Privacy Policy

1. Who We Are

The Appalachian Homesteaders Association (AHA) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization based in Rogersville, Hawkins County, Tennessee. We serve homesteaders, gardeners, and traditional-skills practitioners across East Tennessee. Our website is located at ahaeasttn.org.

We are committed to protecting your privacy. This policy explains what information we collect, how we use it, and your rights regarding that information.

2. Information We Collect

We collect only the minimum information necessary to serve our community. We may collect the following:

• Contact form submissions: When you use the contact or membership inquiry form on our website, we collect your name, email address, and any message you choose to provide.
• Email communications: If you email us directly at info@ahaeasttn.org, we receive and store that correspondence.
• Website usage data: We may use Google Analytics to collect anonymized, aggregated information about how visitors use our website, such as pages visited and general geographic region. This data does not identify you personally.

We do not collect payment information, Social Security numbers, or other sensitive personal data. We do not sell memberships or products through our website.

3. How We Use Your Information

Any information you provide is used solely to:

• Respond to your inquiries or membership questions
• Send information about AHA events, meetings, or activities (only if you have requested this)
• Improve our website and better serve our community

We will never sell, rent, or share your personal information with third parties for marketing purposes.

4. Cookies and Tracking

Our website may use cookies — small text files stored on your device — to help us understand how visitors use our site. If we use Google Analytics, it places anonymized tracking cookies that collect information such as browser type, pages visited, and time spent on the site. No personally identifiable information is collected through these cookies.

You can disable cookies through your browser settings at any time without affecting your ability to use our website.

5. Third-Party Services

Our website uses the following third-party services, each with their own privacy practices:

• Formspree — processes contact form submissions on our behalf. Formspree's privacy policy is available at formspree.io.
• Google Analytics — provides anonymized website usage statistics. Google's privacy policy is available at policies.google.com/privacy.
• Google Fonts — loads fonts used in our website design. Google may collect basic request data per its privacy policy.
• Facebook — we maintain a Facebook group linked from our website. Facebook's data practices are governed by their own privacy policy.

6. Data Retention

We retain contact form submissions and email correspondence only as long as needed to respond to your inquiry or maintain our membership records. We do not maintain large databases of member personal data. If you would like your information removed, please contact us and we will honor that request promptly.

7. Children's Privacy

Our website is not directed at children under the age of 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has submitted personal information through our site, please contact us so we can remove it.

8. Your Rights

You have the right to:

• Request access to any personal information we hold about you
• Request correction or deletion of your information
• Opt out of any communications from us at any time

To exercise any of these rights, simply contact us using the information below.

9. Security

Our website is served over HTTPS, which encrypts data in transit between your browser and our server. While no system is completely secure, we take reasonable precautions to protect any information you share with us.

10. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we do, we will update the “Last Updated” date at the top of this page. We encourage you to review this page periodically. Continued use of our website after any changes constitutes your acceptance of the updated policy.