Does anyone else have this problem.... I was not sure where to post this.....

I just have to ask if any other tech people out there have, have had or found a resolution to a situation like mine...
First of all I am the called Stake Technology Specialist. My wife and I joind the Church in 2009. From my point of view,( I realize there are three sides to every story so to speak)
I work hard at this calling and spend a lot of time with it. I am 56 years old, still work a 40hr+ a week regular job and I do have a life. I have 8 buildings that are spread out over about a 120 mile radius of my home. I now have all my buildings upgraded to all the new 881w's and the 1041's. My buildings have all been wired for wired connections to the internet as well as very good wireless coverage in all. A new FHC from scratch has even been set up in one of my buildings by me.
So here is where my problems start......I have (1) building that I can't seem to make happy regardless of what I do. The problems seem to be between me and this buildings FHC director. For one thing to start with.... I can't keep him out of the IT cabinet. It has even been reported to me that he, removes all the equipment, lays it out on the floor and them puts it all back in the cabinet????? He also seems to think that every time he is in the building he needs to reboot all the IT cabinet equipment????? At one point he did his reboot thing and was able to get back into the new 881W configuration screen, the brand new 881W then ceased to function and I had to replace and then reset it. (spare I hope) Salt lake says that can't happen.... trust me it can if its messed with enough. His FHC was just given 4 new Lenovo I3's all in one computers ($1500 each retail) because of the large amount of internet usage Salt Lake was seeing on their end at this location. The director and staff leaves his FHC computers logged on and the door unlocked... here is the reason for high internet usage. It's a church wide internet cafe and even accessible to the youth of the building I would think. At one point in time I received a call from this ward's Bishop.... the FHC director's son, informing me that a man was apprehended behind this building with a laptop viewing porn. I was asked if there was any chance he was using his buildings wireless. The answer was yes, due to the home made wireless system this FHC director had installed without consulting me.
To make a long story a little shorter.....I have asked for help and guidance..... not getting anywhere with that. So, do I just turn my head and let happen whatever happens? Any ideas, suggestions help and mostly your prayers!

As a stake technology specialist, you are an assistant stake clerk. You need to get the stake president involved in this. Depending on the personal dynamics, you may want to go to the stake clerk first (or perhaps one of the others that you have a closer relationship with).

I'd also contact the FM group about a strong lock for that cabinet.

I'd say other than the cabinet lock don't overly invest time in technical lock down solutions. This is more of a communication issue with the FHC director. I'd talk with the stake president about the best way to discuss this issue with the FHC director.

If someone was getting into websites they shouldn't have, then it's pretty obvious the 881W had been bypassed, which is against church policy. IMO, this alone should be reason enough to lock him out of being able to tamper with the DSL/cable modem and/or the 881W.

RussellHltn wrote:As a stake technology specialist, you are an assistant stake clerk. You need to get the stake president involved in this. Depending on the personal dynamics, you may want to go to the stake clerk first (or perhaps one of the others that you have a closer relationship with).

I'd also contact the FM group about a strong lock for that cabinet.

I can't seem to get the Stake President to weigh in on any of the many issues here. I think he is hoping it will all just go away or does not want to hurt either of our feelings. I am a big boy....if I am the problem, I need to be told that. I think my emails to him about these situations have maybe only made me look like a trouble maker....maybe I am.....
I really think I know now why my predicessors just let everyone do their own thing regarding the computers. That does not help me, now actually trying to do as the Church advises. I have mixed feelings about taking that " just let it all go attitude" for myself. As for locks.... this fellow will find a way to get around any lock you install. If you lock him out....he will just continue to unplug and then replug in the IT equipment???? I don't get it... Somehow, I think he thinks this will make his FHC stuff run faster after a fresh reboot???? That is the only thing I can guess. The building has a new ISP, the connection is very fast and reliable. I see no need for the things he seems to need to do. I am at a loss of what to do.

dfdavis wrote:I can't seem to get the Stake President to weigh in on the issue. I think my emails to him about the situation have maybe only made me look like a trouble maker....maybe I am..... I really think I know why my predicessors just let everyone do their own thing.

Contact the stake presidency secretary and schedule a 15 minute meeting with the stake president. Talk about your concerns and bring up the incident of the unauthorized use of the wireless network for viewing pornography.

Explain that Church policy requires that the Church network be kept secure and only used for authorized purposes. Only the STS is to manage the networking equipment for the entire stake. Propose your own plan and ask for his approval.

Something like:

As the stake technology specialist I am responsible for ensuring that the security of the Church network is protected. We need a clearly defined wireless access policy for the stake. This helps in protecting the good name of the Church by preventing illegal activities by unknown parties via the Church network. It also safe guards the financial and confidential data of stake members.

I propose that all the authorized network equipment be locked in a cabinet with the key only available to myself (the STS). Any unauthorized network equipment (i.e. not authorized by the stake president and myself) discovered will be confiscated without return.


I'd also ask the stake president the following questions:

Do you want all members in the stake to have access to wireless? (If no then consider removing wireless and just using wired where possible).

Are Bishoprics allowed to give out the wireless password to members?

