This contract is written to be clear, transparent, and meet GDPR requirements. My goal is to be immediately helpful and as responsive as possible. The following guidelines for our work together should help you decide rather quickly if I'm the resource you're looking for. While it would be great if everyone were to sit down and read this with the same eagerness as their favorite novel, I realize that's unlikely. I would be very glad to spend time going over this with you before you become a client to make very sure you understand how I work in this regard. I want you to be happy, successful, and pleased to continue working with me. This contract can also be modified for our individual business arrangement.

1. 1. It's best if we engage only in feature driven projects from which an end-date can be derived.
   2. I'd prefer not to take websites live on Fridays or the day before a holiday if DNS propagation is involved just because go-live over a weekend can hit staffing issues with providers if something goes wrong.
   3. Milestone sign-offs are simply achieved by responding in the affirmative to an e-mail.
   4.  Invoicing
      1. Invoice Terms are Net 30 unless we've arranged otherwise in advance.
      2. Sometimes work is tied to a Service Request. I use a structured support methodology inspired by W. Edwards Deming. You can view it here.  Invoices will reference these Service Requests (powered by Atlassian Jira). You will have direct log-in access to the Service Request System, but will also be able to participate with it by simply replying to e-mails.
      3. I'd prefer we meet within 3 business days of milestone. I realize that might not always happen, so just stay in communication so I know what to expect. I'm flexible.
      4. If a milestone cannot be reached due to something I'm waiting on from you, I will simply invoice for the work done so far once we talk.
      5. The build phase for a website is finished once we reach the Content Ready Milestone (CoReMi). Work up to that point includes placing sample content, it does not include placing actual content. Beyond this point you could be trained to maintain the existing content and website yourself, or you can certainly pay me to do it. I will build your site out up to the point at which all integrated features and the coded design are working well together as confirmed by you.
      6. A link to my company's secure e-payment credit card page appears on all invoices.
   5. Non-Disclosure Agreement:
      1. I assume everything I am doing is "top secret, tell nobody, we were never here" and I also consider that this assumption carries legal weight. If you need me to sign an NDA to help you (your investors might require this for example if I'm helping out with a technical documentation issue) that's usually not a problem. Just send it to me and I'll look it over.
      2. Unless you have explicitly allowed it, I will not reference our work together in an identifiable way in any of my online advertising, marketing, or public speaking engagements.
      3. I agree not to disclose or discuss sensitive information, including anything internal to your organization such as processes, vendor agreements, client base, strategies, or anything at all that would be inappropriate for outsiders to learn.
   6. Agency Non-Compete
      1. Unless you have explicitly requested I do so, I will not interact directly with your client or contact them directly for work outside of our arrangement.
      2. FlexTech Media will not compete directly for client contracts for as long as a relationship between our two organizations exist.
   7. FlexTech Media will provide the collaborative virtual environments for design, website prototyping, writing, and training, when desirable and when possible.
   8. You will provide one e-mail address for all e-mail correspondence, and a Single Point of Contact I will interact with.
   9. Everything I do is agreed to be on a "best effort" basis and once Verified as Accepted is considered final and complete. Any issues discovered after such Verification are considered outside the scope of the task agreement, though that won't prevent me from seeing if there is an "easy fix" or other minor adjustment that can remedy the issue.
   10. INDEMNITY: You agree to hold FlexTech Media and it's owner, Michael Penner, harmless for any actions which inadvertently result in data loss, harm to systems, or reputation in the course of our normal work together. You agree that FlexTech Media is not responsible for the performance, evolution, or deficiencies that may reside within plug-ins or other third-party code bases. Where SMASH is involved, be aware that this means if you have custom code that relies on a plugin or has some other dependency, and that source changes thus breaking the website, fixing it is not covered under SMASH, but coordinating with your programmer might be. FlexTech Media is not a programming resource and does not subcontract to programming resources. FlextTech Media, in return, promises to perform all reasonable due-diligence to make sure third party resources being used are in fact stable and safe.
   11. I test the websites I build extensively, both during development and then again after go-live. I make every effort to assure that what I build takes into account performance and security. This satisfies Article 25 of the GDPR Compliance requirement. If things go wrong once the site is live, I am usually able to take counter-measures and/or corrective action that is effective. However, it is not possible to anticipate every attack, glitch, or inappropriate behavior by site members or visitors that can cause problems. Nor am I in control, to any degree, over the performance of the selected web hosting solution. The web hosting I prefer is communicated to you during our discussions because it has been proven robust, resilient, and responsive to me when things go wrong. Given the amount of QA effort I expend to minimize the possibility of problems, you agree to hold FlexTech Media harmless for any loss of revenue, reputation, or any other form of damage resulting from website performance problems including but not limited to website crashes, server downtime, offensive material posted to your website due to hacking, offensive site redirects due to hacking, unavailable pages, search engine ranking issues, and server error messages: essentially any unanticipated or unintended website behavior, due to hacking or other malicious behavior (including the behavior of site members), which could be deemed damaging, will not be held against FlexTech Media. My promise to you is that if such things happen I will make every reasonable effort to help you (and it will be documented), though it may not always be possible to do so free of charge. If the problem is something I caused, I certainly will fix it free of charge, but I still require the same disclaimer of liability in that case as well.
   12. No warranty or expectation of 100% site uptime is provided by FlexTech Media. There exists not a single website I am aware of that has ever enjoyed 100% uptime, but I will do everything in my power to minimize the chances that downtime occurs. You agree and understand that:
       1. It is not possible for FlexTech Media to respond on an emergency basis for any reason.
       2. It is your responsibility to monitor the membership activity and behavior on your website of your members, though with the SMASH service some monitoring of this is also provided.
       3. WordPress plugins and themes (components) are packages of code furnished by third-parties that provide advanced functionality. We use components to avoid the cost of custom programming. FlexTech Media has a stringent QA process for component adoption. Your website's components may require frequent updates throughout the month, and this is where the Site Maintenance and Security Hardening (SMASH) service applies.
       4. COMPONENTS: I build with high-end, premium components, many of which have proven their value over many years of service. Most of these have a licensing cost associated with them. If you decide to move your website away from my service, you will need to purchase the licenses for these components in order to continue receiving updates to them. Unlicensed components will always work just fine, but will go out of date and weaken your security profile significantly at some point if you let them go stale. Component licenses can run between $400.00 - $950.00 annual depending on the website. SMASH always covers the cost of these components for you, in addition to its other benefits.
       5. If a component on a website we delivered goes out of production while you are on our SMASH service, we will revise your website to accept a replacement if possible and at no additional charge. This is an exceedingly rare occurrence. For this reason, we are extremely particular about the components we select for a web project, and it is the primary reason we tend to use only professional components that require license purchases.
   13. All Stakeholders Must Be Present: I require all stakeholders to participate in a given project...technical writing, web builds, UX design, anything at all. If a stakeholder sits behind the scenes then begins to participate while we are in process, there is a good chance new requirements will be brought to my attention along with additional meetings that are then needed to define, review, and approve their functionality in any prototyping work. If this occurs, you agree to release me from the previously agreed upon timeline, the associated budgetary scope, and any or all aspects of the plan or other architectural document we are working from. We will then need to produce revisions of those documents as part of cognitive services charges.
   14. This agreement is subject to change without notice.