Like many roles in life, being an ADSHG Social Host involves some admin tasks. As we want you to have a safe and enjoyable time in this volunteer role we will keep it to the essential things required by law or that protect you and the charity when you're meeting our members.

Please get in touch with Ops Support if you need any help working through your Social Host admin.

Register as a social host:

You can only run ADSHG Social Meetings if you are a current ADSHG member and a registered host. Please ask about becoming a host by getting in touch before you begin planning any meetings.

Keep everyone informed about your meeting plans:

• Let Ops Support know as soon as possible the time, date and venue of your meeting and they can help to promote it to members.
• Ask Ops Support to check the membership status of anyone who has contacted you about attending your meeting. if they're a member, add them to your contact list.
• Email all your contacts with meeting details and an invite at least 3 weeks before your meeting to give them time to prepare to attend. 
• Only share Zoom / Teams links with genuine attendees and ask them not to share the link to anyone.

1. Record who attends each meeting:

As a volunteer host of in-person support meetings, it is important to ensure the privacy and safety of attendee contact details. Here are some tips to help you keep attendee contact details safe:

• Use a sign-in sheet: Have attendees sign in on an ADSHG Social Meeting sign-in sheet (available from Ops Support) that includes only the necessary information. Keep the sign-in sheet in a secure location and do not leave it out in public areas.
• Collect only necessary information: Only collect the information that is necessary for the purpose of the meeting, such as name, email address, and phone number. Avoid collecting sensitive information such as social security numbers or medical information.

2. Follow our 'Running Safe Social Meetings' guidance

5. Keep contact details secure: Store contact details in a secure location, such as a locked cabinet or password-protected computer. If you must transfer the contact details to another system, make sure that the system is also secure.

6. Explain to members how you will use and store the information you collect from them.  Explain that they have the option to opt-out of sharing their contact details but must at least provide the name they registered with the ADSHG when they joined us, for charity insurance purposes.

7. Don't share member contact details: Do not share attendee contact details with anyone outside of the support group without explicit permission from the attendees. If you need to share contact details within the group, make sure that all members are aware of the privacy policy and are committed to keeping the information secure.

8. Destroy contact details when no longer needed: When the information is no longer needed, make sure to destroy it properly. This may involve shredding paper documents or securely deleting digital files.

9. Ask permission from anyone you include in a photograph of the meeting: If anyone objects to being photographed you must not take photos of them. Explain that the photo will only be used in reports about the social meeting in our magazine in printed and password protected member forum versions.

10. Send us a short update of around 100-200 words and photo about your meeting that we can share in the ADSHG magazine: Look in recent member magazines to find examples of reports sent by other hosts. Send your report to Ops Support for inclusion.