1. About this policy

The Metaphor Society is owned and managed by Andrew T. Austin and The Fresh Brain Company Ltd.

This policy forms part of the conditions of membership and participation in Society meetings. It should be read alongside the Membership Policy, Membership Standards and Code of Conduct, and Privacy Policy.

2. All Society meetings are recorded

Recording is a standard and expected part of Society meetings. Meetings are recorded so that members who cannot attend live can watch them afterwards and so that the Society can build a continuing educational archive.

Recording may begin shortly before the formal presentation starts and may continue until the host ends the recorded part of the meeting.

Where Zoom provides an on-screen or spoken recording notification, participants may also be asked to acknowledge that notification before entering or remaining in the meeting.

A participant who does not wish to be included in any recording should not make an identifiable contribution during the live meeting. The participant may instead watch the recording through the members-only archive once it has been published.

3. The Zoom platform

Society meetings are normally hosted using Zoom. Participants may be required to use the Zoom website, desktop application or mobile application to attend.

Zoom may process information in accordance with its own terms, privacy notice and technical requirements. This may include:

• Your display name
• Your email address where registration is required
• Your internet protocol address
• Your device and connection information
• Your camera and microphone data
• Your meeting chat contributions
• Technical and diagnostic information

Participants are responsible for ensuring that they have suitable equipment, an appropriate internet connection and an up-to-date version of the Zoom software.

The Society is not responsible for Zoom outages, individual connection problems, incompatible devices or failures caused by circumstances outside the Society’s reasonable control.

4. Purpose of recording meetings

Meetings are recorded for the following purposes:

• To provide recordings to current Society members
• To allow members to watch meetings they could not attend live
• To create a permanent educational archive
• To preserve presentations, discussions and question-and-answer sessions
• To support continuing learning and review
• To maintain an accurate record of Society presentations
• To promote continuity between meetings and areas of study
• To investigate complaints or incidents where necessary

Recordings will not be used for unrelated advertising, profiling or automated decision-making about individual members.

5. What may be captured

Depending on how a participant uses Zoom and contributes to the meeting, a recording may capture:

• The participant’s Zoom display name
• The participant’s profile image
• The participant’s camera image and surroundings
• The participant’s voice
• Questions, comments and opinions expressed during the meeting
• Messages entered into the meeting chat
• Material shared on screen
• Reactions, polls or other Zoom participation features
• Information revealed by other people in the participant’s surroundings

Recordings may include gallery view, speaker view, shared screens, presentation slides, meeting chat or a combination of these.

The exact format may vary according to the Zoom settings used, the nature of the meeting and any editing completed before publication.

6. Notice that recording is taking place

Members are notified through this policy that all Society meetings are recorded.

Additional notice may also be provided:

• On the Society website
• On the meeting or event information page
• In confirmation or reminder emails
• In the Zoom invitation
• Through a Zoom recording notification
• By the host at the beginning of a meeting

Failure to notice or read an individual reminder does not change the recorded status of the meeting where this policy and the general recording arrangements have already been made available.

7. Participation is optional

Members are not required to attend live meetings in order to retain their membership.

A member who does not wish to attend a recorded meeting may wait until the recording is added to the members-only section of the website.

Attending live is optional, but recording is not optional for those who choose to participate in the live meeting.

8. Protecting your privacy during a meeting

Participants who wish to reduce the amount of personal information captured may:

• Keep their camera switched off
• Keep their microphone muted
• Avoid displaying private surroundings
• Use a virtual or neutral background
• Use a first name or suitable display name where permitted
• Avoid placing personal information in the meeting chat
• Avoid using reactions, polls or other recorded participation features
• Submit a question privately by email instead of speaking live
• Wait for the archived recording rather than attending live

The Society may need to identify a participant privately for membership and meeting-security purposes, even where a shortened display name is used publicly within Zoom.

Turning off a camera does not necessarily prevent a display name, profile image, voice, chat message or other contribution from appearing in a recording.

9. Personal and sensitive information

Participants should carefully consider what they disclose during a recorded meeting.

Participants should not disclose:

• Information they would not want retained in the permanent archive
• Private medical or mental health information unless genuinely necessary
• Personal information about another member without permission
• Identifiable client, patient or student information
• Information subject to professional confidentiality
• Private addresses, telephone numbers or financial information
• Material that may place another person at risk

The Society may interrupt a contribution, stop a recording, remove chat content or edit a recording where personal, confidential or inappropriate information has been disclosed.

