An Idea....Google Workspace for Non Profits for Ward Leadership

For things that just don't fit anywhere else.
bradhokanson
Church Employee
Church Employee
Posts: 48
Joined: Sun Mar 06, 2011 12:31 pm
Location: Utah, USA

An Idea....Google Workspace for Non Profits for Ward Leadership

#1

Post by bradhokanson »

----DISCLAIMER---OBTAIN ANY/ALL APPROVALS FROM YOUR LEADERSHIP BEFORE TAKING ANY ACTION ON AN IDEA LIKE THE ONE BELOW ----DISCLAIMER---

A while ago, I came up with an idea. Let me give some general background. I have been a Ward Exec. Secretary in 2 wards for over 5 years and for a short time was a Ward Clerk and Exec. Sec simultaneously for about a 6 month time. During this time I was always feeling that there was a better, safer way to provide a framework to Ward Leadership, especially the Bishopric for task management, scheduling, email communication, idea sharing, etc. For a short time I tried to use the Synology's NAS suite of tools like Office, Calendar, DSNotes and their email server and even their Chat service. This had some good points but proved to be just too hard to maintain and the learning curve for those who were not familiar with Synology's tools or mobile apps was steep. Enter Google Workspaces for Non Profits.

About a year ago, I registered a domain name for our Ward, contacted Google and asked if I could enroll that domain in Google Workspace for Non Profits. It took some emails, and some documentation from Church Headquarters confirming our non-tax status but I was successful. Since then I have provided all our Church Aux leaders and our Bishopric with a calling specific email so they could separate personal and church related info, Google Drive space for Docs, Sheet and Slides for their Auxiliary, shared Calendars. I have distribution email lists for Ward Council, Ward Youth Council, Activities Committee, Young Men or Young Women or any other group we put together. Some choose to use the the email provided, some don't and ask me to put their personal email as a secondary to the ward domain email. I have complete control over the security of the data in the Workspace. I have event and access logging. I can put data sharing polices in place, etc. I am toying with the idea of creating custom Chrome profiles to provide a consistent method of access to the data, with bookmarks for other online resources, etc. I created a form for Bishopric interviews so i just send a link to members who fill out the for and automatically get put on a shared calendar for Sunday interviews and create a task for myself to followup with them on Friday to confirm the Sunday appointment. If they want, they can get a calendar invite sent to them for their calendar. I have also put an NFC tag on the Bishop's door for members to get the link if I am not in the Clerk's Office. I am thinking about using the NFC tags and forms in Relief Society and Elders Quorum.

I post this here for a few reasons. 1) Feedback...How else could this be used? I am hoping for whatever diversity is in this group to show its value here with innovative and thought provoking replies. 2) Show an example (if you think this is a good idea)......If you are dealing with ward data (some sensitive) and shared docs spread all over members personal gmail accounts, this is a more secure, controllable way to consolidate it. 3) My own selfish motivations....I want to learn what others have done to solve these types of issues and adopt them where appropriate. 4) The biggest reason of all.....I feel that (at least for me) there needs to be more time spent in Ministering than we do now. I want to spend less time scheduling and more time serving, less time emailing and more time healing.
russellhltn
Community Administrator
Posts: 34384
Joined: Sat Jan 20, 2007 2:53 pm
Location: U.S.

Re: An Idea....Google Workspace for Non Profits for Ward Leadership

#2

Post by russellhltn »

I've got two concerns: One, you're now responsible for the security of personal information. If there's a data breach, it's entirely possible you're going to get thrown under the bus as the church tries to protect it's deep pockets.

Secondly, there's legal implications when storing information electronically instead of randomly and/or on paper. I know at least at the Federal Government level, any systems with PII have to go though a Privacy Impact Assessment, while paper records are exempt.

Bottom line, the technical is straightforward. It's the legal you need to watch out for as it will guide the technical. When it comes to legal, too many techies don't even know what they don't know. (A blind spot they're not aware that they have.)
Have you searched the Help Center? Try doing a Google search and adding "site:churchofjesuschrist.org/help" to the search criteria.

