Privacy

Vancouver Botanical Gardens Association Privacy Policy

Our Commitment to Privacy

Vancouver Botanical Gardens Association (VBGA) is committed to maintaining the security, confidentiality, and privacy of the personal information it collects. This includes information received by the VBGA directly through the internet, on the telephone, in writing, or in person.

This Privacy Policy documents the VBGA’s continuing commitment and has been developed in compliance with relevant privacy legislation.   

A privacy policy for VBGA employees is found in the VBGA Staff Manual.

For VBGA volunteers, the privacy policy covering their use of Better Impact to maintain their profile and record their volunteer hours is found in the privacy statement of MyVolunteerPage.com.

Specific privacy policies for donors are found in the VBGA Gift Acceptance Policy.

Scope of Policy

This Policy applies to the VBGA and its collection, use, and disclosure of personal information relating to its Members and participants in VBGA programs. It addresses personal information about individuals only and does not apply to contact information collected, used, or disclosed with respect to corporate or commercial entities.

This Policy does not impose any limits on the collection, use, or disclosure of the following information by the VBGA:

  • Business contact information; and
  • Certain publicly available information (such as information in telephone directories, public registries, or internet sources).

Please note that some information is stored on ActiveNet (the City of Vancouver server) and Amilia (City of Vancouver software) used for program registration. The privacy of such information is governed by the City of Vancouver’s privacy policy. The VBGA is unable to make commitments concerning external systems and procedures. 

The VBGA reserves the right to change this Policy and it may be updated periodically. In the event of a change in this Policy affecting our use of your personal information, the VBGA will provide notice of the changes to all individuals so affected.

Definitions

Definitions of terms used in this Policy can be found in:

Personal Information Protection Act (BC)

[SBC2003] Chapter 63 Part 1, Section 1

“Definitions 1. In this Act:

contact information” means information to enable an individual at a place of business to be contacted and includes the name, position name or title, business telephone number, business address, business email or business fax number of the individual;

employee” includes a volunteer;

employee personal information” means personal information about an individual that is collected, used, or disclosed solely for the purposes reasonably required to establish, manage, or terminate an employment relationship between the organization and that individual, but does not include personal information that is not about an individual’s employment;

“employment” includes working under an unpaid volunteer work relationship;

personal information” means information about an identifiable individual and includes employee personal information, but does not include:

  • a. contact information, or
  • b. work product information.”   

Accountability

The VBGA is responsible and accountable for personal information under its control. The Executive Director is the designated Privacy Officer who is responsible for the VBGA’s compliance with this Policy. The Executive Director may be contacted as described at the end of this Policy.

Purposes

The VBGA collects personal information for purposes authorized or required by applicable law for the following purposes:

  1. To process membership applications;
  2. To allow the VBGA to communicate with Members and others;
  3. To monitor, process, and collect membership dues and other fees;
  4. To provide various services and benefits to Members and to program participants who are not Members;
  5. To maintain information about special skills and abilities of Members who are volunteers;
  6. To carry out VBGA procedures such as committee participation and elections;
  7. To conduct fund-raising programs or campaigns;
  8. To conduct Member surveys in order to improve VBGA programs and services; and
  9. To comply with its obligations at law and under the VBGA bylaws.

This information may be disclosed to third parties for these purposes.  Disclosure might be to persons providing services to the VBGA (e.g. data processors). The VBGA does not share your personal information with others who may wish to solicit participation or membership, or to offer products or services.

Consent

The VBGA will obtain a Member’s consent to collect, use, or disclose personal information except where the VBGA is authorized or required by law to do so without consent.

If information is voluntarily provided, this constitutes consent to the collection, use, and disclosure of personally identifiable information only for a purpose that would be considered obvious to a reasonable person. The above collections, uses, and disclosures are a reasonably necessary part of your relationship with the VBGA as a Member or as a program participant.

A Member or a program participant may instruct the VBGA to refrain from using personal information to make contact regarding fund-raising programs or campaigns, or special events or programs being offered by the VBGA.

