Photo Administration

I have been called to take photos and post them to our ward directory.
Nobody in our ward has done this before. The ward clerk is not familiar with the process.
And no one is designated as the "administrator".
It appears that I should be listed as an assistant clerk, so that I can function in this calling.
If I am an assistant clerk, is there a way to designate me as the administrator? How does the ward clerk make that designation? Or can any of the clerks and the bishopric members be serving as the administrator?
Assuming that I am the designated administrator for the directory photography work, can I do this work from my home computer, or do I have to use the MLS computer at our ward building? Note, we do not have our own building, and travel to the building is about 1 hour round trip.
Thank You

I should add that I have read "managing directory photos" on lds.org.

[Moderator note: I split this topic out from Photo, since it deals with a separate issue.]

bennettb wrote:I have been called to take photos and post them to our ward directory.
Nobody in our ward has done this before. The ward clerk is not familiar with the process.
And no one is designated as the "administrator".
It appears that I should be listed as an assistant clerk, so that I can function in this calling.
If I am an assistant clerk, is there a way to designate me as the administrator? How does the ward clerk make that designation? Or can any of the clerks and the bishopric members be serving as the administrator?

The work you have described can be done if you have the standard calling of "Website Administrator" -- you don't need to be listed as an assistant clerk (and that would require permission from the stake presidency, anyway, since that calling is issued at the stake level). So the ward clerk should enter you in MLS as having that standard calling. Within about 24 hours after that, you should have administrator permissions on the Directory -- no further designation is necessary beyond you having that calling.

In addition the Website Administrator(s), all the bishopric members and clerks have administrative permissions. Although they have the technical permissions to administer photos on the Directory, the bishop can certainly make a specific assignment as to who should take the lead in this task.

bennettb wrote:Assuming that I am the designated administrator for the directory photography work, can I do this work from my home computer, or do I have to use the MLS computer at our ward building? Note, we do not have our own building, and travel to the building is about 1 hour round trip.

Yes, you can do all of this at home using a browser. In fact, MLS can't do anything with photos -- it can only be done on the Directory on LDS.org.

Thank You!

Is it possible to have a calling that is called ward photographer giving that calling the ability to post pictures to the directory and photo related access. I am the stake Technologist for our stake and I have been asked for a way to setup a person to be able to post to the directory granted assistant clerk would work however that is also giving more access than is necessary there should be a calling that would allow a ward photographer to have only those rights he needs for that position.

donald.anderson wrote:Is it possible to have a calling that is called ward photographer giving that calling the ability to post pictures to the directory and photo related access.

• There's "Ward website administrator", but that also grants a lot of rights into other areas like the calendar.
• Custom positions have no rights whatsoever, so you can't create a calling and expect it to work.
• It's not possible to assign anyone rights to the directory except to put them in a short list of callings.

Details in the Help file

Sorry. The only way I see this working is either you give them excessive rights or they do all the photos and cropping and pass it on to someone who does have the rights.

could I make a recommendation that you add a ward photographer to the callings list with the permissions for that position. This would make sense since there is apparently I need for that position.

donald.anderson wrote:could I make a recommendation that you add a ward photographer to the callings list with the permissions for that position. This would make sense since there is apparently I need for that position.

Most of us on the forums here are just other users like yourself and don't have any particular influence or ability to make changes to the church's tools, software or websites. The most we can do is make suggestions on how to work with what we have (like russellhltn did in his post).

The best and official way to provide suggestions is to use the Feedback link that you can find at the bottom of many of the pages on lds.org (including the home page).

I agree with you maybe they do read these things and maybe they can get the hint. I call Salt Lake to see if they could do something or tell me how to do it and what they told me that I shouldn't do feedback so that they could go ahead and take care of it they didn't do it by phone anymore. So this is my official request to have this particular calling put in place. I'm sure that I'm the only one that they would like to have this calling setup. another thing if it were me I would probably want to monitor what the posts go on this particular site to see what will they might come up with to improve LDS.Org. I appreciate any input anybody might have regarding this matter so that we could make a better site for all. I will copy to there as well.

donald.anderson wrote:I agree with you maybe they do read these things and maybe they can get the hint.

Developers do occasionally read messages in the forums but they aren't the ones who decide this kind of thing. The decision makers do not read the forums. Using the feedback link is the official and sure way to make sure the request gets in front of the actual decision makers.

donald.anderson wrote:I call Salt Lake to see if they could do something or tell me how to do it and what they told me that I shouldn't do feedback so that they could go ahead and take care of it they didn't do it by phone anymore.

I'm not sure what your saying here. Did they say that you didn't need to use the feedback link because they would enter it for you? Or did they say you shouldn't use the feedback link at all for this kind of thing? If the latter, then that was bad information.

donald.anderson wrote:So this is my official request to have this particular calling put in place.

We've been told very specifically by developers that the forums are not the official way to make requests. We've been told by them to please use the Feedback links. That's the process that's been put in place.

Personally, a Photo Administrator calling does seem like it would be useful in some cases.

donald.anderson wrote:So this is my official request to have this particular calling put in place.

By in large, callings listed are ones found or at least implied in the Handbook. I can't think of anything in the Handbook that would suggest such a calling exists.

As pointed out, the developers don't make those kinds of decisions. It has to be run past the Priesthood Department which will likely consider the issue of people who many not want their photo in the directory and if there should be a calling to encourage this.