How to explain that I don't feel like being recorded

[Coffeetree]

I'm a trustee for a charity and tonight I'm giving a seminar on an area of my expertise for our volunteers. Online zoom.

They were very keen and sweet about it. They said people from other charities wanted to come, I said sure.

Now even more people want to come but they can't make the time and anyway more people might want to watch it later so they want to record it.

I don't want it to be recorded. I do loads of recorded seminars for my paid job and they're a very different dynamic than the informal question-and-answer session I'm envisioning for this evening.

Plus if other volunteers are involved who knows where the recording will end up.

They're all acting surprised that I said no thanks to a recording.

Is this some new professional norm? There's a rebuttable presumption that everything must be recorded?

Recording it changes the dynamic and I would not agree at short notice as I'd do a different kind of preparation.

We record some meetings in work, other meetings it is said at the beginning no recording (and to check devices like Alexa aren't listening).

If a speaker doesn't agree to be recorded it would reflect very poorly indeed on the charity if one of the audience recorded it anyway.

@Coffeetree

Another example, is in an informal live chat you can be more discursive and spontaneous, saying, "Oh there's this one case where the judge said x". Whereas in a recorded training you need to have the actual citation.

While I still support your right to refuse to be recorded, I don't think you do have to have citations if its a recording of an informal event...I have done a couple of zooms this year about animal first aid. They were presented by very senior specialist vets but were for ordinary pet owners....so similar to your own circs. They were recorded and the link to download shared with attenders. They did mention new research and so on but few or no citations as it was stuff that came up in the Q and A part. What you are doing seems to me to be similar...not recorded training but a recording of a "lets chat about" CAVEAT of course if the charity are expecting you to gift them a recorded training session that they can use as a part of training for future volunteers then that's different.

At first I was going to say that YABU because in my own context and experience recording doesn't affect the dynamic of the live seminar. In my experience the big difference is between in-person and live-online, not between recorded or not-recorded.

But I can see that your context is very different. YANBU.

You could ask for a recording to be deleted after a short time period - enough time for people who've been busy to see it? Or they could make the recording available at a specific time and to the pre-registered audience only?

If a speaker doesn't agree to be recorded it would reflect very poorly indeed on the charity if one of the audience recorded it anyway.

Absolutely. You would need permission from everyone to be recorded, or offer to switch off recording while they are speaking, etc. You cannot record people attending without their consent.

Charities can sometimes be clueless about professional ethics.

I have a lot of experience of teaching online and online learning in general. I also had to manage the ethics of photo taking / recording for a unit I managed at a UK university.

YANBU. Recording the session DOES change the dynamic. A talk intended for recording purposes is quite different to one where you have an informal Q&A. IT is effectively a "published" piece of work, where you would be extra cautious about what you say.

When it is recorded some of the participants may not want to ask "stupid questions", many won't ask anything if it's being recorded. Everyone attending would have to agree to the recording if their names were at all visible.

An audience does not have a right to a recording of the event. You are perfectly reasonable in saying no to this.

As a lecturer I've been teaching online for the last year, and while I did record lectures, my union's advice was that I was not obliged to do so, and that I could have legitimately chosen to give the lecture live on Zoom with no recording available. I also retain copyright over those recordings and can delete them at will. Your organisation does not sound like they've thought these issues through. Also, I didn't record any seminars, i.e. the part most like your talk where the interaction happens, as I knew that - as pp have said - it changes the dynamic and people are reluctant to participate.

I would say, if it's raised, that you agreed to do an informal live talk and a recording takes it into different territory, so it's a no this time. You are doing them the favour. They can't make demands about how it's delivered.

Thanks everyone for the thoughtful responses.

Why can't all threads be like this? 😂

I completely understand where you are coming from - it is an entirely different dynamic to be recorded or not.

