WGG Group Guide Lines

Group Guidelines

Please read, understand and accept before you attend, (or by joining us online), thanks.

Covid info.

Also below is our GDPR data statement.

Our group is for friendship and support. It is very informal, has no rules, committee or joining fee. Our guys like it that way. We are just a bunch of guys who enjoy siting in a corner of a pub. We want everyone to feel safe & comfortable, whatever their gender or sexuality, and enjoy their time with our social group. Persons joining the group must be 18+.
(Note: The Swan pub, and most of our other venues have a strict 18 plus only door policy).

We meet in a public place and expect those joining us to behave accordingly. We wish that everyone will feel safe and welcomed at our events. Behaviour that may bring the group into disrespect is not welcomed. You may be asked to leave our tables, and the pub management may ban you from the pub. Examples, drunkenness, homophobia, inappropriate sexual behaviour or comments, harassment - particularly towards younger members of the group.

We don’t do “hand bags at dawn!”. If you have an issue/problem with someone in town, or a person in the group, or an ex partner, please leave it outside our group.
However - If you feel it may affect the group, or if you need help, then please do let us know (confidentially is ok). We can give you advice and details of helplines and support groups that may help both of you. Check out our helplines page.

Some people like to be greeted with a hug, kiss (not snog!), or handshake. Others do not like any physical contact. Please respect the persons choice. Please also comply with any covid restrictions / advice that may be in place at any of our events.

Personal information. Do not give out your personal information like phone numbers, home address, internet contacts, until you get to know the other person. Please also do not give out other peoples contact details without first checking directly with them.

Some people in the group may have “special needs” or mental health illness / concerns.
(The Dorset Mind "MindOut" group may offer better support for them. See our helplines page for more info)
Others may not be "out" with their sexuality. Please respect their situation.

GDPR data. Please see below for details about this.

In the unlikely event of someone making you feel uncomfortable please let someone you trust in the group know.

The group is "owned" by the guys who attend and they make suggestions for future events, advise on any issues, and set policy.

Above guidelines also apply to any of our online group communications eg Twitter & WhatsAPP etc.

Page updated 9/06/2018 Reviewed by C 21/4/2018 Logo added 28/7/2018 Updated again 07/11/2020. Last update - 31/05/2021by C.

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GDPR - Your data Is it safe? Are we an "organisation" or not?

We have had lots of conflicting advice about the change with GDPR. We thank our sister/brother groups esp - Taunton Gay Group for comments and advice. Plus the IT guys in our own group. We continue to seek guidance about this issue. We really are just a small group of guys in a corner of a pub, with no formal organisation.

We only store your email (or other) contact info in order to reply to your enquiry. We may wish in the future to send you information about our group and local lgbt events, news & info. We do not produce a newsletter as most guys keep up to date with whats going on by attending our pub meet ups, joining our WhatsAPP group, or by checking our web site frequently, which we keep updated. Should we decide in the future to produce a WGG newsletter, we will have a system for people to opt into it. Sometimes an email is sent to the regular guys who attend our events, (and they have already provided us an email for this purpose,) this may be to inform them/you of last minute venue change or other news/info.

We emailed everyone on our email list to ask if they wish to be included on our data. If you have contacted us in the past, and wish your email to be removed from our records, please let us know and we will do so.

We are looking for someone with IT knowledge to volunteer to run our WGG IT, website, FB etc. Apply at our pub meet ups! - as said above... we really are just an informal bunch of guys meeting in a corner of a pub. Sometimes we make mistakes too, but it will really help us avoid any future issues if someone can volunteer to help us with our online communications.