Aisquith Internet Ministries and this purpose, policy, and procedure statement are subordinate to the by-laws of Aisquith Presbyterian Church. If any part of this statement conflicts or contradicts the Church by-laws, the by-laws will take precedence.
All content, design, and access is at the sole discretion of the webmaster, subject to these policies and procedures, the church by-laws, and the Session of Aisquith Presbyterian Church.
Purposes
- To glorify God
- To serve His people
- To protect the Church: its reputation, its public image, its brand, and its information – public, proprietary, and confidential. To steward these things as one would manage any other valuable gift from God.
To Glorify God – We will strive to glorify God through the following:
- Presentation of Information – We will present information in a factual, non-opinionated, and non-emotional fashion. The content of our site will never be controversial or inflammatory, as ultimately determined by the Session. All content must adhere to the doctrinal standards of the Presbyterian Church in America.
- Design – We will strive to keep our website in compliance with existing standards of compatibility with a wide variety of operating systems and web browsers. We will strive to make our website compatible with devices and programs which make it easier for those with physical challenges to access our information. We will strive to make our site visually appealing, easy to use, and organized in a logical fashion.
To serve His people:
- Timely posting of information.
- Accessibility to those who wish to utilize Aisquith Internet Ministries in order to promote a ministry.
- Open to suggestions and ideas about the improvement of purpose, policies and procedures.
- Commitment to protection of confidential information – we have had a privacy policy for several years, a copy of which is attached.
- We will take our responsibility as stewards of information seriously, and project this commitment to a watching world.
To protect the Church: its reputation, its public image, its brand or name, and its information:
- Its reputation – we protect the church’s reputation when we strive for excellence in all the above areas. Our site should be reliable, timely, and factual.
- Its public image – a site which is obsolete or poorly designed from an aesthetics standpoint reflects badly on our church as does a site which is non-compatible with many browsers or which contains out of date information. Non-factual information or information which is contrary to God’s word, controversial content, emotional or editorial content reflects badly on our church. Many times the website is the first thing potential visitors see or hear. We will strive to show a respect for God’s word, His people, and the end users by committing to excellence in regards to our public image.
- Its brand or name – it is human nature to associate a brand or name with a product or institution. This association is something which can be managed and stewarded like any other asset. We will protect the brand through consistency across ministry websites: all Aisquith ministries desiring to use or be linked to our website must use a sub-domain of aisquith.org. In any place where the Aisquith name is displayed on our website, all efforts will be made to conform to similar typeface and design to our letterhead and the sign on our lawn.
- Its information – We have existing procedures in place via our privacy policy for the protection of information. Information which needs to be protected falls under the following: confidential – that which pertains to our members and regular attendees; proprietary, which may or may not pertain to members but which may be of a non-public nature; and public, which is generally defined as that which is non-confidential and non-proprietary. We protect our confidential information through adherence to the church by-laws and to the published privacy policy on our website.
In addition controls are in place as follows:
- Passwords and systems access may not be shared with any person not specifically authorized by the web-master. Passwords should be changed regularly. Access to all website related systems are assigned to users on an as-needed basis and may be revoked for any reason, to include non-use, inappropriate use, or if it is discovered that they have shared access or passwords with others.
- Ministries which desire their own web page must agree to access and editorial oversight, as determined by the web-master, and host their page on Aisquith’s servers using an approved platform, such as Serendipity or WordPress. Blogger is available to those who agree to use an Aisquith sub-domain, and who agree to the use of the existing Aisquith Blogger Dashboard which, while not hosted on Aisquith’s servers, does allow for full access and editorial control.
- Email – Aisquith email addresses are available to any officer or ministry leader who expresses a need for one. The email address can be a mailbox with a user name and a password, or it may be a forwarding address, which has no capability to send emails but only to forward email messages to the address of the end-users choosing. Aisquith email access should never be used to send information which could be considered SPAM, should never be used to conduct illegal or immoral activities, or activities which would tarnish the reputation of the church, and should never be shared with others.
- Back-ups – regular content and database backups should be performed and stored off-site.
- Contingency and disaster recovery – all information contained on our servers is backed up and stored in a remote location for restoration should a disaster occur. A master password file is currently maintained and is in the possession of two individuals other than the webmaster.