Terms and Conditions

Last updated: [DATE]

These terms and conditions ("Terms") apply when you use or buy any service from Join The Officials Limited, trading as The Officials ("The Officials," "we," "us," "our"). They cover HQ membership, courses, cohort programs, digital downloads, live events and training sessions, mentorship, and corporate and bespoke training.

Please read them alongside our Privacy Policy, which explains how we handle your personal data, and our Affiliate Disclaimer. Some sections apply only to consumers (people buying for themselves) and some only to business customers (organizations buying for their staff). We say which is which.

1. About us

• Legal entity: Join The Officials Limited, trading as The Officials
• Company number: 12543520 (registered in England and Wales)
• Registered office: 167-169 Great Portland Street, Fifth Floor, London, W1W 5PF, UK
• Email: hello@jointheofficials.com

2. Key terms

• Consumer: an individual buying for purposes mainly outside their trade or business, including an assistant paying for their own development.
• Business customer: an organization, or a person buying on its behalf, including an employer paying for a member, course, or training.
• Content: everything we provide, including videos, recordings, courses, slides, templates, workbooks, downloads, and community posts we create.
• Named user: the individual person a purchase is registered to.

3. Buying from us

Prices are shown at checkout in the currency displayed, and include VAT where it applies [CONFIRM]. Any recurring charge, installment plan, or renewal date is shown before you pay. We do not add fees at checkout that were not shown to you.

Payments are processed by Stripe, through our membership platform (Mighty Networks) and our checkout provider (ThriveCart). Some older memberships are billed through MemberPress [CONFIRM OR DELETE]. Your bank may charge a currency conversion fee if you pay in a currency other than your card's.

If we make an obvious pricing error, we will contact you before your order is fulfilled. You can then buy at the correct price or cancel for a full refund.

Discounts and offers. Discount codes and promotional offers apply only as described when they are issued, cannot be combined unless we say so, and cannot be exchanged for cash. If an offer includes a free or discounted period that becomes a paid subscription, we show the full price and the date payment starts before you sign up.

When your employer pays. If your employer pays for your membership, course, or mentorship, your employer is our business customer for billing, cancellation, and refunds, and you are the named user. The access, license, and conduct terms apply to you personally, and your mentorship remains confidential to you as described in section 8.

Payment disputes. If you think you have been charged incorrectly, please contact us first so we can put it right. If you raise a chargeback with your bank while continuing to use a service, we may pause your access until the dispute is resolved.

4. Your right to cancel (consumers)

If you are a consumer, you normally have 14 days from purchase to cancel and receive a full refund, without giving a reason. How this works depends on what you buy:

• Digital content (HQ Premium, courses, downloads): at checkout we ask you to agree to get immediate access and to acknowledge that you lose your right to cancel once you access the content. If you agree and then access it, the 14-day right ends. If you have not accessed it, you can still cancel within 14 days.
• Services (mentorship, live cohorts, events): if you ask us to start within the 14 days and then cancel, we refund what you paid minus a fair amount for what we have already delivered. Once a service is fully delivered, the right to cancel ends.

For subscriptions, the 14-day right applies once, when you first sign up, not each time your subscription renews. To cancel, email hello@jointheofficials.com with your name and what you bought. We refund within 14 days using your original payment method.

Business customers do not have a statutory right to cancel. Section 9 sets out the cancellation terms for corporate training.

5. HQ membership

Tiers. HQ Freemium is free and gives access to public events and announcements. HQ Premium is a paid subscription with access to the course library, live sessions, group support meetings, templates, and downloadable resources. HQ is hosted on Mighty Networks, and you need a Mighty Networks account to join.

Changes to what is included. We regularly add, update, and retire content. We will not materially reduce what your tier includes without telling you at least 30 days in advance. If we do, you can cancel and we will refund any prepaid period you have not used.

Billing and renewal. Premium renews automatically at the end of each billing period (monthly, quarterly, or annually, as chosen at checkout) until you cancel. We remind annual members before renewal [CONFIRM]. If we change the price, we tell you at least 30 days before it applies, and you can cancel before the new price takes effect.

