Who we are
Touchstones Discussion Project
A Notice Regarding Copyright Law
In purchasing Touchstones® Discussion Project’s materials in any format, you and others with access to these materials agree to the terms of use.
Please be advised that all material contained in all Touchstones® Discussion Project’s volumes is copyright protected. The unlicensed photocopying, reproduction, display, or projection of this material—in whole or in part—for any purpose is expressly prohibited by law. Violation of these terms without express permission from the Touchstones® Discussion Project may result in legal action against you and the organization that employs you, including the network or district of which your program or school may be part.
These terms apply for all purchases, including use outside the United States. Please consult the Berne Convention regarding copyright protections for more information. If you are interested in a licensing agreement allowing for authorized duplication of specific materials, please call Touchstones at (410) 604-3309 or (800) 456-6542 or email us at schoolprograms@touchstones.org.
Limited License for Digital Materials Only
Touchstones grants the digital subscriber a non-transferable, revocable, limited license for online (browser-based) access to the volume(s) purchased via the Touchstones® Online Classroom. If applicable, this license allows the subscriber to download to a device the PDF Digital Binder materials for the registered number of users/students on the invoice. These users/students may save the PDF on a local device for personal use in Touchstones programs during the license period. Your Touchstones purchase provides access for a pre-set period of time – either a semester or academic year – depending on the product you have purchased. At the end of your subscription term, access to the digital product(s) you purchased will terminate.
Permitted Use for Digital Materials Only
Subscriber may:
- Use the content in the course of classroom or community-based Touchstones® programming and preparation.
- Download and share the PDF Digital Binder with the registered number of users/students on the invoice.
- Project the text for participants during the Touchstones program via a virtual meeting platform, provided licensing has been purchased for each participant in that meeting.
Ordering Policies
Prices
Prices listed on our website, in our catalogue, and in other promotional materials reflect the current price as of the date of the printing. All prices listed are in U.S. dollars and payment must be received in U.S. dollars. Prices may change at any time without notice. To confirm the price of an item you are interested in purchasing, please call us at (410) 604-3309 or (800) 456-6542 or email schoolprograms@touchstones.org.
Returns and Refunds
Print materials may be returned within 30 days of receipt provided they are unmarked, unused, and in the same condition they were in when they were received. Touchstones will refund you the purchase price minus 30% for a restocking fee and does not refund or reimburse any shipping costs.
Digital subscriptions purchased by schools or educators may be cancelled for a partial refund within 30 days of purchase. Digital subscriptions purchased by individual students for college or university courses may be cancelled for a partial refund within 21 days of purchase. After these windows, no refunds will be given. To initiate a refund, please email schoolprograms@touchstones.org with a request for your refund. Touchstones will refund the subscription purchase price minus 20% for administrative and processing fees.
Shipping
Shipping fees are as follows within the contiguous United States: for orders totaling up to $99, the fee is $15; for orders totaling between $100 and $499, the fee is $25; for orders over $500, the fee is 5% of the order total (before any discounts are applied). Please allow up to three (3) weeks for deliveries. Some orders may arrive in multiple shipments. Rush shipping is available upon request; please call or email us for an estimate. Touchstones can charge shipping to a 3rd party account, as long as specific 3rd party shipping account information is provided at the same time the order is placed. All 3rd party shipping requests will incur a $15 handling fee. For orders outside of the contiguous United States, please call or email us for a shipping estimate.
Delivery of Materials
Physical copies of Touchstones books are ordered and sent to institutions organizations upon approval of an invoice. Payment is due upon receipt of the books. Digital subscriptions are activated once payment is received.
Policies for Custom Professional Development Services
If you purchase a custom or in-service professional development workshop, we require a 50% deposit to secure dates of service. Payment should be received in full no later than 1 month prior to the scheduled date. If the customer changes the date of the workshop after this time for any reason, Touchstones will invoice the customer for any fees incurred from changing workshop facilitators’ travel plans.
Accepted Forms of Payment
We accept Purchase Orders from educational institutions. We also accept Visa, MasterCard, and American Express. We do not accept Discover. Payment for our print volumes is due upon receipt and payment for digital volumes is due upon account creation.
What personal data we collect and why we collect it
Comments
When visitors leave comments on the site we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection.
An anonymized string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.
Media
If you upload images to the website, you should avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS) included. Visitors to the website can download and extract any location data from images on the website.
Cookies
If you leave a comment on our site you may opt-in to saving your name, email address and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year.
If you have an account and you log in to this site, we will set a temporary cookie to determine if your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser.
When you log in, we will also set up several cookies to save your login information and your screen display choices. Login cookies last for two days, and screen options cookies last for a year. If you select “Remember Me”, your login will persist for two weeks. If you log out of your account, the login cookies will be removed.
If you edit or publish an article, an additional cookie will be saved in your browser. This cookie includes no personal data and simply indicates the post ID of the article you just edited. It expires after 1 day.
Embedded content from other websites
Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.
These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracing your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.
Who we share your data with
We do not share your data with anyone.
How long we retain your data
If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognize and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.
For users that subscribe to our Online Classroom, we also store the personal information they provide during their purchase. All users can see, edit, or delete their personal information at any time (except they cannot change their username). Website administrators can also see and edit that information.
What rights you have over your data
If you have an account on this site, or have left comments, you can request to receive an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided to us. You can also request that we erase any personal data we hold about you. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.
Where we send your data
Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service.