Terms and Conditions
These terms govern access to and use of The Spark Unfolding Book Club website, member portal, digital library, Spark Commons, private organization groups, Convergence Q45 participant and alumni community, reading journeys, journals, original books, resources, gatherings, integrations, software, visual presentation, and related services operated by Dr. Brown Cares LLC. A participant accepts these terms through the acknowledgment presented with the cookie and privacy choices, organization or group application, invitation claim, and continued access or use.
Educational and reflective scope
The experience offers literary, educational, creative, and reflective resources. Participants remain responsible for their own choices, wellbeing, interpretations, and use of the materials. Urgent medical, mental-health, legal, financial, or safety concerns should be directed to an appropriately qualified professional or emergency resource.
Permanent saving and record stewardship
Eligible information entered into Book Club text boxes, selections, checklists, journals, reflections, intentions, reader controls, bookmarks, notes, message drafts, profiles, applications, recommendations, feedback, community areas, and administrative workflows may be saved automatically as a durable account or pseudonymous browser-session record. A visible save message may confirm successful server receipt. Local browser storage may also preserve a working copy and support interrupted-network recovery. Signed-in account storage is the intended cross-device pathway; a pseudonymous browser-session record may become difficult to recover if the participant clears browser storage or changes devices before signing in.
Passwords, authentication secrets, payment-card details, protected health information, and fields expressly excluded for security or privacy are not retained through the general automatic-saving layer. Participants must not place those categories, another person’s confidential information, or information they lack authority to provide into ordinary Book Club fields. Durable does not mean legally immutable or guaranteed without limit: records remain subject to user-directed deletion controls where supplied, verified privacy requests, account administration, security requirements, retention schedules, legal holds, applicable law, and unavoidable service or network interruption.
Authorized administrators may use the protected Saved Records and Analytics center to review administrator-visible entries, workflow submissions, save status, account or session association, route, field identifier, record category, character count, and timestamps. The content of entries designated as private journals, reflections, notes, annotations, intentions, or drafts is withheld from the general administrator records view unless the participant deliberately submits or shares it through a feature that clearly states the recipient. Administrator viewing and export activity may itself be logged.
Operational analytics and audit records
The Book Club may maintain essential operational analytics and audit records concerning page delivery, page views and exits, reading depth, reader starts and progress, bookmarks, note counts, saved-field events, form starts and submissions, membership and community workflows, navigation, accessibility and device context, errors, security events, consent state, and administrative actions. Routine analytics records do not include passwords or the body of private journals, reflections, notes, drafts, messages, or search terms. Optional interaction analytics activate only according to the participant’s recorded privacy choice where consent is required.
Accounts, access, and personal use
Member credentials and portal access are personal. Digital books, companion journals, downloads, and other original materials are licensed for the individual participant’s personal, noncommercial use unless a separate written license states otherwise. Copyright, trademark, and other intellectual-property rights remain with their respective owners.
Ownership and limited license
The site and its protectable elements, including original books, manuscripts, chapters, prompts, journals, curricula, community structures, graphics, photographs, generated visual assets, audio or video materials, page copy, compilations, databases, source code, object code, interfaces, workflows, taxonomies, selection and arrangement, brand presentation, and documentation, are owned by or licensed to The Spark Unfolding Book Club and its rights holders. Subject to these terms, each participant receives a limited, personal, revocable, nonexclusive, nontransferable license to access the experience for its intended individual reading, reflection, and community purposes.
