GMB Commons - Terms & Conditions

Last revised November 29, 2022

We welcome your participation in the GMB Commons Community (the “Community”), an online community that is working together to share ideas and propose solutions. We want all our users to have the best possible experience; and your respectful and cooperative interactions will help us achieve that goal. Thank you for using your best judgment as you participate, for following our guidelines, and for reporting abuse and other inappropriate content if it is posted.

The GMB Commons Community will be supervised by moderators that will review content, help our users get the information they need, and address issues that members bring to their attention. These moderators may delete or edit content that is inappropriate, misleading, or doesn’t follow our guidelines but the moderators are not under any obligation to edit or delete content.

Any open comments to the group, or communications to a member of the site which occur outside of a contractual engagement are not intended as professional services, and are only provided for informational purposes.

GMB reserves the right to change these terms at any time at its sole discretion. GMB will post the updated terms and your continued participation in the GMB Commons Community will constitute your acceptance of the updated guidelines.

A more detailed view
GMB Commons Community is open to all points of view on the intended business-related topics. We want to hear from you, and we are committed to maintaining a comfortable environment for all users. Please interact with other users respectfully, as you would in any public or professional arena. If you disagree with the statements of another user, it is acceptable to engage in polite, mature debate. Name-calling, personal attacks, harassment, and other aggressive posts or behavior are not allowed and are grounds for immediate removal of a post, or grounds for permanent removal from the GMB Commons Community.

The following content and conduct are not allowed in the Community and are cause for user suspension or termination without explanation or prior notice. Your posts or other communications that include the following content or reflect prohibited conduct, as described below, may be subject to removal. By participating in the Community, you understand and agree to abide by the following etiquette:

  1. Illegal or Unethical Activities and Content directed at GMB Commons Community or its Users are Prohibited.
  • You agree not to engage in, promote, or advocate any illegal activity or fraudulent schemes of any kind including, but not limited to, money laundering, tax evasion, securities fraud, and pyramid or multi-level marketing schemes - through your posts or other use of the Community. You also agree not to post links to other websites that engage in such activities.
  • Do not submit content that you know is false, inaccurate, libelous, or otherwise misleading in any way.
  • Do not submit content that contains any computer viruses, worms, or other potentially damaging computer programs or files.
  • You must not intentionally impersonate or misrepresent your business or qualifications.
  • Do not post or transmit material you do not have the right to post or transmit under law (such as copyright, trade secret, or securities) or due to your personal contractual or fiduciary relationships.
  • Do not post material that violates any applicable law or regulation, including, without limitation, the rules and regulations of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the national or other securities exchanges, (especially and including the rule against making false or misleading statements to manipulate the price of any security).
  • Do not offer, sell, or buy any security through the Community.
  • You may not use the Community in any manner that could damage, disable, overburden, or impair GMB’s servers or networks, or interfere with any other user's use and enjoyment of the Community.
  • You may not attempt to gain unauthorized access to any services, usernames, computer systems, or networks, through hacking, password mining, or any other means. We may take any legal and technical remedies necessary to prevent the violation of this provision.
  1. Profane, obscene, racist, sexist, intolerant, inappropriate, disruptive, or unrelated content is prohibited.
  • Indecent, profane, sexually explicit, obscene, or pornographic material of any kind - including masked profanity where symbols, initials, intentional misspellings, or other characters are used to suggest profane language - is strictly prohibited.
  • Threats, personal attacks, abusive, defamatory, derogatory, or inflammatory language, or stalking or harassment of any individual, entity, or organization is strictly prohibited.
  • Discriminatory or hateful speech of any kind regarding age, gender, race, religion, nationality, sexual orientation, or disability is strictly prohibited.
  • You agree not to engage in any spamming or excessive posting, or submit content that is disruptive, off-topic, deliberately intended to have a negative impact on the Community or its users, or otherwise interfere with the ability of others to enjoy or comfortably use the Community.
  1. Keep Your and other People’s Information Private, and Other Important Rules.
  • Do not post any sensitive personally identifiable information about yourself or another person, including, account numbers, Social Security numbers, Taxpayer Identification Numbers, information about lawsuits brought by you or third parties against another individual or entity, or health information.
  • Use care in posting your personal or identifying information.
  • Maintain courtesy and follow good posting etiquette. Posting with ALL CAPS, HTML tags, or excessive typographic symbols may result in your post being removed.
  • For customer service issues related to GMB services generally, please contact your project team. For customer service issues related to GMB Commons Client Community, send an email to info@gmb.com
  1. Solicitations and promotions and other commercial use are not permitted.
  • You agree not to post or make available at the GMB Commons Community site any content or third-party website that harms, or intends to harm, the flow of information and/or participation in GMB Commons Community.
  • You agree not to post unsolicited or unauthorized advertising, promotional materials, junk mail, spam, chain letters, or pyramid or multi-level marketing schemes, and you further agree not to use automated means, including spiders, robots, crawlers, data-mining tools, or other means to download data from the Community.
  1. Copyright and intellectual property violations are not permitted.
  • Infringement on any third-party's copyright, patent, trademark, trade secret, intellectual property or other proprietary rights, or right of publicity or privacy is strictly prohibited and is the sole responsibility of the user.
  • By submitting any content to the Community, you warrant and represent that you are the copyright owner of the content or that the copyright owner of the content has granted you permission to use such content consistent with the manner and purpose of your use.
  • Using the Community to distribute unauthorized copies of copyrighted material, including photos, artwork, text, recordings, designs, computer programs, or derivative works of such programs is strictly prohibited and subject to removal.
  1. Digital Millenium Copyright Act ("DMCA") Notice and Procedure.
    1. Notice and Procedure for Making Claims of Copyright Infringement in Accordance with DMCA. In accordance  with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (the text of which may be found on the U.S. Copyright Office website at http://www.copyright.gov), GMB will respond expeditiously to clear notices of alleged copyright infringement that are reported to GMB’s designated copyright agent identified below. As part of our response, we may remove or disable access to material residing on a site that is controlled or operated by GMB that is claimed to be infringing, in which case we will make a good-faith attempt to contact the person who submitted the material so that they may make a counter notification, also in accordance with the DMCA. The following section describes the information that should be present in these notices.
    2. Notice of Infringing Material. If you are a copyright owner, or are authorized to act on behalf of an owner of the copyright or of any exclusive right under the copyright, and believe that your work has been copied in a way that constitutes copyright infringement, please report your notice of infringement to GMB by providing GMB’s designated copyright agent listed below with the following information:
  • A physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed;
  • Identify in sufficient detail the copyrighted work that you believe has been infringed or, if multiple copyrighted works at a single online site are covered by a single notification, a representative list of such works at that site;
  • Identify the material that you claim is infringing the copyrighted work listed above and that is to be removed or access disabled, and information reasonably sufficient to permit GMB to locate the material.
  • Provide information reasonably sufficient to allow GMB to contact you, including a name, address, telephone number, and email address.
  • If possible, provide information sufficient to allow GMB to notify the owner/administrator of the allegedly infringing content.
  • Include the following statements:
    • "I have a good faith belief that use of the copyrighted materials described above as allegedly infringing is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law."
    • "I swear, under penalty of perjury, that the information in the notification is accurate and that I am the copyright owner or am authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed."
  • Sign the notice.
  • Send the notice to:  ATTN: GMB Commons; 85 E Eighth St, Suite 200, Holland, MI 49423 and info@gmb.com

