CONFIDENTIALITY & TRUST

Speak openly.
Share thoughtfully.

Trust makes the circle useful. It comes from clear rules, careful judgement and sharing only the information a good discussion needs.

01

The confidence of the circle.

Membership requires discretion. Do not identify another participant, repeat their contribution with attribution, forward messages, take screenshots or share business details outside the circle without explicit permission. Permission to discuss a challenge is not permission to publish it.

Recording, transcription and the use of AI tools must be agreed before the session. Members joining remotely should use a private setting and headphones, and disclose any tool or person that would hear the discussion. Confidentiality obligations are set out in the joining agreement; a private group alone cannot guarantee secrecy.

02

Experience, without an agenda.

The chair reviews potential conflicts and can narrow a topic, change the group or move a discussion to a more appropriate setting. Members should disclose a material conflict, respect competitors’ boundaries and share only information they are entitled to disclose.

No unsolicited selling or onward commercial use of another member’s information. Concerns should be raised directly with the host through private membership correspondence.

03

The challenge, not the identity.

Start with the decision and constraints. Remove business and customer names, personal details, document metadata and exact figures where they are unnecessary. Use broad ranges for scale, generalise sectors and locations, and omit unusual details that could identify a business when combined.

Replacing a name with “Company A” is not, by itself, anonymisation. A distinctive transaction, public announcement or small local market may still make the business recognisable. Treat de-identified material as confidential unless the risk of identification has been properly assessed.

A member can choose a hypothetical version of a challenge, reduce the detail or decline AI processing. The chair should agree the version that is appropriate to share before the session.

ICO guidance on anonymisation
04

Private access to BoardSeat.

The proposed Board service is intended to provide individual authorisation, separation of each member’s work, defined access for the host and approved providers, and a clear route to remove access when membership ends. These controls must be configured and tested before activation; they are not a claim about a live service.

Our recommendation is WhatsApp for the opt-in member circle, and a separate authorised BoardSeat service for AI work. Telegram may provide an initial channel for de-identified requests, but Telegram bot conversations are cloud chats and do not have Secret Chat end-to-end encryption. Neither messaging app should be treated as a vault for sensitive business documents.

Before any AI service is offered, members must receive the identity of its providers, the permitted uses of their inputs, storage locations, access arrangements, retention terms and any use for model training. Messaging encryption does not establish how an AI provider processes or retains content after receipt.

No WhatsApp group, Telegram bot or private BoardSeat workspace is connected to this site. Availability and usage limits will be confirmed directly before joining.

Telegram’s privacy information · WhatsApp Business terms
05

Keep what is useful.
Agree when it goes.

Our proposed approach separates application records, membership administration, working case material and member-approved learning. Each needs a stated purpose and retention period; one blanket promise of “zero retention” would be misleading.

For casework, the intended approach is a short agreed working period, with any continued use approved by the member. Reusable learning should be stripped of identifying details and shared only with permission. Exact deletion periods, backup handling and provider retention must be documented before the digital service is activated.

Deleting a message from one device does not guarantee removal from recipients’ devices, backups or a connected service. Do not rely on disappearing messages as the only control.

06

Applications and your information.

Manor House Media Ltd receives the information you choose to submit through the membership application form to assess suitability and respond. Google Forms and the linked private application spreadsheet are used for collection and administration. Please provide professional context, not confidential business documents or sensitive personal information.

Application information is separate from public member profiles. Any published profile requires permission. The joining process will explain the applicable retention arrangements, approved service providers and the private contact route for access, correction or deletion requests, subject to any records that must lawfully be kept.

This page explains the house rules and the proposed digital service. It is not a statement that the planned technical controls are already operational. Final membership and service terms are supplied before commitment.

BY APPLICATION & MEMBER REFERRAL

A thoughtful circle.
Clear expectations.

Share your experience, what you can contribute and the question on your mind. We will arrange a conversation about fit before you commit.

Apply for membership

A LinkedIn profile link is welcome. No payment on application. Please leave confidential business details out of the form.