Blacks In Government® (BIG) Internet and Member Portal Agreement 

Notice: This Internet and member Portal Agreement was amended on January 1, 2019

General: Welcome to National Organization of Blacks In Government® Web and Member Portal network, home of BIGNET. As part of our online service, the National Organization of Blacks In Government® a.k.a.(BIG) agrees to provide you with information and other computer related services subject to the terms of this agreement. Upon notice published through this agreement, the National Organization of Blacks In Government® has the exclusive right to amend or modify these terms at any time. You agree to use National Organization of Blacks In Government® Web and Member Portal network in accordance with this agreement.

Disclaimer of Endorsement: Reference herein to any specific commercial products, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise, does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the National Organization of Blacks In Government®. The views and opinions of authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the National Organization of Blacks In Government® nor any of its members (Regular, Associate, or Life), Regional Councils, Chapters, or employees, and shall not be used for advertising or product endorsement purposes.

References from BIGNET or from any computer related services sponsored by the National Organization of Blacks In Government® to any individual, governmental or non-governmental entity, product, service or information does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation by the National Organization of Blacks In Government® nor any of its members (Regular, Associate, or Life), Regional Councils, Chapters, or employees. Also, the National Organization of Blacks In Government® nor any of its members (Regular, Associate, or Life), Regional Councils, Chapters, or employees is not responsible for the content of any "off-site" web pages referenced from BIGNET and all of the information is provided "as is" and without warranties of any kind either express or implied.

Disclaimer of Liability: With respect to documents available from BIGNET or its Member Portal, neither the National Organization of Blacks In Government® nor any of its members (Regular, Associate, or Life), Regional Councils, Chapters, or employees, does not make any warranty, express or implied, including the warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed, or represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights.

Under no circumstances, including, but not limited to, negligence, shall the National Organization of Blacks In Government nor any of its members (Regular, Associate, or Life), Regional Councils, Chapters, or employees be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, special or consequential damages that result from the use of, or the inability to use, Blacks In Government® materials or BIGNET or any other computer related service. You specifically acknowledge and agree that the National Organization of Blacks In Government® nor any of its members (Regular, Associate, or Life), Regional Councils, Chapters, or employees is not liable for any defamatory, offensive or illegal conduct of any user. If you are dissatisfied with any Blacks In Government material, BIGNET, computer related services or with any of the National Organization Blacks In Government’s terms and conditions in this agreement, your sole and exclusive remedy is to discontinue using the Blacks In Government web network.

Blacks In Government® may allow you to purchase different types of products and services online that are provided by other parties. Blacks In Government® is not responsible for the quality, accuracy, and timeliness, reliability or any other aspect of these products and services. You release the National Organization of Blacks In Government its members (Regular, Associate, or Life), Regional Councils, Chapters, or employees from any damages that you incur, and agree not to assert any claims against them, arising from your use of these products or services.

Bulletin Boards, Forums, Discussion Groups, E-Mail Messages, and Chat Rooms: This service may include bulletin boards, forums, discussion groups, e-mail messages, and/or chat rooms ("bulletin boards") which allow feedback to Blacks In Government its members, Regional Councils, Chapters or employees and/or real-time interaction between users. Blacks In Government does not control the messages, information or files delivered to bulletin boards or e-mail messages. It is a condition of your use of the bulletin boards, discussion groups, e-mail messages, chat rooms and BIGNET that you do not:

• Restrict or inhibit any other user from using and enjoying the bulletin boards, forms, discussions groups, e-mail messages, chat rooms, or BIGNET.
• Post or transmit any unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane or indecent information of any kind, including without limitation any transmissions constituting or encouraging that would constitute a criminal offense, give rise to civil liability or otherwise violate any local, state, national or international law.
• Post or transmit any information, software or other material which violates or infringes upon the rights of others, including material which is an invasion of privacy or publicity rights or which is protected by copyright, trademark or other proprietary right, or derivative works with respect thereto, without first obtaining permission from the owner or right holder.
• Post or transmit any information, software or other material, which contains a virus or other harmful component.
• Post, transmit or in any way exploit any information, software or other material for commercial purposes, or which contains advertising.

You understand that the National Organization of Blacks In Government® nor any of its members (Regular, Associate, or Life), Regional Councils, Chapters, or employees has no obligation to monitor the bulletin boards, forms, discussions groups, e-mail messages, or chat rooms. However, the National Organization of Blacks In Government®, reserves the right at all times, to disclose any information as necessary to satisfy any law, regulation or governmental request, or to refuse to post or to remove any information or materials, in whole or in part, which are objectionable or in violation of these terms and conditions.

System Abuse:

System abuse on the National Organization of Blacks In Governmen®t Web network is strictly prohibited. The National Organization of Blacks In Government® may terminate or modify service immediately and may bill for any resulting support charges if the user and/or client engages in system abuse.

Following is a list of actions, which has been defined as system abuse. This list is non-exclusive; any action about which there is any doubt should be referred to the National Organization of Blacks In Government® for evaluation.