Are clerks (stake or ward) allowed to give out the wireless password to members?

For FHC patrons who are non-members did you want to authorize use of the wireless network?
If the answer is yes consider requesting stake funds to purchase a wireless router that you can configure with restricted times of day to permit access and even a special password that you control. This device should be locked up as well.

Ask the stake president what scriptures might be useful in explaining your calling with the FHC director and the FHC's director's calling. This will give you an opportunity to teach correct principals so that the FHC director can guide themself as well.

Hold a meeting with the Stake Presidency member over Family History, the High Councilman over Family History and your PFR give examples, show the history, etc... --> Explicitly let them know that you no longer support this meetinghouse and they can contract out a professional for it, have the meetinghouse provide their own STS or obtain the items you need to do the calling correctly (locked cabinet, release the whacko-FHC Director, etc...).

I am the Stake Clerk in my Stake I would relocate network equipment to a secure location. Be it a clerk office or satellite closet or equipment room or some other location out of sight and low traffice area.

terrellthomas wrote:I am the Stake Clerk in my Stake I would relocate network equipment to a secure location. Be it a clerk office or satellite closet or equipment room or some other location out of sight and low traffice area.

Just get the stake president's approval for the work and reason and ask the FM group to run wire or provide a lock cabinet.

rbeede, My FM group would not respond to this request, they would tell me there is no budget for it, and maybe we can get it on next the plan for 2013, just remind them... then in 2013, they will say, it's not in the budget for this year, maybe we can get it on the 2014 plan, maybe yours works different, mine doesn't.

The goal for the Church this year is to get broadband Internet in all the U.S. units where it is feasible at a reasonable cost.

If your stake president doesn't feel impressed to have each unit in the stake setup, however, then it doesn't need to be done. It depends on whether he feels the need or not. If not then the funds don't need to be spent anyway.

In my area it has been useful for those few units that are hours away from the stake center. The stake simply broadcasts stake conference to them which reduces a great burden on the members. The stake president simply expressed this need to the area office who approved the funds.

If your stake president feels that having Internet capability would be a great benefit to the members then he would contact the area office for the needed budget funding for the year. The FM group doesn't set the budget, the area office does.

rbeede,

The definition of 'get broadband Internet in all the U.S. units' is not a good term to use in my opinion. I have Internet in all my buildings, in fact, I have LDS Access Wireless in all of my buildings, What I don't have is wired connections to the pulpit nor to the clerk computers. My Internet connections are not all in secure or optimal areas, What is the actual intention of the goal? I certainly don't have optimal Internet in all my buildings.... for about 5K I could get Time warner provided Cable in 4 of my buildings and have 15 Mb Down and 1 MB up speeds to support PVC, but instead I have DSL with 1.5 down and 256K up... What is the goal... just having Internet is not the way I would interpret the desire.... having the Internet Capable of meeting the needs of the members is how I would interpret it. To Me, this means:

1. Broadband Speed sufficient for MLS
2. Broadband Speed sufficient to receive webcasts from the stake
3. Broadband Speed sufficient to support a PVC call with video and audio
4. Broadband Speed sufficient to support multiple teachers/leaders displaying a Mormon Message (or similar Church Content) for a teaching moment
5. Broadband Speed sufficient to support the bloatware new.familysearch.org
6. Broadband Speed sufficient to support an FHC (if on premise)
7. Church Firewall (of Course)
8. Broadband and Church firewall secured or 'out of the way'

Am I off my rocker? Look at the wiki and the instructional videos provided to STS and FM for this effort.

As you mention, the Stake President needs to determine (through the consultative input of the STS) which buildings to target for which speeds. And we'll be specifically emphasizing this in our 2013 planning, because the informal discussions we had with FM weren't apparently enough to make it to the budget for 2012. My fear is that this was the year to do it... I hear a purse cinching coming down for next year. It drives me crazy that this was not explicitly detailed and left open for FM to interpret and perform to the least as they so often do.

JohnShaw wrote:Hold a meeting with the Stake Presidency member over Family History, the High Councilman over Family History and your PFR give examples, show the history, etc... --> Explicitly let them know that you no longer support this meetinghouse and they can contract out a professional for it, have the meetinghouse provide their own STS or obtain the items you need to do the calling correctly (locked cabinet, release the whacko-FHC Director, etc...).

There is no need to show anybody anything about what goes on down there. Everyone knows and jokes about it. It is just this "let's not offend anyone" thing one of the other Brothers wrote about on this post.

Great idea! Thanks a million! I think that is exactly what I shall do.
I think the one thing here that really made me stop, step back and really start wondering is, the fact that the Salt Lake Family history networking people started watching the internet activity at this center for several weeks and verbally told me on the phone "that is exactly what they would expect to see"....excuse me....you got to be kidding here? That IS what you expect to see...
I am not saying nothing ever goes this way in the rest of my centers but.... unlike this one, it takes a center librarian to log in the computers and they are locked when the center closes.
I think I either have to rid my self of this one building burden...yes burden and continue to give my total support to the centers who really need and deserve it... Again... THANKS! Your ideas were truely a godsend!