Member Terms of Service

1. Who We Are and What These Terms Cover

1.1 Affini is a platform operated by Affini App, LLC, an Illinois limited liability company (“Affini,” “we,” “us”). Affini helps members of Affini Communities discover one another through profile-based matches. A “Community” is any group whose Host uses Affini to connect the people in it, such as a professional organization, networking group, alumni group, social club, workplace, or team, whether it gathers online, in person, or both. An “Affini Community” is that group’s space on the Platform: the thing you join, and where matching happens. A “Host” is the person or organization that creates and administers an Affini Community. An “Affini Member,” or simply a “member,” is a person with their own Affini account under these Terms; a Community may also include people who are not on Affini, and where we mean them we say so. A Community may also have its own membership, rules, and processes outside Affini, and where we refer to those we say so. Your member card is what other people can see of you: your name, your general location, and your photo and headline if you choose to add them.

1.2 These Member Terms of Service (these “Terms”) govern your use of the Affini web-based platform (the “Platform”) as an individual member (“you”). By creating an account or using the Platform, you agree to these Terms and to our Privacy Policy, which is incorporated by reference. If you do not agree, do not use the Platform.

1.3 If you administer an Affini Community, your use in that role is governed by the separate Host Terms of Service.

2. Eligibility and Your Account

2.1 You must be at least 18 years old to use Affini. The Platform is not directed to, and may not be used by, anyone under 18.

2.2 The Platform is currently offered to users located in the United States only.

2.3 You may only join an Affini Community at the invitation of, or with access provided by, its Host, and your participation is also subject to that Community’s own rules.

2.4 You must provide accurate information about yourself and keep your account information current. You may not create an account for anyone other than yourself, impersonate any person, or maintain more than one account.

2.5 Your profile stays with you across Affini Communities. Your profile answers, including the interests you select or describe, are stored once and apply everywhere, so editing an answer updates it in every Affini Community you belong to, and interests you add in one Affini Community are used for matching in all of them. Your goals are set separately for each Affini Community; your headline and photo are set once and used in every Affini Community you belong to.

2.6 By creating an account, you agree that we may use your email address to send you service communications about the Platform, such as match notifications, Affini Community updates, and administrative notices. Optional marketing emails will always include an unsubscribe option. Service notices are given when sent to the email on your account or shown in-app, so keep your email current. Unsubscribing from optional emails does not affect essential service messages or in-app notices.

3. How Affini Works, and What We Do Not Promise

3.1 Profile-based matching. You answer profile questions, and our matching system uses your answers to suggest introductions to other members of the same Affini Community. You are never matched with someone outside an Affini Community you belong to. When you are matched, the other member sees your member card, together with any contact links you have chosen to add. Your underlying answers are never revealed, and we do not share the reasoning behind any match. Matching is mutual by design: an Affini Member can appear in your matches only if you also clear the matching bar for them. Match lists are personal, so you and a match may not see each other in your lists at the same time, and it is up to either of you to reach out.

3.2 Background characteristics. Matching uses background characteristics, such as age, gender, or life stage, only as described in Section 5 of the Privacy Policy.

3.3 Connecting with a match. Affini does not provide members’ contact information on its own and does not itself deliver introductions. When you see a match you would like to meet, you connect through your Community. Your Host offers at least one route, either making an introduction when you ask or directing members to your Community’s own channels, and your Host will tell you which. Beyond that, you may add contact links to your profile, meaning links to profiles you already maintain elsewhere, and the members you match with can open them. You may also create an intro link for a match you would like to reach: a link that you send yourself, through any channel you choose, and that shows that member your card, a note that we suggested you reach out, and the date. Affini never sends an intro link on your behalf. Affini never gives your email address or phone number to another member without your explicit consent.

3.4 What happens after you connect. If you add contact links and a match reaches you through one, whatever you exchange with them afterwards is between you and them. It takes place outside the Platform, Affini does not handle it and our Privacy Policy does not govern it, and Affini is not responsible for those exchanges or for any interaction you have with another member, whether online or in person.

3.5 Grouping. For Affini Community events, your Host may add you to a grouping, meaning all or selected members of the Affini Community, and may then form sub-groups within it, such as breakout rooms or table seating, or not. Either way, Affini may notify members of the grouping when their matches check in, to encourage attendance. Checking in on Affini does not register you for a Host’s event; registration is between you and the Host. Sub-group composition is a different calculation from your personal match list: it balances the whole room among the members who attend, so the people in your sub-group may not appear in your list of top matches, and a group of any size, including a group of two, does not mean either of you is a top match for the other. Groups are built around who attends, so if you plan to attend an event, please make reasonable efforts to do so, or withdraw in good time so groups can be recalculated.

3.6 Discovering Affini Communities. If another Affini Community is discoverable on the Platform, you can request to join it. We share with that Host what Section 6.4 of the Privacy Policy describes, so the Host can run their Community’s own membership process before deciding. If they approve, you join their Affini Community. If they decline, no membership is created.

