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Policies

You can view the following Policies below:

Privacy Policy
Community Service of Use Terms
Complaints Policy

Privacy Policy

 

When you browse the FVAF website or participate in our online services, we will need to collect certain data from you in order to provide you the best online experience.

What information do we collect?

  • We collect information from you when you register on the site, respond to a survey or communication such as e-mail or participate in other site features.

  • You may visit our site anonymously, however some functionality will require you to register an account with us. When registering, we may ask you for personally identifying information, such as your name, e-mail address, mailing address, phone number or other such information.

  • Whether you are browsing anonymously or are registered with us, we use "cookies" to enhance your experience and gather information about visitors and visits to our websites. Please refer to the "Do we use 'cookies'?" section below for information about cookies and how we use them.

How do we use your information?

We may use the information we collect from you when you register, participate in our community features, respond to a survey or marketing communication from us, surf the website or use certain other site features in the following ways:

  • To personalize your site experience and to allow us to deliver the type of content and product offerings in which you are most interested.

  • To allow us to better service you in responding to your customer service requests.

  • To quickly process your transactions.

  • To participate in a promotion, survey or other site feature.

  • If you have opted-in to receive our e-mail newsletter, we may send you periodic e-mails. If you would no longer like to receive promotional e-mail from us, please refer to the "How can you opt-out, remove or modify information you have provided to us?" section below. If you have not opted-in to receive e-mail newsletters, you will not receive these e-mails. Visitors who register or participate in other site features such as marketing programs and 'members-only' content will be given a choice whether they would like to be on our e-mail list and receive e-mail communications from us.

How do we protect visitor information?

We implement a variety of security measures to maintain the safety of your personal information. Your personal information is contained behind secured networks and is only accessible by a limited number of persons who have special access rights to such systems.  Any such person shall be required to keep all this information confidential. We offer the use of a secure server across the entire site, ensuring any data you enter into the site is transferred to us in a secure, encrypted manner. All sensitive/personal/credit information you supply is transmitted via Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology and then encrypted into our databases to be only accessed as stated above.

Do we use "cookies"?

Yes. Cookies are small files that a site or its service provider transfers to your computer's hard drive through your Web browser (if you allow) that enables the site's or service provider's systems to recognize your browser and capture and remember certain information. For instance, we use cookies to help us remember and process the items in your shopping cart. They are also used to help us understand your preferences based on previous or current site activity, which enables us to provide you with improved services. We also use cookies to help us compile aggregate data about site traffic and site interaction so that we can offer better site experiences and tools in the future.

We may contract with third-party service providers to assist us in better understanding our site visitors. These service providers are not permitted to use the information collected on our behalf except to help us conduct and improve our business.

You can choose to have your computer warn you each time a cookie is being sent, or you can choose to turn off all cookies. You do this through your browser settings. Each browser is a little different, so look at your browser Help menu to learn the correct way to modify your cookies. If you turn cookies off, you won't have access to many features that make your site experience more efficient and some of our services will not function properly.

Do we disclose the information we collect to outside parties ?

We do not sell, trade, or otherwise transfer to outside parties your personally identifiable information unless we provide you with advance notice, except as described below. The term "outside parties" does not include the Forest of Dean District Council. It also does not include website hosting partners and other parties who assist us in operating our website, conducting our business, or servicing you, so long as those parties agree to keep this information confidential. We may also release your information when we believe release is appropriate to comply with the law, enforce our site policies, or protect ours or others' rights, property, or safety.

However, non-personally identifiable visitor information may be provided to other parties for marketing, advertising, or other uses.  This information has been fully anonymised and can not be traced or redirected back to you as an individual data service user.

How can you opt-out, remove or modify information you have provided to us?

To unsubscribe from our email list, please use this unsubscribe link. Please note that due to email production schedules you may receive any emails already in production.

To delete all of your online account information from our database, sign into the "My Profile" section of our site and follow the instructions for downloading and/or removing your data from our systems. Please note that we may maintain information about an individual participation in order to service that participation and for record keeping.

