HOMEPAGE

Policies

Privacy Policy

Who this policy is referring to

References to 'you' and 'your' in this Privacy Policy either refer to you personally if you are acting in your own capacity as an athlete or volunteer, or refer to your child, as an athlete, if you are acting on their behalf.

Introduction

This website is maintained by Rhymney Valley Athletics Club (RVAC). RVAC is the owner of www.rhymneyvalleyac.co.uk and we are committed to protecting your privacy and processing your personal data in accordance with the Data Protection Act (DPA) 1998 up to 24 May 2018 and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) on and from 25 May 2018 (Data Protection Legislation). This policy explains how the information we collect about you is used and kept securely. It also explains your privacy choices when using our website as well as your right to access your information under Data Protection Legislation.

The information we collect about you as an athlete

If you become a member of RVAC as an athlete, we will collect the following information about you through our website:

  • Your name, date of birth, gender, email address, telephone number, postal address, school, emergency contact details, medical conditions, photograph and any other information you voluntarily provide to us via our website and online forms.
  • Your IP address (which is a unique identifier that computers and devices use to identify and communicate with each other) which is automatically recognised by the web server.

The information we collect about you as a volunteer

If you become a member of RVAC as a volunteer, we will collect the following information about you through our website:

  • Your name (including previous surnames), date of birth, place of birth, gender, email address, telephone number, postal address, coaching qualifications, relevant experience and training, volunteering interests, criminal records, and any other information you voluntarily provide to us via our website and online forms.
  • Your IP address (which is a unique identifier that computers and devices use to identify and communicate with each other) which is automatically recognised by the web server.

The information provided to us

If you become a member of RVAC (either as an athlete or volunteer), we will be provided with information about you from Welsh Athletics. That information will include your Unique Reference Number (URN), the payment status of your membership fee, your DBS status and any coaching or officiating licenses that you hold (Athletics Data).

If you represent RVAC in any competitions, we will also be provided with information about you from www.thepowerof10.info (run by British Athletics). That information will include the venue and date of the competition as well as the events you participated in, your performance in those events and your associated personal bests.

The first time you login to this website you will also be asked if you consent to RVAC (or a photographer appointed by RVAC) photographing or videoing your involvement in athletics for the duration of your membership for the purposes of publicising and promoting the club or sport, or as a coaching aid. You have the right to refuse this consent.

How we use your information

We may use your personal information for a number of purposes, including:

  • Training and competition entry
    • Sharing data with you about athletics events
    • Sharing data with club coaches or officials to administer training sessions
    • Sharing data with club team managers and coaches to enter events
    • Sharing data with facility providers to manage access to the track or check delivery standards
    • Sharing data with leagues, county associations (and county schools’ associations) and other competition providers for entry in events
  • Funding and reporting purposes
    • Sharing anonymised data with funding partners as condition of grant funding e.g. Local Authority
    • Analysing anonymised data analysed monitor club trends
  • Membership and club management
    • Waiting list administration
    • Processing of membership forms, volunteer applications and payments
    • Sharing data with committee members to provide information about club activities, membership renewals or invitation to social events
    • Publishing of race and competition results
    • Organising CPD for coaches, officials and other club volunteers
    • Managing website content
    • Celebrating the success of athletes and volunteers
    • Dealing with your requests and enquiries
    • Contacting you for reasons related to your enquiry
    • Using your IP address to monitor traffic and gather browsing behaviors of visitors to our websites. We will not use your IP address to identify you in any way.

Our legal bases for processing your information

We will process your Athletics Data on the basis of the following legitimate interests:

  • Registering you as an athlete or volunteer (as applicable) with Welsh Athletics.
  • Transferring your details via a secure link from Welsh Atheltics into the RVAC database to support administrative processes within the club as outlined in the section above entitled "How we use your information".
  • Using your URN to access your publically available performance data from the PowerOfTen website to support coaches in planning appropriate training and team managers in making team selections for competitions and events.
  • Reconciling the receipt of annual and monthly membership fees.
  • Ordering clothing items such as a club vest or tracksuit top.
  • Providing relevant and necessary information via email, text, WhatsApp, Facebook and Twitter about the following:
    • Changes to rules and regulations.
    • Updates to advice and guidance relating to specific roles held within athletics.
    • Transactional information relating to club affiliation and transfers, athlete registration, representative teams, training, competition and events, coach and officiating licenses, road race licensing, courses, CPD events and qualifications.
  • Celebrating the success of our athletes and coaches via social media and our website.
  • There is a secure administration portal where a selected number of revelant volunteers can access data to help respond to queries, update data and perform necessary administration activities as outlined above.

