In today’s age of legal awareness, parents, coaches, teams, and players alike need to be aware of some of the laws surrounding recording conversations. In many arenas, fans are not allowed to take audio or video recordings of an event due to the laws surrounding employee contracts and release forms. At other times you may experience the refusal of a facility to allow recording because of privacy laws – for example a hospital, or a community meeting. As a parent or spectator, it can be simple to become more acquainted with this subject, so that your team or league is in compliance with all respective laws.

Oregon is an all-party consent state, which means that everyone involved in the conversation needs to provide their consent or permission for it to be recorded. The basic definition of recording a conversation is to capture audio or video of two or more people. This legally encompasses texting, phone calls, and video chat. In the context of team activities, communications between players or parents at meetings, practices, or games, could all be considered recordings under the law.

In today’s ever increasing technology age, you might think that this means there is no opportunity to record the team’s successes to share with family, friends or keep as a reminder of your child’s successes. For teams, it also means that recording the practice or game to go over with players later is a grey area – is the coach and team required to get permission from all the parents to record practice or the game?

The answer to this question is – yes, and no. If your team has some basic rules in place about recording this will make everyone’s life easier. Players on the team, the parents, and the coaches need to be involved in creating the basic rules that they are all willing to abide by. It could be as simple as discussing it at your next parent-teacher meeting. Players and coaches may not need to be involved in this discussion at your next team workout. However, identify the need for this rule, and make sure that the team communication is clear about the general expectations. In writing up your plan for contacting the parents about the events, it is important to include a reminder about the recording policy. Be direct, be clear, but be gentle.

Many of you have likely seen the outrage due to a few high school coaches recording the players when they have been in the locker room, to share the dressing room antics with the rest of the community as material for a humous video. Is there anything wrong with this? Well, yes and no. Does everyone on the team know that they are being recorded, and do they consent to the recording of themselves? What about the staff or manager of the team? Do they know that this is happening? Would they consent to being part of the video? What is the motives of the team and coaches for showing the analogies with a good natured poking fun at the team?

At the end of the day, what you as a team, parent, or coach must use at all times is common sense. Rather than get too uptight about issues that are not probably going to happen, when probable scenarios come up be prepared to act responsibly, and make the decisions you feel are in everyone’s best interests. If you take the same approach and educate everyone involved in the team, coach, or the management of the facility, you will not only set a great example and avoid running into legal situation altogether. In the end you are talking about protecting the interests of everyone on the team, and making sure that you culture is one that respects each other, and the space we all share.

There are many community organizations that play an integral part of our society that need to be addressed with this information – schools, hospitals and clinics, communities and associations, accountants and more. You are encouraged to take the time to meet with these parties and communicate with them about your needs, the purpose of the recording, and ask how they would like to go about the process of getting everyone’s consent for recording. It will generally go a long way to ensuring everyone is in agreement and there are no unexpected surprises.

As it is always the case, knowing the law is important to cover your bases. The best approach though is to maintain open communication with your community members about the activities you are participating in. When everyone knows that there is communication going on and that everyone is welcome to participate, everyone is happy. For more information on this topic, you can visit this helpful resource.

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