Enrollment, Standing & Privacy Policies

Effective June 2026 · Sondage Standard LLC · Berkeley, California

These policies govern enrollment, certification, Registry standing, and the practitioner relationship across all three Sondage certifications — Certified Legacy Scholar (CLS), Legacy Sound Producer (LSP), and Legacy Collection Curator (LCC) — except where a single track is named. Read them before you pay. They aim to be plain, fair, and binding.

1.Admissions & Eligibility

Each certification sets an eligibility bar met before enrollment. You declare eligibility on the application: name your route, list the degrees, coursework, or experience behind it, and affirm by signature that it is accurate. Sondage may request verification — a transcript, or confirmation from an employer or client — but does not require it of every applicant. A false declaration is grounds for review or revocation.

1.1Certified Legacy Scholar (CLS)

Doctoral formation: a qualifying terminal degree in the humanities, social sciences, or an interpretive discipline. Qualifying degrees are listed on the application.

Practitioner Pathway. An experienced public historian, oral historian, documentary journalist, or narrative practitioner who holds a master's degree in a qualifying field and can demonstrate a doctoral-level record of sustained life-history, oral-history, or documentary inquiry may petition for admission. The Pathway requires pre-clearance from Sondage Admissions before enrollment. It is the same bar, reached through a body of work rather than a degree.

The CLS requires a qualifying terminal degree or equivalent demonstrated formation, and an independently established professional practice outside Sondage. This is a governing condition of the practitioner Registry, not an editorial preference. We warmly invite you to apply when that condition is met.

1.2Legacy Collection Curator (LCC)

A bachelor's degree, or its foreign equivalent, is required of all applicants. Beyond that floor, an applicant qualifies by one of three routes:

By Degree — a major, minor, or graduate degree in history, art history, public history, archival or library science, museum studies, preservation, conservation, or anthropology with a substantial ethnographic or preservation core. By Coursework — fifteen semester credits, or the equivalent, in history or a history-adjacent field. By Practice — at least 500 hours of paid or formal supervised work in archival, preservation, personal-history, or professional curation practice performed for others, excluding work on one's own family materials.

1.3Legacy Sound Producer (LSP)

A craft certification, open to applicants with formal training or demonstrated professional experience in audio recording, production, or post-production.

2.Enrollment & Curriculum Access

Payment of the enrollment fee (see the Schedule of Fees) grants immediate access to the full curriculum for your certification, for twelve months from the date of payment.

The CLS, LSP, and LCC are professional certifications issued by Sondage Standard. They are not state licenses or offers of employment. On certification, the designation is yours to carry in your professional biography, client communications, and public materials.

Reduced rates. Reduced rates are available for students — including currently enrolled students pursuing certification toward degree completion — and in cases of demonstrated need or merit, all at Sondage's discretion. Course audits, for those not seeking certification, are offered at a reduced rate. Contributions in support of practitioner scholarships are welcome; they support Sondage's certification programs and are not charitable donations for tax purposes. Inquire at academy@sondagestandard.com.

Incompletes. A practitioner who does not complete certification within the twelve-month window may apply to reinstate enrollment (see the Schedule of Fees), reopening curriculum access for an additional six months. Write to academy@sondagestandard.com with your name, certification, and enrollment date.

3.Active Standing & Renewal

Active standing — certification in good standing with renewal current — is what permits Registry listing, use of the Sondage marks to represent current standing, and access to Sondage Enterprise. The states of standing are as follows.

3.2Platform fee

An annual platform fee maintains active standing and Registry listing. The first two years of active listing are included in the enrollment fee; the fee begins in year three (see the Schedule of Fees). The LSP platform fee is currently zero, reflecting the LSP's referral role rather than a permanent exemption; Sondage may, with reasonable notice, introduce a modest LSP platform fee in the future.

3.3Recertification

Recertification is required every five years from original certification, affirming currency with the Standard as it then stands — substantive but low friction, not a re-examination of foundational competency. The fee is set and published, within or beyond the stated estimates, with reasonable notice before a practitioner's first recertification cycle.

3.4Lapse & reinstatement

Standing lapses when renewal or recertification is overdue. A lapsed practitioner is removed from the Registry and loses Sondage Enterprise access, and may not represent themselves as currently active or Registry-listed. The certification itself is retained, and a lapsed practitioner may continue to write and speak about Sondage. Standing is restored by paying the current renewal; after ninety days, a reinstatement-of-standing fee applies (see the Schedule of Fees).

Death. A certification ends at the practitioner's death, and no further fees are owed. The fact of certification stands, and Sovereign Archives already produced remain certified, in the Senior Fellow's keeping. Sondage may retain a memorial listing.

4.Sondage Enterprise

Sondage Enterprise is the practitioner resource and brand platform provided to practitioners in active standing: shared language and web copy, the Sondage branding package, and business-development and promotion tools that support an independent practice. It is under continued development, and its resources are extended over time. Access is included with active standing at present; Sondage may, with reasonable notice, introduce a separate or additional fee for some or all of it in the future. Access is suspended when standing lapses or is suspended, and ends on revocation.