So we can better help you, please edit your Profile to include your general location.
caillines
Member
Posts: 285
Joined: Sun Dec 14, 2008 6:09 pm
Location: Australia

Re: An Idea....Google Workspace for Non Profits for Ward Leadership

#3

Post by caillines »

As well as Russell's comments about the legal side of things, as well as church policy side of things...

What are your plans for when you are released?
bradhokanson
Church Employee
Church Employee
Posts: 48
Joined: Sun Mar 06, 2011 12:31 pm
Location: Utah, USA

Re: An Idea....Google Workspace for Non Profits for Ward Leadership

#4

Post by bradhokanson »

@caillines, that is a very valid question. Barring any unforeseen issues, I don't think I will be released any time soon (meaning within the next 3 or so years). I have been in the calling for about 2 years so far but who knows. I have always figured that I would provide whatever help I could in any capacity I could. There is already a load of documentation on Google Workspaces specifically, and I find many members are quite comfortable with Gmail, Google Drive and the Google suite of office apps.

I replied to @russellhltn's questions yesterday in a PM, but for transparity's sake, my reply is below in italics. It's been edited a bit but not significantly.

Thanks russellhltn, I honestly do appreciate your comments.

These were both concerns when I started this "idea." I decided though, that if I "knew better" I should "do better" so that is my hope in going forward.

From the technical side, I am comfortable putting security controls in place that are appropriate for the kind of data we have. Honestly I think the security controls I have already applied are much more than what the average member or church leader would have on their personal accounts. In a way I believe I am raising the security expectations we should have of members and local church leaders regarding this type of data.

From the legal side, I believe that the risk I am personally assuming is minimal. I don't store any "significant" PII (SSN, Financial or HIPAA data) Just the run of the mill type stuff the normal member would find in LDS Tools.

Thanks,

Brad
BrianEdwards
Senior Member
Posts: 1056
Joined: Sun Oct 30, 2016 10:42 pm
Location: Michigan

Re: An Idea....Google Workspace for Non Profits for Ward Leadership

#5

Post by BrianEdwards »

Although it's good to be "comfortable" with your personal judgement, I definitely would consult with at least the Stake President to get approval on any non-standard electronic data storage (your OP states that leaders should be consulted, I just am clarifying that the local unit leader is not enough in my mind). And I would be careful with skirting around the edges of what's approved.

Not that it's necessarily wrong to do something like this, but the safeguards exist in part to protect you and the Church from unexpected consequences. Often two pieces of innocent data, when stored together, become problematic, and even if appropriate controls are in place it might not be an approved method. I personally think it would be good to let the Stake President know not only the general idea of what you're doing, but also specifics. That way if any issues arise down the road (you never know), it's all out in the open and approved.

Again, your OP does state that disclaimer, but I've seen a lot of similar types of posts over the years in the Forum, and I don't remember many of them saying that they had the Stake President's approval already. So I'm interested in knowing how many of these "good ideas" actually ever get approved by their own Stake President, or if people just keep doing them without actually getting approval...
bradhokanson
Church Employee
Church Employee
Posts: 48
Joined: Sun Mar 06, 2011 12:31 pm
Location: Utah, USA

Re: An Idea....Google Workspace for Non Profits for Ward Leadership

#6

Post by bradhokanson »

Good points @BrianEdwards! I have spoken with the Stake President and he is aware we are using it on a Ward level. I have purchased a domain that could be used on a Stake level but are not using it yet and as my calling is a Ward calling, anything on a Stake level would go to others to administer after a detailed discussion regarding security controls and appropriate use.
omegalds
New Member
Posts: 6
Joined: Tue Apr 18, 2023 6:41 pm

Re: An Idea....Google Workspace for Non Profits for Ward Leadership

#7

Post by omegalds »

