Privacy Statement

The Hexham Local History Society (HLHS) was founded in 1966. Members of the HLHS enjoy exploring the rich and varied history of Hexham and the surrounding area of Northumberland, and the society aims to engage its members in a variety of activities associated with that local history.

We are a membership charity organisation, run by volunteers, and provide opportunities for members to meet, hear talks from experts in the field, attend organised events and outings, and receive newsletters and the annual Hexham Historian publication.

We are committed to protecting the privacy of our members. This privacy statement sets out the way we collect, store and process your personal information in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

This policy may be updated from time to time to ensure we continue to provide you with accurate information. The most recent version is always available via the HLHS web site.

What is Personal Information?

When you join the HLHS or take part in our activities we collect personal information from you.

Personal information is information that can be used to identify you. The information we collect includes:

• Your name, title, postal address, email address (if any) and telephone contact number; for joint memberships, there is an additional name, title and email address as appropriate
• The category of membership you apply for and payment type (i.e. cash/cheque/standing order/bank transfer)
• When your subscription was paid
• Whether you have elected to:

1. 1. Gift aid your subscriptions.
   2. Receive the newsletter electronically.
   3. Distribute Hexham Historian in your neighbourhood.

• Participation in any outings organised by HLHS. This information is held temporarily for outing booking and administration purposes and destroyed when the outing is over.

Details of any bank accounts used in your payments are not recorded.

For members that have an activated on-line membership account, your password is recorded in our IT system, but is not visible to anyone.

What is The Legal Basis For Collecting This Information?

HLHS only collects personal information to enable us to carry out our legitimate interests and to comply with legal requirements.

Our legitimate interests are:

• Fulfilling our duty to members and supporters.
• Informing members of HLHS’s activities and the opportunities that these provide for members and supporters.
• Facilitating online forum discussions on the website.
• Working to improve and develop new and existing activities, services and products.
• Fundraising and promotion of the interests of the group.
• Handling enquiries and complaints.
• Complying with legal requirements and regulations.

How Do We Use Your Personal Information?

Your personal information is securely stored, and only available to a small number of relevant committee members in order to verify your entitlement to the benefits of membership and to perform the tasks below:

• To process your HLHS membership and its renewal.
• To deliver your copies of Newsletters, the Hexham Historian, and AGM papers.
• To inform you about meetings, talks and outings.
• To provide occasional information about items that we think might be of interest to you.

For those of you who gift aid your subscriptions we are required to include your name, address, amount of annual subscription, and the date it was made, in an annual schedule sent to HMRC.

To accomplish the above tasks we may use third parties who conform to the required data privacy standards. An example is MailChimp, that provides email services.

We will never sell or pass on your personal information for other organisations to use for their own purposes.

We will share your information when we are legally obliged to at the request of a government of law enforcement authority.

HLHS may occasionally wish to contact you about items not directly associated with your membership but which we think may be of interest to you.  If you would prefer us not to contact you on any such topics then please let us know (contact below) and we will note your preference.

Under the terms of GDPR we believe the personal information we hold and process is for the legitimate interests of the HLHS.

Individual Rights

The GDPR defines a number of rights that the individual has relating to their personal data. Of particular relevance to HLHS are the following:

• The right of access – to your personal information.
• The right to rectification of that personal information.
• The right to erasure (this would of course relate to cancelling your membership).

If you need information on any of the above, please contact us (as below). Any request regarding your personal information will be provided within 30 days of receipt of this request.

Security

HLHS takes the security of our members personal information very seriously, and we take appropriate steps to ensure that your data is securely stored.

Only a small number of authorised HLHS committee members have access to your personal information, and any transfers use secure processes. Our processes and systems are regularly reviewed to ensure they remain secure. Information disposal will always be done securely.

Privacy Statement Review

This Privacy Policy is effective as of the 2nd August 2023 and will remain in effect except with respect to any changes in its provisions in the future, which will be in effect immediately after being posted on the HLHS website.

We reserve the right to update or change our Privacy Statement at any time and you should check this Privacy Statement periodically. Your continued use of the Service after we post any modifications to the Privacy Statement on this page will constitute your acknowledgment of the modifications and your consent to abide and be bound by the modified Privacy Statement.

If we make any material changes to this Privacy Statement, we will notify you either through the email address you have provided us, or by placing a prominent notice on our website.

Further Information

If you want to see the data we hold on you, or you have any questions about HLHS’s privacy policy, please contact the HLHS Secretary (details on our Contact Page on the website) who is the officer responsible for GDPR.

Further information about data protection and your rights may be found on the Information Commissioner’s Office website at https://ico.org.uk

2nd August 2023