Super user status

To: LisAn (You have been so helpful in the past)
I'm not sure where to put this 'problem', but in the 'old days' (last year) on the old system I was a Super user and a Stake Webmaster and I could see all my wards and I could upload photos at will.
The new system really limits Stake Webmasters power and authority. I was recently 'barred' from upload photos at all until Ward Assitant Clerk was added to my callings. As it is, if I get a Stake members photo I have to send it to his/her respective Ward Clerk and it may or may not ever get done. Frustrating! Also various Ward leaders call me and ask to get their permissions right and I cannot. I have to rely on the respective Ward Clerk and again it may or may not ever get done!

The decisions about what role can do what task inside Directory is dictated to us by the brethren in Salt Lake. As you point out, a lot of the functionality has been put on the ward level. Stake clerks can edit personal information but not photos. Ward clerks can edit both personal information and photos along with approving photos. Also, in a world wide church, we here in the U.S. often have to put up with restrictions that are required in Europe, Asia and the Middle East.
I can forward your comments on to those who make these decisions and we can see what they say. In the mean time, it would help if you let us know what situation a stake clerk (as opposed to a ward clerk) would be in that would require him to have the rights to upload and manage photos.
Regards,
LisaAn

LisaAn wrote:In the mean time, it would help if you let us know what situation a stake clerk (as opposed to a ward clerk) would be in that would require him to have the rights to upload and manage photos.

I would think the stake would have an interest in having photos of ward and stake leaders loaded into the directory. They may even want a uniform look to the photos which would necessitate one operation do all the photos. So the ability to upload individual photos would be very helpful at the stake level. (Unless you want to add a separate "leadership" photo.)

RussellHltn wrote:I would think the stake would have an interest in having photos of ward and stake leaders loaded into the directory. They may even want a uniform look to the photos which would necessitate one operation do all the photos. So the ability to upload individual photos would be very helpful at the stake level. (Unless you want to add a separate "leadership" photo.)

Although I can see how that could be useful, you could make the same argument at the ward level. You could say that individual photos within a household, or within an organization, or within a ward should have a uniform look. If both stake and ward clerks are playing in the same sandbox, so to speak, will they step on each other's toes? Who wins in case of conflict?

There are all sorts of things where a stake could be tempted to "just handle it", but for the most part that's not the way the organization of the Church works. A stake YM president doesn't direct what the ward YM president does; same for YW, Primary, RS. Even the stake president, who does have the authority to direct what is to be done within his stake, will generally work through the ward organizations for much of what happens within the stake.

A stake clerk has a responsibility to make sure that ward clerks are trained and instructed to keep membership records up to date. But he doesn't record baptisms, or AP ordinations, or ward callings, etc. Yes, there are a few cases where a stake clerk is allowed to make changes directly (such as an email address in the Directory for a household or individual), but I think it is much better in most cases to have a clear responsibility for changes related to membership records at the ward level. The stake president directs, the stake clerk trains and follows up, but the wards implement. I think that this philosophy applies to uploading of photos as well.

LisaAn,

I can only give you my reason: But first, I understand what aebrown wrote. His reasoning is flawless.

However:

One reason stake clerks may need the editing power for photos is this: It is more important to them. The stake has been trying for a year or so to get my ward members to upload their photos. I know what everyone in my ward looks like. I don't need the photos. They do. So it isn't that big of a priority to me to get what they want done. Yep. I don't always do everything they ask me to do. We will eventually get to it. Maybe. When my clerks have time not doing things that I think are more important. Much of my ward is not capable of uploading their own photos. That means we have to do it during tithing settlement or something. Many of them have the "I will never allow my picture on the internet" attitude. It takes time to explain that the church website is very secure. "So was my money in my IRA." etc. It just isn't that high of a priority to me to push it. To illustrate that, they finally came and took my picture so they could put it in their stake directory. Because I haven't every put it on the website.

Yeah, there is probably something really wrong in this attitude. Maybe they will release me?

Yes, thanks to aebrown for his eloquent explanation of what should be happening. I also understand why people, especially those of us who are not terribly photogenic, don't want their picture on the ward directory. I believe in our ward we are going to deal with this during tithing settlement and the clerks will upload the photos then for those people who can't or won't take care of it.

The Tinman makes so very good points about the "I will never allow my picture on the internet" attitude. I have been fighting that even tho the members might already have their photo on FaceBook. The reason I desire to do the uploads for the Stake is because I was a 'Super User' in the Old System and could do it then. I now have to rely on 9 WC's to upload pictures even if I SEND THEM TO THEM. There is a TON of inertia in the Church. And I thank aebrown for his eloquent explanation of what SHOULD be happening, but these WC's are busy men and things don't always get on the priority list. Another interesting thing is that Webmaster is never mentioned in the Bible or BofM, meaning that we try to base our church on a theological model. That is good, but when the Stake Family visits wards for their Ward Conferences, I am County Cousin and am never invited to go or recognized or introduced as 'Stake Family'. That is not a 'Poor Baby' complaint on my part, it just points out the learning curve we face over the next few yrs. Perhaps we march in the wilderness for the FULL 30+ yrs???

WWS36 wrote:The reason I desire to do the uploads for the Stake is because I was a 'Super User' in the Old System and could do it then.

