Change the RESERVATIONS Calendar PLEASE!

Discussions about the Calendar Tool at lds.org. Questions about the calendar on the classic site should be posted in the LUWS forum.
Post Reply
kjens
New Member
Posts: 21
Joined: Tue Jul 12, 2011 9:36 pm

Change the RESERVATIONS Calendar PLEASE!

#1

Post by kjens »

This is totally ridiculous! I think I "get" this calendar pretty well ~ better than most, but it has some serious flaws. What good is a reservation if it doesn't hold anything? I just went in and made a reservation that went totally over the top of a scheduled event on the calendar. So, without actually opening EVERY Reservations calendar AND the regular Calendar, AND drilling down into the event for the specifics, it is impossible to schedule or hold a location. My suggestion: Get rid of the Reservations Calendar altogether. It's no good anyway since it doesn't HOLD a space like it purports to do. I would just leave it in place as a mechanism to view all the events going on in a particular building. I hope this Calendar can make these changes and become more useful and easier to use. Let me know if I should take my suggestions somewhere else, please. Thanks.
User avatar
aebrown
Community Administrator
Posts: 15153
Joined: Tue Nov 27, 2007 8:48 pm
Location: Draper, Utah

#2

Post by aebrown »

[Moderator note: I moved this post from the thread scheduling buildings, since it deals with a different topic.]
kjens wrote:What good is a reservation if it doesn't hold anything? I just went in and made a reservation that went totally over the top of a scheduled event on the calendar.
I'm not quite sure what you mean by the term "hold". A reservation created for a unit purports to restrict other units from scheduling that resource during that time. A blocked reservation purports to stop all units from scheduling that resource during that time. A building scheduler has the power to override either kind of reservation with an event that uses that resource during that time.

Because of that power that the building scheduler has, he can create an event on top of a reservation, or a reservation on top of an event -- the order doesn't matter. I think you'll agree that a building scheduler should be able to schedule an event on top of a reservation, so the reverse order should also work.
kjens wrote:So, without actually opening EVERY Reservations calendar AND the regular Calendar, AND drilling down into the event for the specifics, it is impossible to schedule or hold a location.
No, it's simple to schedule a location -- just create an event that uses that location. It seems that you are trying to use reservations to book a location, which is never a good idea. They should only be used to restrict other units from scheduling events using the specified resource at the specified time.
kjens wrote:My suggestion: Get rid of the Reservations Calendar altogether. It's no good anyway since it doesn't HOLD a space like it purports to do.
As I explained above, that's not what it purports to do. I'd recommend that you read the Making Reservations help topic.
kjens wrote:I would just leave it in place as a mechanism to view all the events going on in a particular building.
There's already a mechanism for viewing events taking place in a particular building that is available to everyone (not just building schedulers). See View Events by Location.
kjens wrote:I hope this Calendar can make these changes and become more useful and easier to use.
I think you'll find that if you use reservations only to restrict other units from scheduling a location/room, they are actually very useful. I for one think removing that feature would make it worse, not better.
kjens wrote:Let me know if I should take my suggestions somewhere else, please. Thanks.
This is a great place to make your suggestions.
Questions that can benefit the larger community should be asked in a public forum, not a private message.
lajackson
Community Moderators
Posts: 11460
Joined: Mon Mar 17, 2008 10:27 pm
Location: US

#3

Post by lajackson »

kjens wrote: I think I "get" this calendar pretty well ~ better than most,

There have been a number of threads in the Calendar Forum on the subject of reservations. While it seems there could have been a better choice of names, the reservation does exactly what it was designed to do, it holds a location for a specific unit (ward/branch).

Within that unit, anyone may schedule an event that books a room that has been reserved for that unit. Once an event is scheduled with an identified resource (room or other location), the calendar does not allow anyone else to schedule that same resource at that same time.

In the current calendar, a reservation simply says that a unit may use the building at a certain time. It does not actually schedule and hold the room because, while a part of the building has been reserved for use, an actual event has not been scheduled on the calendar.

Even those who understand the calendar "better than most" have trouble with this concept. Hence the discussion on renaming the reservation process to something different than a word that has other connotations in other places.

Agreed. It is very frustrating. When fully understood, however, "reservations" (or whatever they will be called in the future) do have a specific function and perform that function well.

You are in the right place. Check out some of the other Calendar threads on this subject. You will find that there is an active effort ongoing to clarify and understand this function.
russellhltn
Community Administrator
Posts: 34422
Joined: Sat Jan 20, 2007 2:53 pm
Location: U.S.

#4

Post by russellhltn »

"Reservation" was not a good choice of names. It's actually a "scheduling restriction" and should never be used as a replacement for an event. Only an event will truly book the room(s).
Have you searched the Help Center? Try doing a Google search and adding "site:churchofjesuschrist.org/help" to the search criteria.

So we can better help you, please edit your Profile to include your general location.
User avatar
mnmpeterson
Member
Posts: 71
Joined: Thu Apr 17, 2008 10:39 am
Location: Phoenix, Arizona, USA
Contact:

#5

Post by mnmpeterson »

One problem I see in my stake is that people are trying to do things the old way with the new calendar. The old way was to reserve a building through a building coordinator, then put an event on the calendar. These were two separate tasks and people think this is how we still do things. Despite numerous attempts to educate building schedulers I still see them creating a reservation in addition to the event created in the calendar because this is the way they think buildings are scheduled. I can't seem to convince them that when a calendar editor selects a location in the event, this is what actually "reserves" the building.

The way the church uses the term "Reservation" is too confusing. I agree that another term should be used like "restriction" on the location calendar. Use "reservation" on the event dialog when scheduling a location. This would help make the process more intuitive for both calendar editors and location schedulers.
Post Reply

Return to “Calendar”