Should the VBGA require use of personal information for a new purpose, consent will be sought for that new use unless it is authorized or required by law.

Consent can be express, implied, or given through an authorized representative such as a lawyer, agent, or broker.

Consent may be provided orally, in writing, electronically, through inaction, or otherwise.

A Member or program participant may withdraw consent at any time, subject to legal, contractual, and other restrictions, provided that the Member or program participant gives reasonable written notice of withdrawal of consent to the VBGA. On receipt of written notice of withdrawal of consent, the VBGA will inform the Member or program participant of the likely consequences of the withdrawal of consent which may include the inability of the VBGA to provide certain services for which that information is necessary.

Limits on Collection of Personal Information

The VBGA will not collect personal information indiscriminately and will limit collection of personal information to what is reasonable and necessary to provide its services and what is reasonable and necessary for the purposes consented to by Members and program participants.   

The VBGA will keep personal information used to make a decision affecting a Member or a program participant for at least one year after using it to make the decision.

The VBGA will destroy, erase, or make anonymous documents and other records containing personal information as soon as it is reasonable to assume that the original purpose is no longer being served by retention of the information and retention is no longer necessary for legal or business purposes.

The VBGA will take due care when destroying personal information to prevent unauthorized access to the information.

Accuracy

The VBGA will make a reasonable effort to ensure that personal information it is using or disclosing is accurate and complete.  In most cases, the VBGA will rely on Members to ensure that information, such as addresses, telephone numbers, and email addresses are correct.

If a Member demonstrates the inaccuracy or incompleteness of personal information, the VBGA will amend the information as required. If appropriate, the VBGA will send the amended information to third parties to whom the information has been disclosed.

When a challenge regarding the accuracy of personal information is not resolved to a Member’s satisfaction, the VBGA will annotate the personal information under its control with a note that the correction requested was not made.

Safeguarding Personal Information

The VBGA protects the personal information in its custody or control by making reasonable security arrangements to prevent unauthorized access, collection, use, disclosure, copying, modification, disposal, or similar risks.

Internet transmissions, including your electronic contacts with the VBGA, cannot be guaranteed to be 100% secure. Our security measures include secure locks on filing cabinets and the use of industry standard techniques such as firewalls, and restricted access to records and to equipment, including computers. Members should notify the VBGA in writing if they do not want the VBGA to communicate with them through these means.

The VBGA will take reasonable steps, through contractual or other reasonable means, to ensure that a comparable level of personal information protection is implemented by suppliers and agents who assist in providing services to Members, program participants and the VBGA.

Transparency

The VBGA is open about the policies and procedures it uses to protect Members’ personal information. Disclosure of our policies and procedures will be made available in writing. However, to ensure the integrity of our security procedures and business methods, the VBGA will not disclose sensitive information about its policies and procedures.

The VBGA will make available a description of the type of personal information held by the VBGA and a general description of its use and disclosure.

Providing Access

Members have a right to access their personal information held by the VBGA.

Upon written request and authentication of their identity, the VBGA will provide a Member with their personal information under its control, including ways in which their information is being used. The VBGA will also provide a description of the individuals and organizations to whom that information has been disclosed. The VBGA may charge a reasonable fee for doing so.

   

The VBGA will make the personal information available within 30 days of receiving a Member’s request or provide written notice where additional time is required to fulfil the request. Some exceptions may apply. The VBGA may also be prohibited by law from providing access to certain personal information. Where an access request is refused, the VBGA will notify the Member in writing, giving the reason for refusal and outlining further steps which are available to the Member.

Complaints

General complaints should be forwarded to the Director of the department in question or to the Executive Director. Any inquiries, complaints or questions regarding this Policy or its application should be directed to the VBGA Privacy Officer, who is also the Executive Director of the VBGA.

Contact Information:

Privacy Officer
Vancouver Botanical Gardens Association
5251 Oak Street, Vancouver, BC V6M 4H1

Phone: 604-257-8625
Email: privacy@vandusen.org
Fax: (604) 263-1777

Approved by Vancouver Botanical Gardens Association Board of Directors October 2019.