3.7 No guarantee of matches or outcomes. We do not guarantee that you will receive matches, that any match will be a good fit, or that any introduction will lead to any particular personal or professional outcome. Your personal match list shows your top matches within that Affini Community, and the same person may be a relatively stronger or weaker match in one Affini Community than another. Your list refreshes as you and other members add or update answers and as more members join, so who appears on it changes over time. Matching is inherently probabilistic and depends on the Affini Community you are in and the information members provide. If a match does not reply, that is between the two of you: Affini does not chase matches or mediate, and anything you would like raised belongs with your Community’s Host through their own channels. Contact us at [email protected] for conduct or safety concerns, or to ask us to review a screening decision.

3.8 We do not screen Affini Members. Affini does not conduct background checks, identity verification, or criminal-records screening of Affini Members, and we make no representations about any Affini Member’s identity, character, or conduct. We rely on Hosts to provide a forum for connecting and to facilitate introductions as appropriate for their Community. You are solely responsible for your interactions with other Affini Members, including any decision to meet in person. Use good judgment: meet in public settings, tell someone where you are going, and never send money or share financial information because you met someone through the Platform.

3.9 Not professional advice, and not a dating or matchmaking service. Affini is a Community connection tool. It is not a dating service, employment agency, or provider of professional, legal, medical, or financial advice. It is designed to help members find people worth meeting, and does not guarantee any particular outcome.

3.10 Pilot phase. The Platform is in an early pilot. Features may change, be added, or be removed, matching may be adjusted as we learn, and the service may be interrupted while we make improvements. Because matching depends on how many members have joined and how fully they have answered, early match lists may be short, and some members may not be matched at first. This usually improves as an Affini Community grows. If something is not working as you expect, please tell us so we can look into it. We welcome your feedback, questions and suggestions at [email protected]. The disclaimers and limits in Sections 10 and 11 apply during this period, though nothing in these Terms limits any right you have under applicable law. This clause applies only while the Platform is in its pilot phase, and ceases to apply when Affini announces general availability, without any further change to these Terms.

4. Your Profile Privacy

4.1 Our Privacy Policy sets out what we collect, how open text is processed, what other members and Hosts can see, what we share and with whom, and how long we keep it. The Privacy Policy controls in the event of any conflict with these Terms.

5. Your Content and the Rights You Give Us

5.1 You keep ownership of everything you submit to the Platform, including your profile answers, open-text responses, photos, and feedback (“Your Content”). By submitting it, you give us the rights we need to run the Platform for you: to store Your Content, process it, and use it to generate your matches and improve how matching works, consistent with our Privacy Policy, and to let our service providers do the same on our behalf under contracts limiting them to providing services to us. These rights may transfer with the Platform in a transaction described in the Privacy Policy. They end when Your Content is deleted from our systems following account deletion, except for de-identified information that no longer identifies you.

5.2 You represent that you have the rights to submit Your Content and that it does not violate any law or the rights of any third party.

6. Acceptable Use

6.1 You agree not to harass, threaten, stalk, or harm any member, Host, or other person, whether on or off the Platform.

6.2 You agree not to submit false, misleading, or deceptive profile information, or impersonate any person or entity.

6.3 You agree not to use the Platform for spam, mass or unsolicited commercial outreach, pyramid or similar schemes, or advertising unrelated to the connections your Affini Community offers. Stating your own goals through the profile fields designed for them, such as hiring, seeking work, offering or seeking services, or seeking investment, is what the Platform is for and is not a violation of this Section.

6.4 You agree not to use the Platform to seek, facilitate, or engage in any unlawful activity.

6.5 You agree not to scrape, harvest, or collect information about other members, or attempt to access data not intended for you.

6.6 You agree not to reverse engineer, probe, or interfere with the Platform, its security, or its matching systems, or attempt to manipulate matching outcomes.

6.7 You agree not to share access credentials, or access another member’s account.

6.8 You agree not to upload malicious code or use automated means, such as bots or scripts, to access the Platform without our written permission.

6.9 We may investigate suspected violations, remove content, suspend or terminate accounts, and involve law enforcement where appropriate. Open-text profile entries are also screened automatically, and a profile containing content that violates these rules may be held from matching until it is revised. Screening, and how a screening decision is reviewed on request, are described in the Privacy Policy.

7. Community Hosts

7.1 Affini Communities are created and administered by their Hosts. Hosts are independent from Affini. We do not control, and are not responsible for, a Host’s conduct, communications, Community rules, or events, including in-person events. A Host may remove you from an Affini Community at its discretion. Removal from an Affini Community does not by itself delete your Affini account or profile.

8. Fees

8.1 The Platform is currently free for individual members. If we introduce paid member features in the future, we will present pricing and payment terms at the point of purchase, and continued use of paid features will be subject to those terms. We will not charge you without your affirmative consent.