Counter Notification.  The administrator of an affected site or the provider of affected content may make a counter notification pursuant to sections 512(g)(2) and (3) of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. When we receive a counter notification, we may reinstate the material in question. To file a counter notification with us, you must provide a written communication by fax or regular mail that sets forth the  items specified below:

  • Identify the specific URLs or other unique identifying information of material that GMB has removed or to which GMB has disabled access.
  • Provide your name, address, telephone number,  email address, and a statement that you consent to the jurisdiction of Federal  District Court for the judicial district in which your address is located (or  the Western District of Michigan if your address is outside of the United  States), and that you will accept service of process from the person who  provided notification under subsection (c)(1)(C) or an agent of such person.
  • Include the following statement:
    • "I swear, under penalty of perjury, that I have a good faith belief that the material identified above was removed or  disabled as a result of a mistake or misidentification of the material to be  removed or disabled, or that the material identified by the complainant has  been removed or disabled and will no longer be shown."
  • Sign the notice.
  • Send the notice to: GMB Commons; 85 E Eighth St, Suite 200, Holland, MI 49423 and info@gmb.com

GMB and GMB Employees ("Team Members") and Workers

GMB does not endorse any comments made by its employees or by contractors, consultants, and other individuals working for or with GMB, unless they are an authorized representative of the GMB. GMB does not validate assertions or forward-looking statements in the comments. All statements and viewpoints expressed in the comments are strictly those of the commenter alone, and do not constitute an official position of GMB unless they are posted by a moderator or an authorized representative.

Please remember that if you are a GMB employee or if you’re working with GMB, you must disclose your status in your profile. Working for GMB is a material fact that may influence content and community members have a right to know. Thank you for helping maintain the integrity of our community by disclosing that relationship.

Indemnification

You agree to indemnify, defend and hold harmless GMB, and its parents, subsidiaries, affiliates, officers, agents, partners, licensors, and employees, from and against any alleged claim or demand, including reasonable attorneys' fees, made by any third party due to or arising out of your use of the GMB Commons Community, your violation of these Guidelines, or your violation of any rights of another. You are solely responsible for your actions when using the GMB Commons Community, including, but not limited to, costs incurred for Internet access.

Feedback

If you provide GMB with any comments, suggestions or other feedback with respect to the products, the GMB Commons Community or any component thereof (collectively, “Feedback”), GMB, without any restrictions, has the right but not the obligation, to use such Feedback in any way, including incorporating such Feedback into the products or the GMB Commons Community, without obligation to you. GMB will be the owner of, and free to use for any purpose, any ideas, concepts, know-how, or materials developed by or on behalf of GMB resulting from your Feedback, including, without limitation, any modifications or enhancements to the GMB Commons Community.

Privacy

We have a policy that addresses the privacy of your personal information. Your use of our GMB Commons Community is subject to it. Please read our Privacy Policy so that you understand the parameters of privacy when using the GMB Commons Community.