Protected use restrictions
A participant may not, directly or through another person, organization, automated system, or artificial-intelligence system:
- copy, reproduce, republish, distribute, sell, sublicense, rent, lease, transfer, publicly display, publicly perform, or commercially exploit the site or any substantial part of its protected content;
- create, offer, commission, promote, or support a competing or substantially similar book-club platform, digital library, messaging community, reading journey, companion-journal system, coaching transition experience, membership program, or commercial service by using, adapting, translating, transforming, imitating, or deriving from protected site materials, confidential methods, code, interfaces, visual presentation, workflows, or compilations;
- reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble, decode, translate, inspect, probe, reconstruct, discover, or attempt to discover source code, object code, algorithms, data structures, database structures, prompts, system instructions, security controls, authentication methods, technical design, or underlying components, except to the limited extent a restriction is expressly prohibited by applicable law;
- scrape, crawl, spider, harvest, index, mirror, frame, download in bulk, capture systematically, or use automated means to extract content, member information, messages, metadata, training material, or site structure;
- use site content, data, messages, prompts, books, visuals, or outputs to train, fine-tune, benchmark, evaluate, seed, enrich, or operate an artificial-intelligence or machine-learning model, dataset, product, or service without prior written permission;
- circumvent, disable, interfere with, test, or defeat access controls, rate limits, portal protections, consent controls, technical restrictions, security features, or usage-monitoring measures;
- remove, conceal, alter, or falsify copyright, trademark, authorship, attribution, confidentiality, provenance, digital-rights, or proprietary notices;
- use the site, its protected expression, or its brand presentation in a manner likely to suggest sponsorship, affiliation, endorsement, origin, or authorization; or
- share credentials, grant unauthorized portal access, collect information about other members, or use community content outside the permissions given by its contributor.
Independent work and written licensing
General ideas, reading practices, and methods that applicable law leaves free for independent use remain available for lawful independent creation. Any independent work must arise from the creator’s own materials, code, research, visual identity, wording, structure, and implementation, without access to or use of protected site expression, confidential information, restricted technical elements, member content, or proprietary compilations. A broader use may be requested through a separate written license signed by an authorized rights holder.
A participant who receives privileged administrator, collaborator, contractor, partner, facilitator, beta, technical, or confidential access may not, during that access and for twelve months after it ends, use nonpublic information, protected workflows, confidential specifications, source materials, private demonstrations, security information, or privileged observations obtained through that access to create, commission, finance, support, or commercialize a competing or substantially similar platform, workflow, product, or service. This restriction protects nonpublic access and applies only to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law. A separate signed agreement may define additional duties for a particular privileged relationship.
Protection of the community and platform
Suspected infringement, unauthorized replication, scraping, credential sharing, circumvention, reverse engineering, or misuse may result in immediate suspension or termination of access, preservation of relevant records, removal of affected material, notice to service providers, and pursuit of available contractual, equitable, statutory, and other remedies. The participant agrees to cooperate with reasonable steps required to protect member privacy, platform security, and intellectual-property rights.
Community participation
Participants agree to engage with dignity, respect boundaries, preserve the confidentiality of community disclosures, refrain from harassment or unlawful conduct, and seek consent before offering personal advice. Organization administrators, leaders, and moderators agree to use their permissions solely for their assigned adult group, apply the Community Guidelines consistently, protect invitation codes and member information, document moderation through the provided controls, and escalate platform concerns to authorized Book Club administration. Access may be limited or ended when conduct threatens the wellbeing, privacy, security, or integrity of the community.
Nearby matching and location choices
Nearby Book Circle matching is limited to adults age 18 and older and begins only after a member affirmatively enables approximate-location use and matching visibility. The service may compare a member’s voluntarily selected city, state or region, country, travel radius, reading interests, availability, cadence, preferred group size, discussion style, language, accessibility preferences, participation role, and community preference. Compatibility scores and reasons are discovery aids. They do not represent screening, endorsement, certification, prediction of conduct, or a guarantee of compatibility, identity, character, qualifications, reliability, availability, or safety. Members may withdraw matching visibility and approximate-location permission prospectively through their profile.
Independent in-person activities
Book circles, meetings, gatherings, communications, travel, transportation, venues, lodging, food, activities, and related arrangements are voluntarily and independently selected, organized, hosted, and attended by users. Dr. Brown Cares LLC supplies technology, educational materials, private group spaces, and optional discovery tools. It does not organize, supervise, control, sponsor, endorse, monitor, insure, or assume responsibility for a user-arranged meeting or for the conduct of a member, organizer, host, guest, venue, transportation provider, or other third party.
Background-check and verification disclosure
Dr. Brown Cares LLC does not undertake criminal-history, sex-offender-registry, civil-record, identity, professional-credential, employment, education, reference, reputation, or other background investigations of members, organizers, hosts, guests, venue personnel, or third parties. An email, telephone, account, invitation, eligibility, or identity indicator describes completion of the stated verification step only. It supplies no representation or warranty concerning character, conduct, qualifications, trustworthiness, legality, reliability, or safety.
