Contacting Groups Procedure

This procedure was adopted by the Board in March 2017, after recommendation by the Development Group. Some small amendments were made in November 2017, in agreement with the Board, after two test cases were conducted

The procedure sets out the process for contacting communities to achieve the following aims.

Aims:(resolutions agreed at the 2016 AGM)

• i. We should enforce the mandatory requirement of each community being represented on Central.
• ii. We should require communities to use at least one viable platform (current options until October 2017 are FD only, FD + TN, FD + Yahoo, FD + Yahoo + TN, Norfolk' after then only FD only, FD+ and Norfolk). [see note 1 below]
• iii. Communities should confirm annually they still wish to be affiliated.

Responsibilities:

The following people are ultimately responsible for ensuring that contact is made to achieve the aims:

• Central representation - Discourse Support Team
• Use of viable platform - Mentor Team
• Annual confirmation of affiliation - Company Secretary

Contact Admin

This role is specific to this process and will operate within the support of the Mentor Team, being the preferred person/people to carry out contact, although it can be delegated elsewhere if appropriate. Contact will always be within the context of offering support to help Communities and volunteers deliver the best they can for their area and Freegle as an organisation.

Contact Process:

1. Any publicly or previously provided available contact route (email, phone, social media, Freegle forums, letter) can be used that is available to the contact team or their designated individual(s).
2. Depending on the information needed, the Community/volunteer will be asked to provide details via questionnaire, email or personal reply.
3. All contact attempts will be recorded, including date, method and responses.
4. This procedure will be carried out over a period of a month, using all reasonable efforts. If there is a lack of response to information requested or no action taken to adopt required actions,a final email should be sent to the owner address to say that the Board will be informed. The Board, copied to Mentors, should then be supplied with details of the communication attempts and outcomes.
5. Records will be kept updated as relevant information is received.
6. If there is evidence provided by the Mentors or others that the Community has not been actively moderated for 6 weeks in the period running up to the contact procedures and/or during it, the Abandoned Group Procedure will be applied.
7. Contacts made should be paced and coordinated to ensure that Communities are not receiving excess national communications.

Records:

1. A centralised database will be maintained, which will have restricted access to current Mentor, Support and Board personnel.
2. The Board will be supplied with the details of who has which type of access to the database and this will be updated as access personnel change.
3. The records for each Community will include the mandatory information of:
   • Community name (agreed by GAT and recorded via FD)
   • Community owner names
   • Email address(es) of Community representative(s) on Central (known via Central database) (recorded via FD)
   • Which platform(s) the Community uses
   • Confirmation that the Community wishes to be affiliated to Freegle
   • Any requests for help or support needed, or plans for the future
4. Records will include, where available:
   • Details of all volunteers/trusted people who have access to the management facilities of the Community
   • Contact phone number(s)
   • Preferred contact methods
   • Community’s Facebook ID
   • Community’s Twitter ID
5. There are various records kept by NGT, the support mailboxes, the Board and other national personnel which should be supplied on request to help fulfill the aims of this process.

Freegle Central Membership details the annual process for ensuring the mandatory requirement for all Communities to have a representative on that Community.

Links and Notes:

Note 1: The Norfolk platform was discontinued and all communities hosted there moved to FD in April 2020.

• Disaffiliation Procedure
• Mentor Team Remit
• Abandoned Groups Procedure
• Freegle Central Membership
• Discourse Support Team Remit
• Data Protection Policy
• Amendments to this procedure - refer to Document Approval Policy
• Glossary