Member Application

1. Pledge to conduct business in a professional and reputable manner, including complying with applicable legislation, providing clear and accurate contracts and communication regarding our products and services, and offering to settle any customer complaints in a timely and effective manner.
2. Strive to communicate, co-operate and collaborate in the promotion, development and enhancement of business growth and activities within Quinte West.
3. Respect the good reputation, profile and status of the Quinte West Chamber and represent the Chamber accordingly.

Code of Standards
Accepting this standard as the Member’s own, every Member, pledges to observe the spirit of the code in all dealings. Failure to do so may result in the termination of membership.

Procedure
When a complaint is filed against a member business, the Chair of the Membership Committee and the Chamber Manager will investigate the complaint.  They will present the facts to the board along with recommendations of a verbal warning, written warning, or the revoking of the membership.


QUINTE WEST CHAMBER OF COMMERCE PRIVACY POLICY
Introduction
Protecting your privacy and the confidentiality of your information -- over the Internet, on the telephone, or through our offices – has always been fundamental to the way we do business at the Quinte West Chamber of Commerce. We operate on the basis of a Privacy Policy and related procedures that guide the handling of the personal information we collect. We have created this privacy statement in order to demonstrate our firm commitment to protecting the privacy of our members, partners and potential Web site visitors. This policy and related procedures are consistent with the Canadian Standards Association Model Code for the Protection of Personal Information (herein “CSA Model Code”) and applicable privacy legislation.

Privacy Statement
This policy deals only with personal information handled by the Quinte West Chamber of Commerce. Personal information is information about an identifiable individual, excluding business contact information.

The following explains how the Quinte West Chamber of Commerce handles personal information. The Quinte West Chamber of Commerce reserves the right to change this policy and it may be updated periodically. These changes may affect our use of your personal information. Accordingly, please check for changes regularly.

Accountability
The Quinte West Chamber of Commerce (herein “the QWCC”) is accountable for all personal information under its control. The QWCC’s privacy officer is the Chamber Manager who is designated as responsible for the QWCC’s privacy policy. The privacy officer can be reached by: e-mail, at manager@quintewestchamber.on.ca  telephone, at 613-392-7635  fax, at 613-392-8400 or mail, at 97 Front St., Trenton, ON K8V 4N6

Any questions about the QWCC’s handling of personal information should be directed to the privacy officer. Please see below for more information about the process for referring questions about the QWCC’s handling of personal information.

Purpose of Personal Information
The purpose for which the QWCC collects personal information will be identified at or before the time the information is collected.
The QWCC may collect personal information for the purposes of:

• Administering QWCC membership and providing member services;
• Registering for QWCC events, for example the Annual General Meeting;
• Purchasing various QWCC products or services including document certification
• Processing and administering the above or other purposes as necessary.

The QWCC will not use personal information for any other purpose than identified at or before the time of collection.

Consent
The QWCC seeks consent for all personal information we collect, use and disclose through information provided to individuals prior to collection, or at the time of collection. If you have voluntarily provided information, you have consented to the collection, use and disclosure of your personally identifiable information as described in this privacy policy. As required by the CSA Model Code, the QWCC will not use personal information for any purpose other than that for which you consented. Should QWCC require personal information for a new purpose, we will contact you to seek consent for that new use.

Limits for Collecting, Using, Disclosing and Keeping Personal Information
The QWCC does not collect, use or disclose personal information of individuals except when individuals give consent and provide the information on a voluntary basis. There may be occasions where more specific personal information is necessary for us to proceed with a request for information, or provide you with a product or service. In such cases, we will provide you with a description on the information we need. In all cases, the QWCC limits the amount and type of information collected to only the personal information that is required to provide the individual with the requested information, product, or service. We collect only information that is voluntarily provided by you and undertake that such information will be kept strictly confidential. We retain personal information only as long as is necessary to provide the individual with the requested product, service or information and delete or destroy this information after that time. In some cases, however, legal reporting and retention requirements necessitate that the QWCC retain information for a specific amount of time. In general, the QWCC retains information for a period not longer than 7 years. The QWCC does not sell or trade any personal information with third parties. The QWCC may transfer information to service providers where information processing is outsourced by the QWCC in the course of its administrative procedures or member services in specific cases. Where personal information is transferred to a service provider for processing, we require the service provider to respect this Privacy Policy and we restrict them from using or disclosing personal information transferred to them for any purpose other than the provision of services to us. Any personal information that the QWCC retains is kept in such a manner as to ensure its security and confidentiality at all times.

