Terms

ATTENDEES:

YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES AS A SITE USER AND MEETING PARTICIPANT

By providing information when you register for a meeting or on the site, as the user you are agreeing to professional conduct in any form of information exchange with My Career Transitions (MCT) members. This includes but is not limited to blogs, e-mails, meetings, phone calls, conversations, etc. Noncompliance will result in the removal of your membership and ability to attend meetings. Please remember this is a forum to assist one another in our search for whatever lies ahead. You are fully responsible for your conduct and members can be removed from the group and from event attendance if they violate any MCT policies. Attendees may not use of video or audio recording equipment at any MCT events is not permitted.  All exceptions require advance approval from MCT and the speaker.

ATTENDEE CANCELLATION POLICY

This policy has been created out of respect for our members who are in transition and who benefit from our monthly programs. 

The maximum capacity for the size of the classroom is 120 people. If you have a change of plans and need to cancel your reservation, please update that through Eventbrite as soon as you are aware that you cannot make it. Your timely cancellation will create room in the system for others to register for the event.

If you are not able to cancel via Eventbrite, please send an email to us.

We do understand that sometimes things crop up at the last minute, but ask that you still contact us so we can check your name off the list and give your spot to someone on the waiting list.

Thank you for your understanding and cooperation. If you have any questions regarding this policy, please contact us.

THIRD-PARTY CONTENT DISCLAIMER

As a volunteer group affiliated with Penn State Great Valley, we are merely a conduit of information to help members/attendees. We do not have the resources to investigate or endorse the information or services provided by any speakers, volunteers, members, attendees, web links or any other information. As with any "live" event, we are not able to control what a speaker says, and there is always the possibility that information or behavior might not be appropriate in some way, despite our efforts to give guidelines and expectations to the speaker.  There may also be instances when third-party content will change and become outdated or inappropriate. Users are fully responsible for determining validity of any and all information. My Career Transitions and its volunteers make no claims or guarantees of any kind for any information you may obtain directly or indirectly. From time to time, we may take photos or video to use for promotional use. By attending an event, you grant permission for Penn State Great Valley and My Career Transitions to use your image for promotional purposes. 

NON-DISCRIMINATION POLICY

The spirit of this group is to be friendly forum where professionals can come in times of job transition or career management, to learn and network. The group is open to all professionals regardless race, creed, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, national origin, disability, age, or covered veteran status. We have no specific affiliations but our venues, sponsors, volunteers or other networking partners of the group may have their own policies and affiliations. We encourage you to ask those groups about their policies or procedures before becoming involved in any other group that you may learn of directly or indirectly.

NON-SOLICITATION POLICY

The spirit of this group is to give back to others without seeking personal gain. The promotion of an individual person, their business or company they represent is counter to that spirit and prohibited. The use of our meetings to directly or indirectly solicit or prospect for financial gain is strictly prohibited. This includes announcements of fee or free networking opportunities that ultimately lead to a solicitation. We do not allow solicitation of our members before, during or after our meetings.  You are fully responsible for your conduct and members can be removed from the group and from event attendance if they violate any MCT policies.

PROMOTION OF OTHER EVENTS (at MCT EVENTS)

Announcements (verbal, written on white board, or distribution of materials)

At each meeting, we may make announcements about future MCT events, and our venue sponsor may announce their events. Time permitting, we may allow open discussion to the floor for members to share resources, organizations or events they may find useful. These announcements (or any other marketing efforts) should not be self-promoting and/or to the benefit of an individual person, their business or company they represent. This includes announcements of free networking opportunities that ultimately lead to a solicitation.

MCT volunteers contribute their time to make this group a resource for people in transition. We realize that our members are a very attractive and sizeable audience for people that make their living selling services to people in transition, and we appreciate those who share their time and knowledge with us as speakers. We know that most speakers and some members may benefit from their association with our group. The spirit of our policy is to welcome those that share knowledge that can benefit our members without strings and make a best-effort to limit the targeting of our members by others who seek financial gain.

My Career Transitions does not endorse, screen or make any other assessment of outside events announced at meetings. It is the sole responsibility of the attendee to determine if the event meets their needs.

We will ask attendees to only announce events related to the needs of those in career transition and that all costs (charges), affiliations (religious or other) or relevant details be disclosed  at the time the announcement is made.

