Terms and Conditions
Houston ACFE Chapter membership, Events and Payment terms
Last Updated January 24, 2020
Make sure you have read and understand our terms and conditions. It is your responsibility to read the terms on our website carefully and to raise any problems with us before you join or make your event booking. Submission of a booking reservation on-line or via email registration is regarded as a firm booking and acceptance of these terms and conditions.
Local Chapter Membership
Membership to the local Houston area chapter is separate and distinct from memberhip with the national Association of Certified Fraud Examiners. Although strongly encouraged, you are not required to be a member of the national organization to participate in local events. The types of memberships available are as follows:
CFE Chapter Member
You must be a CFE member of the National ACFE organization for Chapter Membership. When applying for this membership level, there may be a delay in activation while your standing as a CFE is verified.
Associate Member
An associate member is any person who is also an active member of the national ACFE organization but does not yet hold the Certified Fraud Examiner credential. When applying for this membership level, there may be a delay in activation while your membership with the national ACFE is verified.
Affiliate Member
Chapter Affiliates are not members of the National ACFE organization. Affiliates of the Chapter shall not be, nor represent themselves to be members of the ACFE, shall have no Chapter voting rights, and shall not be eligible to hold any Chapter office.
Student Member
Effective March 9, 2018, Student membership is granted automatically only to members in good standing of our affiliate Student chapters at universities and college campuses in the Houston region. If you are interested in forming a student chapter at your campus please contact our Student Relations Director. If a student Chapter is not available, you may join the National Association as a student member which will provide you with student membership to the local chapter.
Group/Bundle Member
A group/bundle member is granted membership benefits to the local chapter as part of a group/bundle from a sponsoring organization. This allows a single payment to cover multiple people from the same company or organization. Theses memberships are granted by their organization and may be revoked at any time by the sponsor.
All memberships are subject to review. If you apply to join under a membership level to which you do not qualify, your application may be approved and any adjustment (balance owed) in membership fees due added to your account.
Membership may be suspended or revoked by the board at any time with cause. Examples of cause include but are not limited to not paying membership dues, aging account balance, frequent 'no-shows' to registered events, improper or unethical behavior, etc.
Event Registration Fees
Effective December 1, 2019, all event fees must be paid online at time of registration via a credit card. If an online credit card payment is not possible due to a chapter member/guest employer’s payment policies or requirements, please contact the Houston ACFE chapter at events@houstonacfe.org for a manual registration and approval for an optional payment method.
Registrations (Walk-ins) at the time of the event will be allowed on the condition there are open spots available and the walk-in rate will be charged at the door. All payment methods noted below will be accepted at the door.
Payment Types Accepted
Credit Cards
Paypal is the only method of accepting payments by credit card. Payments can be made online through the houstonacfe.org account which then links to Paypal. At Houston ACFE events we accept credit card payments in-person through the Paypal credit card readers, which are also processed through Paypal similar to making online payments through Paypal.
Checks/Cash
Checks and cash will be accepted for the approved manual registrations and the walk-ins registering at the door on the day of the event.
Special Rate Offerings
Law Enforcement
This classification is applicable to individuals currently employed full time as a law enforcement officer whose primary role is to enforce civil and criminal laws, investigate crimes including but not limited to active Police Officers, Sheriff's Deputies, Constables, FBI Agents, etc.
Students
This classification is applicable Student Members.
Educator
This classification is applicable to individuals currently employed full time as an educator in the field of audit, accounting, criminal justice, business, or law enforcement programs. This is generally full-time or adjunct faculty whose primary occupation is teaching.
Individuals whose primary job function is in internal audit, compliance or risk management who work for educational institutions or as reserve law enforcement officers do not qualify for the above classifications.
Cancellation Policy and No Shows
If you have registered and/or paid for an event and you need to cancel, you MUST cancel online through your account no later than 5 days prior to the event, unless otherwise indicated in specific event policies, to request a refund and/or cancel your registration. The Chapter must confirm event registrations with the venue prior to the event and any changes after this time period can become a financial cost to the Chapter. The Chapter reserves the right to make the final determination on what percentage charge/refund will be returned for cancellations made after the cutoff. The default condition is that cancellations made after cutoff will be charged at 100% and/or no refunds will be allowed. In the event the Chapter determines that partial charges or refunds will be allowed, they will be made on a case by case basis.
In the event of having to cancel one of our events, we would immediately send an email blast to all registrants with the emails they used for registration, the chapter media relations officer would post on all social media platforms notifying members of the cancellation, and our chapter webmaster would also post cancelation on our chapter website.
In the event an attendee does not show up to the event, the registration cost will be forfeited. If payment at the door was the selected method, then the attendee will be billed for the full cost of the event. The Chapter reserves the right to bar future registrations for any attendees who routinely register and fail to pay and/or attend the event. If you have any questions you may email events@houstonacfe.org.
