Tech Forum

Does anyone know how to track when events were deleted from a calendar and by whom?

There is no way. Once an event is deleted, it's gone. There's no tracking, no log, and no undelete.

So you just have to be careful when you delete events, and trust (and train) other calendar editors to be similarly careful.

Under the present system and policy, there appears to be no capability to track changes made to a calendar and who made them. Entries/changes made to a stake calendar can, and are intended to, inform and synchronize the activities of a rather large number of individuals in the stake.

It should be noted that the skill level of an administrator is not tested/verified when they receive their assignment. Whether a change was accidental or intentional is immaterial, at the present, it cannot be undeleted. That's bad enough when the administrator is aware of the error, but even worse when he/she is unaware of it. It is a fact that even "skilled" administrators can make mistakes.

With so many individuals able to make changes to stake and ward calendars, an obvious need exists for an ability to restore accidental deletions and to reverse inadvertant errors. This should include a capability to track and identify what change has been made, when it was made, and who made it (maybe even why it was made).

Our stake has been "burned" several times by this issue and it seems obvious that, with the large number of users across the church, other units must be experiencing similar difficulties.

deavdaver wrote:It should be noted that the skill level of an administrator is not tested/verified when they receive their assignment.

Indeed. Several people are given admin rights by virtue of their calling (which they may otherwise be quite capable of) but who may have no computer skills whatsoever. And there's no way to protect the rest of the ward/stake from them short of convincing them to never go to the website.

I second this. We have had several important Stake events accidentally deleted and buildings scheduled in their time slot. By the time the mistake was realized, wedding receptions, ward events, etc had to be canceled or moved on late notice. Too many people have access to administer the Stake calendar and even for the experienced, it's too unforgiving. We need a change management and tracking system.

judson.wooters wrote:Too many people have access to administer the Stake calendar and even for the experienced, it's too unforgiving. We need a change management and tracking system.

This sounds like a local problem. What needed is local training and procedures put in place on the proper use of the calendar. As well as different calendar layers for different stake organizations where only those who are in those organization leadership positions can edit. There is no need to have one calendar layer only and every organization posting to that calendar. The different calendar layers make up the stake calendar and schedule the building using events on those layers.

For events such as wedding receptions a privet event layer for each ward on their ward calendar controlled by the ward works really nice. If your an ward calendar editor you can schedule any building in your stake wither or not you are meeting in the building. There is no need to speak to anyone who meets in the building just look to see if the building is open and schedule you event.

For ward events there should never be a time that a ward event is scheduled on a stake calendar. Ward events should be scheduled on a ward calendar layer and stake events on a stake calendar layer.

Gary_Miller wrote:For ward events there should never be a time that a ward event is scheduled on a stake calendar. Ward events should be scheduled on a ward calendar layer and stake events on a stake calendar layer.

Multiple units combining organizations such as Boy Scouts, Cub Scouts, and others need a method to have a calendar viewable by members of all the units involved. The only option is to create a stake calendar.

Notwithstanding the opinions of where calendar events should be scheduled there may be a valid need to track or even recover deleted events. As long as people are imperfect, the systems we use need to allow us to recover from error or at least allow us to know who needs further training.

Gary_Miller wrote:This sounds like a local problem.

Not necessarily. Keep in mind that for a stake calendar the stake president, counselors, executive secretary, assistant executive secretary, clerk, assistant clerks of all types, website administrator and building specialist ALL have administrator rights to ALL public calendars in the stake. And you can't disable it.

That's a lot of cooks in the kitchen. It only takes one person to mess things up. Typically, I wouldn't expect more then two or three to need admin access. Who that is depends on how the stake wants to run their organization and usually built around who has the skills.

The wards have a similar problem.

russellhltn wrote:That's a lot of cooks in the kitchen. It only takes one person to mess things up. Typically, I wouldn't expect more then two or three to need admin access. Who that is depends on how the stake wants to run their organization and usually built around who has the skills.

The wards have a similar problem.

True, but this is also true of many other issues. Many people have rights to move membership records out. But does a ward run effectively if a clerk might do it, or a bishopric counselor, or the bishop, with no coordination? Of course not.

Not every administrative task has a technological solution; in many cases all that is needed is leadership and clear delegation. So in our stake and in every ward in our stake, the stake president or bishop designates which of the administrators actually takes responsibility for working on the calendar. It's generally one to three people, with one clearly taking the lead to coordinate the effort. So although there may be as many as 8 people with administrative rights, most of them keep their hands completely off the calendar.

russellhltn wrote:

Gary_Miller wrote:This sounds like a local problem.

Not necessarily. Keep in mind that for a stake calendar the stake president, counselors, executive secretary, assistant executive secretary, clerk, assistant clerks of all types, website administrator and building specialist ALL have administrator rights to ALL public calendars in the stake. And you can't disable it.

That's a lot of cooks in the kitchen. It only takes one person to mess things up. Typically, I wouldn't expect more then two or three to need admin access. Who that is depends on how the stake wants to run their organization and usually built around who has the skills.

The wards have a similar problem.

Like I said its a local problem. And its usually due to a lack of training and understanding of the proper use of the calendar. While there are many positions who serve as administrators in wards and stakes they don't all have to be managing calendar events.

In my ward you never see a member of the Bishopric adding events to the calendar for the primary as the primary leaders do that. You may see them add an event such as a youth fireside but for the most part they rely on the clerk to add the events that don't pertain to a specific organization. And if there are calendar issues that need resolved we have one person who is the go to guy for all organizations to receive help.