Policies
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What is BPAA’s cancellation and refund policy?
Student-initiated Cancellations- We recognize that unforeseen circumstances may arise so that you’re not able to attend a class or event you’ve registered for. We encourage you to cancel your registration as soon as you know you can’t attend, even for no-cost events, so that we can make your spot available to others and so that instructors can prepare appropriately. Unless otherwise specified, there is a 15% cancellation fee for paid registrations that helps BPAA offset costs we incur for credit card fees, waitlist processing, and materials purchases.
- Refund Eligibility: A cancellation requested 7 days (168 hours) or more prior to the first class meeting is eligible for a refund unless a different cancellation date is noted in the class description.
- Cancellations received less than 7 days (168 hours) prior to the first class session date are not eligible for refunds.
- Cancellation requests can be made by emailing [email protected], or by phoning (206) 842-9152.
BPAA-initiated Cancellations
- Occasionally it may be necessary for BPAA to cancel classes due to low enrollment, instructor availability, weather, illness, and other unforeseen circumstances.
- In the event of a cancellation, registrants will be notified by email as soon as possible. BPAA will make every effort to notify registrants a minimum of 7 days prior to the first class session.
- Registrants will be issued a full refund of all registration fees.
- BPAA can refund only fees charged by BPAA. BPAA is not responsible for travel, materials, or other costs students may incur in planning to attend a class.
Refunds
Refunds will be in the form of a credit issued to the credit card used for payment, or a check mailed to the address on the account. Due to credit card company processing times outside BPAA’s control, credit card refunds take three to five business days to appear on an account. Check refunds may take up to four weeks.
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We want to keep BPAA’s community safe and healthy while fulfilling our mission. Our policy boils down to common sense:
- Stay home if you’re sick or could get someone sick.
- While you’re here, take reasonable steps to keep people safe.
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BPAA is a non-smoking, drug-free facility. Smoking or vaping are prohibited.
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Alcohol is only allowed at specific BPAA-hosted events.
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Service dogs are welcome at BPAA. Other animal friends are not.
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The Battle Point Astronomical Association (BPAA) is committed to creating and maintaining a safe environment for all participants. BPAA’s Code of Conduct applies to all ages and is the foundation of BPAA’s policies for working with youth. The code provides:
- Respectful relationships are a key to BPAA’s success, and will exclude any type of harassment, as well as disruptive, threatening, or unreasonable behavior that interferes with anyone’s use of the facility.
- Respectful stewardship of equipment and the building will be key to proper maintenance and care of shared and/or personal property. Our facilities and grounds will be smoke-free and drug-free.
Operable firearms are not allowed. - While BPAA-hosted events may involve alcohol, everyday activities will not.
- Toxic materials must be safely used and properly disposed.
- Service dogs are welcome; other animal friends are not.
- Environmental stewardship is foundational to our mission.
Anyone not complying with the Code of Conduct will be asked to leave the BPAA premises and may be barred from future access to BPAA facilities and programs.
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Youth and Vulnerable Adult Protection Policy
To ensure that BPAA is a safe environment for youth and vulnerable adults our policy provides for:
Prohibited Behaviors
- Use of degrading language or behavior.
- Threatening or intentionally inflicting physical injury upon a minor or vulnerable adult.
- Engaging in any sexual advance toward, sexual activity with and/or harassment of a minor or vulnerable adult.
Private Meetings
Unless a BPAA employee, Teacher, Monitor or Youth Mentor has passed a background check including fingerprint screening, all personal meetings with an unrelated minor or vulnerable adult are to be conducted in view of other adults.
Allegation Reporting Guidelines
Allegations of abuse or harassment of minors or vulnerable adults are to be reported to the BPAA President or Youth Advocate and may be reported to law enforcement or child protection authorities. BPAA teachers, members and volunteers shall refrain from conducting their own independent investigations and shall not disclose information indiscriminately.
Investigating Allegations
BPAA will cooperate with all law enforcement, child protective services, and legal investigations. BPAA may conduct its own independent investigation if an allegation involves an employee, a Teacher whose services BPAA contracted for, a Monitor or Youth Mentor, or a BPAA participant and if such investigation does not interfere with other investigations.
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Privacy Policy
Battle Point Astronomical Association (“BPAA,” “we,” “our,” “us”) values your privacy. This privacy policy explains the information we collect when you visit our website and class registration platform and how it is used.
Continuing to use this website and class registration platform means that you consent to our privacy policy.
Personal Information
BPAA securely stores information you provide, such as your name, email address, physical address, telephone number, and birthdate. We may collect this information when you register for a class or event, make a donation, submit a volunteer application, or sign up for a newsletter.
