Volunteers are the heart of Heart of Gold.

Thank you for volunteering for the festival. It is only through the generosity of volunteers that this festival can be staged. You are giving your time to something that we believe is very important– a festival dedicated to bringing positive outcomes. We hope you enjoy your time and get the opportunity to experience some great films.

We thank you for taking the time to read and acknowledge the following information. This ensures that we can provide you a safe and inclusive experience.

1.  BACKGROUND

The Heart of Gold International Short Film Festival (Festival) seeks to enhance the community's cultural experience. It achieves this through positive media interactions, it offers visitors a positive experience with the local community and gives filmmakers an opportunity to have their work screened and judged professionally. 

The Festival program films are chosen for their carefully crafted, heart-warming stories which entertain and connect on an emotional level with our audiences. The Festival selects films that are positive, uplifting, hilarious, whimsical, nourish and affirm life, explore the human journey in a hopeful manner, highlight prominent issues, and at times, can be challenging and thought provoking. They can shine a light on side-lined topics, people or regions of the world.

In keeping with this vision, the Festival maintains a neutral position on political and religious matters and will not be associated with any type of propaganda.

2.  CODE OF CONDUCT

As a volunteer you will be expected to;

• Support the aims of the Festival (see Background).

• Demonstrate a high standard of behaviour and personal conduct by promoting harmonious, friendly relationships and by showing respect for all persons involved with the Festival, including sponsors, filmmakers, staff, volunteers, contractors and members of the audience.

• Maintain the privacy, integrity and confidentiality of the Festival, its records and information including personal information concerning staff/volunteers.

• Act in accordance with requirements of all relevant legislation including Workplace, Health & Safety, Anti-Discrimination, and other Laws. 

• Ensure the Manager or your Head of Department is fully informed of any injuries, illnesses, situations, complaints, or concerns which require action. 

• Carry out the duties in the manner as outlined in the Department Manual for the role (or roles) the volunteer is undertaking. Approach the Head of Department or Leaders to discuss any issue affecting your role. Questions can also be emailed to: volunteering@heartofgold.com.au

3.  PRIVACY POLICY

3.1 Personal Information

If you sign up to our newsletter, volunteer with us, or purchase tickets to our festival we will collect the email address you nominate and any other identifying information you provide, such as a name or phone number.

Please do not give us other personal or sensitive information.

Other than circumstances such as unlawful activity by you or serious threats to your health and safety, we do not share personal information with any other organisation. Even in those circumstances it is the emergency services that we would deal with, not a private company. You may opt out of further contact from us at any time.

3.2  How we protect your Personal Information

You may request access to personal information about you that we hold, and you can ask us to correct your personal information if you find it is not accurate, up-to-date, or is incomplete. 

To protect your privacy and the privacy of others, we may ask for evidence of your identity before we can grant you access to information about you or change it. 

To help protect the privacy of data and personal information we collect and hold, we maintain physical, technical, and administrative safeguards. Whilst we have made every endeavour to protect our online information, we cannot be made responsible if your information is made unsafe in case of a security breach.

We train our employees and volunteers about the importance of confidentiality and maintaining the privacy and security of your information. Access to your personal information is restricted to employees who need it to provide benefits or services to you.

3.3  Website analytics

To improve your experience on our site, we may use 'cookies'. Cookies are an industry standard and most major websites use them. A cookie is a small text file that our site may place on your computer as a tool to remember your preferences. You may refuse the use of cookies by selecting the appropriate settings on your browser, however, please note that if you do this you may not be able to use the full functionality of this website.

Our website may have links to other websites. Please be aware that we are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. When you go to other websites from there, we recommend you be aware and read their privacy policy.

Our website uses Google Analytics, a service which transmits website traffic data to Google servers in the United States. Google Analytics does not identify individual users or associate your IP address with any other data held by Google. We use reports provided by Google Analytics to help us understand website traffic and webpage usage.

By using this website, you consent to the processing of data about you by Google in the manner described in Google's Privacy Policy- external site and for the purposes set out above. You can opt out of Google Analytics if you disable or refuse the cookie, disable JavaScript, or use the opt-out service provided by Google- external site.

heart of gold.com.au also uses interfaces with social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram, and others. If you choose to "like'' or "share" information from this website through these services, you should review the privacy policy of that service. If you are a member of a social media site, the interface may allow the social media site to connect your visits to this site with other personal information.

3.4  Our obligations

This online service is bound by the provisions of the Privacy Act 1988, including the Australian Privacy Principles.

4.  WORKPLACE HEALTH & SAFETY POLICY

On 1 January 2012 the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, Queensland, the Northern Territory, and the Commonwealth harmonised their WH&S laws. 

The Heart of Gold International Short Film Festival Inc (HOGISIFF) is classified as a ‘person conducting a business or undertaking’ (PCBU) under the WH&S Act as it employs one or more paid workers. 

4.1  WH&S rights

Everyone has a right to be safe at work, including volunteers. 

