CAQ Social Media Policy & Procedures

Purpose

The CAQ Management Committee (MC) acknowledges that the use of social media has the potential to impact everyone. This policy does not intend to discourage or unduly limit personal expression or online activities, but care must be taken to ensure damage to individuals or our sport does not occur.

These documents establish clear requirements for compliance as well as authorising sanctions when our aims and ideals are not followed.

Scope

This social media policy applies to many platforms and applications.

CAQ seeks to encourage information sharing and content creation amongst its membership. Social media provides an important tool for promoting our sport, our organisations and our members.

Social media posts should be in keeping with CAQ’s aims and ideals.

CAQ’s social media use shall be consistent with its aims and objectives, as outlined in the Constitution.

Legal considerations

In addition to CAQ’s internal aims and ideals, policies and Code of Conduct, anyone using social media at any time is also subject to state and federal laws.

Compliance

Depending on the circumstances, non-compliance of this guideline may constitute a breach of CAQ’s policies. If you fail to comply with this guideline, you could face disciplinary action – and in serious cases, cancellation of your membership.

Responsibilities

Appointed Officers and/or volunteers may, from time to time and where appropriate, post on behalf of CAQ, using the organisation’s online social media profiles. This is to be done only with the express knowledge and authorisation of the Management Committee.

Processes

#### Posting to social media

Before social media posts are made, individuals should ask themselves the following questions:

Is the information I am posting, or reposting, likely to be of interest to CAQ’s members and stakeholders?
Is the information in keeping with the interests of the organisation and its constituted aims?
Could the post be construed as an attack on another individual, organisation or project?
Would CAQ’s sponsors be happy to read the post?
If there is a link attached to the post, does the link work, and have I read the information it links to and judged it to be an appropriate source?
If reposting information, is the original post from an individual or organisation that CAQ would be happy to associate itself with?
Are the tone and the content of the post in keeping with other posts made by Croquet Association Queensland? Does it maintain the organisation’s overall tone?

If you are at all uncertain about whether the post is suitable, do not post it until you have discussed it with CAQ’s Management Committee or its nominee. A few moments spent checking can save the organisation big problems in the future.

Individuals are reminded that posts from the CAQ FaceBook page feed automatically into the CAQ website.

#### Damage limitation

In the event of a damaging or misleading post being made, CAQ’s President should be notified as soon as possible, and the following actions should occur:

The offending post should be removed.
Where necessary an apology should be issued, either publicly or to the individual or organisation involved.
The origin of the offending post should be explored, and steps taken to prevent a similar incident occurring in the future.
If the mistake seems set to grow, or to cause significant damage to the organisation’s reputation, revert to the CAQ Media Relations Policy.

#### Moderating social media

Our reputation is first and foremost, and this involves maintaining a safe and friendly environment for its members. To maintain a pleasant environment for everybody, posts need to be moderated.

Freedom of speech is to be encouraged, but if posts contain one or more of the following, it is time to act:

Excessive or inappropriate use of swearing
Defamatory, slanderous or aggressive attacks on CAQ, other individuals, organisations, projects or public figures
Breach of copyrighted material not within reasonable use, in the public domain, or available under Creative Commons license
Breach of data protection or privacy laws
Repetitive advertisements
Topics which fall outside the realms of interest to members and stakeholders, and which do not appear to be within the context of a legitimate discussion or enquiry.

#### Managing breaches

If a post appears only once:

Remove the post as soon as possible
If possible/appropriate, contact the individual privately to explain why you have removed the post and highlight CAQ’s posting guidelines.

If an individual continues to post inappropriate content, or if the post can be considered spam:

Remove the post as soon as possible
Ban or block the individual to prevent them from posting again.

Banning and blocking should be used as a last resort only, and only when the individual intends to continue to contribute inappropriate content. However, if that is the case, action must be taken swiftly to maintain the welfare of other social media users.

The decision to block, ban and remove posts ultimately lies with the CAQ Management Committee or its nominee. But may, at their discretion, be delegated to responsible volunteers.

Authorisation

Croquet Association Queensland Inc. Management Committee.

Any comments or questions on the CAQ Social Media Policy & Procedure should be forwarded to: The Secretary, Croquet Association Queensland Inc. Ph: 0480 613 711. E-Mail: secretary@croquetqld.org