Data Protection Policy

The Elgar Society processes data on the legal bases of its “legitimate interests” in order to fulfil its obligations to members and “Contract”.  For this reason the Society does not seek consent from members to allow it to continue to collect, hold and process members’ data.   In addition, the Society recognises that it is party to a contract with its members, who pay a yearly subscription and that  this entitles them to receive Society mailings and other relevant information.  As a small organisation it does not appoint a Data Protection Officer.  However, any enquiries relating to the data held by the Society and the rights of the data subject, should be addressed to the Vice-Chairman at vice.chair@elgar.org .

The membership application forms used by the Society require new members to provide a name and contact details and the preferred payment method.  Payment arrangements are processed by the Honorary Treasurer and are only made available to other national officers of the Society in special circumstances.  The data collected on application forms is processed by the Honorary Membership Secretary and a nominated assistant.  The full data set is circulated to the Executive committee of the Society.  The distributors of Society publications will receive data that enables them to carry out their task.  Branches receive only the data relevant to each branch.  All such data is stored and processed electronically.  For the purposes of analysis, data is held for 10 years, after which time it is erased.  The Elgar Society does not pass data on to third party agencies.

The Society does not hold any data that could be considered to be in the nature of a “special category”.

Electronic communication to multiple recipients (i.e. full membership communications) are blind copied.

A subject access request (SAR) is a written request made by or on behalf of an individual for the information to which he or she is entitled.  Any member wishing to make such a request should contact the Honorary Secretary at hon.sec@elgar.org .  A charge of up to £10 may be applicable to such a request.

Every precaution is taken by the Society and its national and local officers to protect the data it holds.  Any breach of the confidentiality of the data should be reported to the Chairman of the Society at chairman@elgar.org , who will investigate and take steps to correct the issue in a timely manner.

All national and local officers of the Society have been directed to the terms of this policy and have been advised of the consequences of any breach. 

Stuart Freed

April 2018