Oakland Time Bank
Terms & Conditions of Use
1. TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF USE
These terms and conditions apply to users of the Oakland Time Bank (OAKT), which is part of the Community Exchange System (CES).
1.1 ONLY ACCOUNT HOLDERS
Only registered account-holders may use the system to advertise and trade and no third party may trade through a registered account holder's account. Shared accounts must name one person who is responsible for the account.
1.2 HOUR-BASED EXCHANGES
An account-holder may not use the facilities of the CES for advertising Dollar-based offerings. Trades may be advertised with a Dollar component, provided that the purpose of the Dollar component is to reimburse necessary disbursements made by the Seller.
1.3 NORMAL TRADING LAWS APPLY
The normal commercial laws of the land between trading parties shall govern all transactions and each party to a transaction takes responsibility for normal legal liabilities, obligations and risk.
1.4 FIRST ADVERTISE
New account-holders must start with at least one offering on the system. Registrations with no offerings will not be considered.
1.5 ENTRIES
Trades are entered into the system by the seller based on the procedure indicated on the CES website, which may be changed from time to time.
1.6 LEVIES
| 1.6.1 |
The administration shall be entitled to charge levies against the Hours associated with trades done via the exchange. |
| 1.6.2 | The amount of the levy shall be as set or amended by the administration from time to time. |
| 1.6.3 | The administration shall be entitled to use the levies accrued to manage and further the aims of the OAKT as well as the CES. |
1.7 CREDIT/DEBIT LIMITS
| 1.7.1 | All new accounts are created with a balance of zero Hours. |
| 1.7.2 | Account-holders shall be entitled to begin trading without having a positive balance and may so incur a debit balance in their accounts. |
| 1.7.3 | The administration may set limits to the extent to which accounts may go into debit and credit. |
| 1.7.4 | The administration may set and adjust criteria according to which account limits may be set. As a result debit and credit limits may vary from account to account. |
1.8 EXCEEDING LIMITS
If a buyer's debit limit is exceeded, their account may be temporarily de-activated by the administration, in which case:
| 1.8.1 | The buyer will have no access to their account. Their trading data will be protected. |
| 1.8.2 | The buyer must contact the administration to have their account re-activated. |
| 1.8.3 | Upon re-activation, the buyer must reset their password and only provide services in the time bank until their balance returns to zero or is positive. |
1.9 INTER-EXCHANGE TRADE
The administrator of the CES shall be entitled to set limits to the amount of credit that trading exchanges may incur vis a vis other exchanges as well as lay down terms and conditions governing inter-exchange trading.
1.10 ACCOUNT INFORMATION
Trading balances are available to all account-holders but details of individual purchases are not.
1.11 ADVERTISING
Advertisements for offerings should be honestly described. Advertisements considered offensive to others, inaccurate, illegal or contrary to the ethics of the system may be withdrawn by the administration without notice.
An offer advertised on the system amounts to an invitation to do business only and shall not constitute an irrevocable offer to all.
1.12 DISPUTE RESOLUTION
| 1.12.1 | If any other dispute should arise between account-holders or between the administration and any account-holder, the matter shall be referred to mediation, or failing that, to arbitration. |
| 1.12.2 | If the parties cannot agree on the person of the arbitrator then an appointment shall be made, if the dispute is between account-holders, by the administration, or if the administration is itself party to the proceedings, by the Registrar. Any such appointee should preferably be a member of the CES, or if not a member, then a person who agrees to act in an honorary capacity. |
| 1.12.3 | The arbitrator shall be entitled to make awards for contractual losses or damages but not for delictual or consequential losses. The arbitrator may also make an award as to costs. All awards shall be in Hours. The administrator shall be required to debit or credit any account within the system to give effect to such order or award. |
| 1.12.4 | The arbitrator's decision will be final and binding on all parties. The arbitrator will determine procedures to be followed at any hearing and when in doubt the procedures set out in the laws of California, United States of America will apply. |
1.13 NO INTEREST
Account-holders may not charge interest for lending Hours to other members.
1.14 ONLY ONE ACCOUNT
Unless otherwise authorised by the administrator, account-holders may only operate one account in the system.
1.15 ACCOUNT HOLDERS' NAMES
Unless otherwise authorised by the administrator, all accounts shall be kept in an account-holders personal name.
