Guidance

Welcome - Thank you for volunteering to run a group or activity for LALG, without your support we could not continue.  Guidance is available to support the running of groups and other LALG activities. We hope this will be useful to you.  If you have ideas how to improve it, please contact chair@lalg.org.uk

The guidance topics are grouped into the categories shown on the left-hand side of this display.  This one is for general guidance. It is viewed by clicking one of the titles below and it will expand to show the guidance. The other titles will then be above or beneath the expanded one as you move down the list. Please start with this one if you are new to using the guidance.

LALG holds your data securely and only uses it to let you know about LALG activities or give you information.  The principles of the LALG privacy policy apply to group contacts.

A  Support Team exists and its members are available to give help to all those running groups and organising activities.

The Group Support Team are responsible for supporting groups who need their help, especially new groups. They will guide you through the procedure for setting up a new group, and may be able to attend and even run your first few meetings. The following checklist contains items to consider when launching a new group.

• Use the website, social media and the newsletter to invite anyone who is interested to leave their contact details at David’s Bookshop.  Provide an email or telephone number for William /prospective group contact as an alternative.
• Decide who will run the group after the setting up period. You need a Group Contact to act as at least an information point. It might help to note down the key elements of the role.        
• Consider how many members are needed to make the group viable. This will vary.
• Ask prospective members how often they’d like to meet, and daytime, evening or weekend? Try to avoid overlap with other similar groups unless they are already full.
• Identify a potential venue and check availability. See Finding a venue for some ideas.
• Work out costs and a charge per meeting. The group will need to be self-financing and the constitution prohibits an extra subscription charge by groups.
• Ask leaders of similar groups for advice.
• Make sure you understand and apply data protection rules.
• Draft a programme for the first few meetings. 
• After the first couple of meetings, ensure that all participants are paid up members of LALG.
• Consider having a dedicated bank account if significant monies are changing hand on a regular basis. See All Finance Guidance.
• A generic group email address will be set up which automatically forwards emails to one or more designated group members, which usually includes the Group Contact. This avoids the publication of private email addresses which should not be used on the website. This process is initiated by the Support Group Team and implemented by the Web Editing and Web Technical Teams.

Most people come to groups to enjoy a specific activity in the company of friends. The Group shares responsibility for making meetings successful. Successful groups:

• Welcome new members; perhaps accompanying them or assigning a ‘buddy’ informally or rotating them amongst established members so no one feels an outsider.
• Cherish existing members, for example sending a message when someone is away ill.
• Plan ahead so that each meeting is well organised and participants know what’s happening.
• Notice if membership is falling and act to attract more participants.
• Notice if any ongoing arrangements need to be improved.
• Ensure that the group remains financially robust.
• Share the workload and responsibilities among the group, having people to bounce ideas off makes it more inclusive and fun and meets them within reason.
• If possible find a group member prepared to be trained as a Content Editor and who would update the group’s website whenever new activities have been planned. Otherwise updating will be carried out by the Web Editing Team using information published in the monthly newsletter.
• Make sure group members comply with the LALG Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Policy
• Comply with the LALG Privacy Policy
• Understand potential Safeguarding issues.
• Read the LALG Guidance on Accessibility for members with a disability.

Further information on chairing a meeting

Once you have established the size of your group and whether specialist equipment is needed you can start to search for suitable place to meet.

• Look at the regular newsletter which will show where similar groups are meeting.
• Local council websites give details of halls available to hire.
• Information on The Settlement
• Information on Fairfield Community Hall
• Information on The Mrs Howard Memorial Hall
• Information on Jackmans Community Centre Hall
• Information on Radwell Village Hall
• Information on St Thomas Church Hall, Bedford Road

Free venues for small (seated) meetings

• Broadway Hotel bar - spacious
• Cultivo lounge, Leys Avenue – spacious but noisy
• David’s café – limited space
• Dimples café at Willian Way par 3 golf – limited space
• Letchworth Tennis Club café, Muddy Lane – on-site parking and patio
• Premier Inn café, Station Road – spacious but limited availability

Venues for hire

• Baldock Arts & Heritage Centre (the old town hall)
• Broadway Gallery (above Wetherspoons)
• Central Methodist Church Hall, Pixmore Way
• Fairfield Bowls Club, Kingsley Avenue, Fairfield Park
• Grange Community Centre Café
• Hitchin Garden Centre, Cambridge Road
• Howgills, South View
• Ickleford Village Hall (has parking)
• Letchworth Corner Sports Club, Whitethorn Lane
• Methodist Church Hall, North Avenue
• Mrs Howard Memorial Hall
• St. Thomas Church Hall, Bedford Road
• The Cloisters SG6 3TH
• The Settlement
• Willian Hall

