Tech Forum

There are additional restrictions other than the disclaimer. Follow all five of the numbered requirements found in "Members’ Use of the Internet in Church Callings" of 21.1.22. But essentially you are correct in that you can have a Facebook page in carrying out the responsibilities of your calling.

Thanks

jdlessley wrote:There are additional restrictions other than the disclaimer. Follow all five of the numbered requirements found in "Members’ Use of the Internet in Church Callings" of 21.1.22. But essentially you are correct in that you can have a Facebook page in carrying out the responsibilities of your calling.

Here is an update of "Use of Online Resources in Church Callings" https://www.lds.org/pages/online-resour ... s?lang=eng

1968leocomeeatabite wrote:Here is an update of "Use of Online Resources in Church Callings" https://www.lds.org/pages/online-resour ... s?lang=eng

What changed? I did a quick side-by-side comparison from Feb 14th and didn't spot anything different.

One thing I did notice in the re-reading was the emphasis on getting written permission from people shown in photos. That could put a crimp in some people's expected use of Facebook where adding photos is common and permission, if sought, is merely verbal.

The Permission Form Example at that site is rather severe. I am not a lawyer, but I wouldn't sign it or ask anyone else to. It gives me the impression I'm giving irrevocable and exclusive permission to use any past, present, or future recordings that include me! I would certainly sign something less onerous, like granting non-exclusive permission to use photos taken at church events that include me. Such permission is common for school and scouting events. Does anyone have any examples of permission forms that grant only the needed permissions?

rsidwell wrote:The Permission Form Example at that site is rather severe.

No argument there, but I think I know why it's written that way. If you limit it to "church events", then in the event of a lawsuit, the church would have to prove it was taken at a church event and not a private gathering with the same people. The YSA in particular do things outside of church properties, so there might be some confusion if it's a church event or not.

Just to clarify and to make sure that we are talking about the same thing or what I think that we should be referring to. at the very end of "Use of Online Resources in Church calling" it has this link https://www.lds.org/bc/content/shared/c ... elease.pdf (This is provided for us as an example only, we are not to use this form, but to make our own form) The purpose of this self made form is to give the individual or individuals that are responsible for the Facebook presence or in other words the administrators, the protection from lawsuits. I emphasize that it is not for the protection of the church or the ward. This Facebook presence (if done as directed) does not represent the church nor is in the name of the ward.

Apparently we can use this form as an example. https://www.lds.org/bc/content/shared/c ... elease.pdf to create our own. I called the churches Intellectual property office and received excellent answers to my questions. We need to create this form to protect our selves. We can file it as we think should be done, but we need to remember that it is for the protection of the individual or individuals that are responsible for the group or site. Some wards use this form to move on to the ward's annual history.

Therefore my point is that we can adapt the form to be as simple as we think proper, Only to get permission to use it on the facebook group's site. Or if we will use the pictures in the annual history then the stronger wording or use of the other forms, which the church provides. Buy the way there are two similar threads this one and one called Best practices for Facebook https://tech.lds.org/forum/viewtopic.ph ... 60#p146157. Specifically page 6 & 3rd post down on that page.

Thanks. I get that we make our own form (even though we aren't lawyers!). But the example one linked at Use of Online Resources in Church Callings is a really bad starting point. Does anyone have a better one? Has anyone made their own form for this that they would care to share with the forum?

1968leocomeeatabite wrote:This is provided for us as an example only, we are not to use this form, but to make our own form

Which leaves wide-open the question of what are the parts we should emulate and what are we free to change? Since we're not lawyers, I'd hesitate to change the legal language. I know where we could find some lawyers in our stake, but I'm not sure as they'd touch something that wasn't in their area of practice.

We just have each member fill out an info sheet when they move in, and on the info sheet there's a yes/no question that says "May we post ward activity photos on Facebook that include you?" (there's another yes/no for "May we add your photo to the ward directory?").