Protecting your information

We will take all reasonable steps to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this privacy policy. The Internet is not generally a secure medium for communication and therefore we cannot guarantee the security of any information you send to us over the Internet. We use up-to-date industry procedures to protect your personal information. We also protect the security of your data using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption technology.

WhatsApp and Facebook group membership

We administer all age group related communications via WhatsApp and your primary contact number is added to the appropriate group as part of initial registration if you provide consent. If you do not wish to receive this communication after your initial consent, you can remove yourself from the group at any time. It is your personal responsibility to delete this group if you do remove yourself from it so that all historical messages are removed from your phone. Please do not post any personal information to this group that you do not want to share with all other group members.

If you do not wish to receive communication via WhatsApp, you can instead join our closed Facebook group where we also post relevant information. You are not automatically added to this group.

Finding out what information RVAC holds about you

Under the Data Protection Legislation, you can ask to see any personal information that we hold about you. Such requests are called subject access requests. If you would like to make a subject access request, please contact either our Chair or Club Secretary.

You will also need to provide two forms of identification, for example, driving licence, utility bill or passport and, if appropriate, any particulars about the source or location of the information you are requesting.

Data retention

Any data that we collect from you will be deleted within 4 years of you no longer playing an active part in the sport.

Website cookies

In this section you will find information on what cookies may be set when you visit the RVAC website and how to manage and disable them.

What are cookies?

A cookie is a piece of text that a website transfers to your computer’s hard disk in order to remember who you are. Cookies interact with your computer and our website faster and easier by remembering the registration details and preferences from previous visits. Typically, a cookie will contain the name of the website from which the cookie has come, the lifetime of the cookie and a value. The use of cookies does not give us access to the rest of your computer and only the site that created the cookie can read it.

Automatically collected access information

Essential technical information: identification of the page or service you are requesting, type of browser and operating system you are using; and the date and time of access.

Nonessential technical information: the Internet address of the web site from which you linked directly to our web site, and the "cookie information" described below.

By continuing to use this site you consent to the relevant cookies being set on your device.

We use the following types of cookies

  1. Session cookies: these are temporary cookies that remain in the internet browser’s folder of your computer until you close the browser. Our website uses a session cookie which is stored in your browser until you close it to ensure connections to our servers are distributed evenly to provide optimal performance.
  2. Persistent/Permanent cookies: these remain in the internet browser’s folder of your computer for longer than the time you are visiting this website. We need to use a cookie to remember your refusal of our use of cookies. This cookie does not store any other information and is not used for any other purposes. If you delete your browsing history including cookies you will delete this cookie and will therefore need to re-adjust your browser setting again.
  3. Analytical cookies: our website uses Google Analytics cookies (third party cookie) for the following purposes:
    • a cookie to record the time of your first visit to website, the time of your most recent visit to the website and the time of your current visit
    • a cookie to record how long you stayed on the website
    • a cookie to record how you located our website (i.e. Google search, keyword, link from other page etc).

The cookies we use for these purposes do not track your Internet usage after leaving our website and we do not store your personal information. They will also not be used in connection with any other information to identify you in any way. To prevent Google Analytics cookies being set, you may wish to install the Google Analytics Opt-Out Browser Add-On.

Can I opt out of cookies?

RVAC will not use cookies to collect personally identifiable information about you. Yes you can restrict or block the cookies which are set by our websites, and you can do so by accessing your Internet browser settings. The ’Help’ function within your browser should tell you how.

For general information about cookies and how to disable them, please visit: http://www.aboutcookies.org or http://www.allaboutcookies.org.

Please be aware that restricting cookies may impact on the functionality of our website. For information on how to manage cookies on a mobile phone, games console or internet-enabled television, you should refer to the operations manual specific to each device. To opt out of any third-parties using cookies where data about your interaction with our website is collected, please refer to their website for this information.

Changes to our Privacy Policy

We regularly review our Privacy Policy and updates will appear on this page when necessary. This Privacy Policy was last updated in September 2018.

Contacting RVAC about this Privacy Policy

If you have any questions or comments about this Privacy Policy please contact either our Chair or Club Secretary.

Inclusion Policy

Introduction

For the purposes of this policy ‘inclusion’ means access for all. It means recognising differences between individuals / groups and providing opportunities for them to participate in Athletics and Running regardless of those differences, whether this is as a participant, coach, leader, official, volunteer or member of staff.

Rhymney Valley Athletics Club embraces diversity and difference and is committed to providing opportunities that are safe, inclusive, accessible, and equitable. We want our club to be equally accessible to all members of society, whatever their age, disability, gender, race, ethnicity, religion or belief, sexual orientation, or social/economic status.