Liability
The registration fees do not include the insurance of participants against personal accidents, sickness, cancellations by any party, theft, loss or damage to personal possessions. The Houston ACFE Chapter is not liable, and the attendee will not hold The Houston ACFE Chapter liable or responsible for any personal accidents, sickness, cancellations by any party, theft, loss or damage to personal possessions. Participants are strongly advised to take out adequate personal insurance to cover travel, accommodation, cancellation and personal effects.
Speaker/Topic Substitution
The Chapter reserves the right to substitute the speaker and/or topic prior to the event with or without notice. This situation may occur if the speaker is unable to attend. This substitution may occur on the day of the event. While the Chapter will attempt to communicate speaker/topic changes to attendees in advance, this may not alway be possible. Regardless of the reason for the substituion, the attendee acknowledges that refunds will not be allowed.
Continuing Professional Education (CPE) credits
The Houston ACFE Chapter presents training under the following training numbers: NASBA No. 125230 and Texas CPA No. 004563. While the Chapter presents under these numbers, the Chapter does not warrant that certain or specific training events will always be guaranteed by various certifying bodies [AICPA, ACFE, IIA, etc.]. If an attendee wants absolute assurance of guaranteed acceptance of the training credit, it is the responsibility of each attendee to contact the particular certifying body and present the training event and training synopsis for evaluation. While the Chapter will make every effort to ensure that training events will qualify as CPE, certifying bodies have the final say on whether a training credit is accepted. In the event a training event is certified for additional training credits, such as the Texas BAR Association, TCLEOSE, etc., then this information will be displayed at registration.
Every attempt is made to provide you with your CPE certificates as quickly as possible, but you should allow up to three weeks.
The chapter has partnered with Accredible (credential.net) to quickly create, generate and store CPE certificates for our events. Certificates on Accredible will exist online until they are deleted.
To ensure you are eligible and receive your CPE:
- You should always make sure to check-in at events. We only generate certificates for those individuals that meet participation criteria. The primary of which is our check-in process for in-person events and polling activities/questions during online events.
- Emails will come from Houston ACFE via Accredible <support@credential.net>. You should make sure to add this email/domain to your safe senders list. We do not resend emails or regenerate certificates after 60 days post-event.
- You are NOT required to setup an Accredible account. You may continue to access your certificates using the respective original email links sent after each event. However, you may elect to setup an Accredible account that will allow you to access your CPE certificates at any time once they have been generated.
- Both your certificate and your credential.net (Accredible) account will be tied to the email address that you registered for the event with. This means that if you register for an event in May with a Gmail address but then register in June using your work email address, your certificates will be tied to each respective email account/login. To avoid confusion you should try to make sure you are always using the same email address for the National ACFE and the Houston ACFE. If you have more than one email with us and need help merging accounts contact us here.
Early Bird & Group Discounts
In the event that a training event offers early bird discounts, group discounts, or coupons; these discounts are not cumulative and can not be used in conjunction with one another. The attendee(s) are encouraged to select the discount that offers the largest price break. As an example, assume a group discount of 20% is available as is an early bird discount of 15%. If a group were to register, they could take advantage of the early bird discount or group discount, but not both. Discounts may be discontinued at any time, with or without advance notice.
Venue Access
The Houston ACFE Chapter reserves the right to refuse admittance or remove from the premises anyone who is disruptive to the event, attendees and/or the presenter. If an individual is removed from the event due to disruptive or obnoxious behavior, the attendee agrees that they forfeit their registration fee and are not entitled to a refund. On its own, the venue may also deem to remove an individual from the venue and/or event for any reason. As above, if an attendee is removed from the premises, they are not entitled a refund.
Photos & Privacy
Attendees agree to their pictures, videos, and/or voice being taken or recorded by the Chapter, other attendees, speakers, the venue, and/or the media. Attendees also agree that there will be no compensation or rights attached to such recordings and this notice applies to all events in which the attendee is present. If the attendee would not like their photos, videos, or voice recordings used, the attendee must notify the chapter at the event. Attendees also authorize the Chapter to share the attendee list with event sponsors. Information that will be shared will be limited to name, company, title, and email address. If an attendee does not want their information shared with the sponsor, the attendee must notify the Chapter on the day of the event or during the registration process if applicable. Individuals who are given an identifier to wear as an 'opt out' individual are responsible for wearing the identifier prominently and visibly at all times.
Annual Membership Dues
Chapter dues are for the calendar year and are not prorated. Chapter dues are not refundable. Chapter dues allow the member to attend member only events and receive member discounted pricing. It is the responsibility of the member to ensure that their membership dues are current.
Award Eligibility
To be eligible for Chapter-sponsored awards, the member must be in good standing with the Chapter and must have joined/renewed their membership more than 60 days prior to nomination.