9. Termination

9.1 You may stop using the Platform and delete your account at any time through your account settings or by contacting us at [email protected].

9.2 We may suspend or terminate your access at any time, with or without notice, if we reasonably believe you have violated these Terms, pose a risk to other users or the Platform, or if we discontinue the Platform. This includes where you have been blocked by more than one unrelated Affini Community. If we suspend your account on that basis, you may ask us to review it at [email protected]. We may also delete accounts that remain inactive for an extended period, after advance notice to the email address on your account.

9.3 Sections that by their nature should survive termination, including Sections 5, 10 to 14, and 16, survive.

10. Disclaimers

10.1 THE PLATFORM IS PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE.” TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, AFFINI DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. WITHOUT LIMITING THE FOREGOING, AFFINI MAKES NO WARRANTY REGARDING THE QUALITY, ACCURACY, OR SUITABILITY OF ANY MATCH OR INTRODUCTION, THE CONDUCT OF ANY MEMBER OR HOST, OR THAT THE PLATFORM WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, SECURE, OR ERROR-FREE.

11. Limitation of Liability

11.1 TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW: (A) AFFINI WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR ANY LOSS OF PROFITS, DATA, GOODWILL, OR OPPORTUNITY, ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THE PLATFORM OR THESE TERMS; (B) AFFINI WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR THE CONDUCT OF ANY MEMBER, HOST, OR THIRD PARTY, ON OR OFF THE PLATFORM, INCLUDING AT IN-PERSON EVENTS; AND (C) AFFINI’S TOTAL AGGREGATE LIABILITY ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THE PLATFORM OR THESE TERMS WILL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS ($100) OR THE AMOUNTS YOU PAID TO AFFINI IN THE TWELVE (12) MONTHS BEFORE THE CLAIM AROSE. SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW CERTAIN LIMITATIONS, SO SOME OF THE ABOVE MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU. NOTHING IN THESE TERMS LIMITS ANY LIABILITY THAT CANNOT BE LIMITED UNDER APPLICABLE LAW, INCLUDING LIABILITY FOR FRAUD, GROSS NEGLIGENCE, OR WILLFUL MISCONDUCT.

12. Indemnification

12.1 You agree to indemnify and hold harmless Affini and its officers, owners, employees, and agents from and against claims, damages, and expenses, including reasonable attorneys’ fees, arising out of Your Content, your use of the Platform, your interactions with other Affini Members or Hosts, or your violation of these Terms or applicable law.

13. Dispute Resolution; Arbitration; Class Waiver

13.1 Agreement to arbitrate. You and Affini agree to resolve any dispute arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Platform through binding individual arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association under its Consumer Arbitration Rules, rather than in court. Any arbitration will be seated in Cook County, Illinois. Hearings will be conducted remotely unless you and Affini agree otherwise, or the arbitrator determines that an in-person hearing is necessary.

13.2 Exceptions. Either party may bring an individual claim in small-claims court, and either party may seek injunctive relief in court for infringement or misuse of intellectual property or for unauthorized access to the Platform.

13.3 Jury trial and class action waiver. YOU AND AFFINI EACH WAIVE (A) THE RIGHT TO A JURY TRIAL AND (B) THE RIGHT TO PARTICIPATE IN A CLASS ACTION.

13.4 Your right to opt out. You may opt out of Sections 13.1 to 13.3 by emailing [email protected] within 30 days of first accepting these Terms, stating your name and that you opt out of arbitration. Opting out does not affect any other part of these Terms, and we will not treat you differently for doing so.

13.5 Informal resolution first. Before either party begins an arbitration, the party raising the dispute will send the other a written description of the dispute and the relief sought, to [email protected] if you are raising it, or to the email address on your account if we are, and the parties will try in good faith to resolve it. Neither party may begin an arbitration until 60 days after that notice is sent. Either party may still bring an individual claim in small-claims court during that period, and any applicable limitations period is paused while this process runs.

14. Governing Law and Venue

14.1 These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Illinois, without regard to conflict-of-laws rules. Subject to Section 13, any dispute not subject to arbitration must be brought in the state or federal courts located in Cook County, Illinois, and you consent to their jurisdiction.

15. Changes to These Terms

15.1 We may update these Terms from time to time. If we make material changes, we will notify you, for example by email or in-platform notice, at least thirty (30) days before the changes take effect. Your continued use of the Platform after the effective date of updated Terms constitutes acceptance. If you do not agree to updated Terms, stop using the Platform and delete your account.

16. General

16.1 These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy, are the entire agreement between you and Affini regarding the Platform. If any provision is found unenforceable, the remainder remains in effect. Our failure to enforce any provision is not a waiver. You may not assign these Terms; we may assign them in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets. Notices to us should be sent to [email protected].

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