Tech Forum

How do you suggest reserving the Sunday blocks for wards that meet in the same building with overlapping times? (e.g., ward A meets from 9-12 with Sac Mtg first, and ward B meets 11-2, also with Sac Mtg first). I tried simply double-booking the 11-12 hour (building schedulers can supposedly do this) but the software simply ignored the second reservation. It showed the message "You've successfully entered the reservation", but the reservation didn't show up on the building calendar. I tried repeatedly with the same result each time.

DeanDTaylor wrote:How do you suggest reserving the Sunday blocks for wards that meet in the same building with overlapping times? (e.g., ward A meets from 9-12 with Sac Mtg first, and ward B meets 11-2, also with Sac Mtg first). I tried simply double-booking the 11-12 hour (building schedulers can supposedly do this) but the software simply ignored the second reservation. It showed the message "You've successfully entered the reservation", but the reservation didn't show up on the building calendar. I tried repeatedly with the same result each time.

In our stake, we don't reserve those blocks at all. Everyone knows when the wards meet, and no one would try to schedule the Relief Society room during a time that any of the wards is having Relief Society. We have had zero problems with this approach during the meeting blocks.

We have three wards meeting in the same meetinghouse. No events or reservations are made during the three overlapping block meetings. One ward uses the chapel and cultural hall overflow for sacrament while the other uses the rest of the building. There is no need to work out a schedule and nobody attempts to schedule an event or make a reservation between 9 am and 4 pm (first ward meets 9-12, second ward meets 11-2, and third ward meets 1-4).

IF I were to make a reservation (and I don't plan on doing so unless we experience problems), I'd probably break it into two parts: Sacrament and PH/RS/SS for each ward. Then you can reserve the chapel for "Ward B" sacrament meeting while reserving the remainder of the building for "Ward A"s PH/RS/SS. Overlapping times, but not overlapping the resources. That should work.

We also have 3 wards in our building. Two of the wards have overlapping times and one does not. I know two of the wards also have ward choir at the church building during times when one of the other wards is meeting. We just asked the other wards if it was okay if we had choir practice in the primary room while they were having sacrament meeting. Once they said it was okay we put our "Ward Choir" on the calendar with the appropriate room reservation.

Another thing that I'm trying out for 2012 is to put our Sunday meetings on the calendar, but as three separate events and only reserving the biggest/most recognizable rooms (which I've personally defined as "rooms that another ward might want to use, such as RS Room, Primary Room, YW Room (b/c of the piano), Cultural Hall 1/2, Chapel):
* Ward 1 Hour 1 reservation - 2pm - 3pm - Chapel and Cultural Hall 1
* Ward 1 Hour 2 reservation - 3pm - 4pm - RS Room, Primary Room, YW Room
* Ward 1 Hour 3 reservation - 4pm - 5pm - Chapel, Cultural Hall 2, RS Room, Primary Room, YW Room

I'm trying it this way not to necessarily to reserve resources, but to help increase visibility of what rooms our ward is using during each of the hours. If a member from another ward wanted to have choir practice, they could see that it would be fine to use the RS Room or Primary Room or YW Room during the first hour of our block meetings (although they could just ask, too).

Anyhow, the only problems I see with doing it this way are the following:
* More maintenance (3 separate events with different resources)
* Hopefully people won't think that just because you didn't reserve individual classrooms during the 2nd and 3rd hour that they'll think that the classrooms are available when they aren't (at least I'm hoping this ).

Thanks~!