About us

Contact details. This site is operated by Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) (‘we’, ‘us’, ‘our’) on behalf of itself and Royal Geographical Society Enterprises Limited.  You can contact us by email at info@rgs.org.

Other information. We are a registered charity in England & Wales with registration number 208791. Our VAT number is 676367882.

Your use of this site

Copyright. The copyright and database rights in all content included on this site are either owned by us or licensed to us. You are allowed to download, save or print out content for the purposes of reading the content or considering any services advertised on this site. All other use of the content on this site is prohibited, including (without limitation) reproducing the content in any form for commercial purposes.

Fair use of our site. You must not use this site:

• in any way that interrupts, damages or impairs access to this site, or is likely (whether in itself or in combination with the activities of others) to do so
• for any fraudulent purpose, or in connection with a criminal offence or other unlawful activity.

Other people’s rights. You must not use this site to transmit or upload or otherwise publish:

• any material that is defamatory, abusive, obscene, of a harassing nature or in any other way offensive; or
• material that infringes anyone else’s copyright or other intellectual property rights, or that infringes any right of privacy, confidentiality or legal privilege;
• material containing viruses, corrupted files, or any other similar software or programs that may damage the operation of another’s computer.

Links to our site

In creating a link to this site please indicate that we are the source of the information by including an acknowledgement near to/in the link. We would be grateful if you could notify us about the link. Please also ensure that we are not brought into disrepute by the creation of the link; in such cases, we will request the link’s removal (and, if necessary, may bring legal proceedings to seek its removal). Please note that we may move pages on this site or change their address without prior notice.

Our responsibility to you

Accuracy of content. We take reasonable care to ensure that the information appearing on this site is accurate and up-to-date. However, errors and omissions do occur, and you should not take the accuracy of the information for granted, but should check directly with us using the contact details provided on this site. We therefore disclaim all liability for your use of the information on this site.

Data protection. Please see our privacy policy for details of how we use information we hold about you.

Links to third party sites. Any links to third party websites are provided to you only as a convenience. The inclusion of any link does not imply endorsement of that website, and we are not liable for the content of any site to which we link.

Privacy policy

This policy sets out how we use any personal information you submit to us.  We are committed to safeguarding the privacy of personal information.

If you have any requests concerning your personal information or any queries with regard to these practices please contact us by e-mail at privacy@rgs.org.

This privacy policy applies to all “personal data” as defined in the Data Protection Act 1998. In this privacy policy, we also refer to personal data as “data”, “information” or “personal information”.

Use of information

We use information held about you only for the following purposes:

• Providing the services offered through our website
• Informing you of changes to this privacy policy
• Contacting you for reasons set out in our terms of use
• Responding to queries from you

Marketing

We may use information collected on this website to send you information (including by email) about us and our products, events and services, if you give us consent to do so.

We may use information held about you for the purposes of analysing how our services are used and how we may improve our services in future.  Any information we use will be converted into a form in which we cannot identify you, and will be kept strictly confidential.

We will not pass your details onto anyone else for marketing purposes.

Disclosures

We will not pass your information to any third party except:

1. If we are required to disclose information by:

• The police
• Any regulatory or government authority
• A court of law

We will inform you of any such order or request for disclosure as soon as reasonably practicable after we receive it, unless we are prohibited by law from doing so or it is not reasonably practicable to do so.

2. If we are requested to do so by a third party during the course of an action for the infringement of their rights which we reasonably believe to arise from your use of this website. We will inform you of any such request for disclosure as soon as reasonably practicable after we receive it, unless we are prohibited by law from doing so or it is not reasonably practicable to do so.

You have control

If at any stage you would like to check the information held by us about you please either:

• Send an email to privacy@rgs.org
• Write to us at the address given on our website

We will take the necessary action within a reasonable time. We reserve the right to charge a fee of £10 for complying with such a request. We also reserve the right to take reasonable steps to confirm your identity before making any disclosure of information held by us.

Change of privacy policy

If we change this Privacy Policy, the amended Privacy Policy will be posted on this website and the revised Policy will take effect once posted.  Your continued use of this website after the posting will signify your agreement to the new terms.

Transmission of data

Whilst we have taken all reasonable steps to ensure that the information you provide will be kept secure from unauthorised access we cannot guarantee that the information will be secure during transmission by you to this website.

If you access this website from a country outside the European Economic Area (EEA) and view personal information held by us (such as your registration details), this will involve transferring that data to the computer you are using to access the website.  You should be aware that the country in which you are viewing the data may have less stringent data protection laws than countries within the EEA.

Identity of data controller

The data controllers for the purposes of the Data Protection Act 1998 are Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) and Royal Geographical Society Enterprises Limited, both of 1 Kensington Gore, London, SW7 2AR.

We have notified the Information Commissioner of our processing, in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998.

Any questions

If you have any questions about our use of data held about you, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Terms of business

This page tells you the terms and conditions on which we supply to you any of the goods (such as books, magazines or merchandise) or services (such as membership subscriptions and bookings for courses, conferences or events) listed on this site.