Cancelling. You can cancel at any time. Cancel through your Mighty Networks account settings, or, if you pay through ThriveCart, through the Customer Hub link in your receipt. Leaving the community in Mighty Networks does not stop ThriveCart payments. You keep access until the end of the period you have paid for. We do not refund partial periods, except as described in section 4 or where the law requires.

Failed payments. If a payment fails, we or our payment provider will try again and let you know. If it still fails, your Premium access may be paused until payment is made.

Bespoke memberships. Where we agree custom membership terms with you in writing, such as group access for a team, those written terms apply alongside these Terms and take priority if they conflict.

Your account. You must be 18 or over to buy from us or join HQ. Keep your login details secure and tell us straight away if you think someone else has accessed your account. We aim to keep HQ and our courses available at all times, but access depends on third-party platforms and may occasionally be interrupted for maintenance or outages. We are not responsible for short interruptions outside our control.

6. Courses, cohort programs, and digital downloads

Access. Standalone courses come with lifetime access. "Lifetime" means for as long as we offer the course, including any updated versions of it, not for your lifetime or ours. You keep access if we move the course to a new platform. If we retire a course, we give you at least 90 days' notice to finish it and download the workbooks, templates, and other downloadable materials. Course content included in HQ Premium is available while your membership is active.

Cohort programs and installment plans. If you pay in installments, you agree to pay the full program price, even if you stop attending. If an installment fails and is not paid within [CONFIRM: 7] days of our reminder, we may pause your access until it is paid.

Downloads and templates. Digital downloads are delivered [CONFIRM: BY EMAIL LINK / IN HQ / VIA THRIVECART] immediately after purchase. Templates for tools such as Notion or Google Workspace depend on those platforms, and we cannot guarantee they will work if a platform changes how it works.

7. Live events and training sessions

Recording. Most live sessions are recorded and added to the HQ course library, where they stay available indefinitely. We tell you a session will be recorded when you register and again when you join. By taking part with your camera, microphone, or chat switched on, you agree that your name, image, voice, and messages may appear in the recording. If you would prefer not to appear, you can keep your camera and microphone off, change your display name, or send questions privately to the host. If you appear in a recording and later want to be removed, email hello@jointheofficials.com and we will edit you out where we reasonably can.

If we cancel or reschedule. If we cancel or postpone a paid event, we reschedule it and you keep your place. If we cannot hold it within 2 months, or you cannot attend the new date, you can choose a refund or an exchange, as described in section 18. We are not responsible for travel or other costs you have booked.

If you cannot attend. For paid events, you can cancel up to [CONFIRM: 7] days before the event for a full refund. After that, we do not give refunds, but you can transfer your place to a colleague by telling us before the event, and the recording will be available to you where there is one.

Partner events. Some events are run with partners. We tell you when you register if your details will be shared with a partner.

Behavior at events. The community guidelines in section 11 apply at all our events and sessions. Be respectful to hosts, speakers, and other attendees, keep what others share about themselves and their employers confidential, and do not sell, recruit, or promote your own services. You may not record, photograph, screenshot, transcribe, or livestream a session using any device or app, including phones, screen recorders, and AI notetakers such as Otter, Fathom, or Read.ai. We remove notetaker bots that join a session. We provide the official recording where there is one. Our hosts may mute, turn off the camera of, or remove anyone who disrupts a session or breaks these rules, without a refund. Serious or repeated behavior may lead to restricted or ended access under sections 11 and 17.

8. Mentorship

Booking. Mentorship sessions must be booked and used within the validity period shown when you buy: 6 months from purchase for most packages, or 12 months for larger packages. Unused sessions expire at the end of the validity period. Some dates are unavailable, such as holiday periods and company closures.

Rescheduling and cancelling. If you cancel or reschedule with at least 24 hours' notice, we rebook your session within your package's validity period. Sessions cancelled with less than 24 hours' notice count as used.

No-shows. If you do not join within 10 minutes of the start time, the session counts as used.

If we cancel. If we cancel or cannot attend a session, we rebook it at a time that suits you, and extend your validity period if needed. If we cannot deliver it within 2 months, you can choose a refund for that session or an exchange, as described in section 18.

