Privacy Policy

First Baptist Church of Picayune ("FBC Picayune," "the Church," "we," "us," or "our")

Effective date: 2026-04-22 Last updated: 2026-04-22

1. What this policy covers

This policy describes how FBC Picayune collects, uses, and protects information you provide through:

Our website at fbcpic.org
Our volunteer scheduling tool (the "Scheduler"), operated at our internal subdomain
Text messages (SMS) and email we send as part of church ministry operations
Paper forms and in-person sign-ups for volunteer ministries

This policy does NOT cover third-party services the church may separately use (for example, our church-management or giving platforms). Those services publish their own privacy policies.

2. Information we collect

From website visitors (fbcpic.org): basic server log information — IP address, browser type, pages visited, referring site. We use standard web analytics to understand which pages are being read. We do not use advertising trackers.

From volunteers and ministry participants:

We collect

Why

Full name

Identifying you on the roster and on the schedule

Mobile phone number (if you provide one)

Sending SMS about your volunteer shifts, if you consent to SMS

Email address (if you provide one)

Fallback contact, staff sign-in via Microsoft 365 for church employees

Household/family relationships

Coordinating volunteer scheduling across family members, with permission

Ministry availability and unavailability

Avoiding scheduling you during vacations or conflicts

Qualification tags (e.g., "Approved for Kids," "First Aid certified")

Enforcing child-safety and competency requirements at assignment time

Background-check status (yes/no only)

Enforcing our child-safety policy. We do NOT store background-check reports or PII from those reports inside the Scheduler; only the yes/no result is recorded.

Shift confirmations, decline responses, swap history

Operating the schedule and maintaining an audit trail

From minors (under 18): We only add minor volunteers (age 13 or older) with an active adult household member's explicit consent. See Section 7.

3. How we use your information

To schedule you for volunteer ministry shifts you have agreed to serve in
To contact you about those shifts (SMS, email, or phone call)
To coordinate among ministry leaders where your serving crosses ministries
To maintain church records for ministry operations
To comply with child-safety obligations (e.g., background-check enforcement for children's ministry)
To understand website traffic patterns (aggregate analytics only)

We do NOT:

Sell your personal information to anyone, ever
Share your information with outside marketers
Use your information for fundraising appeals without a separate opt-in
Retain your data beyond what is needed for ministry operations

4. SMS Communications (Text Messaging)

FBC Picayune may send SMS (text messages) to volunteers who have consented to receive them. This section describes the SMS program in detail.

4.1 When you consent

You are enrolled in SMS volunteer communications only after affirmatively opting in through one of these methods:

Providing your mobile number on a church volunteer sign-up form (paper or digital) that clearly indicates SMS will be used for scheduling
Verbally giving your mobile number to a ministry leader and agreeing to receive SMS about your shifts
Submitting the public "I'd like to volunteer" form on fbcpic.org (or successor subdomain) with the SMS consent checkbox ticked

For minor volunteers (13–17), consent is provided by the parent or legal guardian who holds an active account on the scheduler.

4.2 What SMS you may receive

Once enrolled, you may receive these kinds of messages from our assigned toll-free number:

Confirmation requests — "FBC Nursery: Hi Jane, confirm Sunday 11:00am? Reply YES/NO."
Reminders — typically 3–7 days before a shift
Schedule updates — if you are reassigned, canceled, or swapped
Swap/coverage requests — when another volunteer needs a substitute
Broadcasts — occasional ministry-wide updates (e.g., severe weather cancellation)

We do NOT send:

Promotional or fundraising messages through this channel
Advertising of any kind
Automated recurring messages that are not tied to your actual schedule

4.3 Frequency

Most volunteers receive 1–4 SMS per week during active serving seasons and fewer during breaks. Peak weeks (publishing a month of schedule at once) may see 5–8 messages over a few days.

4.4 Standard message and data rates

Message and data rates may apply based on your mobile carrier's plan. FBC Picayune does not charge any fee for this service.

4.5 How to stop receiving SMS

Reply STOP to any message — you will be unsubscribed immediately from all church SMS.
Reply HELP to receive a short help response with opt-out instructions and our support contact.
You may also email privacy@fbcpic.org (or the current church office email) to request removal. We will honor the request within 3 business days.

Opting out does not remove you from church ministry participation; it just changes your communication channel to email, phone call, or in-person.

4.6 Per-ministry opt-out

If you wish to stop SMS from a specific ministry but continue receiving from others (e.g., stop Greeters but keep Nursery), reply STOP to a message from that ministry or ask your ministry leader to remove you from the ministry's SMS list.

4.7 Mobile carrier policy

We do not share your mobile information, including your phone number, with any third party or affiliate for their marketing or promotional purposes. Your mobile number is used solely to deliver ministry-related messages described in this section.

5. Email communications

Church staff and ministry leaders may reach out to you by email using the address you've provided, for the same purposes described in the SMS section. Unsubscribe from any email to remove yourself from email communications.

6. Where your information is stored

FBC Picayune uses Microsoft Azure cloud services (operated from U.S. data centers) to host the volunteer scheduler and its data. Azure maintains industry-standard security controls. We do not transfer volunteer data outside the United States.

We retain:

Active volunteer records as long as you are active in church ministry
Past schedule history for the current year plus 3 prior years (for reporting and audit)
Background-check status indicators for as long as you serve in a ministry requiring them

You may request deletion of your volunteer record at any time; see Section 9.

7. Children and minors

Under 13: We do not collect personal information from children under 13 directly. If a child under 13 is a ministry participant, the parent coordinates on their behalf and no direct record is created in the scheduler.

Ages 13 through 17: A parent or legal guardian with an active adult account on the scheduler may add a minor volunteer. We require active parent consent and the parent's account remains linked to the minor. All SMS to the minor is also delivered to the parent's phone. The minor may opt out of serving at any time.

Child safety: Volunteers serving in children's ministry are subject to a background-check policy. We do not store background-check reports or their underlying data in the scheduler — only a yes/no indicator of approval, which controls whether the scheduler will assign that volunteer to a children's ministry shift.

8. Security

We use standard security practices including encryption in transit (HTTPS everywhere), encryption at rest on our cloud data store, access controls that limit volunteer records to the ministry leaders with a need to see them, and multi-factor authentication on staff sign-ins. No system is perfectly secure; if we become aware of a material breach that affects your information, we will notify you.

9. Your rights

You may:

Ask to see the information we have about you
Ask us to correct errors in your record
Ask us to delete your record (subject to ministry audit retention — see Section 6)
Opt out of SMS (see Section 4.5)
Opt out of email (see Section 5)
Withdraw your consent at any time

Contact the church office or email privacy@fbcpic.org (or the current church contact email) to exercise any of these rights. We will respond within 10 business days.

10. Third-party services we use

Microsoft Azure — cloud hosting, Azure Communication Services for SMS, Azure Cosmos DB for volunteer records
Our SMS carrier (currently a toll-free number through Azure Communication Services) — handles the actual delivery of text messages; your mobile number is shared only for that delivery
Microsoft 365 — staff authentication and calendar integration

These vendors are contractually bound to protect your information and may not use it for their own marketing.

11. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy to reflect changes in our practices or legal requirements. Material changes will be posted at this URL at least 14 days before taking effect. Continued use of the volunteer scheduler after a change constitutes acceptance.

12. Contact

First Baptist Church of Picayune 401 Goodyear Blvd Picayune, MS 39466

Phone: 601-798-4886 Email for privacy questions: privacy@fbcpic.org General church email: info@fbcpic.org