Please read these terms and conditions carefully before ordering any goods or services from our site. By clicking “Accept” you are confirming that you have read and understood these terms, and that you agree to be bound by them. We recommend you print a copy of these terms (or save them to your hard drive) for future reference.

In these terms:

• “our, us, we, RGS-IBG” means Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers);  and
• “you, your” means the person ordering goods or services; and
• “RGSEL” means Royal Geographical Society Enterprises Limited.

Agreement
No contract will exist between us and you until we have received full payment from you and have either (i) given you a written/emailed acceptance of your order or (ii) supplied (or started to supply) the goods or services you have ordered, whichever is the sooner. We reserve the right to decline any order.

You may pay by MasterCard, Visa Debit, Visa Delta, Visa, Maestro/Switch. For membership subscriptions, you may also pay by direct debit.

Upon payment, you will receive an email from us acknowledging your order. Please note this email will not constitute acceptance of your order unless it specifically says so in the email.

In the case of certain goods and services as specified on the site, we are receiving your order on behalf of RGSEL, and it will be RGSEL that accepts (or declines) your order.

1)  Prices

The prices of any goods or services will be as set out on our site at the time you place the order. All prices are inclusive of VAT where applicable.

Delivery costs in relation to goods may also be charged, and we will inform you of any delivery costs during the ordering process.

Prices as set out on our site are liable to change at any time, but changes will not affect orders which we have already accepted.

2)  Delivery of goods

Subject to availability, we will deliver all goods within 28 days of your placing your order. If we are unable to meet this timescale (for example, goods are unavailable) then we will notify you of this and provide you with a revised timescale. Your right to cancel (see below) will apply in these circumstances should you wish to do so.

All goods will be at your risk from the time of delivery.

3) Provision of services

If any services you order are, or become, unavailable (for example, if a conference, course or event is fully booked, or is cancelled) then we will inform you by email or telephone.  We will provide a full refund of all money received from you in respect of those services, but we will have no further liability to you in respect of any cancellation.

4) Your right to cancel

(a) Membership subscriptions
You may cancel any order for a membership subscription at any time within the period of seven working days commencing on the day after we accept your order. In those circumstances we will give you a full refund of your membership fee.

To cancel your membership subscription, please contact us at: Membership Office, RGS-IBG, 1 Kensington Gore, London SW7 2AR, or email RGS-IBG at membership@rgs.org.

Please note that after the seven-day cancellation period referred to above, membership subscription payments are then non-refundable.

(b) Conferences, courses and events
In respect of bookings for Society meetings and events (save for the Annual International Conference and courses and events operated by the Expedition Advisory Centre), all payments made for tickets are non-refundable.

In respect of bookings for courses and events operated by the Expedition Advisory Centre, refunds will only be made on bookings made and paid for no less than four weeks before the date of the course or event. Under that condition, we shall refund your payment as soon as possible after receiving notice of cancellation from you, and in any case within 30 days of receipt of that notice.

In respect of the bookings for the Annual International Conference, we shall refund your payment, less a cancellation charge of £30 if your notice of cancellation is made more than eight weeks before the date of the event or £60 if your notice of cancellation is made no more than eight weeks before the event, as soon as possible after receiving notice of cancellation from you, and in any case within 30 days of receipt of that notice, and subject only to receipt by us from you of a valid medical certificate or similar.

To cancel an RGS-IBG or an Expedition Advisory Centre event or course please contact the Events Office or the Expedition Advisory Centre respectively at 1 Kensington Gore, London, SW7 2AR, or email us at: events@rgs.org or go@rgs.org.

To cancel bookings for the Annual International Conference, please contact the Research and Higher Education Division at RGS-IBG, 1 Kensington Gore, London SW7 2AR or email us at: RHED@rgs.org.

(c) Goods
You may cancel an order for any goods at any time from placing the order, until the expiry of seven working days beginning on the day after you receive the goods.

To cancel a contract for goods, you must inform us by writing to: Picture Library, RGS-IBG, 1 Kensington Gore, London, SW7 2AR, or by email at pictures@rgs.org.

You are responsible for returning the goods to us as soon as possible, in the same condition in which you received it, and at your own cost and risk. If you fail to do so within 30 days then we may recover the goods from you yourselves, and you will pay our reasonable costs for doing so.

5) Privacy

Our privacy policy will apply to all information you provide to us in relation to any order. By accepting these terms you confirm you agree to the terms of our privacy policy.

6) Faulty goods

If a fault develops with any goods within six months of your receiving them, then please return the goods to us together with written details of the fault. If an inspection of the goods confirms that they are faulty then we shall replace the goods, or provide a full refund.

If the goods are not faulty but have been damaged by misuse (or any other cause outside our control), then we will return the goods to you upon your paying us our reasonable postage and packing costs.

The provisions of this paragraph are in addition to your statutory rights.

7) Applicable law

These terms are governed by English law, and you and we each agree to be subject to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts.