Privacy Policy – The English Playgroup Stuttgart e.V.

The English Playgroup Stuttgart e.V. (EPG Stuttgart) Privacy Policy

Protecting your privacy is important to us at the EPG Stuttgart. When you become a member or visit this website as a guest, you provide us with personal information, making us a “controller” of personal information as defined by the EU General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”).

This Privacy Policy sets out how we collect, use and store your personal information (this means any information that identifies or could identify you), and explains your rights to make individual decisions about what information about you we use.

KINDS OF PERSONAL INFORMATION WE COLLECT
AND HOW WE USE IT

When you submit a registration form to become a member of our club (Verein), you will be asked to provide us with the following information that are necessary to operate the EPG Stuttgart under our current By Laws (Satzung): name, postal address, phone number, and email address. This information will be used to contact you about club business, including invitations to our Annual General Meeting and term fees issues.

As a playgroup with age divisions, we also ask for your children’s names and birthdates, so that we can assign you to the correct group and track when children need to switch groups.

Because our By Laws specify that we are a Verein for families who speak English at home, we also collect information about your/your partner’s citizenship, native languages, and languages spoken at home. This helps our club leadership (Vorstand) to determine your eligibility for membership.

You will also be asked for permission to put your name and email address on our mailing list for that term’s newsletter. A confirmation email will be sent to the address you provided (double opt-in method) so that you have control over the final subscription.

You will also be asked for permission to use your mobile phone number in your weekly groups private Whatsapp group (see “Taking Part in Club Life” below).

STORAGE AND USE OF PERSONAL INFORMATION /
EXTERNAL SERVICE PROVIDERS

We do not sell your personal data to third parties. We also never share your personal information to any third party for any purpose not directly related to our organization’s mission.

However, we do use third party suppliers to provide some services necessary to serve our membership and the general public. These third parties may process personal data on our behalf as “processors” and are subject to contractual conditions to only process that personal information under our instructions and protect it.

Here is a summary of how various kinds of data are processed and stored and what they are used for:

Membership Registration Data
Upon submission of your registration form, the membership data on your form is entered into an Excel spreadsheet accessible only to our Membership Coordinator and Chairperson. This spreadsheet is password protected and stored on our local, password-protected personal computers. Your original paper membership form is kept securely in a club binder.

After the start of each new semester (twice yearly), the prior semester’s membership data is deleted from all personal computers. A paper copy of the list is printed and kept in our annual records (see Club Leadership section).

Club Business and Record Keeping
Club business is conducted by the EPG Stuttgart club leadership (Vorstand, other elected board members and weekly group leaders) either in person at meetings or via private Facebook groups, including approving new members and planning and executing club events. Only member names are used in the operational discussions on Facebook.

The club leaders retain annual records both on paper and in digital form. Digital records are kept by our Chairperson on a private server protected by passwords and a firewall. Paper records are also kept in storage at the home of the chairperson and membership coordinator. These yearbooks may include the following personal information:

a list of members in attendance at the Annual General Meeting as required by the Amtsgericht (digital and paper)
a copy of each semester’s final membership list (paper)
Names and payment information in our accounting books; also banking information of leaders who request reimbursements (see next section)
a list of volunteer names (leadership positions or planning committees) in meeting minutes (digital and paper)
Registration forms of current and prior members (paper)
Photos from prior club events (digital)

Any club documents containing personal information will be password protected, shared with only the relevant persons in the club leadership, and properly maintained to protect each individual’s right to privacy.

Member Newsletter
We use a service called Mailchimp (a US-based service) to design, host, and distribute our email newsletters, distributed once at the beginning of each term. If you have given us permission, we will add your name and email address to our mailing list. Each member always has the right to control their subscription to these newsletters. See the section “Accessing and Updating Your Personal Information” for more information.

Once your membership period has ended, we will delete your name and email address from the online mailing list.

Taking Part in Club Life via Facebook and Whatsapp
Our weekly groups leaders use private Facebook and Whatsapp chat groups to communicate with members and keep things organized. New groups are formed every school year (Sept – July) and you will be removed from the weekly groups if you cancel your playgroup membership during the year. At the beginning of each school year (September), the prior groups will be deleted and new groups will be formed.

You can also voluntarily join our club-wide Facebook community. Our Facebook groups are private and you must be a current or alumni member of the playgroup in order to join them, with the exception of:

EPG Parents’ Night Out – includes English speaking friends of current or former members who have become part of the community in real life over the years
EPG/IWCS Crossover Events – this is a joint group with IWC Stuttgart members used for organizing casual events such as movies or dancing.

Members are NOT required to join our private Facebook or Whatsapp groups in order to take part in club life. You can choose to restrict all contact to email only, in which case you will receive basic information updates from your group leader that might not include information on the social events outside of your weekly group meet up.

Members of our private club-wide Facebook groups can leave any group at any time using the buttons at the top of each page. You will NOT be automatically removed from these groups when you are no longer a member, because alumni members are an important part of our online community.

Members of our private Facebook groups are governed by Facebook’s privacy and data collection policies. Please be advised that Facebook collects data from all visitors to these groups. As the administrator of a these groups, the EPG Stuttgart leadership does not collect personal data from you.

Please refer to Facebook’s privacy policy for more information on the purpose and scope of data collection and data analysis undertaken by Facebook, your rights, how to modify settings, and how to protect your privacy.