Refunds. After the cancellation period in section 4, mentorship purchases are not refundable, except where we cancel as described above or where the law requires.

Named client. Sessions belong to the named client and cannot be transferred to another person or organization. If your employer paid, the sessions are still for you personally.

Confidentiality. We keep what you share in mentorship confidential and do not disclose it to your employer or anyone else without your permission, unless the law requires it or we believe someone is at serious risk of harm. Please do not share your employer's confidential business information in detail; describe situations in general terms where you can.

Recordings and notes. Sessions are recorded with your agreement and transcribed, and we use AI tools to help draft your notes and follow-up summaries. You can ask us not to record any session, and we will take notes during the session instead. You may also use your own notetaker or recording app in your one-to-one sessions, for your personal use only; please do not share recordings of our sessions with others. Our Privacy Policy explains which tools we use and how long we keep recordings.

What mentorship is and is not. Mentorship is professional development support from experienced assistants. It is not therapy, counseling, or coaching for your mental health, and it is not legal, HR, financial, or medical advice. Your mentor shares experience and suggestions; you decide what to do with them. If you are struggling with your mental health, please speak to your doctor or a qualified professional. If you are in crisis, contact your local emergency services.

9. Corporate and bespoke training (business customers)

Agreement. Each corporate engagement is set out in a written proposal, quote, or statement of work ("Proposal"). The Proposal and these Terms form the agreement. If they conflict, the Proposal takes priority. If you sign a separate contract with us, that contract takes priority over both.

Fees and payment. Unless the Proposal says otherwise, we invoice [CONFIRM: 50% ON BOOKING AND 50% ON DELIVERY], and invoices are payable within [CONFIRM: 30] days. We may charge interest on late payments under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 and pause delivery until overdue invoices are paid. Fees exclude VAT and any travel costs, which are charged at cost where agreed.

Cancelling or rescheduling. [CONFIRM TIERS, FOR EXAMPLE:] If you cancel or reschedule 30 or more days before the training date, we charge nothing beyond any non-refundable deposit. Between 14 and 29 days, we charge 50% of the fee. Within 14 days, we charge the full fee. Where content has been created specifically for you, we also charge for work already completed. If we have to cancel, we offer a new date or refund the fees paid for that session.

Your responsibilities. You provide accurate attendee details, access to any platforms we need, and anything else agreed in the Proposal, on time. You are responsible for having a lawful basis to share your employees' personal data with us.

Recording corporate sessions. Corporate sessions are not recorded unless the Proposal says so. If you want to record a session, you need our written agreement, and the recording is covered by the license below.

Licensing of training materials

Our existing materials. We own all materials we created before or independently of your engagement, including our frameworks, courses, slides, templates, and exercises. Using them in your training does not transfer ownership.

Bespoke materials. Materials we create specifically for you, such as tailored slides, workbooks, or exercises, also remain our property, because they are built on our existing materials and methods. Once you have paid in full, we grant you a non-exclusive, non-transferable, perpetual license to use them internally for the employees of your organization who took part in the training [CONFIRM: OR ALL EMPLOYEES OF YOUR ORGANIZATION].

What the license does not allow. Unless we agree otherwise in writing, you may not: deliver the training yourself or through another trainer; share the materials with other companies, including group or affiliated companies; sell, publish, or post the materials outside your organization; edit the materials and present them as your own; or put the materials into AI tools to create new training content from them.

Wider rights. If you want to use materials more widely, such as to run the training again in-house or across group companies, we can agree an extended license for an additional fee.

Your materials. Anything you give us, such as your logo, internal processes, or examples, remains yours. You give us permission to use it only to prepare and deliver your training, including with the AI tools described in section 12. Where a provider offers the option, we use account settings that stop your information being used to train AI models. We keep your confidential information confidential. If you do not want your materials used with AI tools, tell us before the engagement starts.

10. How you may use our content

Who owns our content. We own the copyright and other intellectual property in all our Content, whether paid or free, including courses, recordings, templates, systems, frameworks, workbooks, slides, and written material. Buying or downloading Content gives you a license to use it, not ownership of it. The Officials name, logo, and HQ branding are ours, and you may not use them in a way that suggests we endorse or are connected with you or your work without our written permission.

