Calendar help for private events

Discussions about the Calendar Tool at lds.org. Questions about the calendar on the classic site should be posted in the LUWS forum.
Gary_Miller
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#21

Post by Gary_Miller »

John I don't think specifying a specific calling is the right thing to do. Who the point of contact for each ward/stake could be different, I would suggest using administrator instead of Exec Secretary as its more general in nature and would cover who ever the unit leaders call.

I don't think there needs to be any verbiage relating to "liaison with the bishop" as this may or may not be required in many units. Most Bishops who I have worked with see no need to micro manage to that level and will just rely on who ever they have appointed to manage the calendar.

For instance in my ward we have just appointed a Calendar Coordinator, Bro. Brown mentioned his stake does the same thing. The Calendar Coordinator, at least in my ward, responsibilities is to train others on the use of the calendar, schedule events on calendars which are not assigned to a specific organizations (such as the private event calendar), work with the building scheduler and other wards in the building to solve conflicts, as well as working with stake calendar administrators to solve any issues relating to the calendar.

The Calendar Coordinator has administration rights so they can add, edit and view events on all calendars, with the exception of the bishopric private calendars. Basically they are the go to person in the ward for anything to do with the calendar. The only draw back is we had to add them as an by name because "Calendar Coordinator" is not on the standard calling list.
russellhltn
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#22

Post by russellhltn »

johnsonth wrote:* Don't contact the building scheduler to create this type of event.

That would depend on how the stake/ward has organized the function. In our case, the Building Scheduler does handle that.

From the various messages I've seen here, I'm led to believe that in most cases it is Building Scheduler is the person who handles family events. But that might only be because that's when the problems start - in that the only right the Building Scheduler has is to create reservations. If it was anyone else, it would be obvious that if they didn't already have rights, that they should have rights to at least one calendar to carry out their calling.

So really, the problems start when the stake designates a building scheduler and nothing else. Because the only tool that person has is to use reservations.

Perhaps a pop-up warning when changing the building scheduler to say that they must have edit rights to at least one calendar would help. I'm not sure what else to suggest unless we want to hard-code a Family Event Calendar.

At least updating the help file is proof "they're doing it wrong" and not "the system is broken".

But, while we're on the subject. Just what is a "Stake building specialist" and why should they be a default admin to the stake calendar? Seems like there's some overlap here.
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jdlessley
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#23

Post by jdlessley »

johnsonth wrote:From what I can tell, the best practices are as follows:

* Don't contact the building scheduler to create this type of event.
* If a building scheduler is contacted, don't create the event as a reservation (because this doesn't reserve the building for a specific group -- it still will allow the building to be available for the ward as a whole).
* Contact the executive secretary, who liaises with the bishop and can secure permission for these type of activities.
* Have the executive secretary schedule this as an event on the Family Calendar.
I like the topic title "Creating Family and Other Private Events". I think the topic should have an opening that outlines the issue. This issue is driven by the need by members to schedule family and other private events at a location. Most ward calendars are created for and around the ward and ward organizations. An additional calendar may be needed to schedule family and other private events. This calendar can be either a ward calendar or a stake calendar. The choice of one or the other has advantages and disadvantages.

I see the best practices as the following:
  • Create and appropriately name a calendar to schedule family and private events.
  • Identify a point of contact for scheduling these events on the calendar. This point of contact must have edit rights for this calendar.
  • The building scheduler should know who the point of contact is for each ward/branch at her/his location.
  • If the building scheduler is the point of contact, she/he should create an event on the family and private events calendar and avoid using a reservation (because this doesn't book the building or rooms/equipment -- it still will allow the building or rooms/equipment to be booked by any calendar editor in the ward for which the reservation is made.)
  • If the building scheduler is the point of contact, the calendar can only be created in her/his ward or it must be created as a stake calendar. A ward calendar is only viewable by members of the building scheduler's ward and members of other wards/branches must use the Calendar week view to see these events (For more information about viewing other ward events see "Concepts:Locations" in Viewing the Calendar in the Calendar Help.).
As discussed in this thread, bullet two can be any number of people or a group of people. The most obvious group would be the default administrators. Identifying someone other than an administrator as the point of contact is a local preference.
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russellhltn
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#24

Post by russellhltn »

jdlessley wrote:An additional calendar may be needed to schedule family and other private events. This calendar can be either a ward calendar or a stake calendar. The choice of one or the other has advantages and disadvantages.