We do not currently have a shared membership directory. Members are encouraged to make contact privately and via the Whatsapp and Facebook groups.

Parents’ Night Out Events
Official Club Parents’ Night Out events are organized in our private Facebook groups, where you are subject to the data protection policy of Facebook.

If you choose to organize an outing, dinner, or event in your home for the entire EPG Stuttgart community, you have two audiences to choose from:

EPG Stuttgart Mums & Dads – limited to current and alumni playgroup members
EPG Stuttgart Parents’ Night Out – current and alumni playgroup members along with English-speaking friends of the community

Please keep in mind that your name and other personal information you choose to include (such as a mobile phone number or home address for in-home events) will be shown to all members of the audience you choose for your event.

Members may also organize informal small group meet ups on a casual basis; those are not covered by this privacy policy.

Public Events
The EPG Stuttgart administers a public Facebook fan page that you are welcome to follow and interact with. As a visitor to this page you will are subject to the data protection policy of Facebook. Please be advised that Facebook collects data from all visitors to public pages such as these. See the section below called “Cookies and Tracking” covering other interactions with our Facebook fan page.

If you RSVP to a public event using a Facebook event on our fan page (such as a clothing bazaar), please be aware that this information may be public (check to see if you can view the guest list).

Email Message Retention
Email messages sent to any of our club addresses are hosted on the servers of our email provider, Bitpalast (a Germany-based service). Your messages are processed using either browser webmail or a mobile phone mail app. We regularly delete email conversations after the reason for the message is resolved and never keep your messages longer than a year. We also do not save your email address to any online address books.

Copies of email messages informing us of changes to your membership status or contact details will be printed out and attached to your paper registration form and kept in our membership binder.

Photographs and Use of Your Image
Sometimes photos taken at club events will be used in EPG Stuttgart marketing materials, which can include our website, Facebook fan page, monthly newsletter, printed materials, or in our private Facebook groups. We must have written permission to use photographs of you and/or your children in this manner.

If your photo is included, your name will not be used and you will not be tagged on social media. If you have given us permission to use your image, photos of you at events may be stored on our password-protected Google Photos account or on the camera/phone/computer of the person taking the photos.

You must give us explicit permission to use your image and we will ask for it in the following ways:

When you complete your membership registration form, we will ask you to give us written permission to use your image.
Because of the laws governing minor children, you will also be asked for additional permission to use your child(ren)’s image.
When the host of an event would like to take a photo, she will ask those who do not wish to have their photos taken to remove themselves from the shot.

Your rights regarding photos include:

the right to refuse to grant permission for us to use your image
the right to request that a photo that includes you be removed from public viewing at any time
the right to revoke your written permission at any time (see section below on “How to Access and Update Your Personal Information”)

COOKIES AND TRACKING

Our website is hosted by Bitpalast and designed using WordPress (owned by Automattic) which uses “cookies” to automatically help provide better services. These small bits of data are used to identify your device to the website when you visit again so the site can load your preferences, automatically accept your credentials, or otherwise personalize the experience. You can reject cookies or cancel them by instructing your Web browser accordingly. Automattic’s cookie policy can be found here.

Our website also uses contact forms for inquiries.

If you fill in a general contact form on our website, we will receive your name and email address, which will be used to answer your question. These emails are deleted immediately after processing.
If you wish to apply for EPG Stuttgart membership using the form on our website (on our “Membership” Page), you will be asked for information we need to process your inquiry. Your email will kept for up to one year after processing and then deleted.

Visitors to our Facebook Fan Page are governed by Facebook’s privacy policy. Please be advised that Facebook collects data from all visitors to our Fan Page. As the administrator of a Facebook Fan Page, the EPG Stuttgart does not collect personal data from visitors except for your name if you RSVP to one of our public events.

HOW LONG DO WE RETAIN YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION?

For members:
The EPG Stuttgart will store your personal information in digital form on our personal computers for the duration of the current semester only. After the start of each new semester (twice yearly), the prior semester’s membership data is deleted from all personal computers. A paper copy of the list is printed and kept in our annual records (see Club Leadership section).

Your original paper registration form and any attached corrections are permanently archived in our membership binder.

If you inform us after the beginning of the new term that you are cancelling your membership, your information will be retained in the digital membership list until the end of that term and then deleted. If your membership lapses due to non-payment of term fees, the same procedure applies.

Please refer to other sections for retention procedures for other specific kinds of personal information.

Accessing and Updating Your Personal Information
You always have the right to:

Request a copy of your original membership registration form.
Request that we correct your personal data if you believe it is inaccurate or incomplete.
Restrict the processing of your personal data for a specific purpose or revoke prior permissions granted.
Request that we delete your personal information.

Corrections to your name, postal address, email address or other contact information should be sent directly to the EPG Stuttgart Membership Coordinator at membership@englishplaygroup.de

You can request the following at any time by sending an email to our chairperson at info@englishplaygroup.de:

A copy of the information on your registration form.
Deletion of personal information you have given to us on your registration form (of non-required or demographic information) from our database.
Withdrawal of consent to use your photographic image in club materials.
Withdrawal of consent to share your contact information with other club members in our shared directory.

If you have previously signed up to receive a newsletter and no longer wish to receive it, every newsletter includes an “unsubscribe” link at the bottom. Click that link to unsubscribe and have your name and email address deleted from the Mailchimp servers.

Updated 12 June 2020