Third party links

In an attempt to provide you with increased value, we may include third party links on our site. These linked sites have separate and independent privacy policies. We therefore have no responsibility or liability for the content and activities of these linked sites. Nonetheless, we seek to protect the integrity of our site and welcome any feedback about these linked sites (including if a specific link does not work).

Changes to our policy

If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes on this page. Policy changes will apply only to information collected after the date of the change. This policy was last modified on September 1, 2019.

Questions and feedback

We welcome your questions, comments, and concerns about privacy. Please send us any and all feedback pertaining to privacy, or any other issue.

Online Policy Only

This online privacy policy applies only to information collected through our website and not to information collected offline.

Terms and Conditions

Please also visit our Terms and Conditions section establishing the use, disclaimers, and limitations of liability governing the use of our website.

Your consent

By using the FVAF website, you consent to our privacy policy and our use of your data as described herein.  Should you decide you no longer wish to provide your consent for us to utilise your personally identifiable data for online purposes, please submit a Data Subject Access Request by visiting this link:  https://fvaf.org.uk/gdpr.

Community Services Terms of Use

FVAF and its affiliates or assigns provide fvaf.org.uk and any associated parts, sections or services to you subject to the certain conditions (the Terms of Use or TOU). These conditions are in place to help ensure that you have a positive experience visiting our site and participating in our Community Services. These terms also help protect all of our members, as well as our goodwill and reputation.  They are so important that we cannot allow you to use our site unless you agree to accept these conditions. Please read them carefully. In addition, when you use any current or future part, section or service of fvaf.org.uk, you also will be subject to the guidelines and conditions applicable to such service or business.

Format of this Agreement

These terms of use apply to all of your interactions and participations on FVAF website, whose registered address is Forest Voluntary Action Forum, The Belle Vue Centre, Cinderford, Glos, GL14 2AB (FVAF).

An acceptance of these terms is implicit upon your visitation to our website and the subsequent optional creation of an account therein.  We reserve the right to terminate this contract in the event that we are unable or unwilling to continue providing customised, community services on our website or if you are found to be in material breach of these terms.

This contract is subject to your right of cancellation (see below) at any time, for any purpose.

FVAF may change these terms of use without notice to you in relation to future use by you or additional features added by us. Such changes to these terms and conditions will be posted here to FVAF's website for your review at any time.

Definitions used in this Agreement

In order to make sure that everyone reading this agreement understands the core concepts utilised in each of the different parts, certain definitions are necessary to agree upon before we start.  These are as follows.

When we say 'Agreement' or 'Terms' or 'TOU', we of course mean the information held or linked to in this article which forms the basis of our relationship and outlines your responsibilities when using our site.

When we say 'inbound content' we mean any content that is provided by a third-party who is not employed or otherwise affiliated with FVAF.  This includes, but is not limited to any interaction we have with you (or any other Community member); such as when you leave a comment on a picture, submit a picture of your own, post to a group or event page, create an event or group page, modify your profile, post to a friends wall or make a post to your own wall.

'Community Content', 'Community Services', Members Areas' or any other such reference to the areas of our website that require you to log in means all content, including without limitation, language, data, information, images or other digital media which appears or has been published on our website either by us or by other members of the FVAF Community of users.

'FVAF Community' refers to any content accessible on this site.

'Sensitive Information', 'Personal Information', 'Personally Identifiable Information' or 'Service User Data' refers to any information we may collect from you upon your decision to create an account with us.  This may include, but not be limited to: your name, contact details, employment data, health information, driver's license number, National Insurance number or any other similar identifying information necessary to provide these services to you.

'Third Party' means any person or company no directly employed or affiliated with FVAF and 'Third Party Services' may include products and professional services which are provided to us by other people or companies which we utilise to provide our services to you or are used in conjunction with FVAF products or services.

