Why have a building scheduler?

[TinMan]

I understand the point, but my answer stands IF the building is using the Reservations feature. In my scenario, there is simply no way for Ward B to have an event on its calendar that books the cultural hall on the 1st Tuesday of July if there is an existing reservation for Ward A reserving the cultural hall on the 1st Tuesday of each month. A building scheduler is the only person who can adjust the event for Ward B to override the reservation for Ward A (even a stake admin cannot).

Sorry. I assumed too much I guess. I assumed that Ward B could call ward A and say "Hey you have the building reserved on the first Tuesday in July. We would like to have an elders quorum party. Are you really using it?" If they say "No, go ahead," then I could put an event on my ward calendar with NO LOCATION and it would still appear on my calendar.

I would assume ward A would put a "Ward B Elders Quorum Party" event on some private calendar they have and it would book the cultural hall and not appear on any of their ward calendars.

I didn't know that a reservation made it so I could not even put informational things on my ward calendars.

Guess I was wrong.

[aebrown]

Sorry. I assumed too much I guess. I assumed that Ward B could call ward A and say "Hey you have the building reserved on the first Tuesday in July. We would like to have an elders quorum party. Are you really using it?" If they say "No, go ahead," then I could put an event on my ward calendar with NO LOCATION and it would still appear on my calendar.

I didn't know that a reservation made it so I could not even put informational things on my ward calendars.

Guess I was wrong.

No, you're right that you could put informational items on your ward calendar. But that can be a risky practice.

In this scenario, that would mean that when Ward A says that Ward B can go ahead and use the building, neither ward would have an event that truly books the building on that date. Someone looking at the building usage would then see no event on that date. That means (among other things) that the Ward A Beehive class (who may not have been involved in the discussion where Ward B called Ward A for permission) could go right ahead and book the cultural hall on that date. It could get a bit awkward when the Ward A Beehives and the Ward B elders both show up at the same time.

Sure, you can have understandings that are "off the books," but that can easily lead to confusion, since it's pretty difficult to make sure that everyone knows about these side agreements. It's much safer to put everything on the one system of record -- the online calendar -- so that everyone can see it and so that the system can do proper conflict checking.

[TinMan]

I would assume ward A would put a "Ward B Elders Quorum Party" event on some private calendar they have and it would book the cultural hall and not clutter any of their ward calendars. That would still be "on the books" and no one can book it from underneath Ward B's elders.

[TinMan]

So explain how it works in "your world".

If ward A wants to use the building on Ward B's night, how does the elders quorum go about it through the building scheduler?

[russellhltn]

With the change from the classic site and the guidelines on unit web sites, I no longer see the need for a ward "Website Administrator" at all. Let alone being a calendar admin.

Some wards may find it best to have someone take charge of a given web product. My complaint is that it's an "all powerful" position instead of a Product by Product admin. (That is, a calendar admin, Directory admin, Newsletter Admin, etc.)

But I really don't understand why you think everyone should confirm to your vision of how stakes and wards should be run.

[aebrown]

I would assume ward A would put a "Ward B Elders Quorum Party" event on some private calendar they have and it would book the cultural hall and not clutter any of their ward calendars. That would still be "on the books" and no one can book it from underneath Ward B's elders.

It seems a bit awkward to have a "Other Location" event on Ward B's calendar that is the real event with no booked room, and a private event on Ward A's calendar that simply books the room, but you're right that this could be done. It would have the effect of making sure that the building is properly booked.

So explain how it works in "your world".

If ward B wants to use the building on Ward A's night, how does the elders quorum go about it through the building scheduler?

This is an area that is certainly a bit awkward, too. The building scheduler has rights to edit any events that take place at his building, so the adjustment can only be made if the event is somehow connected to the building. Here are some possible steps (I swapped the A and B in your question to make it consistent with the scenario in previous posts):

1. Ward B's EQ president tries to schedule the cultural hall for the 1st Tuesday in July. He receives a conflict message because Ward A has a reservation for every 1st Tuesday.
2. So he changes the time from 6:30pm to 6:30am (this is the really awkward part of this process) and saves the event. He may have invested some time typing in various details in the description, so he's grateful that there's a way to save the event.
3. He gets approval from Ward A to use the building.
4. He contacts the building scheduler and reports the approval of the change (that might be via a forwarded email)
5. The building scheduler edits the event and changes it to 6:30pm. That places a Ward B event on top of a Ward A reservation, but the building scheduler has the power to create that override.

The result is optimal -- a single event on the correct calendar for the correct ward that truly books the room(s).

To get to that optimal result, you have that ugly step 2 above. There are variations on the approach, such as temporarily scheduling a different available room, so that the building scheduler simply adjusts the rooms for the event. This would be far less awkward if a building scheduler had permission to see and edit events that have "Other Location" if the edit is to add room(s) in the location he schedules.

[russellhltn]

If ward A wants to use the building on Ward B's night, how does the elders quorum go about it through the building scheduler?

I think the simplest way is to have the Building Scheduler edit the reservation for just that night. Then the EQ Pres can schedule the event as normal.

[TinMan]

Without checking with the other ward?

[aebrown]

I think the simplest way is to have the Building Scheduler edit the reservation for just that night. Then the EQ Pres can schedule the event as normal.

Agreed. I guess since I am not a building scheduler, I wasn't paying attention to the options available to the building scheduler. And this approach does actually fit better what really happened -- Ward A had a reservation, and chose to give it up for that night. So simply removing that reservation for that night makes a lot of sense.

Without checking with the other ward?

Of course all this discussion assumes that Ward A agreed to give up its reservation.

[TinMan]

Is it the building schedulers responsibility to contact the other ward in his role as conflict resolver?