Assumption of risk and participant responsibility
To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, every user knowingly and voluntarily assumes the risks associated with online and in-person interactions, including interpersonal misconduct, harassment, stalking, crime, fraud, illness, communicable disease, allergy, food, weather, physical injury, disability, death, property loss, transportation, venue conditions, accessibility, and the acts or omissions of users and third parties. Each user remains responsible for personal judgment, public-venue selection, independent transportation, staged disclosure of personal information, emergency planning, and the decision to begin, continue, leave, report, or decline any interaction.
Release, limitation of liability, and indemnification
To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, each user releases Dr. Brown Cares LLC, its affiliates, Dr. Sherry-Ann Brown in her applicable capacities, the platform account owner and administrators, and their officers, directors, employees, contractors, licensors, service providers, representatives, successors, and assigns from claims arising from user-arranged interactions, communications, meetings, venues, travel, transportation, food, activities, content, and third-party services. Mandatory liabilities that applicable law prohibits from being released remain governed by that law.
To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, the protected parties will not be liable for indirect, incidental, consequential, special, exemplary, punitive, reputational, emotional-distress, lost-data, lost-opportunity, lost-profit, personal-injury, property, or similar damages arising from access, use, inability to use, matching, communications, gatherings, user content, user conduct, venues, travel, or third-party services. Jurisdiction-specific mandatory rights and exclusions remain preserved.
Each user shall indemnify, defend, and hold harmless the protected parties from claims, demands, proceedings, investigations, losses, liabilities, judgments, settlements, penalties, damages, and reasonable legal expenses arising from or related to the user’s account, credentials, content, conduct, matching participation, communications, invitations, hosting, meeting participation, venue arrangements, transportation, recording, privacy or data practices, infringement, unlawful activity, breach of these terms, breach of the Community Guidelines, violation of another person’s rights, or dispute with another user or third party. This obligation applies to the fullest extent permitted by law, survives termination, and remains subject to mandatory statutory limitations.
Electronic acceptance and durable evidence
Affirmative acceptance, policy acknowledgment, location permission, matching visibility, withdrawal, gathering acknowledgments, invitation claims, and material policy renewals may be recorded in a tamper-evident server-side consent ledger. A record may contain the policy name and version, exact interface language, user action, selected consent categories, authoritative server time, account or pseudonymous session identifier, route, browser and device information, IP address, prior-event hash, and event hash. These records support service delivery, security, privacy administration, intellectual-property protection, policy enforcement, dispute management, and legal compliance. Administrative access is role limited, read only for acceptance events, and itself subject to audit logging.
Organization applications and private groups
An organization application must be submitted by an authorized adult representative and must accurately identify the proposed administrator, leader, moderator, adult audience, purpose, and expected membership. Approval remains within the discretion of Dr. Brown Cares LLC. Approval grants access to a private section and designated group controls; it creates no partnership, agency, joint venture, franchise, fiduciary relationship, ownership interest, endorsement, or authority to bind Dr. Brown Cares LLC. Each organization remains responsible for its own internal authority, leadership decisions, participant relationships, meetings, statements, and conduct.
Invitations and workshop verification
Invitation codes are personal or group limited, revocable, time limited, and governed by the role and eligibility assigned to them. Email bound codes may be claimed only through the corresponding signed in account. Convergence Q45 workshop registration may establish pending eligibility through a signed integration event. Registration, code claim, program status, cancellation, completion, and alumni transition may be recorded and reviewed to administer participation. A code, registration, or complimentary benefit carries no cash value and may not be sold, assigned, pledged, or transferred.
Complimentary and promotional access
Complimentary access is a promotional benefit supplied solely by Dr. Brown Cares LLC. Eligibility remains within its sole discretion. Access is personal, revocable, nonexclusive, and nontransferable and may not be sold, assigned, sublicensed, pledged, exchanged, or used for another person. Premium features remain outside complimentary access unless they are expressly included in the applicable invitation or written offer. Dr. Brown Cares LLC may modify available features, replace a product or experience, or discontinue an offering. Complimentary access ends upon account closure, violation of platform rules, expiration of the stated benefit, or conclusion of the collaboration, affiliate arrangement, workshop, organization relationship, or other pathway through which the benefit arose. Complimentary access creates no ownership interest and has no cash value.
