Terms of use

These terms apply when you use ImprovTeam, whether you run a group or just answer an email link. By using the service you agree to them. If you don't, please don't use it. “We”, “us” and “our” mean the operator named under “Who runs ImprovTeam” below.

Who runs ImprovTeam

1. The service

ImprovTeam is team-ops software for improv groups: schedules and RSVPs, polls, shared resources, open sessions with waitlists, costs and payments, shows with tickets, team websites, newsletters and festivals, plus public pages and city listings. We may add, change or retire features.

2. How the service is provided

ImprovTeam is provided as is and with no service levels.

Money for tickets, passes, merch, tips and cost shares goes to the group that is selling or receiving it. The only payments we receive are for paid plans, sold through Paddle (section 6A). We never receive, hold or route a group's money.

3. Accounts

You sign in with a passkey, or with a one-time code sent to your email address. There are no passwords. If you give an email address it must be one you control, and you're responsible for what happens through your account, your passkeys, your recovery codes and your inbox. Tell us promptly if you think someone else has got into your account. You must be 18 or over to hold an account or use ImprovTeam, and nobody under 18 may use it. By making an account you confirm you are 18 or over. If we learn that someone under 18 is using ImprovTeam, we delete their data.

4. Organisers' responsibilities

If you create or administer a group, you are responsible for it. In particular you:

• are responsible for the content you and your group publish, including event details, photos, videos and the words on your public pages, and must have the right to publish it;
• decide what happens to your members' information within the group, and are the controller of that data under data protection law such as the UK or EU GDPR (see our privacy notice);
• must only invite or add people who would reasonably expect to hear from the group, and must respect unsubscribe requests;
• must not add anyone under 18 to ImprovTeam (students, members, acts, guests or guest lists), and confirm that every person you add is 18 or over;
• are responsible for ticket prices, capacities, cancellations, your venue arrangements and any licences, insurance or safeguarding your events need; and
• are responsible for any money your group collects, and for your own tax and accounting obligations.

We provide the tools. We're not a party to the arrangement between a group and its members or audience.

A group that uses promo codes, pay-what-you-can prices or a split record is responsible for what it charges and for settling with its venue and acts. We only do the sums and keep the record; we never hold or move that money.

A group that publishes a code of conduct is responsible for its content and for how it handles reports. Our template is a starting point, not legal advice. A group must not use private reports to collect information about people for any other purpose, or share a report outside the group except where the law requires it. We do not hold safeguarding, insurance or background-check records for groups.

If someone makes a claim against us because of your group’s content, events, sales or handling of its members’ data, or because you broke these terms, you agree to cover our reasonable costs and any amount we have to pay, unless the claim is caused by our own fault. This does not apply to anything you do as a consumer.

5. Personal data

Each group is the controller of the members' data it collects through ImprovTeam: rosters, answers, attendance, applications and tickets. For that data we act as the group's processor: we handle it only to provide the service, on the group's instructions, with the safeguards in our privacy notice. We are the controller of accounts, sign-in, notifications and our own service records.

Where the law requires a written processing agreement between a group and us, these terms and the privacy notice are that agreement, with the processing annex in section 5A. If you need a separately signed one, ask us.

Organisers must not collect special-category data (health, disability, religion, ethnicity, sexuality, politics or trade-union membership) in free-text fields, application forms or notes, and must delete any they receive by mistake.

We do not collect health information. Organisers must not ask for health, medical, dietary or access details through ImprovTeam (sign-up questions, notes, messages or forms). If you need them, use your own form: you are responsible for it and for what it collects. Anything volunteered here by mistake is deleted on request.

Members can download or delete their own account data themselves. We help organisers answer members' other requests.

The group is the controller of what its members and students type in its spaces (notes, class messages, coach answers). Please tell people not to include health or similar details there.

5A. Processing on a group's behalf

This annex applies where we process personal data for a group as its processor (section 5).

Subject matter and duration. We process the data a group records through ImprovTeam for as long as the group exists.

Nature and purpose. Hosting and storing the data, showing it to the people the group allows, sending the messages the group asks us to send and keeping backups, so the group can run its schedule, sign-ups, tickets, courses and public pages.

