Data Protection Policy
Background
The Woodmancote Society was established to foster a sense of community in the village and to welcome newcomers; to support projects which benefit Woodmancote and its residents; and to hold meetings, shows and other social events in pursuit of these aims. The society has a membership of approximately 400 households.
Members are required to provide the society with personal data which includes the following:
Name(s)
Address
Telephone Number
Email address (desirable but not mandatory)
(where relevant) details of their personal situation (e.g. if they are unwell, infirm)
The Society uses this information to support the management of its work, including advertising upcoming events to its membership. This business is determined by the committee and is carried out in accordance with the terms of this policy.
This Data Protection Policy has been written to comply with the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) introduced in 2018. It is published on the Woodmancote Society website and if any member has any concerns, this should be raised with the Society Chairman or its Membership Secretary.
Use of Personal Data
Purpose
The primary purpose of the membership data is to communicate information about forthcoming events. Secondarily, membership data is used for the proper management of the Society's affairs.
The Society may occasionally use its membership list to promote activities which, whilst not being run by the Society itself, are deemed to be consistent with its overall aims (see first paragraph). This will only be done with the approval of the committee. Any publicity of this nature will be enacted through the Society, and no membership details will ever be passed to any external organisation.
The membership information will not be passed to any external individual or organisation without the express permission of the individual, or individuals, concerned.
Postal Addresses
Postal addresses of members will be issued to area representative volunteers (appointed by the committee) to support the delivery of paper flyers advertising Society events to those members who do not have, or don’t wish to divulge, their email address, and to collect annual subscriptions from all Society members.
Email addresses
Members are encouraged to provide email addresses to facilitate swift and efficient dissemination of information to its members, and to minimise administrative overheads.
The following procedures will be followed when using the email membership list:
When communications are sent out to all Society members, email addresses will be “bcc’ed” to ensure that membership details are not known to all Society members. By these means, individual members will not have sight of other members’ email addresses.
From time to time, there may be important and urgent changes to planned Society events (e.g, cancellation due to adverse weather, venue changes). In such situations, email addresses will be used as a fast and efficient way of letting people know, often at short notice, the status of events.
Phone Numbers
Members will only be contacted by telephone in extremis, and then only in connection with Society business.
Woodmancote Society Website
Members’ contact details will never be published on the public Woodmancote Society website.
The Society runs a 'private' Facebook group to encourage social interaction between its members. Only members of the Society will be allowed to participate in the group. The group will be primarily used to help publicise Woodmancote Society events, and to support social interaction between villagers. Membership of the group is entirely discretionary.
The group is actively policed, and any postings which are inconsistent with the aims and goals of the Society (see para 1) policy will be removed. The group will not be used for commercial or political purposes, and the administrator of the group will remove any persistent offenders.
Management of Personal Data
Members can have any of their contact details amended at any time by contacting the Membership Secretary, by emailing the Society’s email address (woodmancote.society@gmail.com), or via an online form on the Society’s website.
All members will be contacted annually to check that they wish to remain as a member of the Society, that their contact details haven’t changed, and that they are still content to have their membership details used in accordance with the Society’s Data Protection policy.
Then Society will operate an “opt-in” policy with its membership. Any member who no longer wishes to be in the Society will have their contact details removed from the database within 1 month of receipt of the request.
The database will be stored securely and will only be accessible to a subset of the committee (typically the Society Chairman and the Membership Secretary) and to the Area Representatives.
Governance
The Society's Committee is responsible for Data Protection and Privacy matters. They will review and approve this policy annually at the first meeting after the AGM. They will appoint a member of the committee as Data Controller with responsibility for assuring the committee that the policy is complied with, and for bringing any issues to the committee's attention.
The Membership Secretary is the Data Processor, with responsibility for ensuring that the policy is followed.