The Beacon administration system is the safest way of protecting members’ confidentiality and allows you to send emails to all group members quickly, easily, safely and legally. Beacon also allows you to produce a list of your members which would be particularly useful for Walkers, Cyclists, Groups on the Move, etc.
If you use personal email to communicate with group members, you must either i) obtain consent from each member and be able to show evidence that everyone has consented to share their email address, if requested or ii) use the “bcc” email function. Where group members have decided that they wish to see individual responses to email discussions then consent must be used to ensure compliance with GDPR.
If you use WhatsApp to communicate with group members you must obtain consent to sharing their phone number.
The group’s webpage can also be used to publicise a schedule of forthcoming events but must be updated regularly.
Phone members who are not on email.
If groups visit various locations, it is important that the convenor and members make sure one other person in the group has the phone number of a next-of-kin in case of emergency.
Whatever communication method you use it is important to contact all group members periodically and check they still wish to be part of the group.
Remember it is important that communication is tailored to everyone’s requirements and ensure nobody is excluded.
Group admin. on Beacon
All groups, new members and new groups will be amended/established on to Beacon by the Groups Coordinator. Convenors should add their group members themselves and maintain the list.
Information on how to use Beacon is available in the Beacon User Guide and specific information on how to view, add and remove members from your group as well as how to send emails to your group members is available in the Group Records: Members section.
Please contact the Beacon Administrator if you need help keeping your membership list up to date.
Exeter u3a website – Groups pages
Each group should have a page on the Exeter u3a website. If you don’t have a web page or a modification is required, please contact the Website Administrator. Please ensure that your Group’s page is kept up to date by reviewing the content at regular intervals.
When a modification is required, this can be done either by sending a request to the Web Administrator or, if you have a little experience, you can edit it yourself.
- If you want to try editing the page yourself, please contact the Website Administrator to obtain a username and password for access to the web site. Simple instructions for editing the page are available, and you should read these before deciding to go ahead.
- If you want the Web Administrator to modify the page for you, please email your request to the Website Administrator . The text can either be included in your email or attached as a text or Word document. For small changes please give any text to be replaced and the replacement, otherwise please give the full replacement text. Images can be any common image format, with .jpg being the most common. If you want the layout of the page to be anything other than plain text, please include a sketch of how you want the text to be laid out (a photograph of a hand drawn sketch will be fine).
Rules for Group Page
The website is, in legal terms, a publication, and this places some obligations on us.
While the Web Administrator may be able to identify potential issues with compliance with GDPR and copyright, and provide advice, they cannot ensure compliance for material which they have not sourced, i.e. most material added to Group pages. They cannot tell whether an author has copied material that is subject to copyright protection or whether everyone in a photograph has given their permission for it to be used.
Web sites are commonly targeted by ‘hackers’ to obtain personal information. The Exeter U3A site does not require any login to access the information, so is available to anyone on the Internet. For this reason, you should follow these guidelines with anything you add to the site:
- It is desirable to make your pages interesting by adding pictures, and, where appropriate, videos. However, there are some data protection issues associated with this.
- Anyone present in an image or video must agree to its use on this site. This can probably be handled most easily by asking all group members to notify you if they do not want to appear on any photographs.
- Any references to individuals in the text should have their approval and should not reveal unnecessary personal information.
- We do not publish any email addresses on the web site (as a group convenor, you can be contacted by email using the link on the group page – this goes via a contact form that hides your email address)
The web site is a publication for the purpose of copyright law, and we must have formal permission to reproduce any images or extensive sections of text that are subject to copyright protection. Any text that is copied must be clearly indicated (usually by placing in parentheses) and the source given.
The Website Administrator can advise on any questions about these issues, but it is the responsibility of the author of information on the web site to ensure that these rules are followed.
Recording the group’s status
Ideally all groups will be open to new members. However, there may be occasions when a group cannot, for practical reasons accept new members. It is important that the Groups Coordinator is consulted when a group’s status is changed so that potential new members can be directed to an alternative group and / or consideration be given to setting up a second group. It is very disappointing for new members to join u3a and not be able to join a group of their choice.
When recording the status of your group please use the following:
| Active | Active, open to new members | This should be the norm. Wherever possible, groups are encouraged to be open to new members. |
| Wait list only | Active, full but can join a waiting list | Add additional information to your web page, in agreement with the Groups Coordinator, for example We are currently unable to accept new members, if you would like more information about the group, please contact the convenor using the link above or the Groups Co-ordinator who would be delighted to support and help you. |
| Full | Active, not currently accepting new members | AVOID using this status where possible and only use if there is a similar group that is accepting new members. Add additional information to your web page, for example, We are full but please refer to the website for the Groups who currently have spaces for new members., If you would be willing to set up a new Group please contact the Groups Co-ordinator who would be delighted to support you and help you get started. |
| Dormant | Temporarily inactive | AVOID using this status where possible and only use if there is a similar group that is accepting new members. Add additional information to your web page, for example, The X group is currently “temporarily suspended” as the previous convenor had to step down. If you are interested in joining this group and would be willing to help reactivate the group, please contact the Groups Co-ordinator who would be delighted to help and support you |
All groups that are not “active, open to new members” will be reviewed regularly by the Groups Coordinator.
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