Types of data and of people. Names, email addresses where given, answers and attendance, tickets and orders (never card numbers), applications, and the notes and messages that members, students, ticket buyers, applicants and guests write or are recorded as having written.

Instructions. We process the data only on the group's documented instructions, which are what the group does in the app and these terms. We will tell the group if we think an instruction breaks data protection law.

Processors. We use the processors named in section 5 of the privacy notice that handle a group's member data: Cloudflare (hosting, database, file storage, photo resizing), Resend and Amazon Web Services (email), push services (Google, Mozilla, Apple), Sentry (error reports) and, if the group connects them, Slack, Discord or Telegram. We will give a group's owners at least 30 days' notice by email before we add a new one. A group that objects can leave and delete its group before then.

Confidentiality. Anyone with access to the data on our side is bound by a duty of confidence.

Security. We keep the data safe as described in section 8 of the privacy notice.

Help. We help a group answer its members' requests (access, correction, deletion, restriction, objection), through the tools in the app and otherwise on request. If we become aware of a breach affecting a group's data we will tell its owners without undue delay, and within 72 hours where we can.

Deletion. When a group is deleted we delete its data within 60 days (copies in backups are gone within that time). Before that, members can download their own data and organisers can export what the group holds.

Audits. We will give a group the information it reasonably needs to check we are meeting this annex, and allow reasonable audits on request.

6. Payments

Card payments (for example tickets, passes, workshop places, submission fees, merch, tips and shares of a group's costs) are processed by Stripe, on the group's own Stripe account. The group's organiser is the merchant and agrees to Stripe's terms for that account. ImprovTeam is not a party to any sale and is not the seller of tickets or anything else a group sells.

The group that sells tickets, passes, workshops, fees, merch or cost shares is the seller, and the group that receives a tip is the one it is paid to. It is responsible for what it sells, for refunds, for disputes and chargebacks, and for any tax that applies, and it deals with them in its own Stripe dashboard.

ImprovTeam never holds, receives or transfers anyone's money. A card payment goes from the payer to the group's Stripe account.

Buyers pay the price shown: no card fee or other surcharge is added at checkout. The group bears its payment provider's fees, so Stripe's charge for a card payment comes out of the group's own Stripe account, and we receive none of it. Payments by bank transfer or cash are between you and the organiser; we only record them.

A group can sell a supporter membership: a regular payment for the benefits the group promises, such as a discount or early booking. The group is the seller and we are not a party to the membership. The group is responsible for the benefits it promises, for renewals, for refunds, and for any right to cancel that the law gives you, including the UK and EU rules on cancelling a subscription. It deals with these in its own Stripe account or directly with you.

You can stop supporting a group at any time from Groups I support. A card membership ends at the end of the period you have already paid for, and the group’s Stripe account takes no more payments after that. Stopping does not remove any right to cancel and be refunded that the law gives you; ask the group, and see section 7 if you cannot reach it.

A supporter pays the price shown, and no card fee is added. Stripe’s fee comes out of the group’s own account. A membership paid directly is between you and the group, and an organiser marks each period as received; we only record it.

6A. Paid plans

If a group buys a paid plan (Plus, Organisation or Venue), these rules apply to that plan, on top of the rest of these terms.

Who sells it. Paddle.com is the seller and merchant of record. Paddle takes the payment, charges any tax, issues the invoice and handles refunds under its buyer terms, which you accept at checkout and which apply to the payment. For the payment itself Paddle’s terms come first; for the service, these terms do.

Renewal. A plan renews automatically each period (monthly or yearly, as you chose) until it is cancelled.

Festival editions. A festival can instead pay once for an edition. It is a single payment and does not renew. The edition runs from the day the open call opens, or the day the festival tools are first switched on if that is earlier, until 60 days after the festival's last day, and never longer than 12 months; the dates are worked out from the festival's saved dates and shown before you pay. Between editions nothing is deleted: the public site, archive and data stay readable and the tools that change things are read only.

Who can change or cancel it. Only the owner who bought the plan (the payer) can change or cancel it. A cancelled plan stays active to the end of the period already paid. If the payer leaves the group, stops being an owner or deletes their account, the plan ends at the end of the paid period and another owner can take it over.

