Master Terms of Service & Membership Regulations

ARTICLE 1: MEMBERSHIP ADMISSION, AGE THRESHOLDS & STATUS CLASSIFICATION

Section 1.01 — Eligibility Criteria: Membership registration is open exclusively to practicing Catholic young adults affiliated with recognized Catholic parishes and pastoral outstations within the Catholic Dioceses of Sierra Leone. All applicants must provide truthful, accurate, and current information regarding their baptism, sacramental confirmation, and local parish affiliation.

Section 1.02 — Strict Age Limit and Transition to Passive Membership: Active voting and office-holding membership is strictly reserved for individuals aged eighteen (18) to forty-four (44) years. Upon attaining the age of forty-five (45) years, a Member's category is automatically and irreversibly transitioned by the system to “Passive Member” (category: “passive”). Passive members retain fellowship communion, fraternal participation rights, and verified alumni status, but forfeit eligibility to stand for elected youth executive offices, vote in executive council ballots, or hold youth-restricted portfolio chairs.

Section 1.03 — Candidate Probation Period: All new applicants enter a mandatory Probationary Period (category: “probation”). Probationary applicants are restricted from self-selecting Fellowship Houses or requesting active executive credentialing. Full admission status, House allocation (Ann-Marie Javouhey, Edmund Rice, Joseph Henry Ganda, or St. Aloysius Gonzaga), and issuance of permanent credentials remain subject to positive pastoral discernment and formal approval by the designated Parish Unit Secretary and Council Executive.

ARTICLE 2: MULTI-TIER APPROVAL WORKFLOW & ACCREDITATION

Section 2.01 — Three-Tier Review and Ratification: Registration does not constitute recognized membership until the applicant has successfully navigated the official three-tier hierarchy:

• Tier 1 (Parish/Unit Secretariat): Verification of physical parish attendance, sacramental standing, and personal identity by the local Parish Unit Secretary.
• Tier 2 (Diocesan/Council Secretariat): Scrutiny and regional endorsement by the respective Archdiocesan/Diocesan Executive Council (ADEC, BODEC, MADEC, or KENDEC).
• Tier 3 (National Secretariat & Super Admin): Final national ratification, roster inscription, and authorization of official Smart ID issuance.

Section 2.02 — Right of Rejection and Review Return: CYAF Secretariats reserve the absolute, ecclesiastical prerogative to reject, hold in abeyance, or return for correction (adminReturnMember) any application that exhibits inconsistent church data, unverified identity, disciplinary disqualification, or inaccurate documentation.

ARTICLE 3: SMART CREDENTIALS, DIGITAL ID CARDS & REVERIFICATION

Section 3.01 — Ownership of Credentials: All digital ID cards, printable CR80 membership passes, quick-response (QR) verification codes, and security pass tokens remain the sole intellectual and institutional property of CYAF Sierra Leone. A digital pass represents a revocable license of recognition, not personal property.

Section 3.02 — Public Verification Display: Each credential incorporates a unique cryptographic identifier resolving to an authorized public verification endpoint (/verify/[token] and /v/[token]). Members explicitly acknowledge that third parties scanning the card's QR code will be presented with a public verification certificate displaying the Member's full name, photographic likeness, parish of affiliation, diocese, active status, and card expiry date. Any attempt to alter, clone, digitally manipulate, forge, or re-encode CYAF digital passes constitutes fraud and grounds for immediate expulsion and referral to civil law enforcement under the Sierra Leone Cyber Security and Crime Act 2021.

Section 3.03 — Restriction on Unofficial Card Printing: Ordinary members are granted view-only access to their digital cards in the Member Portal (/portal). The downloading, exporting, high-resolution rendering, and physical batch printing of CR80 identity cards is an exclusive statutory privilege reserved for authorized National Secretariat officers and the Super Administrator desk.

ARTICLE 4: DISCIPLINARY JURISDICTION, SUSPENSION & REMOVAL

Section 4.01 — Grounds for Disciplinary Intervention: Authorized secretariats and executive presidents reserve the statutory power to initiate disciplinary workflows against any Member or Officer who violates the CYAF Constitution, engages in conduct prejudicial to the Catholic Faith, misappropriates fellowship finances, or submits fraudulent data.

