Due to the current public health restrictions on meeting together, many Connect Groups have transitioned to meeting online via Zoom. Many new groups have been formed online and WhatsApp has become the main forum used for communicating. All of which has been great and is necessary at this time to remain connected with each other.
As such, we need to place some guidelines around the use of these mediums to allow us to make the best possible use of technology and to safeguard and protect all of those involved. Many of these guidelines will be things that you are already doing, however, it is useful to have this document as a single point of reference.
Zoom:
- Ensure that the camera and audio are working and that the background (both by what can be seen and what can be heard) is suitable for the duration of the call.
- Make use of the password and waiting room options so that only those you have invited to your group are present. It is the group leaders responsibility to monitor the Zoom call and ensure that only those who should be in the meeting. If unknown/unauthorised persons enter the group, the Zoom call should be ended immediately (you can send out another invite and password to those who should be in the group and recommence your meeting). An unauthorised person entering the Zoom call is considered a data breech; this should be reported immediately to info@thisiscfc.com.
- The Zoom call organiser should ensure that they are familiar with Zoom and have the ability to mute/block participants in the unlikely event they are displaying/saying anything unsuitable/illegal. This helps us keep Zoom calls as safe spaces for others.
- Always stick to the purpose of the zoom call, as a host/connect leader, your role is always to draw folk back to the content/reason for your meeting.
- If you are recording the meeting perhaps to send to someone who could not be there, in the instance of a Bible study for example, please inform the rest of the group that this is happening. You should also have the consent of everyone in the group before recording and inform them where the recording will be used.
- Encourage respect of other’s opinions, and an atmosphere of honour is what we are going for.
- People should be aware that other devices should not be used to record the zoom meeting (to do so is considered a data breach under GDPR).
- Privacy is key, and people should feel that they are in a safe place to share. Normal CFC safeguarding procedures are still in place and if something is shared that you recognise as a safeguarding concern, it should be passed on to our Safeguarding Coordinator. Please contact safeguarding@thisiscfc.com or 07895 446091 (CFC safeguarding phone number)
- All Zoom groups operated on behalf of CFC should be known to CFC. Please don’t operate any Zoom groups on behalf of CFC that are not authorised by CFC.
WhatsApp:
- Post only what is relevant to the group, its purpose, function and role should be for encouragement and information about times/meeting/details about group arrangements.
- Agree “no message times” e.g. between the times of 9pm and 9am.
- No promotions or spamming should occur in the group.
- The group should be a safe place, be aware of tone and content when messaging.
- Inappropriate messages/content should be deleted immediately, and the person should be reminded of the purpose of the group and encouraged only to post relevant messages to the group.
- Privacy is key, and people should feel that they are in a safe place to share. Normal CFC safeguarding procedures are still in place and if something is shared that you recognise as a safeguarding concern, it should be passed on to our Safeguarding Coordinator. Please contact safeguarding@thisiscfc.com or 07895 446091 (CFC safeguarding phone number)
