Who We Are
We are the Green Mountain Bonsai Society (GMBS), and are located in Vermont. Our mission is to provide our members with a forum to exchange information, learn, and teach but also to promote the art of bonsai through lectures, classes, workshops, demonstrations, field trips and monthly emailed newsletters.
Our website address is: https://greenmountainbonsaisociety.org
By choosing to become a member, attend our events (as a guest or member), or visit our website, you agree to be bound by this privacy policy. If you do not agree with any of the terms of this policy, please do not use our website or services or otherwise provide us with your information.
Scope of the Policy
This Privacy Policy applies to how we collect, use, and disclose information from the following individuals:
- GMBS Members – Individuals who have joined the Green Mountain Bonsai Society by completing the application and have paid the Membership Fee.
- Event Participants – Individuals who provide their information to us when they register for or purchase and/or attend our events (including but not limited to workshops, master classes, conferences).
- Website Visitors – Individuals who visit our website and opt to provide contact information in connection with a contact request and/or to sign up to receive our Newsletter and communications from us pertaining to GMBS activities and initiatives.
Information We Collect
GMBS Members. When you join the Green Mountain Bonsai Society, we ask for your name, email address and phone number.
Event Participants. We may ask for your name, email address, and phone number to enable you to participate in GMBS events. Such participation is voluntary, and you may choose whether or not to participate and therefore disclose this personal information.
Website Visitors. We may collect your name and email address if you provide it to us when visiting our Website in connection with a contact request or when signing up to receive our Newsletter.
In addition, we also collect information such as web server logs, internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, or other statistical information as part of aggregated data. We use Google Analytics to help us gather statistical information about the visitors to our website and how they use the website on an anonymous, aggregate basis. However, we will not associate this data with your personally identifiable data unless required to do so to cooperate with law enforcement activity or other governmental request or to comply with law. We may use this information to gain a better understanding of the users of our website, to improve our website, and to improve our services. Depending on the type of browser and device that you use, you may have the ability to control the type of information that Google Analytics uses. To understand how Google Analytics collects and processes data, please visit www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners. See our Cookie Policy, below, for more information on how we use cookies.
How We Use Your Data
- To respond to any requests or enquiries from you
- To contact you regarding any events that you have registered for and/or paid to attend
- To send you periodic newsletters, updates or notices regarding GMBS activities and initiatives
- To understand how our services work and website is used
- To send Member Renewal notices and collect payment
Comments
At present, comments are not enabled on our website.
In the event we enable them, the data shown in the comments form would be collected along with the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help with spam detection. An anonymized string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy. After approval of your comment, your profile picture would be made visible to the public in the context of your comment.
Media
We use photos on our website, many of which are taken at our events. We collect permissions for the photos used on our website.
Embedded Content from Other Websites
At present GMBS uses Google Maps location services for our events.
Articles on this website may eventually include embedded content such as videos, images, articles, maps etc. Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.
Please be aware that if you choose to engage with the embedded content, these websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website. This will be governed by the privacy policies of these websites.
Cookies
WordPress uses cookies for the visitor areas of the website. In the event visitor account creations are enabled, WordPress will collect cookies for the logins as well as for comments, when enabled. If you leave a comment on our website you may opt-in to saving your name, email address and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year. At the moment, GMBS has not enabled visitor accounts or comments on its website.
WordPress uses cookies for the administrator areas of the website. When website administrators go to the login page a temporary cookie is set to determine if the administrator’s browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when the browser is closed.
When the administrator completes log in, several cookies are set up to save the login information and screen display choices. Login cookies last for two days, and screen options cookies last for a year. If the administrator selects “Remember Me”, the login will persist for two weeks. When the administrator logs out of their account, the login cookies will be removed.
If an article is edited or published, an additional cookie will be saved in the browser. This cookie includes no personal data and simply indicates the post ID of the article just edited. It expires after one day. At present, GMBS does not use the blog post section of the website and therefore this cookie is not generated.
Third party plugins. We also use third party plugins on our website; it is possible that they collect usage data. Below, we have listed the third party plugins that we currently use on the website. If you would like to see how they use data, please visit their privacy policies at the links below.
- Elementor and Elementor Pro – https://elementor.com/about/privacy
- The Events Calendar and Events Tickets (Modern Tribe, Inc) – https://theeventscalendar.com/privacy-policy. Please note: As of May 2018, no personal data of GMBS members, event attendees, or visitors and users of our website is collected or stored by Modern Tribe Inc. (https://theeventscalendar.com/knowledgebase/the-events-calendar-gdpr)
On Third Party Websites & Services
The website may contain links to other websites and services operated by third parties. These links are not an endorsement of, or representation that we are affiliated with, any third party. We do not control third party websites, applications or services, and we are not responsible for their actions. Other websites and services follow different rules regarding their collection, use, and sharing of your personal information. We encourage you to read their privacy policies to learn more.
Who We Share Your Data With
third-party providers
We use third-party providers to process event payments and to manage our mailing lists – our GMBS Member mailing list and our Newsletter (non-member/guest) mailing list.
MailChimp. We use MailChimp to manage our GMBS Member mailing list and our GMBS Newsletter (non-member/guest) mailing list. We store your name and email address in MailChimp so that we can continue to send you periodic notices and updates regarding GMBS activities, initiatives and events. In 2021, MailChimp was purchased by Intuit Inc, which has introduced a global privacy policy for all of the Intuit Group companies. You may consult their privacy statement here: https://www.intuit.com/privacy/statement.
PayPal. We use PayPal to receive the following types of payments from you: Member Renewal Fee, New Member Fee, Donations, and payments for events. PayPal’s privacy policy is here: https://www.paypal.com/us/legalhub/privacy-full?locale.x=en_US.
where your data is sent
At present GMBS does not use automated spam detection services. However, PayPal may apply an automated spam detection service, such as CAPTCHA, when you are re-routed to the PayPal website to complete payment.
In the event visitor comments are enabled, these may also be checked through an automated spam detection service.
How Long We Retain Your Data
On GMBS Members, event participants, and website visitors. We only retain your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.
On administrators. For administrators of our website, we also store the personal information they provide in their user profile. All administrators can see, edit, or delete their personal information at any time with the exception of their username, which cannot be changed.
On comments. Although we do not at present have comments enabled on the website, should we activate the feature, all comments and their metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognize and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.
What Rights You Have Over Your Data
You can place a request with us to know what personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided to us. Further, you can also request that we erase any personal data we hold about you. Please note, this does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.
Data Retention & Security
When we no longer have a legitimate business need (e.g. termination of a Customer agreement) to process your personal information, we will either delete or de-identify it.
Children
Our website and services are not directed at children. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13 years of age. Please note, children are welcome to attend our events if accompanied by an adult.
Changes to Privacy Policy
We reserve the right to modify this Privacy Policy at any time, however, should we change the Privacy Policy in a material way, a notice will be posted on our website along with the updated Privacy Policy. If you disagree with the changes, you may terminate your relationship with us and/or stop using our website and partaking in GMBS events and initiatives.
Contact Us
If you have any questions or concerns over this Privacy Policy, or wish to exercise any of your statutory rights, please contact us at: gmbs@greenmountainbonsaisociety.org.
