Requesting Info on how other wards handle this...

Discussions about the Calendar Tool at lds.org. Questions about the calendar on the classic site should be posted in the LUWS forum.
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failproof
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Requesting Info on how other wards handle this...

#1

Post by failproof »

I'm in the process of trying to help our stake see the benefits of using the calendar for scheduling locations and resources as it is designed, rather than turning off scheduling for all buildings and resources and channeling scheduling through a single stake building scheduler...

Our current scheduler and some of our high council members have brought up what seem to be valid concerns and I am hoping some of you with more experience using the calendar this way have some feedback on how you address these concerns:

There are some church guidelines/policies about what buildings can be used for, and additionally local leadership can impose other policies. Examples: church policy dictates that meetinghouses may not be used to promote any private business venture; our stake policy says that for weddings, set-up can not be done the day before (and of course being a stake policy, the stake presidency can give exceptions to this.)

So how do you prevent someone who doesn't know the policies but has calendar/scheduling permission from placing something on the calendar and scheduling the building for an event that is outside of the policies? There is no notification of events and scheduling unless the scheduling individual selects that option in the event, so there is no guaranteeing that the event will be seen by someone who does know the policy and can then correct the issue. If we "train" all current calendar editors on what is and isn't acceptable, how do we make sure that the new Elders Quorum Presidency, called 2 months from now, all know the policies? And possibly a little more unique to Utah, though not necessarily, how do you deal with members who have the attitude of "I pay my tithing, which helps pay for this building, so I should be able to use it as late as I want or for whatever I want" (this is a bit of an exaggeration of the attitude, but we've seen some of this kind of attitude and unfortunately it happens more often than you would hope.)

I probably have more I could ask about, but for the sake of not writing a novel here (too late :) ), this one seems to be the biggest concern for them that I would like to help them get over. Please, feedback if you have any is greatly appreciated!
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aebrown
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Re: Requesting Info on how other wards handle this...

#2

Post by aebrown »

failproof wrote:So how do you prevent someone who doesn't know the policies but has calendar/scheduling permission from placing something on the calendar and scheduling the building for an event that is outside of the policies?
You don't. But that's no different from all sorts of other policies in the Church -- why should the calendar be an exception? How do you stop a newly called YM president from buying steak dinners for all the YM without seeking reimbursement? How do you stop the RS president from collecting cash from sisters for a craft project? etc., etc., etc. The answer is to teach correct principles, and let them govern themselves.

My experience is that the imagined problems are at least 10 times worse than any problems that actually occur. We do some basic training on calendar guidelines:
  • Editors and administrators are only to schedule events for their organization; any personal events go through the ward calendar coordinator, who is familiar with guidelines on setup, inappropriate activities, etc.
  • The ward calendar coordinator is responsible for training new editors.
  • I occasionally review the calendar a month or so ahead for each of our buildings and follow up on the (very rare) events that seem out of policy.
That's really about it, and it has worked quite well.
russellhltn
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Re: Requesting Info on how other wards handle this...

#3

Post by russellhltn »

Note that calendar admins should be careful about what kinds of calendars they allow to be added. Particularly private ones. That would minimize the places such an event could be placed so as not to attract attention.

Also, since we are dealing with ward leadership, one would hope those types of individuals have been filtered out or corrected before getting such a calling.

Foolproof? No. But seems pretty unlikely.

But let me ask another question: what was there ever in place to prevent someone who had keys to the building from doing this in the first place? All that putting it on the calendar does is help block off the location and perhaps give some publicity. But neither is essential to abuse the use of the building.

If you haven't had a problem, why do you think you'll suddenly get one now?

Events should probably still be correlated. And if a ward desires, they can still stick to a central "calendar coordinator" to place events on the calendar. Certainly you should be able to trust a member of the bishopric and not require stake oversight.
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failproof
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Re: Requesting Info on how other wards handle this...

#4

Post by failproof »

Thank you, both of you. Great responses. I went into a meeting with these brethren, thinking I was going to be able to show them how much better scheduling could be and then had no response when they voiced this particular concern. Though I did point out that individuals were limited to putting events on only the calendars they had access to, so an Elders Quorum Secretary, for example, likely wouldn't be able to place anything on any but the Elders Quorum calendar, and private/family events would be out of place there.

Their concern was still that such a limitation didn't stop him from putting it there nor would it provide a guaranteed notification that such an event was added. But as you've both pointed out, these kinds of concerns still exist today and we don't really have an issue with it. And if they don't have keys to the building, according to our stake policy they still have to get a key from either a ward Executive Secretary or our stake building scheduler, all of whom will be asking why they need a key.

This will help me show them that their concerns, though real, shouldn't be enough to stop us from using the tools as they were provided.
russellhltn
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Re: Requesting Info on how other wards handle this...

#5

Post by russellhltn »

To me, I think the only real concern I'd have is that quorums and auxiliaries might think that they don't have to get any kind of approval for the events. After all, if the president likes it, they put it on the calendar and it's going to happen, right?

But I think a check of all the calendars every now and then will uncover any problems.
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mevans
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Re: Requesting Info on how other wards handle this...

#6

Post by mevans »

Perhaps your biggest problem is going to be in getting people to understand that the online calendar tool is likely different than what people have been accustomed to doing their entire lives for church purposes. Some unfortunate names given to items in the calendar don't help the cause of retraining members (i.e, Reservations, Building Scheduler). Be sure you can understand and explain these concepts.

Those who work in companies that schedule meeting rooms and resources with a tool such as Microsoft Outlook might more easily make the transition to the online church calendar. (But I've worked in some companies that attempt to use Microsoft Outlook for scheduling meeting rooms and many employees still don't understand the concept...and I work in technology where one would hope that employees would "get it".)

I'm a little delayed on my project to get the units in one building in the stake using the online calendar, but I find it's necessary to explain things, sometimes multiple times.
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