Managing School Governor meetings has always been a time-consuming task, with hours taken up in preparing and distributing the papers in advance, and then compiling and distributing the minutes.
With the advent of GDPR, new regulations add responsibilities that could take up even more time.
For schools relying on email to distribute papers for Governor meetings, the three new GDPR “Rights” relating to individuals outlined below will be most problematic but can be more easily managed by using Convene.
1.Right of access by the data subject
Customers must be able to access "their" individual data.To be able to comply with this right the organisation will need to be able to find any information relating to the individual. Using the standard way of distributing papers for Governors meetings an individual’s data could be held in any of the papers as well as the minutes of the meeting.
In the case where a paper has been updated the individual’s data could be in multiple versions of the same paper that has been distributed to the board.
How can using Convene help?
At the end of each meeting Convene can produce a consolidated pdf of all of the meeting papers, including minutes, action points and shared annotations. This means that there is only one document for the meeting which makes searching for an individual much more straightforward.
When a paper is updated on Convene the new version replaces the old version in the meeting pack. As the papers cannot be downloaded outside of Convene you can can tell the individual that this is the sole repository of their data for a meeting.
2. Right to rectification
Customers must be allowed to correct misinformation that exists within an organization's records.
If you have sent out board papers via email then the problem is that you will need to be able to show that you corrected all of the records. Potentially this means getting in touch with people who are no longer on the board and asking them to correct or delete the papers concerned. You will potentially have to show the complainant that this has been done.
How can using Convene help?
Convene retains the original version of the documents that were uploaded to create a meeting. So in the scenario where there is an error it will be possible for the meeting organiser to download the original document, make the necessary correction and then add the amended paper back to the meeting. The meeting record will then contain the correct information and if the meeting is still available on any of the end user devices the document will automatically be updated the next time they login.
When Governors are no longer part of the board, making them inactive in the Convene user directory will automatically remove their access to the meeting documents.
3.Right to erasure (right to be forgotten)
Customers may request "irrelevant" information be removed from an organization's records.
How can Convene help?
Convene comes with a built-in retention schedule, which allows access to meeting documents to be removed after a specified period of time ensuring that no one has access to the data for any longer than necessary.
Convene retains the original version of the documents that were uploaded to create a meeting. So in the scenario where information is deemed to be irrelevant it will be possible for the meeting organiser to download the original document, make the necessary correction and then add the amended paper back to the meeting. The meeting record will then contain the correct information and if the meeting is still available on any of the end user devices the document will automatically be updated the next time they login.
As well as making it easier for your school to be compliant with GDPR access requests Convene can also help you speed up the preparation of the Board Pack and ensure that all of the papers are up to date and available for Governors to view at the meeting itself.
We'll be exhibiting at the BETT SHOW 2020 this week, drop by stand NN54 to find out more about how Convene for Schools can transform your school meeting process.
For a free trial and information about Convene for Schools visit us here.