Covering a house team. A theatre on the Organisation or Venue plan can choose to pay for the Plus plan of its house teams. The Organisation plan includes the cover of 1 house team and the Venue plan 4, at no extra charge. For each further team it covers, Paddle bills the theatre an extra on its own subscription (half the Plus price, for the theatre’s billing period, and charged pro rata when the team is added and credited when it stops); the team is not billed for it. Which teams are the included ones is decided by when the cover started, earliest first; if an included cover ends, the next one takes its place at no charge, and it is only when the number of covered teams goes above or back below what the plan includes that the bill changes. Only the owner who pays for the theatre’s plan can add or remove cover. A team that already pays for its own plan is not charged twice: its own subscription is set to end at the end of the period it has paid for, the cover starts that day, and its payer is told by email and in the app with the date. If they resume their own subscription before it ends, the cover is dropped and the theatre is told. A team with its own Organisation or Venue plan keeps it, and cover is never more than Plus.

When cover ends. If the theatre stops covering a team, either side unlinks, or the theatre’s plan ends, is cancelled or has a payment fail past its 14 days, the team keeps Plus for 30 days and both sides are told. The team can take the plan over itself in that time. After the 30 days, anything the Free plan does not include becomes read only. Nothing is deleted.

Consumers. If you buy a plan as a consumer, you can cancel within 14 days of buying it for a full refund, through Paddle.

If a payment fails. There are 14 days to fix it. After that, paid features become read only: nothing is deleted, tickets, places and submissions already paid for keep working, and a custom domain keeps serving. Website brand settings that need a paid plan stop showing while the group is on the Free plan, and come back if it subscribes again.

Trial. A group can have one free trial of a paid plan, once per group, with no card: 30 days of Plus, or 60 days of Organisation or Venue. It ends by itself and nothing is lost when it does.

Discounts. A charity, non-profit or student group can ask for a discount. We decide each request, we can withdraw a discount if what the group told us is untrue, and a discount applies from the next bill.

Changes. We will give at least 30 days' notice by email before a change to a plan's price or features takes effect at a renewal, and you can cancel before then.

Suspension. We can suspend or end a paid plan if the group breaks these terms. Refunds in that case go through Paddle.

7. Refunds

Whether to refund a payment is the organiser's decision, because they are the merchant. If you want a refund, ask the organiser of the group first (their contact details are on their page and in your tickets and emails). Organisers can refund in full or ticket by ticket from inside ImprovTeam. A refund returns what you paid, to the card you paid with, through Stripe; it usually shows on your statement within 5 to 10 working days. A refunded or cancelled ticket stops working at once. Organisers can also cancel free tickets and places without any payment. Tickets can be transferred to another person until the event starts or the ticket is checked in; the old QR code then stops working. This doesn't affect any rights you have under consumer law. If you can't reach an organiser, contact us and we'll try to help, but we can't promise a refund on a group's behalf.

8. Acceptable use

Don't use ImprovTeam to:

• break the law, or encourage or facilitate others to;
• harass, threaten, impersonate or discriminate against anyone, or publish hateful, sexually explicit or otherwise harmful content;
• send spam or message people who haven't agreed to hear from you;
• upload malware, or probe, scrape, overload or bypass the security or rate limits of the service;
• publish other people's personal data or copyright material without permission; or
• claim a group name or web address in order to mislead people.

We may remove content, hide a page or suspend an account that breaks these rules, and will usually tell you why. Theatre discussions have their own rules in section 8A.

8A. Theatre discussions

A theatre or school on ImprovTeam can switch on a Discussion tab for its community. These rules apply to everything posted there, on top of section 8.

Who can read it. The theatre chooses: its members only (community and staff), or anyone signed in to ImprovTeam. Discussions are never shown to people who are not signed in and are not indexed by search engines. Anything you post can be read by everyone the theatre allows, so treat it as semi-public.

Posting rules. Post as yourself, under the name on your account. Keep it about improv and the theatre's community. Don't post phone numbers, bank or card details, email addresses or other personal information, yours or anyone else's. Don't post anything illegal, hateful, threatening, harassing, sexual, or anything that sells goods or services or asks for money. Plain text only; links are allowed within the limits below.