So I was just called as the TS for my ward. My profession is IT and Network Administration. One of my first thoughts when my bishop explained the vision he had for the ward immediately brought my thoughts to this and just now happened to find this forum. My bishop and I are about to call church headquarters to get our 501c3 info to submit to Google so we could get the non-profit business workspace. I have gone through the process with a conservation organization that I co-founded. I was hesitant on proceeding because I was not sure on how our non-profit status would work with google as far as setting up our ward if another ward had already gotten approved with google for this? does google do just the Ward as the organization or does it take the church in as a whole? My Bishop is already contacting our Stake pres. on this but since I saw this posted I thought I would ask here. @bradhokanson
My ward also already has a domain and website as well.
Last edited by omegalds on Tue Apr 18, 2023 6:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.
mdigi
New Member
Posts: 19
Joined: Wed Apr 19, 2023 2:39 am

Re: An Idea....Google Workspace for Non Profits for Ward Leadership

#8

Post by mdigi »

Hello,

I came across your thread and joined the forum so I could comment on your post:

There are many technology related innovations that can be envisioned to assist with serving in the Church.
However, as @russellhltn mentioned earlier in this thread, data security and data privacy laws are HUGE issues to consider.
Legislation (for these two issues alone) can vary from country to country (and even from state to state/province to province, etc. within the same country) and are subject to change at any time.

I don't have the Church Handbook handy, but I believe it effectively states that Church data should NOT be made available to any software except the official/approved Church software systems. Following this restriction will help protect you (and/or whoever makes Church data available) from any legal repercussions should an inadvertent data security/data privacy issue arise.

Other thoughts:
Some members don't want any of their information stored on (e.g. popular Cloud based systems)
When you are released someday, your replacement will have to pick up where you left off. If they don't have the same training and background you do, things will fail.
Failures lead to data security and data privacy issues.
Ideally, you'd be able to help your replacement understand your custom system, but if you (e.g. move unexpectedly) that may not be option.
Your replacement's potential lack of experience/ background training may lead to more security/privacy issues.
(Or you'll be tempted to try and remotely train them via screen share software which [may lead to more security/privacy issues...])

In summary, I'm sure your ward/stake will benefit from your IT & Network Admin skills and I'd definitely recommend you share your thoughts/suggestions with the Church via their Feedback facilities, but I would not venture to moving data outside of the approved systems.

- A brother who works (outside the church) as a software engineer and is all too familiar with the necessity and headaches of data security and data privacy
BrianEdwards
Senior Member
Posts: 1056
Joined: Sun Oct 30, 2016 10:42 pm
Location: Michigan

Re: An Idea....Google Workspace for Non Profits for Ward Leadership

#9

Post by BrianEdwards »

As this remains of interest to Forum members, has anyone actually followed GHB 33.9.1.3 and contacted the DataPrivacyOfficer email listed there? I know the O.P. states that they received some "documentation from Church Headquarters confirming our non-tax status ", but I'm interested if anyone can speak of a specific response they received from the Church about this type of data implementation. I'm not convinced that simply getting the Church to confirm tax-exemption, is enough to also then have the okay to start storing member data in a domain. Even if a custom implementation would be ten times better protected than the data the Church has on their own systems, if it's not approved for use, then it doesn't matter how safe it would be.
bradhokanson
Church Employee
Church Employee
Posts: 48
Joined: Sun Mar 06, 2011 12:31 pm
Location: Utah, USA

Re: An Idea....Google Workspace for Non Profits for Ward Leadership

#10

Post by bradhokanson »

With the 3 recent posts, I figured I should reply to everyone in the thread. And for the sake of transparency, I did reply to BrianEdwards, mdigi, and omegalds individually.

These are all great questions and concerns and although I can go into more detail about how I am using Google Workspace for Non Profits and the security controls and processes I use, I think BrianEdwards asked the right question of has anyone really asked Privacy about this type of setup. I am not aware of anyone in the Forums who has done so but I certainly don't mind asking. I will ask, find out what I can and post what is appropriate here when I get more info.

I think open discussion and conversation like this is healthy and needed. I welcome the feedback on things I might have missed or didn't consider. It gives us more information to make better decisions.

Brad
Post Reply

Return to “Other Meetinghouse Technologies”