1.16 STALE ACCOUNTS
| 1.16.1 | If any account becomes stale in the opinion of the administrator, the administrator shall be entitled to call up the account, after having given reasonable notice to the account-holder, in which event: | |
| 1.16.1.1 | Any credit balance will be forfeited unless the account-holder brings their account balance back to zero | |
| 1.16.1.2 | Any debit balance shall become immediately due and payable | |
| 1.16.1.3 | If such debit balance on a stale account is not cleared with Hours or Dollars within the time allowed by the administrator, the administrator shall be entitled to proceed against the account-holder as if the account-holder had exceeded their limits. For this purpose the administrator shall be entitled to institute action in their own name. | |
| 1.16.2 | Any account-holder with a stale account will not be entitled to re-apply for an account with the OAKT or the CES until their obligations towards the OAKT or the CES have been met. | |
| 1.16.3 | An account will automatically become stale if there has been no activity on the account for a year. "No activity" will mean either no sales or no purchases or no log-in by the account-holder. | |
1.17 LEAVING AND DE-REGISTERING
If an account-holder wishes to leave the exchange voluntarily, they shall apply to the administrator for deregistration of their account. In such event the same terms and conditions relating to stale accounts as per Clause 1.16 shall apply as if the account was stale.
1.18 SUSPENSION AND TERMINATION
| 1.18.1 | The administration can suspend an account of any account-holder who breaches any material trading rule or who acts in a way considered to be unethical or contrary to the norms of the CES. |
| 1.18.2 | The administration shall notify any account-holder if his or her account has been suspended, and the account-holder shall have fourteen days to dispute the suspension. |
| 1.18.3 | The administration shall have fourteen days to evaluate the account-holder's objection to the suspension and determine whether the suspension is permanent or temporary. |
| 1.18.4 | If the suspension is temporary, the administration shall notify the account-holder of what steps the account-holder must take to reactivate their account and on what conditions the account may remain activated. |
| 1.18.5 | If the suspension is permanent, the administration shall notify the account-holder. |
| 1.18.6 | If no dispute is declared the administration shall then be entitled to terminate the account, in which event it shall be treated as if it was a stale account in terms of Clause 1.16 above. |
1.19 CHANGES
The administrator shall be entitled to change the terms of use from time to time. In such event the applicable terms will be those prevailing at the time of the action or transaction involved.
2. DISCLAIMERS
| 2.1 | Neither the CES nor the OAKT are party to any transaction between a buyer and a seller and accept no responsibility for the performance of trading parties nor as to their identity or trustworthiness nor as to the subject matter of any trade. |
| 2.2 | Neither the CES nor the OAKT accept responsibility for any loss or damage occasioned to any account-holder as a result of information received via the system becoming available to other account-holders or outsiders. |
| 2.3 | Account-holders agree to indemnify and hold harmless the CES and the OAKT and the administration and any of their employees or agents from any incident of loss or damage arising out of the use of the system. |
3. UNDERTAKING AND ACCEPTANCE
I accept the above terms of use and conditions and undertake further to:
| 3.1 | Negotiate a fair trade with other members. |
| 3.2 | Keep my personal contact details, my offerings and wants updated. |
| 3.3 | Enter transactional information as soon as possible after a transaction takes place. If I do not have the means to do it myself, I will get another user to do it for me or provide the details to a co-ordinator or the administration. |
| 3.4 | Regularly review my offerings and ensure that they provide sufficient information for others to engage in trade with me. |
| 3.5 | Actively promote my offerings if my account balance is a large negative balance and remains there for a period of more than one month. |
| 3.6 | Make every effort to keep my balance within the limits prescribed or suggested by the administration from time to time. |
| 3.7 | Advise the administration if I should wish to de-register or move from one exchange to another. |
| 3.8 | Contribute the Hours in my account to the Oakland Time Bank if I should de-register or if my account should become stale with a positive balance, or, to contribute cash to clear my negative balance, on the basis of one Dollar for every Hour of negative balance. |
| 3.9 | Allow my email address to be used on the exchange as the address at which I choose to receive communications and notices. |
By clicking here I acknowledge that I have read the above terms of use and conditions and are bound by them to the CES and OAKT and their administrators as well as to other users. I am also subject to prevailing terms and conditions regarding inter-group trading. I acknowledge further that these terms and conditions may be changed by the CES or OAKT administration from time to time and I undertake to keep myself abreast of any changes. Participation will be subject to the terms of use prevailing at the time.