5.Use of the Sondage Name & Marks

A practitioner in active standing may use the Sondage name, marks, and certification designation to represent their current standing. A lapsed practitioner retains the designation and may speak about Sondage, but may not claim current active standing or Registry listing. On revocation, the right to use the marks and designation ends going forward, though a past completion may still be stated as fact. Misrepresenting standing — or representing Sondage as employer, partner, or guarantor of a practitioner's work — is grounds for review.

6.Sondage Onward

Sondage Onward is the channel through which a Sondage-Certified Primary Source may be carried, with the Senior Fellow's authorization, into a relationship with an institutional or commercial partner — an archive, a publisher, or a producer of secondary works. Only a Sovereign Archive that holds a completed Sondage certification is eligible to move through Sondage Onward or to carry the Sondage-Certified designation into a partner relationship. Sondage partners receive and build upon certified sources only.

7.Certification Review, Suspension & Revocation

A certification is earned and belongs to the practitioner. Sondage does not revoke except for cause, and does not involve itself in a practitioner's independent professional conduct beyond the grounds stated here.

Grounds. Material misrepresentation in the application or its attestations; misrepresentation of the certification or of the Sondage relationship; use of synthetic or generative processes in the collection, interpretation, or archiving of a primary source, or any breach of a Senior Fellow's sovereignty; exploitation, deception, or harm of a Senior Fellow or their family; criminal conduct bearing materially on fitness to do the work or on the integrity of the Registry; or conduct that materially damages the integrity of the Sondage Standard.

Protected conduct. Disagreement with the Standard, public criticism of Sondage, and lawful expression in a practitioner's own voice are not grounds for review. The grounds above concern conduct, not opinion.

Process. Sondage provides written notice of a concern and a reasonable opportunity to respond before any decision, may suspend standing during a serious review, and issues any decision in writing with its reason stated.

Effect. Revocation removes the practitioner from the Registry and ends use of the designation and the Sondage marks going forward. It does not reach Sovereign Archives already produced, which remain certified, in the Senior Fellow's sole keeping. A practitioner may relinquish a certification in writing at any time.

8.Practitioner Independence

All Sondage certification holders are independent practitioners. Enrollment, completion of the curriculum, and Registry listing create no employment relationship, staffing arrangement, or control by Sondage over a practitioner's professional conduct. Sondage provides the certification standard; practitioners provide the performance — the inquiry, the acoustic stewardship, the archival practice. They hold their own practices and are listed by virtue of demonstrated competency. They are certified by Sondage, not employed by it.

9.Privacy & Data

Information collected through the application establishes and maintains your practitioner record. It is not sold, shared with third parties, or used outside the operation of the Sondage certification and Registry system.

All materials produced in a Sondage Season are the sole property of the Senior Fellow. After Sovereign Accession, Sondage retains no archive data, and practitioners acquire no ownership, license, or custodial claim over any material produced in a Season.

AI is never used in collecting, recording, interpreting, or archiving a primary source within a Sondage Season. This is a governing condition of the certification. Any practitioner found to have used synthetic processes in the collection or interpretation phase is subject to immediate certification review.

10.Refunds

Full refund within 7 days of payment with no modules accessed. 50% refund within 30 days of payment, regardless of access. No refund after 30 days, or after Module 3 has been accessed — whichever comes first; access to Module 3 constitutes substantial delivery of the curriculum. To request a refund, write to academy@sondagestandard.com with your name, enrollment date, and reason. Refunds are processed within 10 business days of approval via the original payment method.

These policies are reviewed periodically and may be updated. The version in effect at the time of your enrollment governs your enrollment.

11.Schedule of Fees

All fees are current as of the effective date and are subject to change. Figures stated as ranges are estimates, not commitments. The fee in effect at the time of a transaction governs that transaction; fees already paid are not affected by later changes.

11.1 — Course enrollment (one-time, per certification)

Certification	Enrollment
Certified Legacy Scholar (CLS)	$1,200
Legacy Collection Curator (LCC)	$1,400
Legacy Sound Producer (LSP)	$550

11.2 — Platform fee (annual; maintains active standing)

Certification	Years 1–2	Years 3–5	Year 6 onward
CLS	Included	$200	$400
LCC	Included	$200	$400
LSP	$0	$0	$0

11.3 — Sovereign Accession fee (per Season, at accession)

Engagement	Fee
Seminar on the Self (CLS)	$700
Seminar on the Trove (LCC)	$1,000

Paid by the certified practitioner from Season revenue, not by the Senior Fellow to Sondage. The fee covers final quality review, the signing of the Sondage-Certified Primary Source attestation, architectural compliance review, and execution of the Vanish Protocol. A Season's output may be represented as a Sondage-Certified Primary Source only where its accession has been completed and this fee paid.

11.4 — Recertification fee (every five years; estimates)

Certification	Estimated fee
CLS	$400–$600
LCC	$400–$600
LSP	$200–$300

11.5 — Reinstatement

Type	Fee
Reinstatement of standing (lapsed practitioner)	$75, all certifications
Reinstatement of enrollment (incomplete within 12 months)	CLS $300 · LCC $300 · LSP $150

11.6 — Reduced rates, course audits, and scholarship support are available by inquiry to academy@sondagestandard.com and are set at Sondage's discretion.

Questions about these policies: academy@sondagestandard.com
Sondage Standard LLC · Berkeley, California · sondagestandard.com

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