To what old system are you referring? Photo capabilities did not exist for the directory in the classic LUWS. Even the first release of the current directory did not have photo capabilities. Perhaps you are thinking of some other website?

jdlessley wrote:Photo capabilities did not exist for the directory in the classic LUWS.

I beg to differ. It indeed had photo abilities.

Since the OP was discussing uploading members photos I assumed that is what he was referring. Granted there was the ability for a household or missionary photo but there was no capability for individual photos. My mind was stuck on the individual photo issue. Sorry I made a blanket statement about all photos that was not correct.

I uploaded my own & a few others in the old system. The Masthead photos featuring my Stake Presidency were easier to do.

The bottom line is photos are not important when it comes to the use of any tool in LDS.ORG, while nice to have but not important. If member want their pictures on the site they should but them there by their own free will and choice.

Gary_Miller wrote:The bottom line is photos are not important when it comes to the use of any tool in LDS.ORG, while nice to have but not important. If member want their pictures on the site they should but them there by their own free will and choice.

That may be your opinion or the direction given to you in your ward or stake, but in our stake, the stake president has directed that wards make significant efforts to make sure that photos are present for households and individuals. Our stake president and most of the bishops see great value in helping people to recognize their fellow ward members or leaders in the ward or stake. It helps all the members, and it helps bishops (and other leaders) as they minister to the members.

Of course, if a particular member doesn't want a photo in the system their wishes are completely respected. But where the only impediment is a lack of motivation to get the picture taken and uploaded, or a lack of technical skill to do this, someone assigned by the bishop to help with this process can have a huge impact on the number of photos that are uploaded.

I have been called in our ward to take photos of the members and upload them. I have taken some photos, but now I'm stopped. I don't have the selection on the menu to Upload Photos, and nobody in our ward seems to know how to fix that. I do not hold the priesthood because I'm a woman. Does that have anything to do with it?

wyonana wrote:I have been called in our ward to take photos of the members and upload them. I have taken some photos, but now I'm stopped. I don't have the selection on the menu to Upload Photos, and nobody in our ward seems to know how to fix that. I do not hold the priesthood because I'm a woman. Does that have anything to do with it?

You have to have a calling recorded in MLS which gives you photo upload rights. Other than bishopric members and clerks the only other calling with those rights is Ward Website Administrator. If your bishop feels it is appropriate they can extend that calling to you and record it in MLS to provide you with the ability to upload photos. They have to make sure to use a standard position for it to provide the correct rights.

wyonana wrote:I have been called in our ward to take photos of the members and upload them. I have taken some photos, but now I'm stopped. I don't have the selection on the menu to Upload Photos, and nobody in our ward seems to know how to fix that. I do not hold the priesthood because I'm a woman. Does that have anything to do with it?

Welcome to the Forum, wyonana!
No, holding the priesthood is NOT a requirement to add photos to the directory, being an administrator is. The following callings have default administrator privileges, and could all add photos. Sisters could be called as a website administrator, of course, to have the ability to add the photos. Wards could have several "website admins" with differing job functions.
See the help file here:

Bishop
Bishopric first counselorBishopric second counselor
Ward executive secretary
Ward clerk
Ward assistant clerk
Ward assistant clerk - finance
Ward assistant clerk - membership
Ward website administrator

aebrown wrote:That may be your opinion or the direction given to you in your ward or stake, but in our stake, the stake president has directed that wards make significant efforts to make sure that photos are present for households and individuals. Our stake president and most of the bishops see great value in helping people to recognize their fellow ward members or leaders in the ward or stake. It helps all the members, and it helps bishops (and other leaders) as they minister to the members.

+1 Big emphasis in our stake as well.

I last wrote on this thread/subject back in Nov 2012. Here it is 6/8 months later and now the Bishops in my Stake have ceased all efforts to get photos into Directory even tho they have photos sitting on a Ward computer taken at Tithing settlement!
Some of my most resistant Wards have even started Ward Groups in Facebook. This is totally mystifying to me. Apparently the LDS population don't want to be told what to do. They go out and find another avenue for togetherness??? I know this is a tech forum and my problem is mostly 'people', buy I'm totally confused.

WWS36 wrote:Some of my most resistant Wards have even started Ward Groups in Facebook.

I assume you're aware of Handbook 2: 21.1.22

I suspect the underlying problem is that people don't want to have to log into yet another website to connect. They want to add "church" to the place where they already connect to friends and family.

russellhltn wrote:

WWS36 wrote:Some of my most resistant Wards have even started Ward Groups in Facebook.

I assume you're aware of Handbook 2: 21.1.22

I suspect the underlying problem is that people don't want to have to log into yet another website to connect. They want to add "church" to the place where they already connect to friends and family.

Very Insightful answer! Thank you. I'm not sure what to do at this point to fullfill my calling. (Maybe ask to be reassigned to the Nursery!!!)

My Stake President has asked: "Is there a way to see who in our Stake have LDS Logins?"
Can an SQL be done using the North Ogden Coldwater Stake Unit number to ascertain that?
That way we can determine overall use of DIRECTORY in our stake.

WWS36 wrote:My Stake President has asked: "Is there a way to see who in our Stake have LDS Logins?"
Can an SQL be done using the North Ogden Coldwater Stake Unit number to ascertain that?
That way we can determine overall use of DIRECTORY in our stake.

This question has come up before. Currently, there is no method to determine how many members in a ward/stake have been assigned an LDS account. Your best solution would be to do a survey and ask.