Named user license. Every membership, course, and download is licensed to one named user for their own professional development. This applies even when an employer pays. You may not share your login, pass on downloads, or let others watch paid content through your account.

Team purchases. Where an organization buys access for several people, each person needs their own license, and licenses cannot be moved between people unless we agree in writing.

Templates. You may copy and adapt our templates for your own work and your employer's internal use. You may not sell, share, or publish them, or offer them as part of your own product or service.

Free resources. Free templates, guides, and other resources are licensed to you on the same basis as paid ones: for your own work and your employer's internal use. You are welcome to share a link to the page where someone can get the resource themselves, but please do not share, upload, or host the file itself, sell it, include it in your own products or courses, or remove our branding. Free resources come without support, and we may change or withdraw them at any time.

AI tools. You may use AI tools privately to help you learn from our content, for example to summarize your notes. You may not upload our courses, recordings, or templates into AI tools to build products, training, or content for others, or use them to train AI models.

Recording. You may not record, photograph, screenshot, transcribe, or share live sessions, community calls, or other members' posts, using any device or app, including AI notetakers, without our permission and the permission of the people involved.

If you break these rules, we may end your access without a refund and take further action to protect our work.

11. Your posts in the community

You keep ownership of what you post in HQ. You give us permission to display it in the community, and to keep it there after you leave where it forms part of a conversation. We will not use your posts outside the community, for example as a testimonial, without asking you first.

HQ is a professional community. Be respectful, keep other members' and their employers' information confidential, and do not sell, recruit, or promote your own services without our permission. Only administrative professionals may join. We may remove posts or members who break these guidelines.

Restricting community access. If a member breaks these guidelines, we may remove their access to community spaces, such as posting, commenting, messaging, group support meetings, and live community calls, while keeping their access to the course library and other content they have paid for. We will usually give a warning first, unless the behavior is serious enough to act straight away. Because access to paid content continues, we do not give a partial refund. If the behavior continues or is serious, we may end access completely under section 17.

12. Our use of AI

We use AI tools to help with parts of our work, including transcribing and summarizing mentorship sessions, drafting session notes and meeting follow-up summaries, and preparing training materials, courses, and other content. A person reviews all AI-assisted material before it is shared with you or forms part of what you pay for, and we are responsible for it as if we had written it ourselves. We do not use AI to make decisions about you, such as your access or pricing, without human review. Our Privacy Policy explains which tools we use and how they handle your data.

13. Affiliate links and partners

Some links we share are affiliate links, and we label them. When you buy from a partner or a company we link to, your contract is with them, not with us. See our Affiliate Disclaimer.

14. Our content is not professional advice

Our training, content, and mentorship are for professional development. They are general guidance based on our experience, not legal, HR, tax, financial, medical, or mental health advice, and not a substitute for advice about your specific situation from a qualified professional. We cannot guarantee specific outcomes, such as a promotion, pay rise, or new job. You are responsible for the decisions you make, including how you apply what you learn at work and whether it fits your employer's policies. Examples, templates, and AI prompts we share should be checked and adapted before you rely on them.

Training. Our courses, live sessions, and corporate training reflect our experience and good practice at the time they were created or delivered. Software, AI tools, and workplace practices change quickly, so features, prices, and settings we show may have changed since. We teach how to use third-party tools, such as AI assistants and productivity apps, but we do not control them and are not responsible for how they work or handle your data. Before you use a tool or technique at work, check that it is approved by your employer, particularly before entering company or client information into any AI tool.

Corporate training. For business customers, we deliver training with reasonable care and skill, as set out in the Proposal. Your organization remains responsible for deciding which practices and tools its employees adopt, for its own IT, security, and data protection policies, and for any approvals its employees need before applying what they learn.

15. Your legal rights (consumers)

If you are a consumer, the law gives you rights that these Terms do not affect. Digital content must be as described, fit for purpose, and of satisfactory quality, and services must be provided with reasonable care and skill. If something is wrong, contact us and we will repair, replace, redo, or refund as the law requires. Citizens Advice can explain your rights in more detail.

