Ward Website for youth.

Hey guys,

The situation I am facing is that I have set up a forum for the Youth at the request of my Bishop. The site can be viewed here. Someone brought it to my attention that the church officially wants us to use the Ward website and calender that has been made available by the church. It is my opinion that the church is more concerned with members generating websites to represent the ward for the public rather than members using a phpbb to keep the youth informed about activities. Would anyone be able to provide some clarity on this issue? I will also look into ordering an official manual on the subject. Any feedback would be helpful.

-R

Authorized Church Websites

Sorry, I don't see any wiggle room for you, because the site represents a church unit. Separate the site from the ward/sake and make it a "youth site" and don't allow the leaders to promote the site (giving the appearance of making it at all official) you'd probably be OK.

I believe it is also a matter of data privacy as well. The stake and ward web sites has a small piece of authentication in front of it to keep most users out. I would worry that your site could give information (especially about youth of your ward) to anyone.

Just my two cents.

I think you need to satisfy the church policy and Elder Ballard's encouragement for students to use new media. Anything that touches personal information and church activities should remain behind the protections of the Church unit websites. Other forum types of discussions could be in harmony with what Elder Ballard said, as long as parents give permission.

Your efforts are appreciated. However, your Bishop and/or Stake Leadership should have contacted Priesthood Dept. before for clarification before asking you to do this.

Approvals will not happen as the church does not approve or endorse non-church websites.

We need to differentiate here a bit. In addition to the church's policies about "Authorized Church Websites" relating to content (aka copyrighted) websites we need to look at the legal implications too.

It is one thing to have a site for Adults to use. Information about adults is in the public record and is readily accessible. However, information about minors is not and is protected by law. These laws are suplemented by additional legislation based on jurisdiction.

With the policy and legal issues touched on here's some other thoughts on making this work. If your site was architected this way....
1. Was a private endeavor not commishioned by your Bishop
2. Access to your site required a login.
3. Access to your site required a "private & voluntary" membership with the consent of the youths parents on record.
4. The information was secured.
5. That any information be voluntarily provided by members and not contain any information from church membership record data sources.
6. That any information published there did not put the youth's safety at risk.
7. That no copyrighted church materials were on the site.

This should help. Let's keep in mind that Elder Ballards comments about using the internet to teach were addressed to adults not minors.

Hope this helps frame this better for you.

enriquer wrote:here's some other thoughts on making this work. If your site was architected this way....
1. Was a private endeavor not commishioned by your Bishop
5. That any information be voluntarily provided by members and not contain any information from church membership record data sources.
7. That no copyrighted church materials were on the site.

Let me expand on #1 by restating it as "a private endeavor not commishioned or endorsed by any church leader."

At that point it ceases to have any connection to the church. The other points are valid for preventing legal issues.

I ran into some youth at the priesthood session of conference last night. I bounced the idea of a website like this to them. They laughed at me like I was a dinosaur. They explained that their leaders just text them on their mobile phones.

go figure.

RyanLDS wrote:Hey guys,

The site can be viewed here.

-R

One of the immediate challenges of this particular site, aside from current Church policy, is that on the home page it contains an ad that is not really appropriate for youth, and that has the word "Mormon" misspelled.

These things cannot be controlled at some hosting locations. Even though many will understand the lack of control, it still reflects on the Church, for better or worse.

Larry Jackson

I just found this thread and I think my question fall into this area. Our Stake Relief Society ask me if they could set up a web site to promote their women's conference in February. This would be a one shot site and would be canceled after the conference. I could easily set it up as a page on my web site but as I read this discussion, I have some concerns. I do know that the single adults in the area always have a web site to advertise and promote their conferences. My question: can i add a page to my web site to promote the Relief Society conference?

zaneclark wrote:I just found this thread and I think my question fall into this area. Our Stake Relief Society ask me if they could set up a web site to promote their women's conference in February. This would be a one shot site and would be canceled after the conference. I could easily set it up as a page on my web site but as I read this discussion, I have some concerns. I do know that the single adults in the area always have a web site to advertise and promote their conferences. My question: can i add a page to my web site to promote the Relief Society conference?

Sounds like the single adults organization is in violation on the First Presidency policy. And if the Relief Society would be, too, if it put up such a web site. The approved online forum for that is an announcement on LUWS.

If you want to say on your personal site, "Zaneclark encourages all the sisters to attend the upcoming Relief Society conference, See the stake web site on www.lds.org for details." that's okay. (Do all the sisters in your ward customarily browse your personal web site? I doubt it.) But if your site purports to represent the Releif Society and posts its announcement directly, then I think that is coloring outside the lines.

boomerbubba wrote:Sounds like the single adults organization is in vliolation on the FIrst Presidency policy. And if the Relief Society would be, too, if it put up such a web site. The approved online forum for that is an announcement on LUWS.

If you want to stay on your personal site, "Zaneclark encourages all the sisters to attend the upcoming Relief Society conference, See the stake web site on www.lds.org for details." that's okay. (Do all the sisters in your ward customarily browse your personal web site? I doubt it.) But if your site purports to represent the Releif Society and posts its announcement directly, then I think that is coloring outside the lines.

I would suggest that you contact your Stake Technology Specialist and have him post your information in pdf format as an attachment to a news article on the Stake Web Site. This would be in agreement with church policy and it would also encourage the sisters to use the technologies that the church provides. The stake web site would be visible from all of the wards.