For fuller details or to suggest any other venues, please email groupsupport@lalg.org.uk

Don’t wait for an emergency. Make use of the Group Support Team. The LALG committee has systems in place so that LALG can continue to run smoothly through ups and downs. Groups can make similar plans. Here are some ideas:

• Make sure that there are at least two people who know how to run the group.
• Keep a written record of key information that would be needed if the main organiser was unavailable.
• Consider appointing a deputy who can take over as group contact if needed.
• Have one or two alternative venues in mind, in case of need.
• Keep a small amount of funds available to see you through temporary leaner times.
• Watch the group membership and consider emailing people you haven’t seen for a while.

Support is available to groups that are struggling to attract or retain members. As soon as you suspect a problem contact a member of the Group Support Team. They can help by offering any of the following:

• Temporary group leader
• Publicity boost
• Financial support
• Practical help and advice.

Money held by a Group must be donated to central LALG funds if the Group closes.

Organisations are obliged to hold information securely.  Details of the General Data Protection Requirements to which LALG must adhere can be found at All Privacy Guidance. As far as LALG is concerned this applies to all its members who organise its groups or other events and activities.

Technical security:

• Make sure you have up to date virus protection on your computer.
• Ensure any networks you use (whether at home or in public places) are secured.
• Beware of hoax emails that try to obtain your log in credentials or personal details.
• Use strong passwords and don’t write them down or share them with anyone else.
• Lock the screen on your computer, laptop or other device when you are not using them.
• Don’t store confidential information on an unencrypted device or in a folder you share with others.

Physical security:

• Make sure your home or office are secure (e.g. door and window locks).
• Don’t leave papers, laptops or other devices visible in your car – lock them in the boot.
• Use a secure form of waste disposal for papers e.g. a shredder.
• Don’t lose your laptop or memory stick!  And make sure they are password protected.

Other risks to be aware of:

• Being overheard/overlooked in public places or when travelling.
• Family members sharing your computer, laptop, tablet or other device should not be able to access personal information about members.
• To avoid passing unwanted bugs and viruses between the computers and mobile devices of your group members please make sure you have up to date virus protection enabled. This may already be loaded on your device but you should check this out. Let members of your group know if you think you have been hacked or your online security otherwise compromised, using another method to contact them.

LALG holds insurance which includes cover for people on group activities if the group contact has thought about the risks involved and done their best to manage them.

For many groups risks will be minimal but we have provided safety checklists for some which carry more risk such as cycling, walking and trips using various means of transport. More information is available at All Safety Guidance.

LALG’s Equality, Diversity & Inclusion policy states: “We will make every effort to use venues that are accessible to all and will respond positively to any requests for improving access and make reasonable adjustments where possible.”

Group contacts and others who organise LALG events should do all they reasonably can to make activities and events accessible to members with a disability. A disability could mean that someone will need to use a wheelchair or other walking aid, not be able to walk very far or cope with steps or stairs, or have sight or hearing problems. We also recognise that not every disability is visible or obvious.

Group contacts and event organisers should reassure any member with a disability attending an activity or event that they will support them and make their attendance as easy and stress-free as possible. Members who cannot manage without help should be given the opportunity to bring a companion/carer with them. If a member of a household has a non-resident carer due to age, disability or a medical condition and needs the carer to accompany them to LALG activities and events, then their membership will also cover the carer.

LALG’s activity groups and events take place in a number of different venues, depending on their nature.

Public venues (e.g. The Settlement, a Coffee bar) should already comply with legal requirements to provide disabled access but some will be more suitable than others depending on a particular disability.

The following are some factors that should be taken into consideration when choosing a public venue:

• Served by public transport.
• Adequate car parking facilities onsite or very close at hand including disabled parking bays.
• Ramp for building access.
• Ground floor accommodation where possible. If you are considering upper floor accommodation because there is a lift, you must ensure that onsite help can be provided with evacuation in the event of a fire.
• Accessible and usable disabled toilet facilities.
• Good disabled access.
• A sound system and loop.
• Spacious enough to cope with wheelchairs/mobility scooters.
• Good lighting.
• Access to heating/air conditioning controls.

