The Black Leadership Group (BLG) Cynefin WhatsApp Community is a place where BLG members can stay informed, interact, and have discussions about different topics relevant to our purpose* and beliefs* regarding anti-racism. We ask that you follow these guidelines to ensure that the community chat remain productive. These rules and guidelines are enforced by BLG and associate-moderators; at their discretion they may remove posts without warning that do not comply. Repeated failure to comply with these rules may result in censorship and a ban from the forum.
We rely on all BLG members to help keep the community chat a safe place for people to share and view information. To do this, we request that all members comply with the following rules when contributing to the discussion forums:
Scope
· WhatsApp Policy statement
· WhatsApp Group Administrator
· WhatsApp Group Members
· Purpose / Objective of a Members’ WhatsApp Group
· General Rules & Conduct
· Member Engagement
· Confidentiality / Data Protection
· Complaints
· Data Use
· Ungoverned Groups
Policy Statement
WhatsApp is a valuable messaging service, allowing information to be shared quickly and securely between members. It also provides the opportunity for BLG to give additional support to members when it is needed. The use of WhatsApp, however, has the potential to create some problems and this policy seeks to address these to ensure the continued positive use of the messaging service.
WhatsApp Group Administrator
If a WhatsApp group is felt to be beneficial, an ‘administrator’ will create a group and invite relevant parties to join. The administrator(s) will be BLG Director(s) and/or staff and nominated group members and will be responsible for overseeing the group and monitoring conduct. Three administrators are to ensure that if the main administrator/s are not able to access the group for any reason, the remaining administrators can allocate the group administrator role to another member of the team.
WhatsApp Group Members
The group’s members will consist solely of members and officers of the BLG. All members will be eligible to join as a participant of the group.
All individuals within the BLG Cynefin community group chats must be members of BLG Cynefin. If your membership is not renewed within 30 days, after receiving notice that your membership has expired, you will be removed from the BLG Cynefin membership group chat(s). You can renew your BLG Cynefin membership by logging into the website and visiting this page https://blackleadershipgroup.com/become-a-member/ .
Purpose / Objective of a BLG WhatsApp Group
To avoid any confusion, the purpose or objective of the group needs to be made clear to all participants. Primarily, groups will be created for the purpose of sharing views quickly and securely as well as all participants being able to provide valuable advice and support for each other, however, there may be other specifically stated purposes which will be individual to each group and this will made clear to all participants on group formation.
General Rules & Conduct
As previously stated, there are rules of conduct which need to be adhered to by all participants. This will minimise the risk of complaints i.e. inappropriate content. A list of rules will be sent out as a message when a group is first created and each time a new participant joins the group.
1) Always keep to the purpose of the group
2) Don’t share irrelevant messages about other topics
3) Don’t spam the group i.e. sharing memes, adverts or deals
4) Don’t be offended if others leave during the chat
5) Do politely excuse yourself before you leave a group
6) Post your message in one single text, don’t post every word or sentence in a new message
7) Avoid 1:1 conversations in the group, switch to private messages
8) Do not post in the group between 20:00 and 08:00
9) The group is not to be used to berate someone or air grievances
10) Do not add people who are not members of the BLG
11) Choose to ‘mute’ notifications and this way your phone won’t buzz every time a message comes through
12) Ask yourself 3 questions before you post, is this relevant? Is this necessary? Is this a good time to post? Any content that does not meet guidelines will be removed.
Member Engagement
Although WhatsApp groups can be useful to share information and have access to support and advice, it is not a mandatory requirement for members to join the group. There is also no requirement for participants to respond – this applies to all members of the group. If a participant does choose to respond outside of working hours this will be of their own volition and not an expectation of the organisation. The group rules clearly state that participants can leave the chat
at any time and importantly, that notifications can be muted to avoid being disturbed outside of working hours (allowing individual participants to choose when they want to access the group.
Confidentiality / Data Protection
WhatsApp is end to end encrypted. This means that only participants of the group can read or see what has been sent. Each message has a unique ‘lock and key’, this means that even the WhatsApp service is unable to see any of the content within the group. Each participant has a responsibility to ensure that the device they use to access the group is secured i.e. password / pin protection and the group is not left open for others to see. If a participant allows other ‘nonparticipants’ to view the content of a group, then this will be considered a breach of confidentiality and a matter for further investigation and action. The rules governing the use of information are similar to paper records, e-mails and telephone calls, there is a responsibility by everyone involved to adhere to data protection principles. There is a list of related policies at the end of this policy which provides more information regarding GDPR and social media use. When a member’s membership lapses the chat is cleared (all messages) and then the member removed from the group, preventing access to historical messages.
Complaints / Grievance
It’s recognised that one administrator is unlikely to be able to actively monitor the group and fully minimise the risk of inappropriate or offensive comments being made. There are clear rules and a policy in place; however, there could be an occasion where a participant is offended by comments made by other participants and wishes to complain. The complainant must not respond or engage in any discussion which they are offended by. They will need to approach the administrator of the group to ensure they are aware of the situation and the administrator will then investigate further and take any action deemed reasonable and proportionate, some examples include:
· Reiterating the group rules to all participants
· Informally discussing with relevant participants to ensure there isn’t a repeat of any inappropriate discussion
· Removing relevant participants from the group (depending on the context of the situation)
· Managing relevant participants of the group through the disciplinary process (depending on the context of the situation) There are policies in place which can provide more detail regarding complaints and grievance.
Data Use
WhatsApp uses data, participants are advised to ensure they are connected to Wi-Fi before joining the group to minimise use of their data allowance. To reduce the amount of data used (for those who don’t have access to Wi-Fi), the group rules clearly state that memes, adverts etc are not to be shared within the group. Sending videos and photos should also be avoided where possible as this can use far more data.
Ungoverned Groups
There is far more potential for ungoverned groups to create situations which will not be appropriately managed, i.e. claims of bullying and harassment. The BLG does not authorise ungoverned groups. If there are complaints regarding the content of an ungoverned group, this will be investigated further and, if deemed necessary, action taken against all those responsible.
Any concerns please contact:
This policy will be reviewed by the BLG team July 2026.