Unable to Add a Building Scheduler

[Gary_Miller]

The panic on this tread makes me laugh.

You could just use the current building schedulers to do the reservations until this is fixed. And not having a reservation on the calendar is not a show stopper for calendaring events. Yes there could be some problems done the road when adding the reservations but its really not a big deal.

I would much rather see the programmers fixing the printing problem way before they fix not being able to add a Building Scheduler problem.

[lajackson]

my Stake President wants to know which GA to call

Your stake president knows who to call. Leave it to him.

The panic on this tread makes me laugh.

When expectations run high, disappointment runs deep. But I do not sense panic at all.

What I see is frustration from many who have tried to use a tool that was working fairly well at one point and now has taken a step backward, for whatever reason. It is not just the Calendar. It does not help that the same developers, who appear to be shorthanded, are working on all areas of LDS.org, not only this one.

But there are two important truths to the matter that I think are important to remember. First, right now the Calendar, in some respects, does not work the way we wish it would. Fortunately, it still functions (pretty well, actually), as Gary has pointed out in his workaround.

But even more important is the fact that there is absolutely nothing we can do about it. All the fussing and complaining and moaning and groaning is not going to change anything. When they fix it, it will be fixed. And the same is true with all of the other features besides the Calendar.

I think we have done our part. They know what is broken. These things are in the queue to be fixed. If we discover any new bugs or workarounds or information that will help the developers in troubleshooting, of course we should share it. But I think they know sufficiently at this point how we feel about our desire to get things fixed.

And I rather suspect that they are doing all they can to fix it.

[russellhltn]

But even more important is the fact that there is absolutely nothing we can do about it. All the fussing and complaining and moaning and groaning is not going to change anything. When they fix it, it will be fixed. And the same is true with all of the other features besides the Calendar.

Indeed. This situation reminds me of the serenity prayer:

God, give me grace to accept with serenity
the things that cannot be changed,
Courage to change the things
which should be changed,
and the Wisdom to distinguish
the one from the other.

This is one of those situations that you cannot change. At least not directly. But feel free to take up the issue in your evening prayers.

And least anyone take offence, I say that in all honesty without any intent to mock anyone. That's simply the way things are right now.

[sammythesm]

The panic on this tread makes me laugh.

You could just use the current building schedulers to do the reservations until this is fixed. And not having a reservation on the calendar is not a show stopper for calendaring events. Yes there could be some problems done the road when adding the reservations but its really not a big deal.

What happens when you've removed the old building scheduler that moved out, and can't add the new building scheduler that was just called. Then I get the weekly emails - "Have you added her as a building scheduler yet? She is called and needs to get started."

We love the new tools, we just expect them to work.

I work in software development, and when we have a customer-found defect - especially on a SaaS product that's totally in our control to fix rapidly - it's usually fixed in a matter of hours or days. I'm just surprised to see the church doesn't have a better/faster process for responding to CFDs that impact basic functionality.

Unfortunately, JohnShaw's post hits closer to the mark than we want to realize - we could have hundreds of lay members crying out for some feature (read: HT/VT Reporting), but until someone comes down from "on high" and tells them to start working on it, it never gets done. *sigh*

I will say this isn't limited to the church. In poorly run areas of my company, where there are lazy, underpaid, under-appreciated software developers and middle managers, it takes an executive intervention to get them to jump on any problem. Then suddenly, magically, it's done in just a couple of hours.

What I'm saying is that we're seeing the resulting frustration of a failure of process, culture, or a mix of the two.

[lsholland]

We're going to jump ship and start using Google calendar if it's not fixed soon. I manage a tech support department and a 1-2 week repair time in my company simply isn't acceptable. We'd all be looking for new jobs.

Lee

[lsholland]

The problem is some people "removed" the existing scheduler first, then added the new one. When the new one couldn't be added, if left the building without a scheduler.

[Gary_Miller]

What happens when you've removed the old building scheduler that moved out, and can't add the new building scheduler that was just called. Then I get the weekly emails - "Have you added her as a building scheduler yet? She is called and needs to get started."

The building schedulers main role is to schedule reservations. In other words they reserve a locations in a building for a specific unit on a specific date or time, this blocks out that time and location so no other unit can schedule an event. Building Schedulers cannot book events at all unless they have been giving editor rights, even then they can't be given editor rights for any other unit except the one they live in.

Therefore not having a building scheduler assigned to a building is not a show stopper for booking/adding events to the calendar.

We love the new tools, we just expect them to work.

For the most part the calendar is working, there are just a few problems that are currently not working as expected. Be patient the good folks at church Headquarters are working a hard as the can to solve all the issues. And while I'm sure they have some divine guidance at time they are still only human.

[Gary_Miller]

We're going to jump ship and start using Google calendar if it's not fixed soon.

How is that a solution. The Calendar is designed to book locations, room and resources, block out a time period, and provide information about the event so that there are no conflicts. Using Google calendar only will give you the event information and time period. It won't block out anything and will allow another unit in a building to book a conflicting event.

[Gary_Miller]

The problem is some people "removed" the existing scheduler first, then added the new one. When the new one couldn't be added, if left the building without a scheduler.

Like I said you don't need a scheduler to book events.

[russellhltn]

What happens when you've removed the old building scheduler that moved out, and can't add the new building scheduler that was just called. Then I get the weekly emails - "Have you added her as a building scheduler yet? She is called and needs to get started."

That's only a problem if you have existing reservations that need to be changed for the new year. An example of that is is if Ward A has Wednesday nights and Ward B has Thursday nights. The reservations from 2012 continue though 2013 but it's been decided that the wards need to "rotate". But in that situation, maybe the simple solution is NOT to rotate.

If you don't have any reservations in the new year, you're fine. The system can work just fine without them. In fact, given the way some units try to make reservations do things they were not intended to do and can not do well.

Being a building scheduler does not allow anyone to schedule events. So that's not a show stopper.

What I'm saying is that we're seeing the resulting frustration of a failure of process, culture, or a mix of the two.

No, it's a result of a simple fact: you/we are not the customer. That requires a real shift in thinking, because in other areas we are the customer and we expect service.

The priesthood dept is the customer. No one changes churches because the software is poor. We just have to wait until the developers can work their way though the priority list of their real customer until they get to us.