Terms of service

1. Acceptance of these terms

By creating an account, submitting the request form, or using any part of the GavelMinutes service, you agree to these terms on behalf of the public body or organization you represent. If you do not have authority to bind that body, do not accept them. Where your municipality has signed a separate written agreement or a purchase order with negotiated terms, that document prevails over anything inconsistent here. These terms are published by MLJ, SASU, whose registration details appear on the legal notice page.

2. What the service does

GavelMinutes is a hosted web application for publishing the records of public meetings. It imports an agenda, records motions, movers, seconds and roll call votes during a meeting, produces draft minutes for adoption, generates a clearly labeled plain language decision summary for the public, publishes minute pages to your website or to a subdomain we host, indexes the published text for public search, tags records with retention dates and exports the whole archive in PDF/A and JSON. The service is provided to public bodies and to organizations that publish meeting records on their behalf.

GavelMinutes is a publishing and recordkeeping tool. It does not provide legal advice about open meetings law, public records law, retention schedules or accessibility obligations in any state, and the clerk remains responsible for the accuracy and adoption of the official record.

3. Accounts and eligibility

You must be at least eighteen years old and acting in a professional capacity to hold an account. You are responsible for the accuracy of the account details you give us, for keeping credentials confidential, and for the actions taken under logins your office creates. Tell us promptly at jimenezjulien42@gmail.com if you believe an account has been used without authorization. We may suspend an account where there is a credible security concern, and we will explain why in writing.

4. Acceptable use

Use the service for lawful publication of meeting records and related documents. Do not upload material you have no right to publish, do not use the service to distribute malware, do not attempt to circumvent access controls or rate limits, and do not resell access to the service without a written reseller agreement. Do not publish, through the service, information that a court order or a statutory exemption requires you to withhold. You are responsible for redacting sensitive personal information from attachments before you publish them.

5. Plans, prices and billing

Three plans are offered. Village costs $79 per month and covers two public bodies. Town costs $179 per month and covers up to eight public bodies. County costs $379 per month and covers unlimited public bodies, departments and subdomains. All prices are stated in United States dollars, exclusive of any sales or use tax that may apply in your jurisdiction. Prices shown on the pricing section of this website are the prices charged.

Subscriptions are billed monthly in advance on the anniversary of the day the account was opened. Payment is due on receipt of invoice. Purchase orders and annual invoicing are available for offices whose finance department requires them, and in that case payment terms follow the purchase order. There is no set up fee, and the historical import described in your plan is included at no extra charge. If your office grows into a larger plan mid year we move you up and prorate the difference on the next invoice. Price changes are notified at least sixty days in advance and never apply to an invoice already issued.

6. Cancellation and suspension

You may cancel at any time from the account settings page. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing month, no notice period applies and no termination fee is charged. Fees already paid for the current month are not refunded, and no further invoice is issued. We may suspend or terminate an account for non payment after two written reminders, for a material breach of section 4 that is not corrected within fifteen days of notice, or where required by law. If we discontinue the service entirely we will give at least ninety days notice and provide a complete export.

7. Your records remain yours

Agendas, minutes, motions, votes, summaries, attachments and every other record you publish through GavelMinutes belong to your public body. We claim no ownership over them and no licence beyond what is needed to host, process, index and display them for you. You can export the full archive at any time as PDF/A files with the original attachments and a JSON file containing every motion, vote and summary. After cancellation we retain your data for thirty days so that a change of administration does not cost you the archive, then delete it and confirm the deletion in writing.

8. Service availability and support

We target 99.9 percent monthly availability for published minute pages and for the public search index. Planned maintenance is announced at least five days ahead and scheduled outside United States business hours wherever possible. Support requests are answered by email on business days, normally within one business day, and County plans include a named onboarding lead and a quarterly records review. Availability targets are commitments of effort and diligence rather than guarantees of uninterrupted service.

9. Warranty disclaimer

The service is provided as it stands. To the fullest extent permitted by law we disclaim implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non infringement. We do not warrant that the service will be free of every error, that automated accessibility checks will detect every possible issue, or that the plain language summary will suit every reader. The adopted minutes, not any summary or index generated by the software, remain the official record of your public body.

10. Limitation of liability

To the extent permitted by law, neither party is liable for indirect, incidental, special or consequential loss, including lost revenue, lost goodwill or the cost of substitute services. Our total aggregate liability arising out of or relating to the service in any twelve month period is limited to the fees you paid us in the twelve months preceding the event that gave rise to the claim. Nothing in these terms excludes liability for fraud, for willful misconduct, or for any liability that cannot lawfully be excluded.

11. Indemnity

You agree to indemnify MLJ, SASU against third party claims arising from records you publish through the service, from your breach of section 4, or from your failure to redact information that law required you to withhold. We will notify you promptly of any such claim, allow you to control the defense with counsel of your choosing, and cooperate reasonably at your expense.

12. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms to reflect changes to the service or to the law. Material changes are announced by email to the account contact at least thirty days before they take effect, and the date at the top of this page is updated. If you do not accept a material change you may cancel before it takes effect and we will refund any prepaid fees covering the period after cancellation.

13. Governing law and jurisdiction

These terms are governed by French law. The parties will attempt in good faith to resolve any dispute amicably by writing to the contact address below. Failing agreement, any dispute relating to these terms or to the service will be submitted to the exclusive jurisdiction of the competent courts of Paris, France. If a provision of these terms is held unenforceable, it is severed and the remaining provisions continue in force.

14. Contact

Questions about these terms, about an invoice or about an export go to jimenezjulien42@gmail.com, addressed to MLJ, SASU, publication director Jimenez Julien. See also the privacy policy and the legal notice.