Hi,

Was wondering if anybody could advise me on a Club/Committee type matter?

A letter of complaint was received by the secrtary of the club, of which i am a committee member, a decision had been made regarding the letter at the last committee meeting (i wasn't present)
it has come to light that a committee member had been "chatting" with a member of the club about the letter & the decision made, this person then phoned the person who'd written the letter to tell them the outcome, before they had received the response letter from the club.

I personally think this is totally out of order and committee matters should remain within the committee but I'm not too sure is this a rule?
Is this matter bringing the club/committee in to disrepute(sp) and could this be esculated to the KC? The person making the complaint is now more upset that her letter has been made into gossip than what she was originally upset about.

Any help/info would be great :)

An emergency meeting should be requested.

The committee member 'chatting' to another member of the club who is not a committee member and who has nothing to do with the original complaint about a decision made by the committee is out of order.  All committee business is supossed to be confidential and any decisions made should only be imparted to the person concerned. If that person then decides to talk about the decision to other people, there is nothing a committee can do.

As the person who made the complaint has been told what has happened, they should notify the Secretary of the facts, in writing, of what has happened, naming the people who have been 'chatting', time/dates etc and that she is not happy about it as committee business is supposed to be confidential. The Secretary should then inform the Chairman who may decide to bring the matter up at the next meeting, or bring the matter up now  with the rest of the committee - depending on how that club conducts its business.
Ideally this person should have proof of the facts rather than 'hearsay' for the Club to deal with the matter correctly.

Whatever, the committee member who spoke out of turn should be repremanded and the whole committee reminded of the confidentiality of business issue. This is in the KC Guidelines to Registered Societies and they advise that such a notice is put on the bottom of every committee meeting minutes.

Depending on the original complaint depends on whether it is bringing the Club/committee in to disrepute, though it is unlikely that the KC would take it on at this stage as they prefer Club's to sort their own business out. But in saying that, there is no harm in a copy of the letter being sent to the Secretary of the Club, also being sent to the KC, just put on the bottom of the letter to the Secretary that the KC is being sent a copy. By doing that the KC is then aware of what has happened within this Club and will have it on record of what has been happening, just in case it escalates further.

Hi, they have broken the confidentiality rights of the person involved and they could take it to court.  All committee members of any club, society ect are bound by the Confidentiality Act. 

As you are aware of the breach of confidentiality you are also bound by law to do something about it.