I would not recommend making it a ward calendar unless there will only be one ward meeting there for the foreseeable future. Even then, the Scheduler will have to be a member of that ward.

As a stake calendar, the person may have to be added by name, since ward callings can't be used for rights on a stake calendar. That's the only downside I see.
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russellhltn
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#25

Post by russellhltn »

johnsonth wrote:* If a building scheduler is contacted, don't create the event as a reservation (because this doesn't reserve the building for a specific group -- it still will allow the building to be available for the ward as a whole).

A good starting point that I think we're all in agreement would be to add something to the "Making Reservations" page to indicate that Reservations should NOT be used in place of events. Currently it only has "good examples" but no "bad examples".
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jdlessley
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#26

Post by jdlessley »

RussellHltn wrote:I would not recommend making it a ward calendar unless there will only be one ward meeting there for the foreseeable future. Even then, the Scheduler will have to be a member of that ward.
The statement quoted was a lead in to the best practices. It is a general statement of many possible ways to handle family and private events. Obviously there would have to be further explanation about using a ward calendar as the "Family Events" calendar. I would not recommend a ward calendar either if the building scheduler is the one scheduling the family and private events. I would recommend a stake calendar in that situation. If a ward calendar is used then each ward in a location would all have to be using the same method of scheduling family and private events. A ward calendar would then also have to have a point of contact to enter the event into the ward calendar.

The simplest of all the approaches, to me, is the single stake calendar with building schedulers added as editors.
RussellHltn wrote:As a stake calendar, the person may have to be added by name, since ward callings can't be used for rights on a stake calendar. That's the only downside I see.
While not a downside per se, there is a difficultly in getting some stakes to use a stake calendar for scheduling family and private events. They may not have the vision of how simplified a single stake calendar would be in managing this special need. Our stake has not been convinced to use a single stake calendar. Each location, and actually each ward, is left to their own devices.
JD Lessley
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Gary_Miller
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#27

Post by Gary_Miller »

A ward calendar for each ward would be the best way for a private calendar, managed by a ward administrator, keeping things at the lowest possible level makes for sound management practices.

If you were to put it at the stake level using a building scheduler rights to edit a calendar would make it so people may have to communicate with someone they may not be familiar with. Doing so would be a step backwards from what the new way of calendering is designed to do. It also cause to much micro management.
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tomjoht
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#28

Post by tomjoht »

I made an attempt to update the calendar help around the topics discussed in this thread. See "Scheduling Funerals, Weddings, Family Reunions, and Other Private Events" on the Scheduling Events page.

I may revisit that, but I hope this addresses some of the immediate concerns about having building schedulers schedule events.
Gary_Miller
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#29

Post by Gary_Miller »

john, looks good thank you.
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aebrown
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#30

Post by aebrown »

johnsonth wrote:I made an attempt to update the calendar help around the topics discussed in this thread. See "Scheduling Funerals, Weddings, Family Reunions, and Other Private Events" on the Scheduling Events page.

I may revisit that, but I hope this addresses some of the immediate concerns about having building schedulers schedule events.
The way you've worded this will work great in my stake, since we don't have building schedulers schedule events.

The problem with your categorical advice -- "Do not contact the building scheduler with event requests.... Building schedulers are not calendar editors nor calendar administrators, and they cannot schedule events" -- is that many stakes have chosen to have building schedulers handle requests to schedule private events. It's a natural choice, after all, since the building scheduler is the only person(s) that the Calendar system actually gives regular members contact information for. Such stakes generally set up a calendar (usually a private stake calendar) and give the building scheduler rights to add such events to it.

I know that blurs the roles of building scheduler and calendar editor, but it's not an unreasonable choice, given the way the calendar user interface currently works. And some stakes have very specific policies regarding the scheduling of private events, and the building scheduler is a convenient person who can enforce those policies if all such requests are channeled through him or her.
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