Other considerations that would help:

• Providing a map, directions and details about a venue to new members.
• Having a designated person who is easily identifiable, to ensure members with a disability are provided with appropriate seating e.g. at the front for those who have vision or hearing loss and at the end of a row for those with mobility problems.
• Timing and length of meetings – remember to factor in a break.

Membership of Letchworth Arts and Leisure Group (LALG) is open to all adults. We recognise the importance and benefit of an environment in which equality, diversity and inclusion are promoted. We aim to support and celebrate differences and to foster an inclusive organisation.

We aim to treat our Members and all others with whom we come into contact with equal respect, regardless of any personal characteristics, including: age, disability, gender, marital or civil status, race (including colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin), religion or belief, political belief, sexual orientation, gender re-assignment, class or socio-economic status.

We will work towards increasing the diversity of our membership and those involved in running LALG to reflect that of our local community.

The Equality, Diversity & Inclusion policy can be accessed here

• LALG’s full terms of membership can be found here LALG terms of membership.
• Members of LALG are expected to treat all fellow members with kindness, courtesy and respect and to uphold the good reputation of LALG in their interactions with it.
• You agree not to use the email addresses of other LALG members to disseminate non-LALG information when those addresses have been obtained via LALG, unless you have the members permission.
• All participants in a group should be members of LALG. Please ask to see participants’ membership cards occasionally.
• New participants can attend a group a couple of times before deciding whether to join.
• The membership fee entitles every adult living in a household to participate in all LALG activities providing a group is not full. A fee may be payable for some activities and this will be made clear in the information about a group in the LALG Newsletter or on the LALG website.
• Carers are able to attend a group free of charge when they are supporting an LALG member.
• Members accept personal responsibility for their own insurance.
• In case of doubt you can ask the Membership Secretary to check that people attending your group are LALG members by giving her their details.

LALG follows the guidance provided by the UK government

As COVID-19 restrictions are lifted, it is important that we all use personal judgment to manage our own risk. All of us can play our part by exercising common sense and considering the risks. No situation is risk free, so we all need to understand the factors and settings that increase the risk of COVID-19 transmission and the actions that we can all take to reduce COVID-19 infection, both for ourselves and for others.

There are still cases of COVID-19 in England and there is a risk you could catch or pass on the virus, even once you are fully vaccinated. This means it is important that you understand and consider the risks of catching or spreading COVID-19 in all situations.  While no situation is risk free, there are easy and effective actions we can take to protect ourselves and others around us.

Every LALG member knows what level of risk they are willing to accept and will behave accordingly.   Group contacts should make their meetings as covid secure as possible, considering such things as ventilation, handwashing, sanitising and what to do if a member of the group tests positive.

Sustainability is most often defined as meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet theirs. It is a broad topic covering climate change, plastic usage, maintaining biodiversity, air and water pollution and much much more.

Whilst LALG obviously cannot solve the problem by itself Group contacts can make their contribution by reducing use of plastic, cutting down on pollution by using public transport or car sharing, recycling and otherwise minimising our negative impact on the planet.

This is a complex area and LALG cannot provide further advice to individual groups. 

1. You can’t copy or use copyright material without permission.   Copyright owners have ways to track if their material is being used.  For example, if you use a copyright image in a document, advert or slideshow it may be identified and you will be charged for its use.  You should not photocopy music or text for use in your group unless you are covered by one of the exemptions (see below).

2. To use something protected by copyright you must either:

• agree a licence with the owner to use it
• buy or acquire the copyright
• confirm that your intended use falls within the exceptions to copyright, which you can find by following this link.

3. Copyright protects work and stops others from using it without permission. You get copyright protection automatically - you don’t have to apply or pay a fee. There isn’t a register of copyright works in the UK. For more information.

4. Copyright prevents people from:

• copying work
• distributing copies of it, whether free of charge or for sale
• renting or lending copies
• performing, showing or playing in public
• making an adaptation
• putting it on the internet

5. You automatically get copyright protection when you create:

• original literary, dramatic, musical and artistic work, including illustration and photography
• original non-literary written work, such as software, web content and databases
• sound and music recordings
• film and television recordings
• broadcasts
• the layout of published editions of written, dramatic and musical works

You can mark work with the copyright symbol (©), name and the year of creation. Whether the work is marked or not doesn’t affect the level of protection.