We will develop a focus on inclusion, not exclusion, and ensure that we provide appropriate advice to members and volunteers to ensure that everyone can participate as fully as possible.

The Inclusion Policy is intended to promote a change in attitudes and perceptions and to improve opportunities for everyone to participate at our club.

We will seek to ensure that we comply with the Equality Act 2010 and the characteristics protected by it ( age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, marriage and civil partnership and pregnancy and maternity) and encourage our members to do so. We will seek to include everyone regardless of whether they have a protected characteristic or not.

Our aim is to provide an environment where everyone feels:

  • Welcome
  • Represented
  • Included in decision making
  • Able to participate
  • Safe and free from discrimination, bullying, harassment and vilification.

Aims

The aims of the Inclusion Policy are:

  • To promote the development of knowledge and understanding of disability, equity and inclusion amongst our participants, coaches, officials, volunteers and competition/event organisers by the provision of appropriate guidance and training. To guide and support the integration of inclusive practice into our core club programmes and activities.
  • To contribute towards growing and sustaining numbers of people from under-represented groups participating within our club.
  • To promote inclusion within Athletics and Running wherever possible and in accordance with the provisions of the Equality Act.
  • To adopt inclusive practice within our competition and events.
  • To promote close working partnerships with relevant groups and organisations to support the development of inclusive practice within our club.

Commitment

We will:

  • Not tolerate discrimination, harassment, bullying or victimisation.
  • Actively identify and reduce barriers to participation for under-represented groups.
  • Consult with expert partners and other organisations to facilitate inclusive practices and remove barriers to participation.
  • Ensure under-represented groups are given the opportunity to participate in all aspects of our club.
  • Provide opportunities for all in coaching, officiating and leadership positions.

There are a number of measures that we will take to ensure that we are working under the guidance of the Policy and within the requirements of the Equality Act (2010).

We will provide a welcoming environment

  • We will think positively about how we can include people rather than focusing on potential barriers to participation.
  • We will consider how our club is promoted. For example, by providing information in formats which are accessible and by using appropriate imagery.
  • We will encourage people to contact us to discuss their needs and requirements to facilitate inclusion and we will ensure we consider what reasonable adjustments could be made to enable them to participate.
  • We will develop the knowledge and understanding of key officials, coaches, leaders and other volunteers, of disability, equity and inclusive practice by providing appropriate guidance and training.

We will talk to people

  • We will, so far as is reasonably possible, consult with prospective individuals about their needs and requirements.
  • We will not make assumptions and will try to speak to people about the reasonable adjustments they believe might be made to enable them to participate and to discuss how these could be made.

We will make reasonable adjustments

  • We will demonstrate that every effort has been made to enable everyone to participate and that inclusion not exclusion has been the priority.
  • If reasonable adjustments are required to make an event/activity accessible, then we will make those reasonable adjustments.

Grievance & Disciplinary Policy

Complaints and Disputes

  1. All concerns, allegations or reports of malpractice or abuse relating to the welfare of children or vulnerable adults will be recorded and responded to swiftly and appropriately in accordance with the Club’s and Welsh Athletics’ safeguarding policy and procedures. The Welfare Officer shall be the lead Officer for all Members in the event of any safeguarding concerns.
  2. Any complaints of misconduct (improper or unprofessional conduct) regarding the behaviour of Members or Officers shall be dealt with by the Club in accordance with its discipline and appeals process and must be presented in writing to the Secretary (and where the matter relates to the Secretary, the complaint must be submitted to the Welfare Officer). Unless exceptional circumstances apply, the Secretary will hear complaints within fourteen days of receiving a complaint. If the complaint is sufficiently evidenced, the Secretary will appoint 3 (three) Club Members (who have no direct or indirect interest/involvement in the matter) to sit on a disciplinary panel. Subject to rule 3 below, a decision of the disciplinary panel shall be final and conclusive.
  3. Any appeals must be received by the Secretary within 7 (seven) days of receiving the written decision and, if appropriate, the appeals process will be followed.
  4. Any complaints of serious misconduct (including, without limitation, theft, doping violations, fraud, physical violence, safeguarding policy breaches, serious breach of applicable health and safety, gambling and/or ticketing regulations or any act or omission of the Member or Officer which in the opinion of Welsh Athletics, acting reasonably, brings or is likely to bring the sport of athletics into disrepute) regarding the behaviour of Members or Officers shall be reported and dealt with by Welsh Athletics in accordance with its Disciplinary Procedures.
  5. If a dispute arises between any Members or Officers of the Club about the validity or propriety of anything done by any Member or Officer under these Rules and the dispute cannot be resolved by agreement, the parties to the dispute must first try in good faith to settle the dispute by mediation before resorting to litigation.