Help

Why is TEVA a private member community?

TEVA is a private, faith-based ministerial association. Our application process helps us preserve the private nature of our association and keep our gatherings, resources, and offerings within our member community.

We know the process takes a little extra time, and we sincerely appreciate you taking that step. Thank you for helping us protect and preserve the unique community we are building together.

Joining TEVA

The member application is on the front page of the site. Fill it in and it goes to a person, not a machine.

The form starts folded away: click Join TEVA Now to open it.

A person reads every application, so approval is not instant. If you are applying because you want to come to a particular event, say so on the form — there is a question that asks exactly that, and your answer is shown to the person who reviews your application.

Two of the items ask for your permission to be contacted. Item 11 authorizes TEVA to email you about your member account — your approval, your login, the events you register for, receipts, and notices to the member community — and it is required, because email is the only way the association can reach you. Item 12, newsletters and announcements, is optional: you can decline it, or stop it later, and your member status is not affected either way. When your application is approved, each answer is kept as a dated record of what you agreed to.

When you are approved you will get an email with a link to set your password. Use it reasonably promptly: that link expires after seven days, and if it lapses just ask for another.

If you started your application from a specific event's page -- or left your email there before applying -- that event travels with your application. Your approval email will name it directly and the link in that email takes you straight to it the moment you sign in, so you do not have to go find the page again. An application that did not come from an event page gets the ordinary welcome email, with no change.

Signing in

Use the email address you applied with. If you have forgotten your password, click the Reset your Password button on the login page and the site will email you a link to set a new one. Resetting your password walks through it step by step.

The parts of this site that hold what members have told us — the directory, profiles, listings, the Commons and your tickets — are for members only. If you click one of those and land on the login page instead, that is why — sign in and you will be taken on to the page you were trying to reach, not dumped back at the start.

Your account is never locked by getting the password wrong. After eight wrong tries in a row, sign-in from the internet connection you are using is paused for about a quarter of an hour, as a protection against strangers working through guesses. Nobody else is affected and nothing has been disabled: wait it out, or use the "Reset your Password" button instead of trying again.

Resetting your password

You do not need to be signed in to do this. Every login screen on this site has the button.

1. On the login page, click Reset your Password, under the Log In button.

2. Type the username or the email address of your TEVA account, and send the request.

3. The next screen says a reset email has been sent to the email address on file for that account. It says the same thing whether or not what you typed belongs to an account, so nobody can use it to find out who is a member. If nothing arrives within a few minutes, check your spam folder, then make sure you typed the address you applied with.

4. Open the email, titled “TEVA: Reset your password”. It lists what to do next. Click the link in it, choose a new password and save it, then log in with the new password.

The link is valid for 7 days and works once. Only the newest reset email works: each request replaces the link in the one before, so an older email will say its link is invalid. Nothing is wrong with your account when that happens — use the newest email, or ask for a fresh one.

If you did not ask for a reset, ignore the email. Your password stays the same and nothing about your account changes.

Reading the Newsletter

The Newsletter page always shows the most recent issue. You do not have to be signed in to read that one — it is the one exception, so a link to it works for anyone.

When you are signed in, the green bar at the top of every page has two newsletter buttons: Latest Issue takes you straight to the newest issue, and Browse Archive opens the list of earlier ones. If no issue has been published yet, Latest Issue shows in grey and does nothing.

Every earlier issue lives in the Archive, which you can search and sort. The archive requires signing in — if you are not, you will see a short preview of an issue and a prompt to log in rather than the full thing. If someone sends or texts you a direct link to a specific older issue, that link keeps working for you even signed out; it just will not let you browse to any other issue from there.

Any issue can be saved or printed with the Download PDF button at the bottom of the page.

Nothing is emailed or texted to you yet. New issues are not announced automatically — check back on the Newsletter page, or watch for it to change.

Deadlines, walk-ups and full events

An event page tells a visitor exactly where things stand, and the wording changes on its own as the day arrives:

• Open — registration is running, and if the host set an advance deadline it names that date.
• Walk-up only — the advance deadline has passed, but the event has not. A passed deadline is not a closed door.
• Already under way — members can still register, but registration closes half an hour before the end. Turning up in the last few minutes is not attending, and the people running the event need that half hour to count up and close the door. An application sent tonight will not be approved tonight either.
• Ended — over, and it invites you to a future one instead.
• Full — capacity reached; beside Seats left it says "None — this event is full".

Donating

Anyone can make a general donation to TEVA, at any time. You do not need to be signed in or a TEVA member to give — there is no cost beyond the donation itself, and it takes any amount from one dollar upward.

Reserving a seat at an event is different, and does require being a TEVA member — see Buying a seat at an event. Joining TEVA is completely free either way: a donation is never the cost of becoming a member.

Premium donation is for Village members who wish to add pictures on their profiles. The donation has a set amount. This image upgrade lasts for one year and can be renewed. After a year, the images are blocked unless another premium donation is made. This donation helps us fund website costs. Because this upgrades your own account, you do need to be signed in to make one.

Payments are handled by our payment provider. The site never sees or stores your card details.

Who can see what

Short version, because it is the question people most often want answered:

• Your events are public. Anybody given the registration link can read one, member or not.
• Your other listings are not. Services, products, resources and locations are only visible to signed-in members.
• The directory is members only.
• A listing set to Draft or Inactive is seen only by you (and the site's administrators). Only Active listings appear in the directory.
• Your contact details are members only. They are not sent to a visitor who is not signed in.
• The exact address of an event is kept from the public — a visitor sees a town and ZIP. It is not kept from the member community: any signed-in member can read it.
• Your card details are never held by this site at all.

The one thing the site cannot protect you from is what you type. Anything you write into an event is published to the public as written.

Things still being built

A few things exist on the site but are not finished yet, and it is fairer to say so than to let you wonder whether they are broken:

• Commons and Messages — member posts and member-to-member messaging. Placeholders for now.

If one of these is what you came for, say so — knowing that somebody is waiting on it is what moves it up the list.

If something goes wrong

Most messages on this site try to tell you what happened and what to do next, rather than just that something failed. If you get one that does not, that is worth reporting — it is a fault in the site, not in you.

Email info@visitteva.com and say what you were doing, what you expected, and what you saw. A screenshot helps more than anything else.