Disaffiliation Procedure

This procedure was adopted by the Board at their meeting of 29th October 2014. An amendment was adopted and added on 24th November 2015 after discussion and recommendation by Development Group.

For groups leaving Freegle of their own volition

If a group decides to leave Freegle, they need to inform GAT. GAT will then:

• Notify the Board and the new groups notification list to remove them from the Freegle website, maps etc
• Give a week's grace on Central, Cafe and working groups to say their goodbyes on those groups.
• Ask them to post on Central about why they're leaving. If they don't, post on Central to say that they've left.
• Consider whether the group leaving enables the acceptance of an application (but not sooner than 4 weeks).
• Send them a helpful goodbye mail (e.g. don't forget to contact ModTools if you rename, please remove the logo from your group).

If a group leaves Freegle by disaffiliating themselves(1) but doesn't liaise with GAT, GAT will do the following:

• Contact all known group volunteers via all known contact details to check that they wish the group to be disaffiliated.
• If group volunteers confirm they wish to leave, follow the procedures above.(2)
• If no group volunteers respond within 14 days, inform the Board they are proceeding with Disaffiliation or Abandoned Group procedures, whichever are most applicable to the situation.
• When the Board confirms a procedure is acceptable, put a SN notice on Central to explain procedure being used and to continue to ask group volunteers to contact GAT if they wish the group to remain with Freegle.
• The normal procedure for Abandoned or Disaffiliated groups will now come into force at the appropriate point in each procedure.

(1)If a group removes all links to Freegle, renames itself to exclude Freegle without GAT liaison, or other scenario that indicates the group volunteers wish disaffiliation.

(2)If there is disagreement amongst the group volunteers, they will be asked to sort it out and GAT will check by emailing the owner address after 14 days. GAT will advise them on the different technical options available. If the situation is unresolved after 14 days and there is no evidence of affiliation (eg. name change, logo, links to Freegle) on the group pages, the group will be subject to the disaffiliation process with the discretional option for GAT to offer those in dispute to restart the group.

For groups that are disaffiliated by Freegle:

We believe it is crucial that groups affiliated to Freegle provide a good level of service so that Freeglers have a good Freegling experience. If Freeglers complain about their group, Freegle will always try to find ways to contact the local group moderators and see if there is any help which can be provided. We would hope and expect that most problems can be resolved this way.

Occasionally, it may be that there are serious problems with the way a group is run which means that Freeglers will find it unusable or there are or have been circumstances which bring Freegle into disrepute.

There are also cases where a group is sadly failing for a number of reasons. A 'failing group' is indicated by a group which has been open for members for longer than 12 months, where the monthly posts are 20 or fewer, and where the general trend does not show any increase in posts or members over the previous 6 months. However, this is not a straightforward decision and will depend on the level of interaction and cooperation with national support and other external factors.

In the above, we think it would be better for Freegle to cease to list the group on its central website and, when appropriate, consider applications for a new group in that area.

Once concerns about a particular group have been reported to the Board they will decide whether further action is required. If so:

• 1. Every effort will be made to communicate and to provide support to the group.
• 2. If this is unsuccessful within a reasonable and practicable timescale then consideration may be given to delisting.
• 3. A minimum of 7 days notice of any delisting will be given to Freegle UK Central.

Tasks 1 and 2 may be delegated by the Board. Any final decision will be taken by the Board and be eligible for the appeal procedure.

Links:

• Freegle Affiliation Application Procedures
• Contacting Groups Procedure
• GAT
• Central Discussion and Working Group Membership Policy
• AGM 2016 Polls [1] relating to possible disaffiliation for lack of representation on Central, platform choice and affiliation confirmation.
• Amendments to this procedure - refer to Document Approval Policy
• Glossary

Addition of 'failing group' definition made in October 2017, following recommendation to the Board by Development Group.