16. Our responsibility for loss

Nothing in these Terms limits our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud, or for anything else the law does not allow us to limit.

Consumers. We are responsible for loss you suffer that is a foreseeable result of us breaking these Terms or failing to use reasonable care and skill. We are not responsible for loss that was not foreseeable. We provide our services for your personal development. If you use them for business purposes, we are not liable for business losses such as lost profit or lost opportunity.

Business customers. We are not liable for indirect or consequential loss, or for loss of profit, revenue, business, or data. Our total liability to a business customer is limited to the fees paid for the engagement giving rise to the claim in the 12 months before the claim [CONFIRM WITH YOUR INSURANCE].

17. Suspending or ending your access

We may suspend or end your access if you seriously or repeatedly break these Terms, share your access, misuse our content, or behave in a way that harms other members, us, or our partners. Where the breach can be fixed, we will usually warn you first. If we end your access for serious breach, we do not refund the remaining period.

If we end a service for any other reason, we give you reasonable notice and refund any prepaid period you have not used.

18. Service availability, support, and events outside our control

We are not responsible for delays or failures caused by events outside our reasonable control, such as platform outages, internet failures, or illness. If this affects a service, we will tell you and offer a new date or a refund for anything we cannot deliver.

Support and reporting problems. For help with access, billing, or content, email hello@jointheofficials.com. We aim to reply within 2 working days, UK time. If you find an error in our content, tell us and we will correct it. To report another member's behavior, use the reporting tools in HQ or email us; we review every report, may contact the people involved, and decide on any action under section 11. We keep the details of reports confidential as far as we can.

Longer outages. We do not offer a guaranteed uptime or service level for HQ or courses. If HQ Premium is unavailable for more than 7 consecutive days for reasons within our control, we will extend your membership by the time lost, or refund that time if you prefer. If a live session cannot go ahead because of a technical problem on our side, we reschedule it as described below. We aim to record live sessions but cannot guarantee every recording will be available; where a recording fails, we do not refund a session that took place.

If we cancel or postpone. If we cancel or postpone anything you have paid for, such as a live session, event, cohort session, or mentorship session, we will reschedule it and tell you the new date as soon as we can. If we cannot deliver it within 2 months of the original date, or you cannot attend the new date, you can choose either a full refund for the part not delivered, or an exchange for another of our services or a credit of the same value. Refunds are paid within 14 days of your choice, using your original payment method.

Changing platforms. We may move HQ, courses, or other services to a different platform. If we do, we will give you notice and help you move across, and you will keep access to what you have paid for. You may need to create a new account on the new platform. Community posts may not transfer, so save anything you want to keep.

If we can no longer provide a service. Our services are delivered by a small team, and mentorship is delivered personally. If we permanently stop offering a service, or cannot deliver prepaid mentorship sessions because of illness or other serious circumstances, we will give you as much notice as we can and refund any prepaid services you have not received. If we close HQ, we give you at least 30 days to access or download materials you have paid for. If we retire a course, the 90-day notice in section 6 applies.

19. Changes to these Terms

We update these Terms when our services or the law change. If a change is significant, we will tell members and customers by email at least 30 days before it takes effect. If you do not agree, you can cancel before it takes effect and we will refund any prepaid period you have not used.

20. Complaints

If you are unhappy with any of our services, email hello@jointheofficials.com. We will acknowledge your complaint within [CONFIRM: 5] working days and aim to resolve it within 14 days.

21. General

You may not transfer your rights under these Terms to anyone else without our written agreement. We may transfer our rights to another organization, for example if we sell our business, and we will tell you if we do. If a court finds part of these Terms unenforceable, the rest still applies. If we do not enforce a term straight away, we can still enforce it later. No one other than you and us has rights under these Terms.

22. Law and courts

These Terms are governed by the law of England and Wales. If you are a consumer, you can bring a claim in the courts of England and Wales, or in Scotland or Northern Ireland if you live there. Business customers agree to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales.

23. Contact us

Email hello@jointheofficials.com, or write to Join The Officials Limited, 167-169 Great Portland Street, Fifth Floor, London, W1W 5PF, UK.