General terms and conditions, Touch courses outside the Netherlands

Application

 
1.       You can apply to join a course by sending this on-line form or the form in the Gaytouch folder. Applications by e-mail, letter or telephone are not accepted. The deadline is 1 March 2012.
2.       Touch Amsterdam courses are intensive. If you have doubts about your health or your capacity to absorb new information it is essential to seek advice (for example from your family physician) before applying.
3.       If you know that you have a (medical) condition that might influence the giving or receiving of massage safely, you must mention this in advance. Touch will investigate together with you whether it is advisable to join the course. General contra-indications include: heart problems, exhaustion, fever; various forms of cancer; diabetes (depending on type and extent). HIV/AIDS is not in itself a contra-indication. Local contra-indications (the part of the body affected may not be massaged) include varicose veins and skin conditions including open or healing wounds. These local conditions do not in principle prevent you from attending the week and following the course. These lists are in no way comprehensive. Consult your family physician!
4.       You are welcome to attend with a friend or acquaintance, but you are equally welcome alone. You do not need to provide a partner. (See Modus operandi, below.)

Confirmation and payment

 
1.       You will receive a initial e-mail which cofirms your participation and includes information about travel to Spain. At the same time, various folders are sent by post covering, amongst other things, the course location, a route description, the local situation, information about the surrounding area and possibilities further afield. At the beginning of April 2012 you will be asked to provide details of your travel arrangements and information about dietary requirements, also a telephone number for next of kin to be contacted in extreme emergency. This we regard as essential and you agree to this by agreeing to these terms and conditions. Obviously we are extremely discreet and wish to stress that the number would be used only in a life-or-death situation. We do, however, prefer to be realistic about this as opposed to having to trace people if something does go wrong.
2.       Upon receipt of the confirmation e-mail you are asked to pay a deposit of € 200. Details of the Touch bank account (with IBAN and BIC) are given in the confirmation letter. This deposit is in principle non-returnable: see the item regarding cancellation, below, and seriously consider cancellation insurance along with your general travel insurance. Your place on Gaytouch 2012 is definite only when the deposit has been paid, that is, when the amount has appeared on the Touch bank account screen.
3.       At a certain moment, depending on how registrations progress, we may have to wait with confirmation until we can be sure of one more person. It is vital that we have an even number of participants (see Cancellation and suspension, below). If, for example, yours is the seventh registration, we will certainly wait until we have an eighth before confirming your participation.
4.       The balance of payment is due by 30 March 2012 at the latest: about 10 weeks before the course begins. You will not be admitted to the course or the accommodation unless full payment has been received. Any travel expenses already incurred by you in this situation are your responsibility: Touch Amsterdam will not accept responsibility for any expenses incurred should you not attend, or be allowed to attend, this week. Again, travel and cancellation insurances are highly recommended. Touch will provide an invoice for you to present to the insurance company in such an event or at any time upon request.
5.       Should you register after the deadline of 1 February 2012, assuming, of course, there is still a place for you, you will be required to pay the full course fee immediately upon receiving confirmation of your participation.
6.       Touch respects your privacy. A folder bearing your name and country and a photograph (head and shoulders) will be circulated to other participants about one month before the week commences. By agreeing to these conditions, you also agree to the distribution of this folder. No other information held by Touch will be conveyed to others without your express permission. Touch never reveals to third parties the identities of persons attending its courses without their express permission. Participants are required also to respect the privacy of their colleagues and to regard as confidential any information of a personal nature that is exchanged before, during or after the week.

Cancellation and suspension

 
1.       If you have to cancel, the following conditions apply:
o    Should you have to cancel before the course starts, the deposit will not be returned unless Touch Amsterdam can find someone to take your place: in other words, unless there is a waiting list and someone on that list has the time to make the necessary arrangements to attend, or there is no waiting list but we receive by chance a further registration (despite the official deadline) that allows us to fill the week. The week is full with 8 participants.
o    Should a replacement be found for you, € 150 will be returned. € 50 is therefore non-returnable, whatever the circumstances.
o    In the case of cancellation less than 10 weeks before 14 June 2012 (after 31 March 2012, therefore), 50% of the course fee will be retained. Less than 4 weeks before 14 June 2012 (after 17 May 2012) this will be 90%. In the case of non-appearance (‘no show’) the complete course fee is forfeited. Late cancellations carry with them the risk of an odd number of participants, meaning that one of the teachers has to work as a 'student', therefore halving the teaching capacity. In all cases, should Touch find a replacement for you (or should you provide one), then only € 50 will be retained. At such short notice, finding a replacement may well be extremely difficult, however. By ‘course fee’ in the above is meant the total cost of the week, including accommodation.   
o    The euro price is definitive. Any bank expenses incurred are for your reckoning and will be charged by Touch.
o    You will be asked for a deposit and further payments only when we are sure that the week will go ahead (that there are enough participants).
2.       If you stop during the course, or fail to attend one or more of the course sessions, no money will be returned.
3.       Should the teachers come to the conclusion that participation in a course is not, or no longer, desirable, they retain the right to suspend a student from further participation. The most usual reasons for this could be: (a) that the student is obviously not able to absorb the material taught; (b) the student's health (mental or physical) is not strong enough; (c) behaviour of a student that is considered by the teachers to be totally undesirable. (This list is not exhaustive.) In such a situation, Touch is not obliged to return any monies paid, including travel expenses and so forth or to compensate the price of other accommodation occupied by the student until his/her return home, should the student be expelled from the course centre. (This, by the way, has never happened, and the circumstances would be extreme. We must, however, reserve this right.)
4.       The week does not depend on just two or three people. Should, for example, one of the teachers fall ill, then Touch will ensure a replacement. Once we have confirmed that the week will happen, then it will happen.

Modus operandi

 
1.       A technique is demonstrated by one of the teachers, with the other teacher acting as model, after which the students try out the technique on each other under the teachers' guidance.
2.       You work with a different colleague each course session. No exception to this is made.
3.       By registering for Gaytouch 2012 you undertake to attend all seven sessions (including the introductory session during the first evening). See, however, the next point.
4.       There are two teachers for the group, which numbers at the most 8 participants. This means two tables per teacher for practical assistance. Should one participant be unable to attend a session, for example due to ill health, a teacher will have to take his place. The ratio of one teacher per two tables is therefore not guaranteed. One teacher for four tables is, however, our minimum under normal circumstances (in the Netherlands, for example) and still guarantees good teaching.
5.       Everyone is naked all the time during the course sessions of a Gaytouch week. The only exception to this is when the temperature does not permit it. Naturism – communal nudity to the benefit of mutual respect – is a basis of the massage of Gaytouch and no other exceptions will be made, except that a staff member may be partially clothed while preparing or serving food or undertaking any other activity for which hygiene or safety demands some clothing.  
6.       Each participant agrees to practise at least once outside the course sessions, giving massage for at least an hour each time to another participant and being willing to receive massage for at least an hour.

Disclaimer

Although every care will be taken to promote the safety and health of students, Touch Amsterdam takes absolutely no responsibility for this. The course and the rest of the week are attended entirely at the student's own risk. This applies also to any loss of or damage to the student's personal property. One of the teachers or at least one of the owners of La Colmena Famosa will be on site at all times. This does not, however, influence the situation regarding the personal responsibility of each student. Neither of the teachers nor accommodation owners or any staff they employ can be held in any way whatsoever for any injury to a student at any time, however caused, or for loss or damage of his property, however caused.