Mailing Services and General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR)


British Choirs on the Net is designed to;

  • Support Choral music and choir participation as a means of multi-racial and multi-cultural integration and as an aid to numeracy, listening skills and healthy living.

  • Raise the profile of British Choirs both nationally and internationally

  • Help choirs find new members, and vice versa, and performance opportunities for new music.

  • Encourage the use of web based technology and social media to promote choral music.

Overview

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a new set of regulations introduced by the European Union which will come into force in the UK from 25th May 2018. It will further build on existing data protection legislation (DPA) to regulate the way organisations collect, handle, use and share personal data. It is also worth considering the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR) which applies specifically to electronic communications, particularly marketing, and also apply to data protection which is also partially covered in this guide.

The GDPR applies to ‘personal data’ which is any information relating to an identifiable person who can be directly or indirectly identified by reference to a personal identifier. Such personal identifiers include: name, address and other location data, contact telephone numbers, email and IP addresses. Generic email addresses such as 'secretary@choirname' are not classed as personal data as it does not refer to an identifiable person. Even some named emails such as 'johnsmith@gmail' is not classed as personal data as it does not identify a particlar john smith. Normally it requires a combination of information to be classed a 'personal data'.

Legitimate interests: Within the context of running your business you may be able to rely on legitimate interests as a basis for processing data. This applies to some forms of direct marketing in the course of pursuing your business interests. However, an individual always has the right to object to processing for the purposes of direct marketing, whatever lawful basis applies. Should a data subject request not to receive such direct communications from you then you would normally have to respect those wishes.

The GDPR gives increased rights to individuals (data subjects) to control how their data is used (processed) by businesses or organisations. Individuals will entitled to greater transparency in what their data is being used for, how long it is being retained and who it may be passed onto.

The storage and processing of personal data is carried out in accordance wthe the GDPR and the British Choirs on the Net Privacy Policy which can be found at www.choirs.org.uk/privacy.html

 

Mailing Lists

We have built up a mailing list of over 3,000 choir & choral music contacts. This is an 'email' only mailing and no postal addresses are stored. This mailing is used to promote choral events of interest to the Choral Community and to send out the 'Chorister' Newsletter. Over the last few years mailings were sent out on behalf or choir tour companies, Isle of Man, Cork and Kenmare Choral Festivals, BBC Singers, The Sixteen, Eric Whitacre and Gareth Malone, to name a few.

The mailing list is not just for big organizations however. For instance there are over 200 choirs listed in London. This means that if a London choir is looking to put 'bums on seats', either in terms of audience or singers, or if it wants to advertise a Come and Sing performance or Workshop it can use the mailing list to target the other choirs on the London list.

* While every effort is made to keep the email contact details up to date, sometime choirs will change their email contacts without informing British Choirs on the Net. We can only go on the last details that we hold.

 

The mailings are a mixture of self promotion, such as the Chorister Newsletter, commercial mailings on behalf of choral related services/events and charitable/philanthropic mailings, such as Water Aid and Coram (formerly Foundling Hospital).

To protect privacy all mailing are sent blind so that no choir gets a listing of all other choirs the mailing has been sent to. There is also an unsubscribe option so that individuals on the mailing list can request removal from future mailing. The mailing lists is not available for sale, however a mailing service can be provided for suitable events.

The mailing will normally include the contact details of the original sender/organisation so that interested clients can contact them directly for information and enquiries. If you do not want your contact details to be included in the email then please make this clear. We may refuse to send any such mailing.

You can unsubscribe from the mailing list at any time by sending me an email with the words 'unsubscribe 'choir name' plus your email address. Please remember however that the mailing are for you choir membership and unsubscribing will apply to the whole choir.

British Choirs on the Net retains editorial control of any mailings and only items of interest to the choral community will be sent out. Any complaints or enquiries about the content of mailings will be forwarded back to the originator of the content to address. We retain the right to refuse mailing requests normally, but not exclusively, where the contents is deemed inappropriate.

A mailing is not necessarily an endorsement of the product or service being advertised, but merely makes the service or product known to the wider choral audience to do with, or ignore, as they wish. Equally some mailings, as well as promoting choral music, have an element of fundraising for the organisers so any service being offered should be judged on commercial as well as musical grounds. You should take all precautions to verify information before committing to any costs.

Not all the mailing subjects will be of interest to all the choirs on the Mailing List, particulary if you are a small choir or a choir which does not tour, however it is hoped over the course of the year that there will be something in the mailing that you can relate to or that will give you an idea of what is happening in the wider choral world.

Data collected about internet visitors to the British Choirs on the Net and Concertfinder websites is anonymised data, in that it is not in a form that can identify individuals. It can just count the number of visits to each page to enable the content and the flow of information around the website to be improved and tailored.

Below is a table of Mailing Services and rates

Full UK Listing (approx 3000* choirs) £150.00 London, Berks, Bucks, Herts, Essex, Surrey £120.00
England incl. Channel Isles £120.00 SW - Devon, Cornwall, Dorset, Somerset. Avon £50.00
Wales £25.00 East Anglia - Norfolk, Suffolk, Lincolnshire, Cambs £50.00
Scotland £25.00 Oxfordshire (or) Cambridgeshire £20.00
Northern Ireland £25.00 London only £50.00
       
    Other combinations available upon request

 

 

Phillip Tolley  

philliptolley@colcanto.co.uk