Feedback and product improvement
When a participant submits feedback, suggestions, ideas, issue reports, accessibility observations, screenshots, recordings, or related materials, the participant grants Dr. Brown Cares LLC permission to review, analyze, aggregate, reproduce, adapt, create derivative improvements from, incorporate into current or future offerings, and commercialize improvements derived from that feedback. Feedback creates no ownership interest, royalty, compensation, approval right, or required attribution for the participant. The participant remains responsible for holding the rights and permissions needed for submitted material.
Beta and evolving features
Features identified as beta, pilot, experimental, preview, early access, or developing may change without notice. Interfaces, workflows, data models, eligibility, storage, and functionality may change; features may become unavailable; and bugs, inaccuracies, interruptions, compatibility limits, and security limitations may exist. Participants should preserve independent copies of material they need and should avoid reliance upon developing functionality for consequential decisions. Uptime, continuity, compatibility, support, and data preservation are not guaranteed. These services are supplied as available and as provided to the fullest extent permitted by law.
Program evaluation, research, and publications
Ordinary platform use, operational analytics, voluntary feedback, program evaluation, and formal research remain distinct activities. Formal research participation is voluntary and may be declined without affecting ordinary platform use, except when a particular complimentary pilot expressly requires designated feedback activities described before enrollment. Research may require a separate informed-consent process, protocol, agreement, authorization, or institutional review. Applicable institutional review board and other ethics requirements will be followed when required. Withdrawal terms, limits concerning information already analyzed, and future use will be stated in the applicable research materials.
Dr. Brown Cares LLC may publish aggregated findings, deidentified analyses, software validation, workflow studies, and implementation studies under the applicable governance. Participant identity and participating-organization identity require appropriate permission before disclosure. Identifiable information requires appropriate authorization. Authorship and publication decisions remain within the control of Dr. Brown Cares LLC unless a separate signed writing provides otherwise.
Educational materials, events, recordings, and publicity
Educational materials may be updated, replaced, or removed. Downloading transfers no ownership. Redistribution, republication, translation, incorporation into commercial products, and creation of derivative works require prior written permission from the applicable rights holder. Event schedules, speakers, formats, locations, capacity, eligibility, and content may change, and registration or access may be limited, canceled, or terminated for operational, safety, legal, or conduct reasons.
Events may be recorded after appropriate notice and consent where required. Recordings supplied outside the platform remain property of Dr. Brown Cares LLC or the identified rights holder. Attendee recording requires prior permission. Redistribution, republication, editing, and commercial use of recordings are prohibited without permission. Recordings may be removed and access may expire. Dr. Brown Cares LLC may identify the existence of a collaboration, participating organization, educational initiative, event, or working group when the governing arrangement permits it. Individual names, photographs, testimonials, logos, and quotations require appropriate permission.
Artificial intelligence and automated features
Artificial-intelligence and automated outputs, including recommendations, matching explanations, summaries, classifications, prompts, and generated material, are informational tools. They may be inaccurate, incomplete, outdated, biased, or unsuitable for a participant’s context. Participants remain responsible for independent judgment and qualified professional review where professional judgment is relevant. Models, workflows, features, and limitations continually evolve. Passwords, protected health information, confidential research information, another person’s private information, and material a participant lacks permission to process should remain outside general-purpose artificial-intelligence inputs.
Security authority
Dr. Brown Cares LLC may monitor security events, investigate suspected misuse, preserve evidence, apply legal holds, require multifactor authentication, modify security controls, restrict features or roles, suspend accounts, terminate suspicious activity, and close access when reasonably connected to security, privacy, legal compliance, community protection, or platform integrity.
Relationship and funding boundaries
Participation creates no expectation of grant funding, employment, compensation, partnership, joint venture, agency, franchise, fiduciary relationship, endorsement, ownership interest, or authority to bind Dr. Brown Cares LLC. Educational and platform content supplies no medical, mental-health, legal, accounting, tax, investment, or other professional advice and establishes no physician-patient, therapist-patient, attorney-client, adviser-client, or other professional relationship.