Printed solicitations or materials for events (other than MCT or speaker events) cannot be distributed or made available to attendees. However, materials can be made available to attendees who specifically express an interest. MCT volunteers are not permitted to make announcements or distribute materials on an organization or individual’s behalf, unless the MCT volunteer receives Board approval and s affiliated with the organization and discloses this affiliation.

For example, an attendee, volunteer or member,

Cannot:

  • Make a self promoting announcement for one’s own personal financial benefit, e.g. for one’s own services, etc.
  • Distribute or place pamphlets, fliers or other materials at the meeting.
  • Announce an event without disclosing any personal affiliation with the  sponsor entity, any affiliation of the sponsor entity (religious or other), costs and other significant details.

Can:

  • Share information on other groups or upcoming events, that members may find to be a beneficial resource, as long as he/she discloses his/her own affiliation (if any,) the affiliation of the meeting (i.e. it is sponsored by ABC Company or ABC Church or Synagogue) and any known costs.
  • Have printed fliers available to those expressing an interest after the announcement.

Speakers have special rights on the day of their presentation. Please see Speaker section for details.

USE OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

By providing your e-mail address, you are giving us permission to contact you regarding meeting information, group updates, policies and procedures and/or about changes to our schedule. It will not be sold, traded or otherwise shared by MCT with third parties, without your prior consent.

List Use:

  • Our list is used to communicate about MCT events to MCT members/people that have registered online or in person with their email. It is our intent to not exceed 2-3 e-mailings per month and send outgoing emails about MCT meetings as "BCC's so as not to expose email addresses.
  • The list will not be used to promote other events. Please understand that we receive many requests to promote other organizations' events. Even if they may benefit our attendees, we will not use or share our email list to do so, as there are simply too many events and our members have not authorized us to contact them about events beyond those presented by MCT. We have a Resources page on our web site and a LinkedIn Group where we can offer links to resources and other events.

LinkedIn group:

You must have attended at least one MCT Meeting to join our group. Personal promotion, where an individual benefits financially from a communication or transaction, is specifically prohibited. MCT and its volunteers make no claims or guarantees of any kind for any information you may obtain directly or indirectly.

Opt-in/Opt-out

Should you wish to be removed from our group mailings, we offer an opt-in and opt-out method. Please reply to or send an email to mycareertransitions@gmail.com, with "Opt-in" or "Opt-out" in subject line. The MCT Communication Manager will make updates to our list monthly. Please understand that all MCT positions, including responsibility for this task, are done by volunteers. We currently update our records manually, so we appreciate your patience as we update our records.

SPEAKERS

Criteria:

Speakers' credentials must show an expertise on the subject.

Speaker must understand that the spirit of our invite is that the speaker has a genuine personal interest in helping those in transition as the primary reason for speaking, and see any business or professional benefit as secondary and indirect. We realize that many of the speakers available to speak on subjects of interest to our members will likely have business interests where they may also gain from the exposure of speaking at our meetings. This is acceptable if it is subtle, secondary and indirect.  The advancement of our members’ successful transition and protection of them at a vulnerable time is paramount; any benefit the speaker derives is secondary to that objective.  If speakers are not comfortable with this limitation and spirit of this policy, they should decline speaking.

Process:

People interested in speaking, should contact us at our email   with “potential speaker” in title. State your background, why you want to speak, and the subject(s) you would be able to offer. Your email will then be routed to the programming manager, who will then direct you to complete our speaker form. The programming manager will review the proposal, compare it with the needs of the group, other past or scheduled speakers, determine if it is a good fit, and present it to the board.

The MCT board (at minimum two including President or VP) must approve all speakers and subjects to be presented as well as all presentations and handouts. 

Approved speakers will receive the current Speaker Form from the Programming Director and will be assigned a volunteer who will be their contact from the time of commitment through the day of event. Please be 100% sure of the date you commit to as we promote these events far in advance and changes create a hardship for the volunteer group, and confusion for our members.

Restrictions:

  • Speakers cannot use the event to directly solicit business from members; any exception to this restriction must be discussed and approved prior to the speaker being placed on the schedule. Exceptions will only be considered if the value of a prospective speaker’s content exceeds the burden of the solicitation. If approved, the solicitation itself must be minimal and passive (example: there are books authored by the speaker at the bookstore and speaker is available for signing, if you are interested).
  • Speakers will not be given member or attendee lists, but they may pass around an opt-in sheet of their own for members to receive further information or to join their mailing list.
  • Any references to the speaker's paid services are to be kept to a minimum and  mentioned only in passing. Contact information for attendees to contact the speaker for any type of follow-up information, including paid services, should be placed on the last slide of the speaker’s PowerPoint, simply listing name, web, email and phone number.
  • Speakers (or anyone else) are prohibited from using or referencing the MCT name to market subsequent offerings in any way.

