SBC Stourbridge Community Guidelines

⭐ Participation Is Always Optional

Nobody is required to respond to another member, attend a meet, participate in a conversation, provide personal information or explain their choices.

If someone chooses not to engage, their decision should be respected.

SBC Stourbridge is intended to be a low-pressure community. Members are welcome to participate as much or as little as they wish, and everyone has different levels of confidence, availability and involvement.

Please do not pressure another member to:

• Attend a meet or explain why they are not attending.
• Respond to a message or join a conversation.
• Continue a conversation they do not wish to have.
• Provide their telephone number, social media details or other personal information.
• Meet or communicate privately.
• Remain at an in-person meet once they have decided to leave.

Members are welcome to communicate privately with one another where both parties are comfortable doing so. However, nobody should assume that another member wishes to communicate privately simply because they are part of SBC Stourbridge.

If someone does not respond to a private message, indicates that they do not wish to continue the conversation, or asks you not to contact them privately, that decision should be respected.

You are always free to leave any SBC Stourbridge WhatsApp group if you no longer wish to participate in it. There is no obligation to remain in a group, and leaving one group does not mean you have to leave the wider SBC Stourbridge community.

Please also respect the decision of anyone who chooses to leave a group. Do not pressure them to rejoin or ask them to justify their decision.

Personal Safety

SBC Stourbridge provides opportunities for people to meet and communicate, both online and in person. However, members are responsible for making their own decisions about personal safety and privacy.

• Only share personal information, including your address, telephone number, workplace or other identifying information, with people you trust.
• You are never under any obligation to share your personal contact details with another member.
• Do not pressure another member to provide their telephone number, social media details or other personal information.
• Members may choose to communicate privately with other members, but should use their own judgement about sharing personal information and should respect the other person's boundaries.
• If you choose to meet or communicate with another member privately or away from an official SBC Stourbridge activity, you do so at your own discretion. We recommend letting someone you trust know where you are going and who you are meeting.
• When travelling to and from in-person meets, particularly after dark, remain aware of your surroundings and take appropriate precautions.
• SBC Stourbridge will never ask members to provide personal information to another member without their consent.

Respecting Other Members

SBC Stourbridge is a community made up of people with different personalities, interests, opinions, backgrounds and levels of participation.

• Treat other members with courtesy and respect.
• Remember that everyone has different levels of confidence and involvement. Some members may be very chatty; others may prefer to observe or participate quietly.
• Do not pressure someone to attend a meet, participate in a conversation, respond to a message or explain why they are not attending.
• Respect a person's decision if they do not wish to continue a conversation or engage with you.
• Do not repeatedly contact, tag, mention or single out another member when they have indicated that they do not wish to engage.
• Avoid making assumptions about relationships or familiarity with other members.
• Disagreements are inevitable, but discussions should remain respectful. Personal attacks, insults, intimidation, bullying or deliberately antagonistic behaviour will not be tolerated.
• Respect other people's boundaries, including boundaries around personal space, communication and contact.

In-Person Meets

Silent Book Club is intended to provide a relaxed, low-pressure environment where people can read alongside others without the expectations of a traditional book club.

During the quiet reading period

• Respect the start and end of the designated quiet reading time.
• Once quiet reading begins, please keep conversation to an absolute minimum.
• If you need to speak, please keep your voice low and conversations brief.
• Be considerate when moving around the venue and avoid unnecessarily disturbing other readers.
• Please keep phones on silent or otherwise minimise disruption from notifications and calls.

During the social period

• Socialising is encouraged but always optional.
• Nobody should feel pressured to stay, talk, or participate in conversations.
• Respect members who prefer to leave once the reading period has finished.
• Be mindful that not everyone wants to participate in every conversation.
• Follow the rules and requirements of the venue hosting the meet.
• Treat venue staff, organisers and other members respectfully.

WhatsApp Community

Our WhatsApp groups are intended to provide a relaxed space for members to chat about books, reading and the wider SBC Stourbridge community.

