Enrollment, Completion & Privacy Policies

Effective April 2026 · Sondage Standard LLC · Berkeley, California

These policies govern enrollment in Sondage certification programs, access to curriculum, advancement to the Registry, and the practitioner relationship. They apply to all credential tracks — Certified Legacy Scholar (CLS), Legacy Sound Producer (LSP), and Legacy Collection Curator (LCC) — except where a track-specific distinction is noted.

Read them before you pay. Sondage policies aim to be plain, fair, and binding.

Enrollment & Curriculum Access

Payment of the enrollment fee secures immediate access to the full certification curriculum for your credential track.

Curriculum access is granted for twelve months from the date of payment. This window is sufficient for any scholar who engages with the material consistently. It is designed to create a reasonable completion horizon without pressure.

CLS enrollment: $1,200 · LSP enrollment: $550

The CLS, LSP, and LCC are professional certifications issued by Sondage Standard. They do not constitute state licenses or offers of employment. What they are: rigorous, practice-based credentials that establish your standing as a qualified practitioner within the Sondage network — one of the few credentialing bodies in the world devoted exclusively to the standards of human legacy documentation.

Upon certification, the designation — CLS, LSP, or LCC — belongs to you. You may use it in your professional biography, client communications, website, and public-facing materials. You gain access to the Sondage practitioner network, platform resources, and the right to represent yourself publicly as a credentialed practitioner within the Sondage standard. The Sondage name, and what it stands for, is part of what you earn — and remains yours to carry as long as your platform status is current and your credential is in good standing.

Completion & Registry Advancement

Advancing from enrolled scholar to listed practitioner requires all of the following:

1. Completion of all curriculum modules with performance assessments embedded as Registry page content.

2. Capstone submission: a completed Living Syllabus (CLS) or Season Execution Blueprint (LSP).

3. Two professional attestations submitted directly by colleagues via the Sondage attestation form.

Two colleagues must submit professional attestations directly to Sondage via the form provided in the course. Attesters must have observed your scholarly or professional work directly. Attestations submitted by the candidate on behalf of an attester are not accepted. Both attestations must be received before your Registry page is published.

Edited versions of each attestation will appear publicly on your Registry page. You may make minor edits for length and clarity with your attester's knowledge. The substance of what they wrote may not be changed.

Upon successful completion of all requirements, your Registry page will be reviewed and published. Listing confirms that you hold an active Sondage credential and meet the professional standards of the practitioner network. The credential belongs to you. Sondage certifies it — it does not own it or revoke it without documented cause.

The Sondage standard is a living framework. As the field of legacy preservation evolves — and as the technological, ethical, and archival landscape continues to shift — the credential will evolve with it. Sondage reserves the right to introduce periodic recertification requirements, with reasonable notice and a clear pathway, to ensure that all listed practitioners remain current with the standard they hold.

Platform Fee & Active Status

Active listing on the Sondage Registry requires an annual platform fee, payable from the date your Registry page is published. The platform fee maintains your active status — your visibility to prospective Fellows, your endorsement as a current Sondage-approved practitioner, and your access to the practitioner network and its resources.

A practitioner who holds a Sondage credential but has not paid the current platform fee may not represent themselves as an active, Sondage-approved practitioner or appear as listed on the Registry. The credential itself is not revoked. Active status is suspended until the fee is current.

Platform fee, annual: $150 (CLS) · $75 (LSP) · $150 (LCC)

The first two years of active platform listing are included in your enrollment fee. The annual platform fee begins in year three from the date your Registry page is published.

Recertification

Recertification is required every five years from the date of your original credential. The Sondage Protocol and the broader landscape of legacy preservation, archival ethics, and synthetic media are evolving. The credential you hold is expected to reflect the standard as it stands — not only as it stood when you enrolled.

Sondage will provide advance notice of recertification requirements, a clear pathway, and reasonable time to complete the process. Recertification is designed to be substantive but low friction — a recognition of your continued practice, not a re-examination of your foundational competency.

Practitioners who do not recertify within the required window move to inactive status on the Registry regardless of platform fee standing. Reactivation requires completing the recertification process.

Incompletes & Reinstatement

Scholars who do not complete the certification requirements within twelve months of enrollment may apply for reinstatement. Reinstatement reopens curriculum access for an additional six months.

Reinstatement fee: $300 (CLS) · $150 (LSP) · $300 (CLS)

Reinstatement opens a new six-month window from the date reinstatement is confirmed. To apply, write to academy@sondagestandard.com with your name, credential track, and original enrollment date.

Sondage will send a re-engagement email at the ten-month mark to any enrolled scholar who has not yet submitted their capstone. This is a courtesy, not a condition of reinstatement eligibility.

Refunds

Sondage offers refunds under the following conditions:

Full refund: requested within 7 days of payment and no modules accessed.

50% refund: requested within 30 days of payment, regardless of modules accessed.

No refund: after 30 days from payment, or after Module 3 has been accessed — whichever comes first.

Access to Module 3 constitutes substantial delivery of the curriculum. The no-refund threshold reflects this.

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.

Practitioner Independence

All Sondage credential holders are independent practitioners. Enrollment in a certification program, completion of the curriculum, and listing on the Sondage Registry do not create an employment relationship, a staffing arrangement, or any form of direction or control by Sondage over a practitioner's professional conduct.

Sondage provides a Certification Standard — the Sondage Protocol and Sondage Sound Standards. Practitioners provide the performance: the scholarly inquiry, the acoustic stewardship, the archival practice. These are distinct roles, and the distinction is structural, not rhetorical.

Practitioners credentialed by Sondage are independently established in their trade. They hold their own professional identities, maintain their own practices, and are listed on the Registry by virtue of demonstrated competency — not by virtue of working for Sondage. They do not work for Sondage. They are credentialed by Sondage.

This independence is the foundation of the Human Standard. It is also the foundation of the practitioner's professional dignity. We take both seriously.

Privacy & Data

Information collected through the enrollment application is used to establish and maintain your practitioner record. It is not sold, shared with third parties, or used for any purpose outside the operation of the Sondage credentialing and registry system.

All recordings produced in a Sondage Season are the sole property of the Senior Fellow. Sondage does not retain, host, or hold archive data after Sovereign Accession — the moment at which the completed archive transfers directly to the Fellow's personal account. Practitioners acquire no ownership, licensing right, or custodial claim over any archival 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 credential. Any practitioner found to have used synthetic processes in the collection or interpretation phase is subject to immediate credential review.

Questions about these policies: academy@sondagestandard.com

Sondage Standard LLC · Berkeley, California · sondagestandard.com