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Policy Summary
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To make administration easier for our missionaries worldwide,
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Reliant accepts legally binding approval from our missionaries via electronic means such as email or being logged in to web applications. These kind of approvals are in lieu of a traditional "pen and ink" signature. This makes administration easier for our missionaries worldwide, Such "signatures" need to meet two conditions: |
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Common Examples: an email from a verified Reliant.org email account and a missionary saying |
"I approve this change." |
or a missionary logged in to a web application, who submits online while logged in and stored as a record in our database. As of the 2015 update of this policy, Reliant can no longer accept e-signatures from a personal email account. |
Background and What's New
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- Identity is now primarily validated via a Reliant issued account with a password, which means
- Manually typing a list of information is no longer required, because we know who the missionary is if they are logged in
- Logging in or sending via a valid reliant.org account / email addresses is required and non-reliant accounts (e.g. a personal gmail account) can't be accepted
- Electronic approval is now also common outside of email, for instance, within web applications, CRM recorded records, when logged in via ReliantID on our websites, or via a Google for Non-Profts account when submitting spreadsheet, form or online comment that includes identity and timestamp.
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Benefits
- Make thing easier for our worldwide missionary staff and staff supervisors when submitting Reliant information, approval, documents and or forms to the Headquarters office.
- Save costs for the ministry
- Match federal regulations and best practices
- Increase efficiency of our office staff staff by skipping a paper step, which must be converted to electronic storage
Definitions
ELECTRONIC RECORD. The term means a record created, generated, sent, communicated, received, or stored by electronic means.
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PARTY — Any other non-missionary external party who is communicating with Reliant staff for the purposes of approval, such as a local church partner, supervisor, vendor, etc.
Process Details
Attached Documents
- A document or form in Word, Excel, or PDF formats can include an indication of missionary approval (Condition 2) but must be sent from a Reliant account to indicate identity (Condition 1)
- Typing a full name or fund number inside a Word, Excel, or PDF document does not provide sufficient indication of identity
- The internal process to record the submission should include the attachment document and some record of the received email to verify identity.
Google Account Documents
A Google document, spreadsheet, or form submitted submitted from a verified @reliant.org Google Account verifies identity (Condition 1).
Date and Time
Accepted documents or records should generally include the date they were approved and date received (if different).
- For email or electronic documents, this is nearly always recorded automatically and it is not required to have a "date" field alongside a signature inside a document.
- For manually signed ("pen and ink") documents, a date field is required, and internal processes should take care to note the date received if different.
Verified Services
A Reliant-verified account is any that
- Uses a password or other secure login technology and
- Is issued, managed, and revoked by Reliant Tech Services based on Missionary Resources or Human Resources verification
In August 2015, this is currently
Verified Services for Field Missionaries
- ReliantID, our own independant login system currently used for gcmweb.org, gcmstaff.net, gcmcoach.net, gcmdev.net, mygcm.org, reliantstaff.gcmweb.org, and the future Reliant.org and events.reliant.org.
- Google Reliant Account
Verified Services for Office Staff
Both accounts above, and
- Microsoft Active Directory account + Exchange email (Outlook)
- Atlassian account for JIRA and Solomon (Confluence)
- Atlassian Hipchat
Traditional
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Approvals Still Accepted
Reliant still accepts traditional methods of approval including:
Reliant will accept an email from the signer of the form or document to serve as a valid signature. Reliant will also accept a form or document that is electronically attached to an email. The email and/ or the attached form or document must:
• Identify and authenticate the particular person as the source of the message (see below), and
• Clearly indicates the person’s approval of the information, form or document they are intending to electronically “sign”.
NOTE: If the form or document attached to the email includes the e-signer's authenticating and identifying information (see below) on the actual document, then email itself does not need to duplicate the identifying info. The email from the sender needs to be kept as additional supporting proof of authentication of the e-signed form or document.
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- Original pen and ink signature on form or document and personally submitted (with date received clearly marked by Reliant office personnel)
- or sent via postal mail.
- Scanned document or form with pen and ink signature
- Sent via email
- Uploaded or digitally transmitted by other means
- Faxed document with pen and ink signature
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Policy Statement
Reliant will allow an electronic approval "signature" to be accepted as a valid replacement of a traditional pen and ink signature for forms and documents used and processed by the Reliant office.
Authentication and Identification - OFFICE STAFF ONLY
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Email Sent from Non-Reliant Account
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Reasonably know the identity of the party.
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To make things easy for you, Reliant can accept your approval ("signature") electronically. Please reply to this email. Guidelines:
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This required information above can also be entered directly by the provider onto the actual form or document. The form or document can then be attached to an email. This method will also serve as a valid electronic signature (as mentioned in the Policy Statement above).
Prior Application of Policy
Form and documents that were accepted by the Reliant office with electronic signatures prior to the adoption of this Policy will still be considered valid. As long as the acceptance was The acceptance must be after June 30, 2000 – this was the enactment date of the ESIGN Act.
Exceptions
Forms on which Reliant will allow an electronic signature.
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V. Event Forms
• All Reliant Liability, Release, Medical Permission Waiver forms
• All Reliant Medical Disclosure Forms
Forms on which Reliant will NOT allow an electronic signature (must still be hand-signed).
The following Reliant forms must be submitted with an actual signed signature:
- Employee Handbook Acknowledgement
- I-9 Form
- W-4 Withholding Form
- Statement of Faith Agreement
- LifeLink Signup Form
- 401(k) Beneficiary Enrollment Form – initial enrollment only
Important Note: If desired, the form can also be hand-signed first, and then a valid copy of the signed form can be e-mailed as a PDF attachment or faxed to the Reliant Office.