Section 4.02 — Administrative Suspensions and Audit Logging: When an authorized Officer executes a suspension, the Member's profile is instantly flagged as Suspended. A mandatory administrative justification must be permanently recorded into the system audit log (audit_logs). During the suspension period, the Member's digital ID card reflects a “Suspended / Inactive” state upon QR verification, and fellowship privileges are stayed pending constitutional review.

ARTICLE 5: FINANCIAL DUES, QUARTERLY SUBSCRIPTIONS & DONATIONS

Section 5.01 — Nature of Financial Contributions: All member dues, quarterly subscriptions, card production levy fees, and council contributions represent voluntary ecclesiastical fraternal dues dedicated to fellowship development, youth apostolate operations, and national administrative overhead.

Section 5.02 — Strict Non-Refundability: All paid quarterly subscriptions, dues cards, and registration contributions are strictly non-refundable. Termination, suspension, voluntary resignation, or canonical transition to passive status does not entitle any former member or officer to a refund of accumulated financial contributions.

ARTICLE 6: ADMINISTRATIVE ON-BEHALF REGISTRATION COVENANT

Section 6.01 — Responsibilities of Recording Officers: Where a Parish Unit Secretary completes registration forms on behalf of an applicant (onBehalfMode), the Officer warrants that they have obtained the explicit verbal and physical authorization of the candidate prior to entering their details. Submitting falsified, non-consensual, or malicious registrations constitutes official misconduct resulting in immediate revocation of executive privileges.

ARTICLE 7: DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES & LIMITATION OF LIABILITY

Section 7.01 — “As-Is” Service Provision: The Platform is provided on an “as-available” and “as-is” basis. CYAF does not warrant that the Platform will be perpetually uninterrupted, error-free, or exempt from temporary network latency.

Section 7.02 — Limitation of Liability: Neither CYAF, the Archdiocese of Freetown, the Catholic Dioceses of Sierra Leone, nor any of their respective clergy, executives, or developers shall be held liable for indirect damages resulting from user inability to access the Platform, temporary failure of QR card verification at church events due to telecommunications outages, or administrative disciplinary actions legitimately executed under the CYAF Constitution.

ARTICLE 8: GOVERNING LAW & ECCLESIASTICAL DISPUTE RESOLUTION

Section 8.01 — Ecclesiastical First-Recourse: In fidelity to Catholic fraternal fellowship, any dispute arising out of membership standing or administrative actions shall first be submitted to internal conciliation: Level 1 before Parish Chaplain and Unit Executive; Level 2 before Diocesan CYAF Chaplain and Council; Level 3 before National CYAF Chaplain and National Executive Council.

Section 8.02 — Civil Jurisdiction: Where secular legal intervention is mandated, these Terms shall be construed and enforced in accordance with the Laws of the Republic of Sierra Leone under the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the High Court of Sierra Leone.

ARTICLE 9: ACCOUNT DELETION, VOLUNTARY RESIGNATION & AUDIT RETENTION

Section 9.01 — Voluntary Account Closure: Members wishing to voluntarily terminate their membership and request erasure of personal data under the Sierra Leone Right to Access Information Act (2013) and ECOWAS Supplementary Act on Personal Data Protection may submit a deletion request via the Member Portal (/portal) upon entering the confirmation phrase.

Section 9.02 — Mandatory 14-Day Administrative Verification Window: All deletion requests enter a mandatory fourteen (14) day statutory holding window. During this period, the account is placed on administrative hold and account login sessions are revoked while the Super Administrator reviews parish records to ensure absence of unresolved asset custody, unfulfilled official responsibilities, or ecclesiastical audit investigations.

Section 9.03 — Permanent Retention of Financial Audit Records: In accordance with statutory audit regulations, canonical ledger accounting, and non-profit governance standards, all past dues payments, receipt vouchers (CYAF-REC-YYYY-XXXX), and transaction lines remain permanently in fellowship books under anonymized identifiers (Former Member [Record Expunged]).

Section 9.04 — Immediate Revocation of Smart Pass Credentials: Submission of an account deletion request triggers immediate cryptographic invalidation of the member's digital Smart Pass, public QR verification token, and credential verification endpoints. Any physical or cached copy of the pass ceases to be valid for fellowship admission.