Calendar Best Practices: Events without locations

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nathangg
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Calendar Best Practices: Events without locations

#1

Post by nathangg »

I just got done reading "Calendar Best Practices" (whew!) but I didn't see an answer to this question:

The "Events without locations" calendar is starting to fill up more and more with events that take place in a location, but don't need a resource scheduled. What should we do?

I know that sounds weird, "events that take place in a location, but don't need a resource scheduled", but it is kind of true. We have a Ward Leadership calendar with meetings such as ward council, PEC, Bishopric meeting, Bishop PPIs with auxiliary presidencies, BYC meetings, and all sorts of other ward leadership related meetings.

90% of these meetings take place in the Bishop's office but the stake hasn't added our "Bishop's Office" as a resource so all of these events are just "Other Location".

Since these events are "Other Location", they show up on the "Events without locations" calendar and thus it appears that potentially everyone in the stake can view them? This seems somewhat unnecessary since these are ward events taking place in our Bishop's office and everyone in the stake doesn't need to know about them.

So, here are my possible solutions (with my guessed effects):
  • Have the Stake create another resource for our building: "DV Bishop's Office" (DV is our ward abbreviation) - this seems reasonable... but it quickly grows for 12 wards in the stake plus adding a resource for potentially every room in every building that someone wants to schedule). Maybe the solution is only add resources as needed?
  • Have the stake create a few resources for each building building: "Other Room1-see details"; "Other Room2-see details"; "Other Room3-see details" - this would mean the stake wouldn't have to create a resource for every room in every building in the stake... just 3 extra resources for each location). They'd just need to communicate to the wards that these "Other Room's" are meant to allow calendar editors to place events on the right calendar... editors still need to be careful in making sure they don't overbook a resource
  • Have the code be changed so that you can create an event at a location without being forced to pick a resource. But this goes back to the old way of scheduling.
I like the second option better... it just feels simpler to me... but then we move in the direction of the old way of scheduling (or training people to look at the conflicts screen and MAKE SURE your event doesn't have a conflict when picking an "Other Room" resource)

So, maybe I just suggest to the stake to add resources on an as needed basis as the "Events without locations" calendar fills up?

What have other people come up with? Do you just not worry about the "Events without locations" calendar filling up with lots of events from different wards?

Thanks~!
nathangg
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#2

Post by nathangg »

Hmmm: something just came to mind that I forgot about: what about the other ward that share's our building and they select "use entire location for this event"? Would that block our ward from scheduling our own Bishop's Office?

Maybe the "Other Location" is the best place for it, and we don't worry about "Events without locations" filling up with everything for the entire stake? (Am I right in my assumption that "Events without locations" is going to fill up for every event without a location in the entire stake?
russellhltn
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#3

Post by russellhltn »

nathangg wrote:Have the stake create a few resources for each building building: "Other Room1-see details"; "Other Room2-see details"; "Other Room3-see details" - this would mean the stake wouldn't have to create a resource for every room in every building in the stake... just 3 extra resources for each location).

I think that would be confusing. Someone is going to has "Where's Room 2"?

The first thing I'd check is if Ward events are visible to the whole stake. While I can understand that might be the case for certain callings or situations, that doesn't strike me as a good "normal" way to do things.
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nathangg
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#4

Post by nathangg »

Good point.

Is there an easy way to see how "Events without locations" is working? Does it work like this:

When events without locations is checked, show all events that:
* Are on a calendar where the currently logged in user has access
AND
* The event location is "Other Location"

This would mean I would see all events without locations for every calendar in my ward (since I'm a default admin) + every event without a location on any stake calendar that I have permission to see.

Can anyone confirm that it is working this way?
jdlessley
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#5

Post by jdlessley »

nathangg wrote:I know that sounds weird, "events that take place in a location, but don't need a resource scheduled", but it is kind of true. We have a Ward Leadership calendar with meetings such as ward council, PEC, Bishopric meeting, Bishop PPIs with auxiliary presidencies, BYC meetings, and all sorts of other ward leadership related meetings.

90% of these meetings take place in the Bishop's office but the stake hasn't added our "Bishop's Office" as a resource so all of these events are just "Other Location".
Most certainly the bishop's office should be added as a resource since events are being scheduled there. The stake can add the resource but it is not necessary for them to do it. The building scheduler has those rights, can do that, and should do that.

Adding resources at a location beyond the defaults provided is a good idea when events or meetings are held in rooms not listed by default for the location. I find it a good practice to list even the clerk office as a resource and then block out the times the office is used for priority activities such as processing donations. That doesn't mean that office should be available for just anybody's use. This can be explained to unit leaders in ward council since they are the most likely group of people to be scheduling events and activities.

The bishop's office can be an assigned resource so that in multi-use buildings other units do not schedule it. The clerk office shared by more than one unit can have that resource assigned by time blocks based on normal usage, such as donations processing.

