| The data that members provide on their membership forms are kept in documents that are held and processed electronically.
This means that the Society is subject to the Data Protection Act.
Under the Act, members' data are not classed as "sensitive data", and because the Society is a not-for-profit
organisation there is no requirement to register with the ICO (Information Commissioner's Office). Nevertheless,
under the Act, there are responsibilities of care to uphold. This document outlines the Society' policies. |
What data is held? |
| The Society only keeps data that are necessary for association activities. The following items are kept: Name, Postal addresses, Telephone numbers, Email addresses. |
What is the data used for? |
| The data are only used for legitimate Society uses; these include:
communication between committee members and other members as part of the general running of the
Society; notification of Society meetings, garden visits, etc.
The Society will not disclose your data to other members or to third parties, or use it on behalf of third parties. |
Who has access to the data? |
| Only those who need access to the data have access to it. The following committee members have access to all the member data:
Chairman, Secretary, Treasurer, Membership Secretary, Show Secretary, Webmaster. |
What happens when a member leaves the Society? |
| Data for members who leave the Society are held for at most 3 months, after which time they
will be deleted from our records. This is in case there is a requirement to communicate with a member who has recently left.
In the event that the Membership Officer is notified of the death of a member, their data is deleted within 24 hours. |
Accuracy |
| The Society endeavours to maintain accurate records, but it relies on members advising the Membership Officer of changes.
Members can at any time ask the Secretary for a copy of their recorded data. To request this, send an email to secretary@abingdon-hort-soc.org.uk |
Email usage |
| The Committee member responsible for sending mass emails to the membership has an email account (news@abingdon-hort-soc.org.uk) used for the purpose.
This account contains members' email data. Mass emails to the membership are sent blind (Bcc) so that addresses are not exposed. |
Encryption and passwords |
| Membership data is held securely in an online database. Some data is encrypted to protect it in the event that the database
is compromised. The encrypted fields are postal address, phone number(s) and email address(es). Access to the member database is restricted to the
Chairman, Secretary, Treasurer, Membership Secretary, Show Secretary and Webmaster. |
Who is responsible for the implementation of this policy? |
| The Chairman of the Society is responsible for ensuring that this policy is adhered to. |