We use the information you provide to help you register for events, manage email subscriptions, or create and update your membership. We also use your personal information to process any donations you may make. BPAA may also use your data for marketing and outreach purposes, like letting you know about upcoming classes or events.
Additionally, BPAA collects emergency contact information, particularly for our youth program participants. In case of an emergency, we may use data you provide in order to contact you or another designated emergency contact.
Credit Card & Transactional Information
All transactional information is stored securely. Credit card information is encrypted and stored by our approved third-party payment processor.
Cookies & Third-Party Tracking
BPAA uses cookies, which are text files including small pieces of data, to improve your experience and optimize our website. We additionally use cookies or tracking pixels provided by third-party organizations such as social media companies (i.e., Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc.), Google (Google Ads, Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics, Google Signals), or other partner organizations, such as advertising partners (i.e., LocalIQ). We use the information we collect to deliver a better user experience and to help you find applicable information based on your interests.
The data we collect through these methods may include your Internet Protocol (IP) address, referral information (i.e., the website that linked us to you), device type (i.e., mobile), and browsing behavior (i.e., what pages you visited).
Additionally, our HTML marketing emails track recipient information allowing us to know whether emails were opened or whether links were clicked. We use this information to provide you with more interesting news and announcements.
Google Analytics, Google Ads Tracking and Remarketing, Google Signals
Our website uses Google Analytics. We also use additional Google Services: Google Ads for advertising and Google Signals for advertising, remarketing, and analysis. Remarketing or retargeting means that we can show you content or advertisements related to your previous interactions with our content.As mentioned above, Google services use technologies like cookies to provide data on your behavior on our website. This information helps us improve your web experience and allows us to show you information applicable to your interests.
As stated by Google, Google Signals are session data from sites and apps that Google associates with users who have signed in to their Google accounts, and who have turned on Ads Personalization. This association of data with these signed-in users is used to enable cross-device reporting, cross-device remarketing, and cross-device conversion export to Google Ads.
Information collected may include information like your location, search history, and data from other Google partner sites, like YouTube. The information collected is aggregated and anonymous.
If you prefer to opt-out of Google Analytics Advertising Features, you can do so by turning off personalized ads in your Google Ad Center settings or Ads Settings for mobile apps, or using the National Advertising Initiative’s opt-out page. Additionally, you can use the Google Analytics Opt-Out Browser extension.
If you are a signed-in Google user, you can also manage and delete your data via Google My Activity.
Information Use, Sharing, & Storage
We may share your information with our service providers (i.e., credit card processing companies, email marketing management, accounting services) on an as-needed basis.
We do not sell or trade your information to third parties.
We may share personal information if it is required by law or if sharing information is necessary for reasons of safety or security.
We store information securely, using data encryption and SSL (secure socket layer) technologies. Avoiding data release contrary to our policies is a very high priority. However, we cannot guarantee that a data release or breach will never occur. We use reasonable security measures to protect against the loss, misuse, alteration, unauthorized disclosure, or destruction of personally identifiable information collected by this website and under our control. We maintain administrative, technical, and physical safeguards for this website to protect the personal information you provide on the site. Despite these precautions, we cannot guarantee the security of information you transmit to us, and thus shall not be liable for any failure to safeguard your information, whether inadvertent or otherwise.
Our operations are supported by a network of computers, cloud-based servers, and other infrastructure and information technology. We and our third-party service providers store and process your personal information in the U.S., but it is possible that this data could be stored elsewhere in the world. We retain personally identifiable information only for the period of time necessary to accomplish our legitimate business interest.
Changing Your Data Preferences
You can opt out of marketing email communications at any time by using the unsubscribe option in all messages or by updating your profile information.
You may also contact us at [email protected] to request to be removed from our marketing communications or to update your information.
Children’s Privacy
We do not knowingly collect personal information directly from children. We do maintain personal data about children, as provided by their parent/guardian(s), in order to facilitate our youth classes and activities.
We do not knowingly collect information from or send marketing materials to children under the age of 13.
If you believe we have collected personal information from a child or if your child is receiving marketing information, please contact us [email protected].
Forums & User Content
Users of BPAA’s user communication platforms, such as our discussion forums, must agree to our Code of Conduct. Users who post inappropriate content will be removed.
BPAA is not responsible for any messages, documents, comments, or other communications created by users in our web discussion forum or other discussion platforms.
External Websites
Our content may include links to external websites when we believe those websites may be of interest to you. BPAA is not responsible for the content of these websites, and our privacy policy likewise does not apply to these websites.
Policy Changes
Changes to this policy may be made at any time without notice.