Although many work meetings in the past year have been recorded ‘so we can refer back to them later for reference/when writing minutes’ - to the point that people might presume recording everything is now some way ‘standard’, it is not.
There are 2 key differences : 1)meeting recordings within my organisation won’t go further (won’t be shared externally).
2) they are functional work meetings with an agenda, not industry seminars to discuss /explore issues.

As a counterpoint example I recently participated in an online session for an industry working group I have volunteered to be part of. It was not recorded and we were asked to keep the discussion confidential. This means we can have much freer discussion about our topic, what we think needs doing within the working group, and how we propose to go about it!

So I totally get where you are coming from.
And I think you should stand firm in saying no.

OP I agree entirely with your position.

The subject matter & the potentially wide audience reach would certainly be relevant reasons not to record.

I've experience in delivering live / recorded training too; the dynamic of the session is absolutely influenced when a recording is made.

Furthermore, as it is possibly being shared with a wider, unspecified audience it is a concern for those who may contribute, ask questions etc, as they don't know who will ultimately view the recording & their contribution.

Recording sessions is valuable. But it needs to be managed appropriately & with clear guidance around the future use.

I wonder how it resolved for OP @Coffeetree ?
Pretty sure she politely declined to be recorded.
Other PPs came along later in the afternoon on Tuesday to articulate reasons why, so I think it was all helpful

Yeah no tea to share! I didn't get into the reasons though, I just said no thanks.

Things have def changed around recording. Remember in the 90s when making a recording was a big deal and you had to get written waivers and set up equipment? Now it's like unless you're in the toilet you have to assume someone will film you.

YANBU We now have a strict policy of only recording something unless it’s business critical to do so and we’ve gained consent from everyone. It’s unusual that someone objects but on the other hand we’re not recording meetings to quite the same level that we used to in lockdown. I’d ask the question as to why it needs to be recorded and if it does that the link to access is only valid for one week and then all data removed. I’ve seen lots of other organisations do this as well, particularly if it’s an external speaker and there’s potential IP sharing.

I think you’re sensible to refuse. An informal webinar is different to a proper professional recorded video.

You are refusing in order to protect the quality of your work and the professional standards you set for yourself. The organisation I work for provides client services and would 100% refuse recording on these grounds. We’d say that the session is designed to be viewed live and it won’t meet our standards for recording.

When it’s recorded you lose control of it, and who knows what it would be described as.

If you do agree, it should be with caveats about how the session can be described and for how long they can have access to it.

We record teams meetings all the time, it means people who can't make it have the ability to listen at a later date and it keeps a record or what's been discussed

You are absolutely reasonable to refuse for all the reasons already articulated. I’m a lecturer, and it really frustrates me how external organisations assume it’s fine to record, making me feel guilty about refusing.

@Pineapplepyjamas

I think you’re sensible to refuse. An informal webinar is different to a proper professional recorded video.

You are refusing in order to protect the quality of your work and the professional standards you set for yourself. The organisation I work for provides client services and would 100% refuse recording on these grounds. We’d say that the session is designed to be viewed live and it won’t meet our standards for recording.

When it’s recorded you lose control of it, and who knows what it would be described as.

If you do agree, it should be with caveats about how the session can be described and for how long they can have access to it.

This is excellent wording thank you.

OP, do you know about Chatham House Rules?

I quite often attend seminars on this basis.

Trouble is, if you say no, they may just record it on their phones anyway. This idea of recording seems to be the new normal. At least if it’s being ‘officially’ recorded you’ll know and if there’s questions you don’t want to answer you can move on.

YANBU.

It does change the dynamic, you have a right to say no, and you don’t owe them an explanation.

@YouTubeAddict

Trouble is, if you say no, they may just record it on their phones anyway. This idea of recording seems to be the new normal. At least if it’s being ‘officially’ recorded you’ll know and if there’s questions you don’t want to answer you can move on.

Something recorded on a phone, of a presentation online on a laptop, will be rubbish quality & have limited circulation use.

It's massively different to a proper recording via the platform itself, which can be shared, and repurposed in ways the speaker might not feel comfortable with.

Glad it got sorted OP.