Although volunteers work without payment, under the WH&S Act you are still classed as a worker. This means that HOGSIFF must provide you the same protections as its paid workers. The WH&S laws require organisations that employ any paid workers to ensure, as far as is ‘reasonably practicable’, the physical and mental health and safety of all its workers, including volunteers. 

‘Reasonably practicable’ means HOGSIFF does not have to guarantee that no harm will occur, but it must do what is ‘reasonable’ to ensure your health and safety.

Reasonably practicable means HOGSIFF should take into consideration:

• the likelihood of the hazard or risk concerned occurring

• the degree of harm that might result from the hazard or risk

• what the person concerned knows, or ought reasonably to know, about the hazard or risk, and ways of eliminating or minimising the risk

• the availability and suitability of ways to eliminate or minimise the risk, and,

• the cost of eliminating or minimising the risk.

4.2  WH&S Volunteer responsibilities

As a volunteer worker you also have duties under the WH&S Act. This means that WH&S procedures and guidelines should always be followed. If you do the things explained here when you are volunteering, you cannot be fined or prosecuted under the WH&S Act.

4.2.1  As a volunteer you must:

• take reasonable care for your own health and safety

• ensure your actions do not risk to your own health and safety or that of other people in the workplace

• conduct your tasks in a safe way and do not try to carry out tasks you are not qualified for or physically capable of doing

• follow the policies and procedures of the organisation you volunteer for that relate to WH&S

4.2.2  Essentially, reasonable care describes the standard of care that workers, including volunteers, must meet. It means doing what a reasonable person would do in the circumstance having regard to things like:

• your role, knowledge & qualifications

• your skills and the resources available to you and, not carrying out activities that you do not have the skills to undertake

• the information you have, and

• the consequences to health and safety of a failure to act in the circumstances which also includes not doing anything that appears to be unsafe.

Further information on the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 can be found online https://www.business.qld.gov.au/running-business/whs/whs-laws/whs-act 

4.3  Incident reporting

Under the WH&S Act, these types of incidents are ‘notifiable incidents’ and HOGISFF must let the Queensland WH&S regulator know if any notifiable incidents occur due to the work of the organisation. 

You have a responsibility to report to HOGSIFF as soon as possible if you or another worker is:

• seriously injured, becomes ill, or 

• is exposed to a serious risk to their health and safety because a dangerous incident occurs

4.4  Near miss reporting

You should still let HOGSIFF know if something happens that is not as serious as a notifiable incident or there is a ‘near miss’. Reporting these situations may help to prevent more serious incidents from happening in the future.

4.5  Workplace bullying

The work health and safety responsibility of HOGISFF requires us to prevent workplace bullying, stress and harassment. 

Bullying can be defined as ‘a person or group of people repeatedly behaving unreasonably towards another worker or group of workers.

Please report to the Festival Manager, or Event Manager any rumours or slander to help prevent any people from being bullied, hurt or generally negatively affecting morale (https://www.oir.qld.gov.au/industrial-relations/qld-industrial-relations-framework/workplace-bullying ).

4.6  WH&S discrimination

The WH&S Act expressly prohibits the discrimination or unfair treatment of workers, including volunteers, because they have raised a work health and safety concern. A person found to be engaging in this type of discrimination may be liable to criminal penalties.

4.7  Anti-discrimination laws

Commonwealth anti-discrimination laws prohibit discrimination of a person because of that person’s attributes. For example, the laws prohibit discrimination because of a person’s race, gender, age, disability, religious belief, political belief, parental status, or trade union activity as well as other attributes.

The Commonwealth Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission website provides information about Commonwealth anti-discrimination laws and links to the websites of State and Territory anti-discrimination bodies (https://humanrights.gov.au/ ).

5.  GENERAL

5.1  Insurance

Generally, volunteers are not covered by workers’ compensation laws. Therefore, it is important to know that the organisation you volunteer for has insurance that adequately covers you and the activities you are carrying out when volunteering.

The Volunteering Australia website provides information about the most common types of insurance that covers volunteers (https://www.volunteeringaustralia.org/#/ ).

5.2  Protection from personal civil liability but not criminal liability

Across Australia there are laws that protect you, as a volunteer, from incurring personal civil liability if anything you do, or fail to do, when volunteering results in loss or damage.

However, these laws will not protect a volunteer from personal liability for any damage or loss that results from anything they do, or fail to do, while under the influence of drugs or alcohol or were acting outside the scope of activities authorised by the organisation or contrary to the organisations activities.

These laws will also not protect a volunteer from criminal liability. For instance, if you are involved in a car accident when driving as part of your volunteer work these laws will generally place any civil liability resulting from damage on the organisation that you volunteer for. However, if you were engaging in criminal conduct, such as speeding, drunk driving or dangerous driving you will be personally liable for the damage.

5.3  Copyright

Any work created for Festival promotion will be deemed to be the property of the Heart of Gold International Short Film Festival Inc. This includes, but is not limited to, HOG social media sites, documents on the shared drive, promotional material, graphics, sound recordings, photographs, and website design. This does not include films or intellectual property owned and/or submitted by filmmakers.