1. This is a complex area and LALG cannot provide further advice to individual groups. For information on performers' rights
2. Alongside copyright, there are separate protections offered to performers known as ‘performers’ rights’. These provide several rights for performers in relation to their performances. A performer can be anyone who acts, sings, delivers, plays in, or otherwise performs a literary, dramatic or musical work.  Sometimes performers will want to prevent certain uses of their performances. Performers’ rights prevent people from:

• making recordings of, or broadcasting, a live performance
• making a recording directly from a broadcast of a live performance
• making a copy of a recording of the performance
• issuing copies of a recording to the public
• renting or lending copies of a recording to the public
• uploading the recording to the internet where it may be viewed by the public

3. Performers’ rights can also help to ensure that performers receive payment for their work. For example, when sound recordings of a performance are played in public, the performer should receive payment.
4. PRS for Music has been set up to collect payments by people who use music protected by performing rights and make payment to the musician.
5. In the UK, copyright lasts for a period of 70 years from the end of the calendar year in which the author dies. If the music originates from outside the European Economic Area (EEA), the copyright lasts for as long as the music is protected by copyright in its country of origin, provided that this does not exceed 70 years.
   
    
6. If you are using music protected by performing rights, you will need to make a payment for the use of the music.  Sometimes venues have a PRS licence which will cover you but otherwise you need to contact PRS to establish what needs to be paid.

1. This is a complex area and LALG cannot provide further advice to individual groups.  You can find out more at the Independent Cinema Office.
2. To screen a film to the public, you need permission from the film’s copyright owner. Usually this is its UK distributor. Permission may be granted in the form of a licence or a film booking. 
3. The ICO provides a programming advice service to all film clubs and community cinemas in the UK, offering advice on film availability, hire terms, formats, rights information and accessing publicity materials. Please email info@independentcinemaoffice.org.uk. 
4. If you plan to charge for tickets to your screening to generate a profit, you will need to check your chosen venue has a premises licence to exhibit films as stipulated by the Licensing Act 2003.
5. If you are charging for tickets but only to cover your costs, and assuming your screening is to be held between 8.00am and 11.00pm, your venue does not need a premises licence. The Licensing Act 2003 defines screenings of this type as not-for-profit.
6. You can charge for additional activities (such as refreshments or film talks) with a view to making a profit, as long as these are kept distinct from admission to the film itself.
7. If you are screening to generate a profit, you need to check your chosen venue has a premises licence in place. Please note that this extends even to screenings where you are selling tickets to raise funds for charity.
8. Under the Licensing Act 2003 a licence is required to provide ‘regulated entertainment’ to members of the public or a section of the public and for members of a club and their guests. One of the descriptions of ‘regulated entertainment’ is the exhibition of a film.
9. There are three types of licences available to provide ‘regulated entertainment’:

• A premises licence
• A club premises certificate
• A temporary event notice

10. The licensing of films for non-theatrical, Blu-ray/DVD screenings can be complicated, but the vast majority of films are available through three major gateway distributors: the BFI, Filmbankmedia or MPLC.
11. if the film you want isn’t held by the BFI, Filmbankmedia or MPLC, it may be available from the title’s original, individual distributor, in which case you will need to book it directly with them. This is particularly true of smaller independent films.
12. The BFI and Filmbankmedia offer online catalogues (see BFI’s DVD catalogue, Filmbankmedia’s catalogue) where you can search to see if they have the rights to a particular film. For details of MPLC’s catalogue, you’ll need to contact their licensing team.
13. In some circumstances even if a film is available to buy or rent for home use, it doesn’t mean public screening rights are automatically available. The same stringent rights conditions apply to DVD and Blu-ray screenings as for DCP and 35mm screenings. Rights holders often only hold home entertainment licences and are unable to grant public screening rights on their DVD/Blu-ray titles. Clearing these rights for public screenings, particularly on older titles, can be a complex procedure sometimes involving liaising directly with a film’s producer or international sales agent. However, having said this, the explosion in available titles on DVD and Blu-ray has definitely increased access to a wider range of titles for the non-theatrical sector and expanded cultural programmers’ pool of available titles.
14. Films screened in schools or universities may be exempt from copyright licensing if they are screened as part of curricular activities or are part of a particular curriculum.
15. Films over 50 years of age and for which there are no active rights holders may be out of copyright, in which case you can screen them to the public without film copyright licensing. However, it can be hard to find out which films are truly out of copyright, as rights are still kept up on many titles older than this.