Your Code of Conduct

The core of the FVAF Community is made of people like you, who care about furthering volunteering services in and around the Forest of Dean. We provide services to this community on the condition that it's members conduct themselves in a manner which supports our goals and encourages and supports other members.  You agree not to use the FVAF website, the FVAF Community or any other part of our services for anything other than this intended use.  You further agree that any content you generate, including images you upload or comments you leave, will adhere to a strict set of best practices regarding inbound content and shall not utilise foul, abusive or otherwise aggressive language.  We reserve the sole right to deem any inbound content as unacceptable.

The FVAF Community is meant for public discourse and discussion.  You may not therefore disclose or solicit anyone else's private or personally identifiable information using our services.  Should you post personally identifiable information here about another person without their consent, you thereby agree to be solely responsible for the use of this data by any third parties which may pick it up from our site before such time as it is removed.

You are not permitted to sell, rent, lease, assign, sublicense, distribute, transmit, broadcast, commercially exploit, grant a security interest in or otherwise transfer any right in the FVAF Community or to any content contained therein.  You are not permitted to disclose any proprietary information which a third party may deem sensitive. You may not use threatening, harassing or defamatory language in any of your interactions with us or other FVAF Community members.  You may not make fraudulent or deceptive, false or misleading claims or use vulgar, obscene, indecent or unlawful language or post material or content of the same.

You may not use our services to distribute anyone else's intellectual property without their consent and without proper accreditation.

You may not harvest or otherwise collect information about other FVAF Community user or users.

Rights of Cancellation

We may immediately suspend or cancel your account should you violate or be under suspicion of violating any of the terms set forth in this agreement.  In order to keep our Community a friendly, welcoming place to visit, we such suspension may be without notice and effectively immediately upon notice or notification of unacceptable content posted by your account.  If you feel this is in error, please notify us at:  contact@fvaf.org.uk.

You may cancel your account, delete your data from our online databases and/or request a download of all data associated with your account and held by us by visiting the 'My Profile' section of the Community pages.

Other Business

Parties other than FVAF and its subsidiaries may help provide the services listed in this agreement. In addition, we may provide links to the sites of affiliated companies and certain other businesses for your convenience. We are not responsible for examining or evaluating, and we do not warrant the offerings of, any of these businesses or individuals or the content of their Web sites. We do not guarantee availability of any third party websites or services.

FVAF does not assume any responsibility or liability for the actions, product, and content of all these and any other third parties. You should carefully review their privacy statements and other conditions of use.

We do however promise to make a good-faith effort to deal only with companies we feel take the privacy of their clients seriously and do our best to ensure that all of our affiliates and/or upstream providers practice responsibly and adhere to any and all regulations and legislation governing our business together.

License and Site Access

FVAF grants you a limited license to access and make personal use of this site and not to download (other than page caching) or modify it, or any portion of it, except with express consent of FVAF. This license does not include any resale or commercial use of this site or its contents; any collection and use of any product listings, descriptions, or prices; any derivative use of this site or its contents; any downloading or copying of account information for the benefit of another merchant; or any use of data mining, robots, or similar data gathering and extraction tools. This site or any portion of this site may not be reproduced, duplicated, copied, sold, resold, visited, or otherwise exploited for any commercial purpose without express written consent of FVAF. You may not frame or utilize framing techniques to enclose any trademark, logo, or other proprietary information (including images, text, page layout, or form) of FVAF. and our affiliates without express consent. You may not use any meta tags or any other "hidden text" utilizing FVAF.'s name or trademarks without the express written consent of FVAF. Any unauthorized use terminates the permission or license granted by FVAF. You are granted a limited, revocable, and nonexclusive right to create a hyperlink to the home page of FVAF. so long as the link does not portray FVAF, its affiliates, or their products or services in a false, misleading, derogatory, or otherwise offensive matter.