I cannot think of an event or meeting that occurs at a building that does not use a resource. While some resources appear to be unschedulable, they in fact are. It just happens that some resources are used almost exclusively by one organization or person and is therefore not looked at as a schedulable resource.



nathangg wrote:So, here are my possible solutions (with my guessed effects):
  • Have the Stake create another resource for our building: "DV Bishop's Office" (DV is our ward abbreviation) - this seems reasonable... but it quickly grows for 12 wards in the stake plus adding a resource for potentially every room in every building that someone wants to schedule). Maybe the solution is only add resources as needed?
This is, in my opinion, the best option. As I mentioned above the building scheduler can and should take care of this.

nathangg wrote:Hmmm: something just came to mind that I forgot about: what about the other ward that share's our building and they select "use entire location for this event"? Would that block our ward from scheduling our own Bishop's Office?
If the resource was already assigned to your ward before the event from another ward using the entire building was scheduled that event would have a conflict if it overlaps the assigned time for the resource. Just make sure that the bishop's office is only assigned for those times that are expected to be used by your ward. I suspect assigning it all day long on Sunday would be appropriate. Also block the assignment for other times during the week when it is normally used, such as on mutual nights.

Scheduling resources requires a new approach from our experiences with the classic LUWS.
JD Lessley
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aebrown
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#6

Post by aebrown »

nathangg wrote:The "Events without locations" calendar is starting to fill up more and more with events that take place in a location, but don't need a resource scheduled. What should we do?
...
Since these events are "Other Location", they show up on the "Events without locations" calendar and thus it appears that potentially everyone in the stake can view them? This seems somewhat unnecessary since these are ward events taking place in our Bishop's office and everyone in the stake doesn't need to know about them.

I think it's important to clarify that there is no "Events without locations" calendar. Each event will exist on a specific calendar; each ward and stake can create as many calendars as they would like. But these calendars will typically have names like "Ward Activities", "Leadership Meetings", "Young Men", "Relief Society", "Sports" or similar titles.

The "Events without Locations" option you are talking about is simply a way of filtering events, so that you can see all the events at a glance that have no location specified. This option is found under the list of "Subscribed Locations", which will also let you show events that are scheduled for Building A, or Building B, or Building C. But all these events will exist on some actual calendar.

Note that the "Subscribed Locations" section (which includes "Events without Locations") will only appear for those members who are at least a calendar editor for some calendar. So you need have no concern that "potentially everyone in the stake can view them."
nathangg wrote:I know that sounds weird, "events that take place in a location, but don't need a resource scheduled", but it is kind of true. We have a Ward Leadership calendar with meetings such as ward council, PEC, Bishopric meeting, Bishop PPIs with auxiliary presidencies, BYC meetings, and all sorts of other ward leadership related meetings.

90% of these meetings take place in the Bishop's office but the stake hasn't added our "Bishop's Office" as a resource so all of these events are just "Other Location".
As has been noted, these events do take place at a location. I would definitely recommend that you get the bishop's office added as a location. And as jdlessley noted, the building scheduler can do this. For any building besides the stake center (and possibly even for that one), it makes more sense to have the building scheduler add resources than some stake calendar administrator who may not be as familiar with the building and its usage.
nathangg wrote:Have the Stake create [a bishop's office] resource for our building...but it quickly grows for 12 wards in the stake...
Note that each location only needs the bishop's offices for the building, so for each location you should only see 1-3 additional resources if this is done.
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nathangg
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#7

Post by nathangg »

Thank you all for your help. I've read the help over and over a few times (usually about once a month), but this was something that the forum has really helped me on.

I've confirmed with a friend in another ward in the stake that the "Events Without Locations" filter (under "Subscribed Locations") only shows events on calendars that you have permissions to see. (So, his "Events without locations" filter shows events from calendars in his ward, and does not show any events on calendars in my ward).

For now, I'll work with the building scheduler to add our ward's Bishop's Office as a resource and see how we can get that assigned to our ward so we can properly modify those events so they no longer show up on the "Events without Locations" filter.

Thanks~!
preston.baxter
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#8

Post by preston.baxter »

nathangg wrote:Hmmm: something just came to mind that I forgot about: what about the other ward that share's our building and they select "use entire location for this event"? Would that block our ward from scheduling our own Bishop's Office?

Maybe the "Other Location" is the best place for it, and we don't worry about "Events without locations" filling up with everything for the entire stake? (Am I right in my assumption that "Events without locations" is going to fill up for every event without a location in the entire stake?

Your "Building Scheduler" can create any resources you want. For example, I have bishop's offices for each of the three wards, an old high council room, even a "resource" that is just "None: FYI" that I use for calendar items that truly don't have any resource needs.

Preston
jdlessley
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#9

Post by jdlessley »

preston.baxter wrote:I have bishop's offices for each of the three wards, an old high council room, even a "resource" that is just "None: FYI" that I use for calendar items that truly don't have any resource needs.
You may find that the resource "None: FYI" may cause some conflicts. For example, two events are scheduled in the same location. Both have selected the resource "None: FYI". The first one has made the event an all day event. The second event selects a time of 1:00 PM to 3:00 and clicks the Check for Conflicts button. Lo and behold they get a conflict and cannot schedule the event even though they thought they were not selecting a resource. They really have selected a resource that is already in use by the first event. And since the first event is an all day event no one else can use that resource even though you have called it "None: FYI". It doesn't matter what you call a resource it can only be scheduled for one event at the same time.

To do as you intended you must use "Other Location" as the location and then put a descriptor in the "Location Details" text box if further clarification is needed. "Other Location" is the only location you can use to create events that will not conflict with another event with overlapping time blocks. There are no resources assigned to the "Other Location" location.
JD Lessley
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rstegeby
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#10

Post by rstegeby »

When you create event, can you choose multiple resources?
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