Safeguarding Personal Information
The QWCC respects the privacy of our members, partners, potential website visitors and internet users and will protect that privacy as vigorously as possible. We store personal information in electronic and physical files that are secure. Our security measures include secure locks on filing cabinets, and using industry standard techniques such as firewalls, encryption, intrusion detection and restricted access to records and to equipment, including computers. Unfortunately, no data transmission over the Internet can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. As a result, while we strive to protect your personal information, we cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit to us or receive from us electronically. This is especially true for information you transmit to us via e-mail. We have no way of protecting that information until it reaches us. Once we receive your transmission, we make our best efforts to ensure its security on our servers.

Accuracy of and Access to Personal Information Collected
The QWCC makes every effort to keep personal information as accurate, complete, current and relevant as necessary for the identified purposes. The QWCC does not routinely update personal information. The QWCC makes readily available to individuals our Privacy Policy and related procedures for managing personal information. We provide access to the Privacy Policy and related procedures to individuals on the QWCC Web site and in written form. Any questions about the handling of personal information by the QWCC can be raised with our privacy officer. At the written request of an individual, he or she may view or edit their personal information as collected by the QWCC. The QWCC will inform them of what personal information we have about the individual, what it is being used for and, in cases where it has been disclosed, to whom it has been disclosed. There may be exceptional circumstances as provided by the CSA Model Code under which the QWCC may not be able to give an individual access to the personal information about her or him held by the QWCC. In this case the QWCC will explain the reason for this lack of access, as provided by the CSA Model Code. To make a request, please send a letter, email or fax addressed to our Privacy Officer at the address indicated above. In your request, please include the following information: Name, contact details, membership number (where applicable), the nature of your request, including whether you wish to view and/or edit information or inquire regarding use and/or disclosure.  

The QWCC will reply to your request in no later than thirty days after receipt of the request, or if we are not able to respond within this time period, we will send you a notice of extension. If we are not able to disclose all the personal information we hold on you, we will give you a reason for our inability to do so, unless prohibited by law.

Web Site
For your convenience our website may contain links to other sites, which are not governed by this privacy policy. Our site may also be referenced on or accessible through links contained on other sites, including sites of third party e-procurement networks. However, we have not investigated, and are not responsible for, the privacy practices or content of those sites. Their policies and protections may be different than those offered by the Quinte West Chamber of Commerce. We encourage you to investigate and review the privacy practices of those sites prior to use. On our website, like most other commercial websites, we may monitor traffic patterns, site usage and related site information in order to optimize our web service. We may provide aggregated information to third parties, but these statistics do not include any identifiable personal information. When you interact with our websites, we may use a browser feature, known as a "cookie" (which is a small computer file), to verify non-identifiable information about visitors to our websites and measure visitor traffic patterns. We do this to maintain the best possible websites. When you first visit our websites, the website manager may have implemented a program that creates a small computer file stored on your computer's hard drive. We ensure that the minimum information required is placed in the cookie only so that we can recognize returning website visitors. The cookie does not contain personal information and we will not combine information in the cookie with personal information that would enable us to identify you individually. On subsequent visits to the website, our server communicates with your computer, reads the cookie, recognizes and confirms that you are a returning visitor. Our server uses this information to provide you with a "short cut" that facilitates the quickest, most efficient and best possible website experience. Most browser software allows you to delete cookies. You should consult your ISP for information on how to delete cookies. This may interfere with our ability to personalize your experience at our websites and be recognized, or may slow down performance.

Questions
Any questions or comments about the QWCC ’s handling of personal information should be directed to our privacy officer.