I know this was wrong but what to do about it?

[Articstroll]

I belong to a club. c. 200 members and run by volunteers via a committee.

I am not currently on the committee, but have been a member 20+ years and am an active volunteer helping with organising events etc.

As such, I am well known at the club and committee members will sometimes ask for the benefit of my experience.

Unfortunately, in common, I think, with a lot of these kinds of clubs, committee members spend a lot of time dealing with clash of personality issues among members.

The most recent one involved a very long standing member being upset but a newer volunteer who is streamlining some of the systems we use. Both are characters who are easily upset, determined they are right, but also more prepared than most to step up and do their bit.

The committee member who's been dealing with them has been finding it all very difficult and has talked to me about goings on. He's done really well and it's all been resolved amicably with both sides happy with the outcome. Excellent.

Then he's sent me screenshot of all the conversations leading up to that. I know both the people involved would be furious, and tbh I wouldn't be at all happy if he was sharing conversations we had.

I already have a policy of never writing anything in a message I wouldn't want to be public because these things to happen, so I'm not especially worried that he might do it to me, but I do wonder if I should mention to him that he shouldn't do it, just in case it gets out that he has (I'm probably not the only one).

Otoh he's handled a difficult situation really well, as a volunteer, and I don't want to go out of my way to criticise him.

You wouldn’t be criticising you’d be advising a friend of something might save him getting in serious trouble in future.

He has breached some sort of privacy thing I’m sure but a gentle ‘I don’t think it’s appropriate to share these details’ is not a criticism but a reminder of what the policy is and what’s acceptable.

It's not criticism, it's looking out for him.
If you want to tone down any accusations of judgement talk about a fictional friend.

'Jim, You've done a great job sorting things out between Erica and Jean. Just to let you know - be really careful sharing personal messages, I had a colleague who shared some screenshots once and it came back to bite him in the arse. Since then I've outlined that kind of info verbally if I need to. I don't put anything in writing that I wouldn't want to be shared publicly'

I’d say something like “oh I see,I’ll delete these though because in all fairness I would t want my private messages circulated”.

I'd reply along the lines of thanking him for the information, however you have now deleted it as the matter was confidential and covered by the club's data protection policy.