10. Speakers and presenters

Guest speakers, presenters and facilitators will be informed that Society meetings are recorded and archived for members.

Speakers may be asked to enter into a separate agreement dealing with:

• Permission to record the presentation
• Permanent inclusion in the members-only archive
• Ownership of slides and presentation materials
• Permission to use the speaker’s name, biography and image
• Editing and technical processing of the recording
• Use of third-party copyrighted material

Speakers remain responsible for ensuring that they have permission to use images, videos, quotations, case studies and other material included in their presentation.

11. Member contributions and permission to archive

A member who chooses to speak, use their camera, post in the chat, share a screen or otherwise contribute grants The Fresh Brain Company Ltd permission to:

• Record the contribution
• Edit the contribution where reasonably necessary
• Store the contribution as part of the meeting recording
• Make the contribution available to current Society members
• Retain the contribution within the archive in perpetuity

This permission is non-exclusive and does not transfer ownership of a participant’s original intellectual property to the Society.

No fee or royalty is payable for an ordinary member contribution to a meeting unless a separate written agreement has been made in advance.

Participants must not share material during a meeting where they do not have the necessary authority or permission for it to be recorded and placed in the archive.

12. Permanent members-only archive

The purpose of permanent retention is to preserve the Society’s educational programme and allow present and future members to access previous presentations and discussions.

Recordings may remain in the archive after:

• A participant has left the meeting
• A participant has cancelled their membership
• A speaker is no longer associated with the Society
• The original meeting date has passed
• The subject has been revisited in a later presentation

A former member will normally lose access to the members-only archive when their membership access ends. The recording itself may remain available to current and future members.

13. Circumstances in which a recording may be removed

Although the archive is intended to remain available in perpetuity, the Society may remove, replace, restrict or edit a recording where reasonably necessary.

This may occur because of:

• A legal or regulatory obligation
• A valid data protection request
• A safeguarding or safety concern
• A serious breach of confidentiality
• A copyright or intellectual property dispute
• A request from a speaker considered under their agreement
• Technical corruption or loss of the recording
• Migration to a different website or archive platform
• Material that has become unlawful or seriously misleading
• Closure or substantial restructuring of the Society

Permanent archiving is the Society’s standard intention, but it cannot guarantee that every recording will remain technically available without interruption or alteration forever.

14. Recordings will not be sold or released publicly

Recordings are created as a benefit of Society membership. They will not be:

• Sold individually to members of the public
• Placed on a publicly accessible video platform
• Uploaded to public social media accounts
• Licensed to an unrelated commercial publisher
• Provided to advertisers
• Used to create public promotional compilations without separate permission
• Made available through a non-member public archive

This restriction does not prevent necessary technical access by website hosts, video-storage providers, Zoom or other contracted service providers used to operate the archive.

It also does not prevent limited disclosure where required by law, a court order, a safeguarding obligation or the investigation of serious misconduct.

15. Access to recordings

Recordings are intended only for people with a current and valid Metaphor Society membership.

Members must access recordings through their own account and must not:

• Share membership login details
• Share direct recording links
• Give non-members access to the archive
• Download recordings unless expressly permitted
• Copy recordings using screen-recording software
• Upload recordings to another website or storage service
• Play recordings to a public audience
• Sell, sublicense or redistribute recordings

Unauthorised sharing or copying may result in immediate suspension or termination of membership without a refund.

16. Editing recordings

The Society may edit a recording before or after publication.

Editing may include:

• Removing waiting time, breaks or technical interruptions
• Improving audio or video quality
• Adding titles, captions or introductory material
• Removing confidential or identifying information
• Removing inappropriate, abusive or irrelevant content
• Removing private conversations captured accidentally
• Muting, blurring or cutting a participant contribution
• Dividing a recording into separate sections
• Replacing a damaged or incomplete version

The Society is not obliged to publish every part of a meeting or to preserve interruptions, informal conversation or material considered unsuitable for the archive.

17. Chat messages, questions and polls

Messages entered into Zoom chat may be visible to other participants and may appear within the recording or be retained separately by the meeting host.

Participants should assume that anything submitted through the meeting interface may form part of the meeting record.

Private messages sent through Zoom may not be completely private from the platform or meeting systems. Participants should not use Zoom chat to exchange sensitive or confidential information.

Questions submitted before or after a meeting may be read aloud or included in the recording. A member who wants a question treated anonymously should state this clearly when submitting it.

