Tech Forum

Hi, as a stake leader, I am not able to view other ward calendars in our stake besides that of my own ward. I'm seen the previous threads/posts describing how one might view availability of a building via a building calendar. However, we are needing to see what activities different wards may have planned in order to coordinate stake activities. With the "classic" calendars we were able to simply navigate to each ward's homepage and view their calendars. Why are we not able to do the same with the new calendar system? Shouldn't stake leaders have the ability to view all ward calendars in order to know what activities are taking place in the stake?

This has been discussed multiple times. See these threads:

• Can you access another ward's calendar in the stake?
• Stake leaders viewing ward calendars
• Viewing other ward calendars via the new calendar system (this is one that you started)
• Need an Adminstrator View
• Access to all Ward/Branch calendars within Stake by Stake/District
• This post
• Viewing ward calendars as a stake administrator (this is another one that you started)

Yes, thank you for pulling up my previous posts. I guess I should simply go back to those and see if there is a solution yet, rather than continuing to ask the same question and getting the same answer that there is no solution. Why would we create a calendar system that does not allow stake leaders to view all calendars? The methods described of relying on "building calendars" are not workable or reliable solutions as not all ward/stake activities occur at/in ward buildings. If we need to adjust a stake event due to circumstances changing, we are not able to deconflict with the wards because we are not able to view their calendars. True, we can make calls, send emails and hope that the hard-copy calendars wards turned into the stake back in January have not changed. But this is not efficient, realistic and defeats the purpose of being a "stake administrator..." I continue to ask this question because it continues to be a problem...and there continues to not be a solution. Maybe we should encourage all our units to return to the classic calender system which allows stake leaders to view ward calendars. thank you.

colbyj wrote:Why would we create a calendar system that does not allow stake leaders to view all calendars?

It's a question of priorities. No one is saying that stake leaders should not be able to view ward calendars. In fact, we have been told that such a feature is planned.

As I see it, the current calendar provides 90% of the functionality that 90% of the units need. For the remaining useful functionality, we'll just have to be patient while the Church prioritizes work for its limited development resources. In the meantime, I find the new Calendar to be very usable, in spite of a few hassles such as the one you are discussing in this thread.

colbyj wrote:Maybe we should encourage all our units to return to the classic calender system which allows stake leaders to view ward calendars. thank you.

I would strongly advise against that. The last we heard, the classic calendar would be in service through 2011. We are living on borrowed time in that regard. I know that the hardware that hosts the current Classic site takes extra time and money to keep running, so the Church really wants to discontinue it. It could be discontinued at any time. There's no future in going back to the Classic calendar.

ok, thank you.

colbyj wrote: Maybe we should encourage all our units to return to the classic calender system which allows stake leaders to view ward calendars. thank you.

Or, think of other options like this suggestion in the help files:

If wards need to increase the visibility of their calendars to share the calendars across wards, they should create the calendars as stake calendars. (You can edit your calendar's settings by going to Settings > Calendars). This way every ward in the stake can view the calendar.

kisaac wrote:Or, think of other options like this suggestion in the help files:

That's a very ugly suggestion if applied to every ward calendar in the stake. I'm pretty sure it was meant to apply only to a few exceptional calendars (such as when two wards share a Cub Scout program). If every ward calendar became a stake calendar, you'd lose the ability to set editor permissions by calling, and calendar administration would be a nightmare. But if stake visibility into ward calendars is the most important thing in the world to you, I suppose you might be willing to endure that pain.

aebrown wrote:But if stake visibility into ward calendars is the most important thing in the world to you, I suppose you might be willing to endure that pain.

I'm not sure every stake member would be able to endure such pain!

The calendar is constantly an issue for our Stake as well. We meet at the Stake Center, and have no way, as a ward to reserve rooms/building, because it is controlled by the Stake Executive Secretary/Clerks. We should be able to setup reservations without the requirement of going through the Stake Executive Secretary each time. He's a great Brother, however, it's just one more layer of red tape, and makes the process that much more cumbersome. Apparently, in Ward Buildings, Ward leaders can do this on their own, so it makes sense that Ward leaders assigned to a Stake Center should be able to do the same. At least at that point, we would be able to see most/some of the activities that are going on across the Stake. At the moment, they get double booked all of the time, and we run into issues monthly.

jrobertfisher wrote:We meet at the Stake Center, and have no way, as a ward to reserve rooms/building, because it is controlled by the Stake Executive Secretary/Clerks.

What exactly do you mean by a "reservation"? Ward leaders should be able to schedule events on their own calendar. Are they not able to "book" the rooms and locations at the same time?

The word "Reservation" has specific meaning in the new calendar system - and many misunderstand it. Reservations are not done for events, but for units.