Terms of Service

These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern access to and use of the website and online services operated by the Chebacco Lake & Watershed Association ("CLWA," "we," "us," or "our"), including chebaccolake.org.

By accessing or using CLWA's website or online services, you agree to these Terms.

Users are responsible for providing reasonably accurate account information, maintaining the security of their password and account, not sharing access credentials improperly, using only accounts they are authorized to use, and promptly notifying CLWA if they believe an account has been compromised.

You may not impersonate another person, misrepresent your identity, create an account for deceptive purposes, or attempt to obtain unauthorized access to another user's account.

CLWA may connect a website account with an existing CLWA membership or association record when CLWA can reasonably and reliably identify the appropriate record.

Users may submit Community posts, comments, photographs, videos, fishing reports, wildlife observations, environmental observations, lake-condition information, hazard reports, lost-and-found posts, marketplace listings, event submissions, article comments, and other community-related material.

You are responsible for content you submit. Do not submit information that you know to be materially false, misleading, unlawful, dangerous, or submitted without appropriate rights or permission.

You retain ownership of original content you submit to CLWA.

By submitting content through a feature intended for publication, Community participation, promotion, or organizational use, you grant CLWA a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to host, store, reproduce, display, distribute, publish, format, resize, adapt for presentation, promote, and feature that content in connection with CLWA's nonprofit mission and operations.

This may include use through the CLWA website, CLWA social-media accounts, newsletters, annual reports, educational publications, watershed or stewardship materials, membership materials, fundraising communications, event materials, and other CLWA-operated communications. This license does not transfer ownership of your original content to CLWA.

CLWA may provide attribution when appropriate and practical but is not required to provide attribution for every use. By uploading content, you represent that you created it or have permission to use it and that CLWA's authorized use will not knowingly violate another person's intellectual-property or privacy rights.

CLWA may use automated moderation technology supplied by OpenAI to review Community posts, comments, photographs, videos, event submissions, and article comments.

Automated systems may evaluate content for potential policy violations, assign a risk score, flag content for human review, automatically approve content that does not appear to present a concern, or temporarily hold content before or after publication while it is reviewed.

Automated systems can make mistakes. A human CLWA moderator makes the final decision to reject or permanently remove submitted content. A user who believes content was incorrectly held or moderated may contact CLWA through the Contact Us page and request review.

Users must comply with the CLWA Community Guidelines. Users may not use CLWA services to:

• threaten, harass, bully, stalk, intimidate, or discriminate against others;
• publish another person's private information without permission;
• impersonate another person or organization;
• distribute scams, spam, deceptive material, malware, or malicious files;
• coordinate or promote unlawful activity or knowingly submit dangerous misinformation;
• interfere with website operation or bypass access controls;
• access private member, Board, administrative, financial, or other restricted information without authorization;
• scrape or systematically extract nonpublic information;
• attempt to defeat authentication, authorization, moderation, rate limits, or other security protections; or
• use the service in a manner that materially threatens users, CLWA, or CLWA systems.

CLWA is a Section 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. CLWA-controlled Community services may not be used to promote or oppose a candidate for public office, political party, candidate committee, or political campaign.

Users may not use CLWA services for candidate endorsements or opposition, campaign advertisements, candidate or party fundraising, coordinated campaign activity, or partisan campaign promotion.

This rule does not prohibit respectful, nonpartisan discussion of public-policy, environmental, municipal, conservation, legislative, regulatory, or community issues relevant to Chebacco Lake and the watershed. CLWA may establish additional neutral rules for election-related or civic information when needed to protect the organization's nonprofit obligations.

CLWA is recognized as a Section 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Qualifying charitable contributions may be deductible to the extent permitted by applicable law.

The tax treatment of a payment may depend on the nature of the payment and whether goods, services, benefits, or membership privileges are received in exchange. CLWA may provide contribution acknowledgments or other documentation where appropriate. Users are responsible for consulting their own tax professional regarding individual tax consequences.

CLWA may provide Community marketplace, classified, lost-and-found, or similar person-to-person features. Unless explicitly stated otherwise, CLWA is not the seller, buyer, broker, agent, guarantor, or party to a transaction between users and does not inspect or guarantee listed items, a person's identity or reliability, payment, or performance.

Users should use appropriate judgment when meeting another person, transferring property, making payment arrangements, or responding to a listing. Suspicious or fraudulent listings should be reported to CLWA.

CLWA may publish, organize, accept submissions for, or provide registration for events. Event information may change.

CLWA does not guarantee that an event will occur as scheduled, that weather or environmental conditions will be suitable, that all advertised activities will be available, or that attendance will be free from ordinary risks associated with the event, location, boating, recreation, weather, water, wildlife, transportation, or other activities. Participants remain responsible for following event instructions, applicable laws, safety requirements, and reasonable precautions.

CLWA may publish information concerning water quality, bacteria, cyanobacteria or algae, lake levels, weather, water temperature, clarity, environmental measurements, wildlife, fishing, boating, navigation hazards, ice, recreational conditions, community observations, and other lake or watershed conditions.

This information may come from CLWA, volunteers, users, laboratories, public sources, automated systems, third parties, or other sources and may be incomplete, delayed, inaccurate, preliminary, outdated, geographically limited, or affected by changing conditions.

CLWA information is provided for general informational and educational purposes and is not a substitute for official public-health, medical, emergency, environmental, boating, weather, governmental, or law-enforcement guidance. Users should consult appropriate governmental agencies and qualified professionals when making health, safety, regulatory, medical, environmental, or legal decisions.

Certain features allow users to provide exact, approximate, or generalized location information. Users should consider the sensitivity of a location before publishing it, particularly for private residences, sensitive wildlife locations, fishing locations, vulnerable habitat, hazards, private property, and locations where public access may be restricted.

A public map marker does not establish that a location is public property or that public access, parking, swimming, boating, fishing, or entry is permitted. Users are responsible for respecting property rights, posted restrictions, access rules, and applicable law.

CLWA seeks to apply these Terms and the Community Guidelines consistently while preserving the discretion necessary to protect the community, the organization, and its systems.

CLWA may place content on hold, request clarification, restrict visibility, remove content, lock comments, restrict features, temporarily suspend an account, permanently disable an account, or take other reasonable action when CLWA believes the action is necessary to enforce these Terms, comply with law, prevent abuse, address security concerns, or protect users or the organization.

Moderation decisions may consider context, severity, history, risk, and the nature of the feature involved. Users may contact CLWA through the Contact Us page if they believe a moderation decision should be reviewed.

Questions regarding these Terms or requests for review of a moderation issue may be submitted through the Contact Us page on chebaccolake.org.

Chebacco Lake & Watershed Association
P.O. Box 2344
South Hamilton, MA 01982
United States