Tech Forum

I am curious if anyone knows how the church facility managers handle unauthorized purchases made by bishops or stake presidents. For example, a stake president or bishop has bought two large TV's and wants them mounted but wasn't authorized to buy them. What is the typical response from the FMs? Thanks.

Some FM have policies against mounting TVs. Odds are, they will refuse to mount them. If they find them mounted, may take them down.

Since the purchase wasn't done with FM funds, I'm not sure as they'd be concerned about that. But the auditors might notice.

russellhltn wrote: ↑Mon Jan 30, 2023 4:48 pm Some FM have policies against mounting TVs. Odds are, they will refuse to mount them. If they find them mounted, may take them down.

Since the purchase wasn't done with FM funds, I'm not sure as they'd be concerned about that. But the auditors might notice.

I appreciate your thoughts. What about the size of the TV's. Does FM dictate how big they can be? For example, these are 75 inch TV's that I am referencing. IMHO I think they are too big and too heavy and could be a safety liability even on a piece of furniture. One kid grabs that TV and the next thing you know 120 lbs is pulled on top of them. Personally, the bigges TV I've seen on a cart at a church is about 32-35 inches big and it seemed pretty big.

Does anyone know if FM has a limit on the size?

We never get to see FM's "playbook". I don't know as there's a limit to size, but there may be one based on weight and safety concerns.

That's good to know Russell thank you for your response. You may know this question but concerning authorized and unauthorized purchasing channels, would that involve budgeting between FM and the stake, and also concerning possible discounts that the church gets purchasing TV's through an authorized dealer?

I'm assuming the church gets a discount on items that are purchased in bulk. I'm also assuming FM has a budget for items/furniture/etc. and when a purchase is made and not included in that year's budget if the priesthood leader makes a purchase thinking that FM would cover it can make things difficult for the Facilities manager.

This situation was brought up in one of HC meetings and no one really knew what the answer was.

I'm not sure. However, if the stake president bought it, I'm pretty sure it would have come out of stake funds intended to be used for activities: things like youth activities/camps, YSA dances, ward activities, etc. You may want to review General Handbook 34.6 for how this is intended to be used.

If FM bought it, it would have come from their budget that's intended to be used to maintain buildings, furnishings, and the equipment they supply.

You may want to review Technology Standards. (However, a link to GHI goes to an incorrect section.)

Things change as time goes forward. Blackboards and chalk gave way to whiteboards and markers. In our stake, whiteboards are now giving way to wall-mounted TVs in the larger classrooms. I'm not privy to where the funds for the TVs are coming from, but the FM folks appear to be on board. This may be a localized thing or even a pilot program, I don't know. What I DO know is it's opening up quite a bit of room in our libraries with fewer TVs on carts being parked there, especially in two of our older buildings with fairly cramped libraries to begin with, not to mention the narrow hallways to get these carts through.

10 years ago when it was me --> my FM, they claimed these purchases as their own, put them on their inventory and did whatever they wanted with them.

We had purchased a ton of equipment to support webcasts in our extremely large Geographic boundary stake, and kept it in a specific closet in the church building. On Wednesday when we went to do our pre-test for conference, we discovered this equipment was gone in one of the buildings. We blasted out a message and the FM responded to us... ya, Stake X needed some of those supplies for their stake conference so we gave it to them. In the ensuing exchange, it was relayed to us that if we wanted anything kept from them using it as they saw fit, that it needs to be locked up in the Bishop's desk.

This same FM redistributed LCD tv's that our stake had orchestrated through the R&T process with the FM the year prior to CFM for Youth, then when CFMY came out, they wanted to be 'fair' and took tv's to other stakes - We'd prepared, we saw the betas going on, we worked with them to get the equipment we needed. So disappointing.

A couple months ago a new TV (in the box) and mounting unit (in the box) appeared unannounced in an unlocked classroom. We reached out to the Stake and FM Group, and nobody knew what was up. So we moved the boxes into the clerk's office. A month ago we were told it was for our RS room. Two weeks ago we came to church and they had mounted the TV, with a really clunky extension cord installation along the floor and up to the TV. So far we've been unsuccessful in getting any additional info, such as regarding whether additional installation will be forthcoming, if we should have restrictions or not on the Smart TV aspect, or if the Church has any preferred connection methods for wall-mounted TV's (should we have a bunch of cables hanging down for different devices, etc?). Other units may be quite familiar with all of this, but it's totally new for our small unit and we don't have members with experience in these types of things. It's a good experience for our brand-new building rep to get his feet wet.

So to the OP's question, we very well may be making some "unauthorized purchases" here soon to resolve the safety issue with the dangling cord along the wall and floor. I guess we're grateful to have a dedicated TV for our RS sisters to use, but it's been interesting the lack of coordination or instruction we've received.

I would work with the FM to get them mounted properly. There is code the FM's need to follow and make sure they get mounted properly for ADA guidelines. Back in the day there was a church policy that you absolutely couldn't mount TVs, those restrictions have been lifted now for a few years, I know because I was one of the product managers for the Church back then that helped get that changed .