• Keep conversations reasonably relevant to the purpose of the group.
• Avoid excessive posting or repeatedly sending messages in a way that overwhelms the conversation or generates unnecessary notifications.
• Be mindful of the time when sending messages. Non-urgent messages should generally be avoided late at night or very early in the morning.
• Remember that members may have notifications enabled and may not want to receive a large volume of messages.
• Use reactions where appropriate rather than adding unnecessary messages to a conversation.
• Respect that not everyone will respond to messages, and do not repeatedly ask for a response.
• Do not deliberately derail conversations.
• Do not use the group to promote unrelated activities, businesses, services, organisations or events without prior approval from a community admin.
• Do not use the group to recruit members for unofficial gatherings or activities without prior approval from a community admin.
• Do not request, collect or share another member's personal contact details without their consent.
• Do not assume that membership of the SBC Stourbridge community gives you permission to contact another member privately.

Spoilers

We all read at different speeds, so please be considerate when discussing books.

• Do not post major plot twists, endings or other significant spoilers in general group conversations.
• If a discussion requires spoilers, please clearly identify the book and indicate that spoilers will follow.
• Where appropriate, admins may direct spoiler-heavy discussions to a separate group or conversation.

Privacy and Confidentiality

Members should be able to participate in SBC Stourbridge without worrying that their conversations or personal information will be shared elsewhere.

• Do not share another member's telephone number, address, social media account, photograph or other personal information without their permission.
• Do not add another member to a separate group, mailing list or contact list without their consent.
• Do not share screenshots, photographs, recordings or private messages from SBC Stourbridge groups outside the community without the permission of the people involved.
• Do not use information obtained through SBC Stourbridge to contact or approach another member privately where there is no reasonable expectation that the contact would be welcome.
• If another member asks you not to contact them privately, that request must be respected.

Admins and Community Management

SBC Stourbridge is organised by volunteers who give their time to maintain the community and organise events.

• Please treat admins and organisers with the same courtesy expected between members.
• Admins may intervene in conversations where they believe this is necessary to maintain a safe, respectful and welcoming environment.
• Admins may ask members to stop a particular behaviour, move a conversation, edit or remove a message, or leave a discussion.
• Admin decisions regarding group management and access should be respected.
• Admins may restrict, suspend or remove a member's access to some or all SBC Stourbridge groups or activities where they believe this is necessary to protect the community.
• Members may be removed without prior warning where behaviour is considered serious, threatening, unsafe, harassing or otherwise inappropriate.
• Repeated behaviour that has already been addressed by an admin may result in further restrictions or removal from the community.

A Note About Group Monitoring

SBC Stourbridge WhatsApp groups are monitored by group admins. Our admins are real people who volunteer their time alongside their own personal and work commitments, so they may not always be able to respond immediately to every message or issue.

Please be patient and respectful when contacting them.

However, if something concerns you or you do not feel safe, please contact an admin rather than feeling that you have to manage the situation yourself.

Reporting Concerns

If another member's behaviour makes you uncomfortable, you do not need to deal with it yourself.

Please contact the SBC Stourbridge host if:

• Someone repeatedly contacts or approaches you when you have indicated that you do not wish to engage.
• Someone pressures you for personal information or contact details.
• You feel harassed, intimidated, bullied or uncomfortable because of another member's behaviour.
• Someone is behaving in a way that is disrupting the group or preventing others from participating comfortably.
• You have concerns about your personal safety or the safety of another member.
• You are unsure whether something is appropriate and would simply like to discuss it with an admin.

Reports will be treated sensitively and shared only with those who need the information to manage the situation.

Our Approach

These guidelines are not intended to prevent people from having fun, making friends or having lively conversations. They exist to make sure that everyone has the opportunity to participate in the community comfortably and at their own pace.

Joining SBC Stourbridge means agreeing to respect these guidelines and the reasonable instructions of the admins.

Ultimately, SBC Stourbridge reserves the right to make decisions about membership, group access and participation in events where this is necessary to maintain the safety, wellbeing and enjoyment of the wider community.