Terms & Conditions

Water Storytellers Collective (“WSC”, “we”, “us”) is a volunteer-led, federally incorporated Canadian non-profit and a global peer community for water and climate communicators. These terms apply to waterstorytellers.com, the Monthly Water Brief, WhatsApp Community, Virtual Cafes, the Ripple Makers Series, and blog contributions.

By using our website or taking part in any of our activities, you agree to these terms. If you do not agree with something here, please tell us rather than simply leaving. We would rather know.

1. Who can take part

Anyone aged 16 or over is welcome to take part in everything we do: our community spaces, the Monthly Water Brief, contributing published work, and joining the volunteer team.

Beyond that, there is no bar to clear. You do not need a particular job title, a degree, an institution behind you, or a certain number of years in the sector. Some of the best storytellers we know arrived here by an unusual route, and some are just starting out.

If you are 16 or 17, you are still a minor where we are registered, so we will ask a parent or guardian to confirm they are comfortable before we publish work that identifies you. It is one short email, and we will help you sort it.

2. What we offer, and how

Everything WSC currently offers is free. We do not charge for membership, events, or contributions, we do not sell anything through this website, and we do not process payments. If that ever changes, we will publish separate terms before it does.

We are a volunteer organisation. That means our programs run on the time people can give, and schedules occasionally shift. We may add, change, pause, or retire a program, and we will give you reasonable notice when we do.

Our content is for information and community-building. It is not professional, legal, scientific, financial, or policy advice, and should not be relied on as a substitute for expertise appropriate to your situation. Views expressed by contributors and guests are their own, not positions of WSC.

3. How we treat each other

This section matters more to us than any other in this document. This Collective works because people bring their real questions, half-finished ideas, and occasional frustrations into a room where nobody is going to make them feel small for it.

What we ask of you

Assume good faith. Our members work across many countries, languages, and professional cultures. Read generously before you react.
Respect people's beliefs and backgrounds. We hold no position on anyone's faith, culture, nationality, politics, or personal life, and we ask the same of you within our spaces.
Credit people's work. Attribute ideas, images, and words that are not yours.
Keep what is shared in confidence, confidential. Do not forward another member's message, contact details, or unpublished work outside the group without asking them first.
Contribute more than you extract. This is a peer community, not a lead list.

What is not allowed

Harassment, bullying, intimidation, or unwanted contact after someone has asked you to stop.
Content that demeans people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability, age, caste, or any similar characteristic. We are non-partisan, but we are not neutral about discrimination.
Party-political campaigning, canvassing, or fundraising for candidates.
Unsolicited commercial promotion, recruitment spam, or harvesting members' contact details.
Sharing anyone's private information, including screenshots of a private group, without their consent.
Knowingly false or misleading claims about water, climate, or the people working on them.
Anything unlawful, or anything that puts another member at risk.

If something goes wrong:

Write to info@waterstorytellers.com. You can ask us to keep your name out of it.

We will listen properly, we will not treat raising a concern as the problem, and we will tell you what we have decided.

How we respond

Most things are best handled with a conversation, and that is usually where we start. Where more is needed, we may edit or remove content, ask someone to step back from a space, or end someone's participation in our programs. Serious conduct, such as harassment, threats, or anything that endangers a member, can mean immediate removal without a warning first.

We make these decisions with care and we will explain our reasoning to the people involved. We will not discuss them publicly, out of respect for everyone concerned.

4. Your contributions

You keep the copyright in what you create. When you contribute a blog post, an interview, a photograph, or a talk, you give WSC permission to publish and share it as we have agreed with you. That is a non-exclusive, revocable licence, not a transfer. Your work remains yours to publish anywhere else.

When you contribute, you are confirming that the work is yours to share, that you have permission for any images or quotes from others in it, and that publishing it will not breach anyone's rights or an agreement you have signed with an employer.

We may edit for length, clarity, or house style, but we will not change your meaning, and we will always send you the edited version before it goes live. We may also decline to publish something, or take it down later, and we will tell you why.

You can withdraw a contribution at any time

Email us and we will unpublish it from our channels, usually within fourteen days. Anything already downloaded, quoted elsewhere, or captured by a web archive is honestly beyond our reach, but everything within our control comes down.

If publishing could put you at professional, legal, or personal risk, tell us at any stage. We can use a pseudonym, remove identifying details, delay, or not publish at all.

5. Our content

The WSC name, logo, and the material we produce ourselves belong to us or to the people who made them. You are very welcome to share, quote, and link to our work for non-commercial purposes with clear credit to Water Storytellers Collective and a link back. That is what it is for. Please ask first before republishing something in full, using our name or logo in a way that implies partnership or endorsement, or using our material commercially.

Contributors' work belongs to those contributors. If you want to reuse a story, please allow us to ask its author.

6. Other platforms we use

We are a small organisation running on ordinary tools. Our Community of Practice is on WhatsApp, our newsletter goes out through Mailchimp, our events run on video conferencing platforms, and this website is built on a website platform. When you use these, you are also agreeing to their terms and their privacy policies, which we do not control.

Worth knowing: in the WhatsApp group, other members can see your phone number, display name, and profile photo. If you would rather keep your number private, tell us and we will suggest another way to stay connected.

We sometimes link to other organizations' websites and resources. A link is not an endorsement, and we are not responsible for what is on the other end.

7. Privacy

How we handle your information, and your stories, is set out in our Privacy Policy, which forms part of these terms. The short version: we collect as little as possible, we never sell anything about you, we ask before we publish, and you can change your mind at any time.

8. What we cannot promise

We would rather be straight with you than hide behind capital letters. We provide this website and our programs on an “as is” basis. We cannot guarantee the site will always be available, that everything on it is complete and current, or that our tools will never fail. We do our best, and we are a volunteer team.

To the fullest extent the law allows, WSC and its founder, volunteers, and contributors are not liable for indirect or consequential losses arising from your use of the website or participation in our programs, or for the conduct of other members. Nothing here limits liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud, or anything else that cannot lawfully be excluded, and your statutory rights under Ontario and Canadian consumer protection law are unaffected.

9. Leaving, and being asked to leave

You can leave whenever you like. Unsubscribe from the Brief, exit the WhatsApp group, or email us to be removed entirely. No exit interview, no hard feelings, and you are always welcome back.

We may suspend or end someone's participation where these terms have been breached, or where it is necessary to protect the community. Sections on contributions, our content, liability, and governing law continue to apply after participation ends.

10. Changes to these terms

As WSC grows, these terms will change with it. We will post any updated version on our website with a new effective date, and where a change is significant we will tell the community directly. Continuing to take part after a change means you accept the updated terms.

11. Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of the Province of Ontario and the federal laws of Canada that apply there, and the courts of Ontario have jurisdiction over any dispute. If you are taking part from outside Canada, as many of our members are, this does not take away any mandatory protections you have under the law of your own country.

Before anything formal, please talk to us. Almost everything is resolvable over email.

12. Getting in touch

Questions, concerns, corrections, or a request to reuse something. All welcome.

Write to us at info@waterstorytellers.com