECA’s Monitoring Policy incorporated herein by reference, NRECA may monitor all communications, related data and activity on the Website, but does not actively undertake to monitor the content of such communications, data and activity. Nevertheless, NRECA reserves the right to monitor, and to edit, remove, or refuse to make available anything submitted or posted by you to the Website that violates these Terms of Use or other rules or policies, or is otherwise objectionable, in its sole discretion.

It is your responsibility as a user of the Website to ensure that any message, information, communications, data, text or other material ("Content") that you submit or post to or via the Website is lawful and appropriate. Any Content posted to the Website shall be considered non-confidential and non-proprietary. When submitting or posting Content to the Website or otherwise using this Website, you agree to:

  • Not submit or post any Content that is unlawful, threatening, defamatory, hateful, obscene, or otherwise offensive, or that may be invasive of another's privacy, business or trade secrets (including disclosures of confidential or proprietary business information).
  • Not violate any applicable local, state, national or international law, including but not limited to the regulations promulgated by the U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Trade Commission, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Rural Utilities Service, and any other rules or regulations having the force of law.
  • Use caution when discussing or describing potential business opportunities, strategic business plans, potential business "partners," and specific products or services in compliance with NRECA’s current Antitrust Policy​ incorporated herein by reference. Content you submit or post should be assumed to be public knowledge --available for anyone to see-- and any statements you make are subject to applicable laws including libel, slander, and antitrust laws. In particular, discussions on any email discussion list, forum, or chat that may encourage or facilitate an agreement on the following topics are prohibited:
    • ​prices for products or services (either yours or a competitor's, including another co-op's);
    • costs, discounts, terms of sale, profit margins or other things that might affect pricing to customers;
    • allocation of customers or territories;
    • whether or not to deal with any other company; and
    • whether or not to bid in a particular bidding process.
  • Not send any "commercial" Content, such as unsolicited advertising, promotional materials, or any other form of solicitation for or endorsement of particular vendors or their products of services, nor collect, store or transfer the personally identifiable information (including email addresses) of other users to any third party for the purpose of sending such commercial Content.
  • Not submit or post any Content that may infringe any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright or other proprietary rights ("Intellectual Property") of any third party. By submitting or posting Content through the Website, you represent and warrant that you have the necessary right, license or permission to use any relevant Intellectual Property, and grant to NRECA and its licensees and other Website users a non-exclusive right and license to display, copy, publish, distribute, transmit, print, and use the Intellectual Property without compensation to you or further attribution to you.
  • Grant to NRECA and its licensees the irrevocable, transferable and worldwide right to sublicense, print, copy, display, distribute or otherwise use the Content that you submit or post to the Website, and to sell, lease, give or otherwise transfer any ideas, concepts or other information you submit or post to the Website without compensation to you or further attribution to you.
  • Not knowingly submit or post any Content that contains software viruses or any other computer code, files or programs that interrupt, destroy or limit the functionality of the Website or any computer hardware, software or networks connected to the Website, or that otherwise disrupt the normal flow of communications on the Website.
  • Not use any robot, spider, or other automatic device, process, or means to access the Website for any purpose, including monitoring or copying any of the material on the Website.
  • Not impersonate or attempt to impersonate NRECA, its staff, another user, or any other person or entity.
  • Not engage in any other conduct that restricts or inhibits anyone’s use or enjoyment of this Website, or which, as determined by NRECA, may harm NRECA or users of the Website or expose them to liability.
  • Not interfere or attempt to interfere with the proper working of the Website.

Disclaimers

Disclaimer of Warranties: NRECA and any Website sponsors shall not be responsible or liable for the accuracy, usefulness or availability of any information transmitted or made available via the Website, and shall not be responsible or liable for any decisions or actions you may take based on information provided via the Website. The Website and any information obtained from the Website are for educational and informational purposes only, and do not constitute expert, professional, financial or legal advice or opinion. If you rely on and/or use any information you obtain via the Website, you do so at your own risk.

Information posted here is provided "AS IS" and NRECA and the Website sponsors hereby disclaim all warranties regarding this information, whether posted by NRECA, one or more sponsors, or any third party; this disclaimer includes implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement. (If you live in a state which does not permit disclaimers of implied warranties, this part of our disclaimer may not apply to you.)

NRECA and any of the Website sponsors further disclaim all warranties that this Website shall be operated free of delays in transmission, failure in performance, computer viruses, inaccuracies or errors in the materials, or other errors or defects.

Limitation of Liability: In no event shall NRECA or Website sponsors 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 the Website or any information, materials, products or services obtained via the Website. (If you live in a state which does not permit the limitation or exclusion of liability for incidental or consequential damages, part of this section may not apply to you.)

Indemnification: You agree to indemnify and hold NRECA and Website sponsors, and their affiliates, officers, directors, employees, contractors, licensees, and agents, harmless from any and all claims, losses, liabilities, costs and expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising from or in connection with your use of the Website, your violation of the Terms of Use or other Website policies, or your violation of any rights of another. ​

Termination

NRECA reserves the right to remove any Content posted by users, and withdraw or amend this Website, and any service or material provided on the Website, in NRECA’s sole discretion without notice. In addition, NRECA reserves the right to terminate the Website temporarily or permanently without prior notice to users. NRECA and the Website sponsors further reserve the right, in its sole discretion, to terminate your access to the Website for any reason, including without limitation, failure to abide by these Terms of Use.

Entire Agreement

As noted above, these Terms​ of Use shall be deemed to include all other notices, policies, disclaimers and other terms contained on the Website; provided however, that in the event of a conflict between such other terms and the Terms of Use, the Terms of Use shall control. These Terms of Use constitute the entire agreement, and supersede and replace any and all prior oral or written agreements, representations, warranties, or other statements or documents, between NRECA and you regarding your use of the Website, including without limitation, your participation in any online professional community accessible through this Website.

Partial Invalidity

The invalidation of any provision, or any portion of a provision, of the Terms of Use by any entity with proper jurisdiction and authority does not invalidate the remaining provisions, or the remaining portion of a provision.

Applicable Law, Jurisdiction & Venue

All matters relating to the Website and these Terms of Use and any dispute or claim arising from or related to, shall be governed by, and interpreted under, the laws of the Commonwealth of Virginia, without regard to choice or conflicts of laws or rules. Any legal action regarding the Terms of Use shall be commenced and heard in the Circuit Court of Arlington County, Virginia or the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. NRECA and you agree to submit and consent to the jurisdiction and venue of these courts. You agree to irrevocably waive any right you may have to commence any action against NRECA or a sponsor in any other court and irrevocably waive any rights or defenses in any action before the above noted courts based on lack of personal jurisdiction or improper or inconvenient venue.

No Waiver

No waiver of any breach by you of the Terms of Use shall be deemed a further or continuing waiver of such term or condition or a waiver of any other term or condition, and any failure by NRECA to assert a right or provision under these Terms of Use shall not constitute a waiver of such right or provision.

Browser Support Policy

See browser support page for details.​

Your Comments or Concerns ​
This website is operated by NRECA located at 4301 Wilson Blvd., Arlington, VA 22203.

All notices of copyright infringement claims should be sent to the Copyright Agent designated above in the manner and by the means set out therein.

All other feedback, comments, requests for technical support, and other communications relating to the Website should be directed to: Michael Lynch at michael.lynch@nreca.coop.