Source and Use of Members’ Information

The source of the information that we hold for each member is derived from the membership application form and was given at the time of joining. Our declaration of intended storage and use of this information was agreed by signature of the member. It comprises the following:

Name
Address
Telephone Number (Landline or Mobile)
Email Address (most, but not all, provided one)

The declared use was for society administrative purposes and, in the case of Name and Address, onward transmission to the National Society of Allotment and Leisure Gardeners (NSALG), to whom we were affiliated.

The data from the membership forms are transferred to an electronic spreadsheet, and the spreadsheet is used to keep track of payment of membership fees and members who wish to volunteer for shop duties, plant sale and maintenance.

A few years ago, we left  NSALG and joined the Royal Horticultural Society, and at the same time replaced Kings with Suttons as our discount seed supplier. Neither the RHS nor Suttons require any details of individual members.

Therefore, information provided by members to OBAGS is not passed on to any third party organisation, with the exception of email addresses (see below).

The membership forms folder is kept by the membership secretary or treasurer and is issued to the lead shop volunteer at each shop opening to deal with membership applications and renewals.

Custody of the membership spreadsheet resides with the membership secretary and this is kept on computer hard drive and backed up to other in-house devices.

The webmaster uses the email addresses of members to create group mailing lists in order to communicate with the membership. The mailing lists are stored with, and operated by software provided by, our website hosting company. The data are protected by the hosting company, but, as we know, no online storage of data is immune to attack.

The mailing lists currently in use are: membership, volunteers and committee.

Custody of the mailing lists resides with the webmaster.

Storage of Historic Data

On Paper
The committee has decided that membership forms relating to lapsed members shall be retained for up to three years, in case the former member wishes to rejoin. Membership form numbers that remain vacant for more than one year become liable for re-use as required for new members, and the original paperwork is shredded. If a number has not been re-used at the end of three years the paperwork relating to it will be shredded.

Computer Spreadsheet
Electronic storage is by year, and in future it will be deleted in line with the paper documentation on a rolling basis. So, years prior to 2015 have already been deleted, leaving those for 2015, 2016 and 2017 plus current remaining. 2015 data will be deleted at the beginning of 2019 and so on.

Group Email
Although our annual membership hovers around the 60 mark, at the turn of the year the webmaster sent a message to the 98 or so recipients on the members’ group list inviting those ex-members who wished to be removed from the list to do so by return.

The email that referred you to this page requires a positive response to remain on the group email.


Your Right to Manage Your Personal Information

If you wish to continue receiving information from OBAGS, the only personal information we require is your Name and Email Address, and for you to respond YES to our email.

It therefore follows that the other information OBAGS holds - your address and telephone number, are currently redundant.  If you wish either or both of these to be deleted you may do so at any time by emailing the secretary or webmaster.

If you are a volunteer or committee member access to your address and telephone number is useful for contacting you individually at short notice.

Webmaster
May, 2018