Warranties
The website, services, materials, community functions, matching tools, integrations, events, recordings, beta features, and third-party links are supplied as available and as provided to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law. All warranties that may lawfully be disclaimed, including implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, accuracy, uninterrupted availability, security, and noninfringement, are disclaimed.
Suspension, termination, and effect
Dr. Brown Cares LLC may suspend or terminate an account, complimentary benefit, invitation, registration, working-group role, organization space, community participation, beta access, or research participation, subject to any applicable research-consent requirements. Termination ends the applicable license, complimentary access, future participation rights, and access to downloads that were not previously authorized. Intellectual-property protections, confidentiality duties, accrued payment duties, feedback permissions, indemnification, disclaimers, limitations of liability, dispute resolution, and provisions intended by their nature to continue survive termination.
Participant contributions
Participants retain rights they hold in original contributions. By posting within a private group, a participant grants Dr. Brown Cares LLC a limited, nonexclusive license to host, reproduce, display, transmit, moderate, preserve, and technically process that contribution for operation, security, reporting, legal compliance, and delivery of the selected group experience. Publicity, testimonial use, recordings, photographs, quotations, and external publication require separate appropriate permission. Participants must hold the rights and permissions needed for anything they submit.
Dispute resolution sequence
Every dispute resolution stage is confidential and may be conducted asynchronously, remotely, and virtually. Participation may occur through secure written exchanges, telephone, videoconference, electronic document submission, or another mutually workable remote method.
- Good faith negotiation. A party will provide written notice describing the dispute and requested resolution. The parties will first attempt to resolve the matter through confidential good faith negotiation. Written exchanges may proceed asynchronously and remotely.
- Mediation. A dispute remaining unresolved after negotiation will proceed to confidential mediation with a mutually selected neutral mediator. Mediation may occur remotely or virtually, including through asynchronous written submissions when accepted by the mediator and parties.
- Binding arbitration. A dispute remaining unresolved after mediation will be resolved through confidential binding arbitration before one neutral arbitrator. The arbitration may be administered remotely or virtually and may include asynchronous written submissions, electronic evidence, telephone participation, and videoconference proceedings.
The parties will share mediator and arbitrator fees equally unless applicable law or the neutral decision-maker requires another allocation. Each party will bear its own professional fees and costs unless an award or applicable law provides otherwise.
Governing law; court and jury waiver
Wyoming law governs these terms, without regard to conflict-of-law principles. To the fullest extent permitted by law, the parties waive resolution through a court trial and waive trial by jury. A court with lawful authority may be used solely to compel arbitration, enforce an arbitration award, or obtain temporary emergency relief that preserves the ability of arbitration to provide an effective remedy. Any such proceeding will be handled confidentially to the fullest extent permitted by law, and any court proceeding that remains legally applicable will occur in an appropriate state or federal court located in Ohio unless mandatory law requires another venue.
Individual proceedings
Disputes will proceed on an individual basis. Each party waives participation as a plaintiff or class member in a class, collective, consolidated, coordinated, or representative action to the fullest extent permitted by law.
Severability and updates
If a provision is found unenforceable, it will be narrowed to the minimum extent necessary, and the remaining terms will continue in effect. Material updates will be identified through a revised effective date. Continued use following an update constitutes acceptance of the revised terms.
General provisions
These terms, the Privacy Policy, the Cookies Policy, the Community Guidelines, and any feature-specific notice or signed agreement form the entire agreement governing their respective subject matter. A signed agreement controls a direct conflict for its defined scope. Amendments require a writing or authorized electronic update issued by Dr. Brown Cares LLC, with renewed acknowledgment where required. Electronic signatures and electronic acceptance are effective. Failure to enforce a provision is no waiver. Participants may not assign access or obligations without written permission; Dr. Brown Cares LLC may assign these terms in connection with a lawful reorganization, financing, sale, transfer, or service transition. Neither party is responsible for delay caused by events beyond reasonable control, subject to duties that applicable law preserves. Notices may be supplied through the account, site, email, or contact channel associated with participation. Users must comply with applicable export-control and sanctions laws. Headings support navigation and do not narrow the text. Counterparts and electronic copies are effective for signed agreements.