18. Independent recording is prohibited

Participants must not make their own recording of a Society meeting. This includes:

• Audio recording
• Video recording
• Screen recording
• Photography or screenshots
• Automated transcription
• Live streaming
• Recording with a separate telephone, camera or device

Permission to attend a Society meeting does not include permission to make or distribute an independent copy.

A participant who requires a recording or transcript as a reasonable adjustment should contact the Society in advance rather than making an unauthorised recording.

Unauthorised recording may result in removal from the meeting and suspension or termination of membership without a refund.

19. Artificial intelligence meeting tools

Participants must not introduce artificial intelligence meeting assistants, transcription bots, summarisation tools or automated note-taking services into a Society meeting without written permission.

This includes tools that:

• Join the Zoom meeting as a separate participant
• Record or transcribe speech
• Generate meeting summaries
• Analyse participant behaviour or emotion
• Upload meeting content to an external artificial intelligence service

The Society may remove an unauthorised bot or automated participant immediately.

20. Security of recordings

Reasonable measures will be used to protect recordings against unauthorised access, loss, alteration and disclosure.

Measures may include:

• Membership login controls
• Password-protected administration accounts
• Restricted staff or administrator access
• Secure website connections
• Access controls provided by video-hosting services
• Software and security updates
• Backups or duplicate storage where appropriate
• Monitoring for account sharing or unusual access

No online system can guarantee complete security. Members must protect their own login details and notify the Society promptly if they believe that an account or recording has been accessed improperly.

21. Service providers and technical access

The Society may use third-party organisations to conduct meetings, process recordings, host videos, maintain the website, store files or provide technical support.

These may include:

• Zoom and associated video-conferencing services
• Website hosting providers
• Video-hosting and streaming providers
• Cloud-storage providers
• Website developers and technical support providers
• Membership-management and security providers

Access by these providers is not treated as public release of the recording. Providers are expected to handle information only as necessary to supply their services and in accordance with applicable contractual and legal obligations.

22. Requests concerning an identifiable contribution

A person may contact the Society if they are concerned about an identifiable contribution appearing in a recording.

The request should identify:

• The meeting title and date
• The approximate point in the recording
• The information or contribution concerned
• The reason for the request
• The action being requested

Requests will be considered individually. Depending on the circumstances, the Society may:

• Take no action
• Provide an explanation
• Edit or mute part of the recording
• Blur an image or remove a display name
• Restrict access temporarily
• Replace the recording with an edited version
• Remove the recording where necessary

Cancellation of membership or a later change of mind does not automatically require removal of a contribution from the permanent archive.

Any applicable legal rights will be considered in accordance with the Privacy Policy and relevant data protection law.

23. Technical failure and availability

Although all meetings are designated for recording, a recording may occasionally be unavailable or incomplete because of:

• Internet or power failure
• Zoom malfunction
• Recording or storage failure
• Human error
• Corrupted audio or video
• Insufficient recording quality
• Loss of access to a third-party service
• A legal, privacy or safeguarding concern

Membership provides access to the recording archive as it is available. It does not guarantee that every meeting will produce a complete or technically perfect recording.

Failure to produce or publish an individual recording does not normally create an entitlement to a membership refund.

24. Behaviour during recorded meetings

All participants must comply with the Membership Standards and Code of Conduct while attending Zoom meetings.

Hosts and moderators may:

• Mute a participant
• Switch off a participant’s camera
• Disable or restrict chat
• Remove inappropriate content
• Place a participant in the waiting room
• Remove a participant from the meeting
• Prevent a participant from rejoining

These steps may be taken where reasonably necessary to protect participants, preserve the meeting, prevent disruption or respond to a breach of Society policy.

25. Recordings as educational material

Recordings are supplied for general education, discussion and exploration.

Recordings do not:

• Constitute personal therapy or clinical treatment
• Provide medical, psychiatric, legal or financial advice
• Replace professional training, supervision or consultation
• Provide certification or professional accreditation
• Guarantee that every opinion expressed is correct
• Represent the official position of the Society in every instance

Speakers and participants may express their own views. Members remain responsible for evaluating information and acting within their own competence and professional obligations.

26. Changes to this policy

This policy may be updated to reflect changes in the Society’s meeting arrangements, website, recording systems, service providers, legal obligations or membership services.

The latest version will be published on the Society website. Material changes may also be communicated to members by email or through the membership area.

Continued attendance at recorded meetings after an updated policy has been published will be treated as acceptance of the updated meeting arrangements.