Annual ward history template?

[russellhltn]

It might be time to change the policy on getting permission slips. I see a lot of photos online and in church magazines and the Church News of large groups of members and nonmembers. I doubt they have everyone sign a slip

The underlying issue is ward leaders unwittingly creating legal liability for the church. I'm sure Church News and Church magazines are handled by professionals who make sure any legal issues are dealt with. Issues that may be a little too nuanced to trust to members to understand and follow.

[sbradshaw]

I started a stake Facebook page where members can post photos of events. I think this may help with the annual history, if I want to include some of them. I don’t know if you would still need to get permission to use photos if they are already in the public domain

To make sure there's not confusion about terminology – "public domain" is not the same as "posted online." Public domain is a legal term for works that are no longer bound by copyright; in the United States, it usually means that the work was published 95 or more years ago (1924 is the current cut-off date) and the copyright is now expired. Putting something online does not make it public domain, unless the creator of the work, who owns all rights to the work, explicitly declares that they are putting the work in public domain and waiving their natural copyright. Alternatively, the person who took the photo can give permission for their work (photo in this case) to be used for specific purposes without waiving their copyright – which is more common.

Privacy laws have to be evaluated separately from copyright laws. The creator of the work (photographer, or organization that contracted the photographer) can grant copyright permission to use the work, but they can't grant full rights to use the work because of separate privacy laws that protect living people. Privacy laws in the United States have exceptions for photos taken in public places and at public events, which gives leeway for reporters. (Note that a Church activity is not necessarily a public event, even if a lot of people were invited.)

[kerrybird]

I agree that including photos involves some risk. Maybe adding a reference somewhere in the annual history to the stake or ward Facebook page would allow the reader a way to access photos without including them.
After serving nine years as a stake clerk, I appreciate all of the changes that have made reporting paperless and mobile friendly. I think it would be great to submit the annual history online, similar to the way we submit stake conference reports, with the ability to review previous years. This would also make it easier for the stake presidency to read it, instead of handing him a large folder of ward histories to review and sign.

[scgallafent]

I agree that including photos involves some risk. Maybe adding a reference somewhere in the annual history to the stake or ward Facebook page would allow the reader a way to access photos without including them.

The lifetime of the annual history documents is likely to be longer than the lifetime of any web sites to which they would refer. Someone going back to that history ten, twenty, or fifty years from now would be disappointed at the loss of that information.

[JohnCalvinSheppard]

Really enjoyed reading all the comments. It is obvious to me that the Church has not gotten it down to a fine art of writing Church Histories yet. I think that the Church will develop an on line system of retaining Histories and refine what is important and what is recorded for interest. Annual History Specialist and Advisers should ask the question as to what purpose does this event need recording. Why - other than a commandment - do we have Histories. I don't think the church gives us specific examples because they do not want all histories to be exactly alike and thus those who are assigned the responsibility don't really know what is expected (even though the Church has given good advice on the Church website). If you can see several other histories who have have done a reasonable job then it becomes a lot easier to understand what is expected. To me it is a lot like writing a book. If you don't have any good or interesting examples it would take a lot of goes to make it to the top sellers list. For me I believe we should be looking at the Three Fold Purpose of the Church: The exaltation of God, The edification of the saints and The evangelization of the world and ask the question what did we do to obtain these three goals. Or you could attach your history to progress the Area's Goals for that year. Pictures and stores are great for sparking memories and promoting stronger testimonies or reminding us why we are members, but if Church History is for the purpose of helping us recognize our mistakes, improving performance and motivating us towards perfection then it becomes a totally different work.

Having said this I think that apathy has been shown on behalf of many (but not all) of those who have been called to do the task. I think we know about the past history of man because someone wrote it down or recorded it somehow. Memories of the past should serve as a guide to our future to assist us in becoming more successful in all we do. Memories help us to identify the good times and the bad. They help us to improve our performance and set goals to work towards.

Not to judge, but rather just an observation, is that many that are called as the historians do not see the need or understand the importance of a Ward/Stake History and are not invited to attend the Ward Councils where achieving Ward/Stake/Regional goals should be discussed. Having said all this, finding someone that would enjoy the calling would be hard mostly because these individuals are usually already in leadership roles. Thank goodness that the Lord is patient with us and any effort to obeying his commandments is appreciated and blessed.

The Good Sheppard Down Under

[chriswoodut]

I use pictures in our history and don't try to get permission slips. I know there are plenty here that will disagree with me and quote the handbook. Nobody has ever said boo to me about the photos. Maybe they are stripping them out later. In my opinion, in the days of selfies and social media, if you let your picture get taken and posed for it, you've by default at least been aware that someone took the photo for some purpose.

I wouldn't be surprised if someone is deleting my photos.

[russellhltn]

I use pictures in our history and don't try to get permission slips. I know there are plenty here that will disagree with me and quote the handbook. Nobody has ever said boo to me about the photos.

Looking over Church History Guides: Stake, District, and Mission Annual Histories, it says "If possible, obtain a signed Permission to Use Photographs form for every photograph or audiovisual production included in the annual history."

Taking a wild guess, but the lack of permission would probably mean the photos can't be made public until it's reasonably certain that everyone photographed is dead and/or the copyright has expired.