Privacy Policy

1. Your personal data – what is it?

Personal data relates to a living individual who can be identified from that data (such as name, address, phone number, email address). Identification can be by the information alone or in conjunction with any other information in the data controller’s possession or likely to come into such possession. The processing of personal data is governed by the General Data Protection Regulation (the ‘GDPR’).

2. Who are we?

The Retreat Association is the data controller with the Information Commissioner’s Office (contact details below). This means it decides how your personal data is processed and for what purposes.

3. How do we process your personal data?

We will only use your personal data on relevant lawful grounds as permitted by the EU General Data Protection Regulation, ‘GDPR’, (from 25 May 2018) / UK Data Protection Act and Privacy of Electronic Communication Regulation. The Retreat Association complies with its obligations under the GDPR by keeping personal data up to date; by storing and destroying it securely; by not collecting or retaining unnecessary data; by protecting personal data from loss, misuse, unauthorised access and disclosure and by ensuring that appropriate technical measures are in place to protect personal data.

We use your personal data for the following purposes:

To administer the membership records.
To fundraise and promote the interests of the Retreat Association.
To maintain our own accounts and records (including the processing of standing orders and gift aid applications) in paper and electronic forms.
To inform you of news, events, activities and services available from the Retreat Association.
To operate the Retreat Association website providing information about the Association and services available, including links to other websites and other advertising activities.
To contact you via surveys to conduct research about your opinion of the Retreat Association’s events, resources, activities and potential new activities.
In the case of members of the Association for Promoting Retreat (APR), the Baptist Union Retreat Group (BURG), the Catholic Spirituality Network (CSN) and Reflect (Methodist Spirituality), we will, through the permission of the data controller of each group, carry out mailings (and in some cases hold data) to keep you informed about news, events and other activities, which may include our annual Retreats handbook in December. All personal data will be processed in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation. It will not be passed to any third party without your explicit written consent.

4. What is the legal basis for processing your personal data?

Explicit consent of the data subject so that we can keep you informed about news, events, activities and resources.
Processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which the data controller, the Retreat Association, is subject – to process your standing orders and donations, including gift aid; to carry out any obligations under employment, social security or social protection law.
Any processing is carried out by a member of the Retreat Association provided:

o the processing relates only to members or former members of the Retreat Association, and

o there is no disclosure to a third party without consent.

5. Sharing your personal data

Your personal data will be treated as strictly confidential and will not be shared with other individuals or organisations. We will not share your personal data without your consent to this as notified by your completed consent form. We will only share your personal data with other organisations, in particular retreat and events venue providers, where this is required by them to ensure they have necessary information to comply with health and safety regulations and to provide appropriate level of services. We will only share your personal data with external accountancy services for the purpose of providing accurate records to inform financial records and the drawing up of annual accounts.

6. How long do we keep your personal data?

We will only use and store your information for as long as it is required for the purposes it was collected for. How long it will be stored for depends on the information in question, what it is being used for and, sometimes, statutory legal requirements.

Specifically we will retain your standing order forms, gift aid declarations and associated paperwork for finance purposes for 6 years from the date you notify us that you are ceasing involvement with the Retreat Association or 6 years after the calendar year to which they relate – whichever is longer. Open ended gift aid declarations are kept as long as they are valid, plus 6 years. Minute books, accounting and bank records are kept permanently.

7. Your rights and your personal data

Unless subject to an exemption under the GDPR, you have the following rights with respect to your personal data:

The right to request a copy of your personal data which the Retreat Association holds about you
The right to request that the Retreat Association corrects any personal data if it is found to be inaccurate or out of date
The right to request your personal data is erased where it is no longer necessary for the Retreat Association to retain such data
The right to withdraw your consent to the processing at any time
The right to request that the data controller provide the data subject with his/her personal data and where possible, to transmit that data directly to another data controller, (known as the right to data portability), (where applicable) [Only applies where the processing is based on consent or is necessary for the performance of a contract with the data subject and in either case the data controller processes the data by automated means.]
The right, where there is a dispute in relation to the accuracy or processing of your personal data, to request a restriction be placed on further processing
The right to object to the processing of personal data
The right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office.

8. Further processing

If we wish to use your personal data for a new purpose, not covered by this Data Protection Notice, then we will provide you with a new notice explaining this new use prior to commencing the processing and setting out the relevant purposes and processing conditions. Where and whenever necessary, we will seek your prior consent to the new processing.

9. Contact Details

To exercise all relevant rights, queries or complaints please in the first instance contact the The Administrator, Retreat Association, PO Box 1130, Princes Risborough,, Bucks HP22 9RP, info@retreats.org.uk You can contact the Information Commissioner’s Office on 0303 123 1113 or via email https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/email/ or at the Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire. SK9 5AF.

10. Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may amend this privacy policy from time to time to ensure it remains up to date and reflects how and why we use your personal data, and any new legal requirements. The current version will always be posted on our website.