MCT and its volunteers make no endorsement of the speaker or information presented by the speaker at the event or in any subsequent communication. MCT and its volunteers make no claims, representations or guarantees of any kind for any information you may obtain directly or indirectly during MCT meetings and/or from speakers at MCT events.

Approved speakers, at the meeting they are presenting,

Can:

  • Include contact information on PowerPoint and printed materials as long as it is a subtle part of the presentation, collect business cards/contact information of those wishing to “opt-in” for the speaker’s information/newsletter/solicitations, etc.
  • Display a modest amount of printed materials on their services at front of the room near the speaker or make supporting materials available for purchase after the event as long as it is low-key, optional and no pressure approach. Book sales must be coordinated with Penn State’s bookstore, per University contract.


Cannot:

  • Have access to or otherwise contact our database of members
  • Directly solicit members during the meeting
  • In any way imply that subsequent functions the speaker may offer are in any way tied to, endorsed or otherwise part of MCT.

 


CRITERIA TO BE LISTED AS A RESOURCE ON THE WEB SITE:

MCT leaders (at a minimum the Leader and one VP) must approve requests for inclusion in our resources section of the web site. To submit a request, send an email with the URL (link) and brief explanation of why it is relevant to our members to our email address. 

Similar to our speaker guidelines, the web site to be linked must show an expertise on the subject. The link must provide significant relative information for our members at no or at a nominal cost. However, we realize that many of the web resources available will likely have business interests where they may also gain from the exposure. This is acceptable as long as there is enough free content that we deem useful for members.

MCT reserves the right to implement, at a later date, a separate section for Fee- Based Resources (to offset MCT expenses). Listings would also be subject to approval by at leader and one VP. By providing these links as a convenience, MCT is simply providing a dashboard of links to resources that are available to anyone but may be overwhelming for the person in transition to find. MCT and its volunteers make no claims or guarantees of any kind for any information you may obtain directly or indirectly.

 

VOLUNTEERS:

Criteria for Volunteers

We thank our volunteers for being willing to share their time and talents with the members of MCT. There are many people out there that need to know they're "not alone" when going through job transition and although we are just volunteers, we try to make an impact and help others.

Volunteer Expectations:

  • Able to attend at least 5 events per year
  • Able to access and use email and the internet, and reply to emails within 2 days
  • Understands that, depending on the area, many responsibilities are carried out outside the day of event.  
  • Act in a way that is in keeping with the spirit of the group. Therefore, it is expected that your motivation for involvement is predominantly selfless (beyond normal personal exposure/networking benefits) in helping organize meetings that provide educational and networking opportunities for attendees.
  • If you are unable to complete the responsibilities of your role due to a new job situation, or a change in your personal situation, you must let one of the board members know well in-advance so that an appropriate transition of tasks or role can be adjusted temporarily or permanently. Otherwise, it is expected that you own the tasks and will not leave the President or other leaders in a lurch, which causes unnecessary stress to the organization. 

 

Volunteer Obligations:

Contacts, activities and lists handled, viewed or acquired as a volunteer may not be used for personal or business secondary gains. Volunteers who have access to sign in sheets or electronic survey lists should not utilize these lists for personal or business e-mails or for any other purpose. No group distribution e-mails or solicitation of any type are allowed. Violations of this policy may result in warning or an immediate suspension from the group.

  • Volunteers may not solicit members of MCT during a MCT meeting for their own personal business interests.
  • Volunteers may not infer indirectly or directly that any future contact is in any way related to MCT or condoned by MCT.
  • Volunteers may advance third party networking events that have no material connection to the member’s main business and where there is no direct or indirect financial gain.
  • Volunteers must maintain privacy of member’s names and contact information at all times. See “Use of Personal information” section for more details.
  • Board Members are appointed by the Chairman or Founder and generally are team leaders. There is a 12 month provisional period with members reviewed annually.

Thank you again for your interest in helping others and abiding by the spirit of the group including but not limited to the above statements.

Please contact us  regarding questions relating to these guidelines and expectations.