General Disclaimer of Warranties and Limitation of Liability

Fvaf.org.uk and its sections, parts and services are provided by FVAF on an "as is" and "as available" basis. FVAF makes no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, as to the operation of this site or the information, content, materials, or products included on this site. You expressly agree that your use of this site is at your sole risk. To the full extent permissible by applicable law, FVAF disclaims all warranties, express or implied, including, but not limited to, implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. Due to the inherent nature of the Internet, FVAF does not warrant that this site, its servers, or e-mail sent from FVAF are free of viruses or other harmful components. FVAF will not be liable for any damages of any kind arising from the use of this site, including, but not limited to direct, indirect, incidental, punitive, and consequential damages.

Applicable Law

By visiting the FVAF website or using it's services, you agree that the laws of England and Wales without regard to principles of conflict of laws, will govern these terms of use and any dispute of any sort that might arise between you and FVAF or its affiliates.

Disputes

Any dispute relating in any way to your visit to fvaf.org.uk or any of its parts, sections or services shall be submitted to confidential arbitration except that, to the extent you have in any manner violated or threatened to violate FVAF's intellectual property rights, FVAF may seek injunctive or other appropriate relief in any UK court. No arbitration under this Agreement shall be joined to an arbitration involving any other party subject to this Agreement, whether through class arbitration proceedings or otherwise.

Site Policies, Modification and Severability

Please review all policies and terms posted on this site. These policies also govern your visit to all services provided by FVAF. We reserve the right to make changes to our site, policies, and all associated Terms at any time. If any of these conditions shall be deemed invalid, void, or for any reason unenforceable, that condition shall be deemed severable and shall not affect the validity and enforceability of any remaining conditions.

Electronic Communications

When you visit fvaf.org.uk or send e-mails to us, you are communicating with us electronically and you consent to receive communications from us electronically. We will communicate with you by e-mail or by posting notices on this site. You agree that all agreements, notices, disclosures and other communications that we provide to you electronically satisfy any legal requirement that such communications be in writing.

Privacy Policy

Your e-mail address is used to send you information that you requested. FVAF will never sell, rent, or loan our e-mail lists to outside firms: No Spam.

We reserve the right to include paid advertisements in outgoing e-mail in order to support these services, but we will never only send you advertising and we will never provide your name or e-mail address to any advertisers.

You can always remove yourself from a list to which you have subscribed. Simply go to the mailing lists unsubscribe page, enter your email address, and click the “submit” button.

FVAF WILL NEVER REQUEST PERSONAL OR FINANCIAL DETAILS FROM YOU VIA EMAIL.

Copyright Complaints

FVAF and its affiliates respect the intellectual property of others. If you believe that your work has been copied in a way that constitutes copyright infringement, Contact Us with your complaint.

Complaints Policy

 

The purpose of the complaints policy is:

  • To improve the quality of the services FVAF provides

  • To improve our relations with our service users

  • To encourage best practice by the FVAF staff

FVAF seeks to provide a consistent, positive and fair process for handling all formal complaints whether or not they are justified.

FVAF undertakes to deal with all complaints promptly and in a structured manner. FVAF also undertakes to ensure that the outcome of a complaint will, if the complaint be upheld, form the basis of a process to improve the service provided and that this will be a monitored and evaluated process.

Standards and procedures for dealing with complaints

  1. All formal complaints received (orally by phone or in person or by letter, Email or text) will be acknowledged within three working days with details of what will be done, who is dealing with the complaint and how long before a formal response can be given if longer than ten working days,

  2. A full written response, including proposed remedial actions if required, will be given within 10 working days,

  3. Any progress on investigating the complaint to be communicated to the complainant immediately,

  4. All complaints to be dealt with impartially, courteously and efficiently,

  5. Any complaint unable to be dealt with fully by the internal staff to be referred to the chair of FVAF who will deal with the concern as appropriate but within the spirit of the standards laid out above,

  6. In the first instance all complaints to be dealt with by the Manager or, if the complaint be about their work or conduct, by the Chair or their designated deputy

  7. All formal complaints, including any actions arising, to be reported to the FVAF trustees at their regular meetings

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