How to Assign an Archive Steward
An Archive Steward is the person who will assume ownership of your archive in the event of your death or permanent incapacitation. They will assume ownership when Permanent has been contacted about your passing and your Legacy Plan is activated.
You must be an owner of the archive to assign an Archive Steward for your archive. Learn more about the roles for collaboration and sharing here. You must also designate a Legacy Contact before you are able to designate an archive steward for an archive, so that Permanent knows when to activate your Legacy Plan. Learn more about designating a legacy contact here.
It can also be challenging to decide who to choose as your archive steward, and how to begin talking to them about your legacy plan. You can find advice for choosing someone to be your archive steward here and help with beginning a conversation with them here.
To assign an archive steward for your archive, navigate to the archive settings menu by clicking the drop down next to your archive's name on the left side of the screen, then click Archive Settings.
A new window will appear with different tabs on the left side. Click Legacy Planning. On this page, you will see some instructions for setting up your Archive Steward.
If you have not yet set up your Legacy Contact yet, you will see a message asking you to set that up first. Follow the link to assign a Legacy Contact first.
Click Assign Archive Steward to get started. You'll be taken to a new page where you can enter the email of the person you would like to become your Archive Steward. You can also write a note to your Archive Steward. This note will be sent to them at the time that they take over ownership of your archive, after your death. You can write any instructions or notes you want to leave about your archive for your Archive Steward.
Please note that at this time, your Archive Steward must be a Permanent.org member. If they are not yet a member, you will need to invite them to become a Permanent.org member before assigning them as your Archive Steward.
Once you have finished entering the email of your Archive Steward and any notes you have for them, click Confirm. This will take you to the main Archive Steward screen, where you can see your Archive Steward's email address and the note you have written to them.
If you need to edit or change your Archive Steward or the note to your Archive Steward, you can click Edit Archive Steward to return to the edit screen and make changes.