Limits. To keep discussions safe, new accounts and people who have just joined a theatre can post up to 3 times a day without links; everyone can post up to 30 times a day in a theatre, with up to 3 links a post. We may change these limits.

Moderation. Each theatre's owners and admins, and the people they name as moderators, moderate its discussion. They can hide or restore posts, lock or pin threads, and stop a person posting (muted) or reading and posting (removed) in that theatre's discussion for a time or for good. We can do the same in any theatre, and can switch discussions off for a theatre or for everyone.

Reporting. Use Report on any post that breaks these rules. The theatre's moderators see the report and your reasons, but not who you are, and so do we. When three different people report a post, it is hidden until a moderator looks. Please only report in good faith.

Removal. A post may be hidden or removed, and an account muted, removed from a discussion or suspended, without notice if we or a theatre's moderators reasonably believe it breaks these terms or the law, or puts someone at risk. Where the law requires it, we will report content to the police or other authorities. You can remove your own posts at any time; a note that a post was removed stays in its place.

Appeals. If you think a post of yours was wrongly hidden, or you were wrongly muted or removed, tell us through the contact form within 30 days. We will look at it again, usually within 14 days, and tell you what we decided. You can also use the contact form to complain about how we, or a theatre's moderators, dealt with a report.

Responsibility. You are responsible for what you post. Theatres are responsible for how their moderators use their tools.

Class conversations. The posting rules above apply to class conversations (“Ask your teacher”) as well. A class conversation is between one student and the people who run the class; the group's owners and admins can read every one. Class conversations are deleted 6 months after the class ends.

9. Your content and our licence to it

You keep ownership of what you upload or write. You give us a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to host, copy, resize, display and distribute it as needed to run the service, and, for anything an organiser makes public (public team, show and festival pages, city listings, share images and posters), to show it publicly. The licence ends when you delete the content or your account, except for copies in backups for a short period and anything others have already shared. For posts in a theatre discussion, the licence covers showing them to the people that theatre allows to read its discussion, and keeping a hidden post for 6 months so it can be reviewed. If you share an exercise in the Library with everyone, you confirm it is in your own words and not copied from a book or course, you let us show it, and you let other people copy and adapt it for their own classes. You can delete it at any time; copies others already made stay theirs.

10. Availability and no warranty

We work to keep ImprovTeam running, but it is provided “as is” and “as available”. We don't promise it will be uninterrupted or error-free, that emails will always arrive, or that every reminder will be sent on time. Don't rely on it as your only way of reaching people at the last minute for anything safety-critical.

11. Liability

Nothing in these terms limits liability that can't legally be limited, including for death or personal injury caused by negligence, fraud, or any right you have as a consumer that can't be excluded. Subject to that, we're not liable for loss of profit, revenue, data or goodwill, or for indirect or consequential loss. We're not liable for what groups or other users do, including cancelled events or disputes between a group and its members.

Subject to the first paragraph, our total liability to a group and its organisers in any 12 months is limited to the amount the group paid us for its plan in those 12 months, or 100 pounds if that is more.

Decisions by a theatre's moderators are the theatre's. Subject to the first paragraph, we are not liable for a moderation decision made in good faith.

12. Ending things

You can stop using ImprovTeam and ask us to delete your account at any time. We may suspend or end your access if you break these terms, if we have to by law, or if we stop offering the service (we'll give reasonable notice where we can). Sections that by their nature should survive (content licence, liability, governing law) do.

13. Governing law

These terms are governed by Scots law, and the Scottish courts have jurisdiction, except that if you're a consumer you may also bring a claim in the courts of the country where you live, and any consumer protections that apply to you there still apply.

14. Changes

We may update these terms. We'll change the date above and, if the change matters, email account holders before it takes effect. If you keep using the service after that, you accept the new terms. If you don't agree, you can stop using the service and delete your account, and a payer can cancel a paid plan before the change takes effect, without charge.

15. Contact

Questions about these terms: hello@improvteam.com or the contact form.