Actions, which constitute system abuse include, but are not limited to:

• Attempting to circumvent user authentication or security of any user, host, or account on the National Organization of Blacks In Government® Web network or the Internet at large ("cracking");
• Attempting, in any way, to interfere with or deny service to any user, host, or account on the National Organization of Blacks In Governmen®t Web network; forging email posting header information;
• Sending large numbers of unsolicited mail messages (i.e. "junk mail"); this includes adding or attempting to add addresses to any mailing list without explicit positive consent of the addressee on the National Organization of Blacks In Government®Web network .
• Forwarding or posting "chain letters" (multiple forwarding) of any type;
• Posting inappropriate messages to the National Organization of Blacks In Government® Web network newsgroups e.g., posting large numbers of unsolicited posts indiscriminately ("spamming"), or posting encoded binary files to the National Organization of Blacks In Government Web network newsgroups not specifically named for that purpose;
• Attempting to cancel, supersede, or otherwise interfere with email other than one's own on the National Organization of Blacks In Government Web network;
• Engaging in harassment, whether through language, frequency, or size of messages;
• Using an account at another provider to promote the Blacks In Government® Web site in an abusive manner;
• Using an BIGNET account or any account on the National Organization of Blacks In Government® Web network connection to collect replies to messages sent from another provider which violate these rules or those of that provider;
• Reselling Blacks In Government services to third parties who do not abide by these guidelines.

Electronic Mail Policy:

It is not the policy of the National Organization of Blacks In Government® to send unsolicited commercial electronic mail to anyone and all Electronic messages being sent from the National Organization of Blacks In Government® server are in compliance with the National Organization of Blacks In Government® national policies concerning Electronic messages and in compliance with the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 - Public Law No: 108-187. However, if anyone receives any Electronic messages from the National Organization of Blacks In Government®, they can be removed at no cost to them, by sending a reply to the originating electronic mail address with the word 'remove' in the subject line.

BIG Hotline or Member Portal: The purpose of the BIG Hotline is to provide useful information. This information should not be confused with legal advice. While we endeavor to have all information accurate and complete, neither BIG or its members warrant that the information is complete or accurate. Please note that information you provide to BIG may not be privileged & confidential pursuant to law.

BIG Complaint Advisory Assistance Program: The purpose of the BIG Complaint Advisory Assistance Program is to provide useful information. This information should not be confused with legal advice. While we endeavor to have all information accurate and complete, neither BIG or its members warrant that the information is complete or accurate. Please note that information you provide to BIG may not be privileged and confidential pursuant to law.

Privacy: Unless the user inform the National Organization of Blacks In Governmen®t otherwise, Blacks In Government® reserves the right to use and to disclose the user information (e.g. user name and e-mail address) for purposes such as providing users with information. If the user does not wish to be included in such uses, the user must send an e-mail requesting to be taken off any lists of information that may be used, given or sold to other parties.

We collect NO personal information like names or addresses when you visit our website. If you choose to provide that information to us it is only used to fulfill your request for information. We do collect some technical information when you visit to make your visit seamless. The section below explains how we handle and collect technical information when you visit the National Organization of Blacks In Government® Web network.

Information Collected and Stored Automatically When you browse, read pages or download information on National Organization of Blacks In Government® Web network , we automatically gather and store certain technical information about your visit. This information never identifies who you are.

The information we collect and store about your visit is listed below:

• * The Internet domain (for example, "xcompany.com" if you use a private Internet access account, or "yourschool.edu" if you connect from a university's domain) and IP address (an IP address is a number that is automatically assigned to your computer whenever you are surfing the Web) from which you access our website; * The type of browser (e.g., Netscape, Internet Explorer) and operating system (Windows, Unix) used to access our site; * The date and time you access our site; * The pages you visit; and This information is only used to help us make the site more useful for you. With this data we learn about the number of visitors to our site and the types of technology our visitors use.

• We never track or record information about individuals and their visits. Cookies. When you visit some websites, their web servers generate pieces of information known as cookies. Some cookies collect personal information to recognize your computer in the future. This is not the case at Blacks In Government®, where we only use non-persistent cookies or "per-session cookies." These cookies do not collect personal information on users and they are erased as soon as you leave our website. Per-session cookies serve technical purposes like providing seamless navigation through National Organization of Blacks In Government® Web network. These cookies do not permanently record data and they are not stored on your computer's hard drive. National Organization of Blacks In Government Web network cookies are stored in memory and are only available during an active browser session. Again, once you close your browser, the cookie disappears.

• If You Send Us Personal Information If you choose to provide us with personal information -- like filling out a Contact Us form with personal information and submitting it to us through the website -- we use that information to respond to your message and to help us get you the information you have requested. We only share the information you give us with another government agency if your inquiry relates to that agency, or as otherwise required by law.

• We never create individual profiles or give it to any private organizations. National Organization of Blacks In Government® Web network never collects information for commercial marketing.

• Site Security * For site security purposes and to ensure that this service remains available to all users, National Organization of Blacks In Government® Web network computer system employs commercial software programs to monitor network traffic to identify unauthorized attempts to upload or change information, or otherwise cause damage. * Except for authorized law enforcement investigations, no other attempts are made to identify individual users or their usage habits. Raw data logs are used for no other purposes and are scheduled for regular destruction in accordance with Blacks In Government® guidelines. * Unauthorized attempts to upload information or change information on this service are strictly prohibited and may be punishable under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986 and the National Information Infrastructure Protection Act.

Notice: Information from the National Organization of Blacks In Government® resides on a computer system owned and operated by the National Organization of Blacks In Government®. The use of this system may be monitored for computer security purposes. Any unauthorized access to this system is prohibited and is subject to criminal and civil penalties under State, Local and Federal Laws. You may not modify, copy, reproduce, republish, upload, post, transmit or distribute in any way any material from this site including code and software. You may download material from this site for your personal, non-commercial use only, provided you keep intact all copyright and other proprietary notices.

Please e-mail the requests to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or mail to: Blacks In Government® Attn: Telecommunication Chairperson, 3005 Georgia Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20001-3807