In the event of an untimely death or incapacitiation of root administrator, what are the procedures for authorizing a new person to take over?

Gary,

We require an obituary, either mailed in or a URL to a newspaper article. The Root Admin can reassign the Root Admin responsibilities by adding additional administrators, then choosing a new Root Admin from the PREFERENCES link (only seen by the Root Admin).

Gary has a good question.

I'd like to have a place to input information - naming someone to either take over or to find someone to take over. Of course, the necessary documents as you noted above would be necessary OR a notarized form from someone with a medical power of attorney should the Root Admin be unable to continue due to health issues. It wouldn't hurt for us to give CC someone to contact 'in case of emergency.'

If this were written with protection for the current Root Admin and CC, I would happily complete it with a digital signature. It could be placed under Admin Functions.

Just a thought.

Well, as we know, I don't do things accordingly, but I have a very trusted classmate that knows my password and can become me in event I am disabled or die suddenly. I personally trained her and I trust her ethics completely. But if there is a procedure that we come up with...after all, this is going to happen.....I would like to know what it is!

DKD

This is a scenario in which it is really up to the Root to make his or her own arrangements. This is a very rarely occurring event, and the needs are simple enough that it doesn't seem to make sense to invest the time and effort to work out the details of what to build and how to make it operate.

Kyle Erickson wrote:

I guess I don't quite understand this. If I, the Root Admin, die, then somebody else has to send you my obit. What do you do with it? Do you assign another Root Administrator? I obviously can't assign somebody else. How do we get a new Root Admin?

Jim

It would be someone that wants to take control of the website. They must research out your obituary to prove your death or we don't allow them to take over your site.

We have had people claim that the Root Admin died in order to take control of the website from the Root Admin when the Root Admin is very much alive. So we require the link to the obituary to prove it.

We don't do anything with the obituary except look at it and see if it is valid.

Hi,
I see Kyle"s point but I'm more inclined to do what Denise said. Of course ours is a small school, but I appointed a co-administrator specifically because I knew I was going to have some surgeries before the reunion date. So as I 'do' and 'learn' how to manage the site, I usually explain it to her and she practices it once with me. By the way, Kyle, thank you for the explanation and the 'how to' concerning the homepage. It worked beautifully.
I do understand about the obit, especially since the monthly fee would then have to be withdrawn from someone else's account.
Barbara

Kyle Erickson wrote:

An obit is fine IF there is one. I know of three friends who passed and there was no obit... confirmed by the families. So that is not going to work in all situations, Kyle. Right now, I doubt there will be one when I am gone.

As to Eric's reply, would adding a page for all root admins that stores as the rest of the pages on our sites be that time consuming or difficult? It would be great for us to have available to update, if we wish.

Maybe we need to work on something to hide on our sites. There is no guarantee of obits, family members being in contact with CC and/or other admins/classmates being able to contact our family members. As harsh as this sounds... some family members simply do not care or will be lost in grief for some time. It is a wide range of emotions that I know all too well.

For now, I'll work on something for my sites. Just another thing to add to the list. Once it in place, I certainly hope it will be honored, if needed.

Thought I would chime-in on this topic too. I think it would be “worth it” to add a paragraph size box on the root admin’s private profile somewhere, for designation of a possible new root admin or at least a suggestion of a possible temporary root admin should something happen to the current root admin, PLUS contact information (phone, address & email) for maybe three friends or family members (with labels of relationship to the root admin) for CC to contact to verify status of current listed root admin. Otherwise, CC will have a lot of work on their hands trying to dig up information to verify (probably have to access facebook for contacts information). Meanwhile, if no other admin (or site member) steps up to the plate to press CC to verify, the site could expire if domain name fees or CC fees are due and not paid, and that would be a loss not only to CC, but more importantly, to all the members of the site.
Thanks for the opportunity to share!
Marla Percifield Bryan
miry.clay@cox.net or marla_bryan@cox.net
www.whhs81.com and www.whjets1982.com

We can do this. I suggest we put it on the Preferences page under the Root Admin option. All in favor? We'd still have to verify a Root Admin is deceased though. Unfortunately as Kyle stated we had an incident where such a claim was made while the Root Admin was alive and well. You just never know... So we'd still need an obit or at least something that suggests a Root Admin has passed away. Other than that one time this really hasn't been an issue. If there's no obit somebody here at CC will make a judgement call that I'm sure will be correct nearly 100% of the time.

Thanks, Brad. I'm in favor.
Nearly 100% works for me. If I come back after a report, I'll understand.

Death is something that could happen to anyone at anytime, and there is also the possibility of the root administrator becoming very ill, hospitalized, etc., where the root admin would not have computer access, or not be able to make changes. As someone already said, many are not having obits now. And of course in the case of serious illness, there needs to be a way for someone else to take over as root admin. This will not be priority to family! I just had a friend that went to the doctor, and was sent straight to the hospital. Within 2 days he was moved to Hospice, and was gone within days. Accidents and disasters happen everyday. In the past, when I have had surgery, I've shared my passwords with a close friend that I could trust (and also a computer geek, so she could handle things for me.) I strongly believe there should be a way for another administrator to be able to gain full access to the website in the event of such issues (and an obit is not the answer.)

Belinda,

You say " I strongly believe there should be a way for another administrator to be able to gain full access to the website in the event of such issues (and an obit is not the answer.)"

Any suggestions?

Thanks for commenting, Belinda.

Kyle, If I may... I believe I suggested something when the thread was active some time ago.

I have two suggestions:
1) A comment box to input the information... for the ROOT only to complete.

(I would have suggested we add it to the ADMIN NOTES section of our own profiles but admins with Classmate Profile access could change it. That is not an option.)

2) The Root should add their wishes to ADMIN FORUMS and PASSWORD PROTECT the thread. CC would be able to see this to confirm.

Somehow, this information should be on the site, input by the ROOT and viewed only by Class Creator and the ROOT.

Wait, I scrolled up and see Brad answered this earlier. Oops. CC making a judgment call (try calling my cell first, please )... is fine with me.

Gwen Corey wrote:

Admin Notes would work as only the root admin can access any area of the root admins "profile." However, I prefer Brad's idea of putting it under Preferences because if someone took over as root admin they would be more apt to realize that naming a replacement is something that should be done and that this was the place to do it.

I agree, Fred!