Is the instructions in the help section current?

Discussions about the Calendar Tool at lds.org. Questions about the calendar on the classic site should be posted in the LUWS forum.
1968leocomeeatabite
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Is the instructions in the help section current?

#1

Post by 1968leocomeeatabite »

“"Reservations" has been renamed to "Restrictions" to better describe how it works. It hasnever been a "reservation" in the normal sense of the word.” By russelhltn
“The About Reservations help topic has not yet been updated with the new terminology, but if you read it carefully, it will help you understand the essential differences between Restrictions and Events.” By aebrown
“chriswoodut wrote: The instructions on the help pages is out of date.

Yes, we're aware of that. The team that did the documentation was let go. I'm not sure what the church has arranged to replace them.”
I am a Ward Executive Secretary. My Bishop is the current Agent Bishop. I have been invited to give our Stake Presidency an FYI about the current workings of the Calendar. Question

1. Is the help section still out of date?
2. If it is should I inform them, or simply explain that it is minor, and look out for the term reservation and substitute it with restrictions?
3. Are there any Major issues that I should be aware of?
4. If there are do you suggest that I inform them?
5. Is the current version 2.3 ? (Woops I found it 3.5 looks to be the current version)

I am not really trying to trick them, I just suspect that even if the help section is out of date that for someone who is just starting on the calendar it is not going to be a big issue.

I am excited about this opportunity to possibly get the correct and full use of the lds.org calendar for our Stake center and possibly for all the buildings in the Stake. Can you give me any advice? My approach will be to hopefully explain and show the basics, with an positive training about the role of our building scheduler. I will also suggest that to begin with that one of the Ward administrators be assigned to be over the calendar for the ward. Which he should get trained and then in turn train the presidencies of his ward. Your input to what I am trying to do would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for all that you do! :)
russellhltn
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Re: Is the instructions in the help section current?

#2

Post by russellhltn »

1968leocomeeatabite wrote:1. Is the help section still out of date?
I belive so.

1968leocomeeatabite wrote:2. If it is should I inform them, or simply explain that it is minor, and look out for the term reservation and substitute it with restrictions?
That's all I can think of. No major changes to function has been made. Just bug fixes.

1968leocomeeatabite wrote:Can you give me any advice?
The biggest is that the old system of one person handling the scheduling for multiple units is dead, Dead, DEAD. If they want, one person can do the scheduling for stake-level functions or for a single ward, but NOT for multiple wards in a stake. If they have the least bit if trouble wrapping their head around that, I would not recommend that you have any building scheduler at all. All problems can be resolved by communicating with the unit that holds the conflicting event.

As long as everyone understands the rules, restrictions are unnecessary. Virtually all problems with the calendar comes from trying to hold to the old model of a single point of contact for scheduling. That job is now managed by the computer and no one has the necessary permissions to do it properly.

The second tip is that sometimes repeating events have problems. In that case, make it a single event and then edit it to make it a repeating event.

Third, you will need a calendar for scheduling private events. Make sure to set up a process for that. Members cannot do that for themselves.
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drepouille
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Re: Is the instructions in the help section current?

#3

Post by drepouille »

russellhltn wrote:As long as everyone understands the rules, restrictions are unnecessary. Virtually all problems with the calendar comes from trying to hold to the old model of a single point of contact for scheduling. That job is now managed by the computer and no one has the necessary permissions to do it properly.
I told the building scheduler for our stake center that I was concerned because the reservations/restrictions that the previous scheduler had created for weekdays/weeknights had expired in October, leaving only restrictions for Fridays and Saturdays. She said she wasn't worried about youth activities on weeknights because all three wards that meet in the stake center knew the rules and communicate well with each other. I guess that is OK, but I still worry that someone in the stake will create a stake event that conflicts with those youth events.
Dana Repouille, Plattsmouth, Nebraska
1968leocomeeatabite
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Re: Is the instructions in the help section current?

#4

Post by 1968leocomeeatabite »

As long as everyone understands the rules, restrictions are unnecessary. Virtually all problems with the calendar comes from trying to hold to the old model of a single point of contact for scheduling. That job is now managed by the computer and no one has the necessary permissions to do it properly.
Ok I get what you are saying! And it might be worth avoiding those problems. But if it was presented as something like: Now that the leadership can schedule events with the needed rooms etc. for a safety we will need to go in and restrict the use to certain rooms to certain ward for certain nights just like the Stake has given us so that each ward will have a regular time to have their Pack night, R.S. night, and youth weekly Mutual night (or combined activity). The Safety being that a presidency or even a ward administrator can not schedule on an assigned night of an organization. Even as I type this I see that what you say goes both ways about everyone understanding the rules. I kinda like the idea that as long as the building scheduler and the ward administrator and stake administrator understands the use of restrictions it probably will work good.
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Re: Is the instructions in the help section current?

#5

Post by russellhltn »

drepouille wrote:I guess that is OK, but I still worry that someone in the stake will create a stake event that conflicts with those youth events.
If they schedule the youth activities as events, there's no problem.

I'm not saying that restrictions are not useful, but it's caused far more problems when people try to revert to the old system.
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russellhltn
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Re: Is the instructions in the help section current?

#6

Post by russellhltn »

russellhltn wrote:
1968leocomeeatabite wrote:The Safety being that a presidency or even a ward administrator can not schedule on an assigned night of an organization.
This line of thinking only leads to trouble. Restrictions are to a UNIT, not an organization. Only events block something off for exclusive use.

"The Safety being that a presidency or even a ward administrator can not schedule on an assigned night of another ward." would be correct
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1968leocomeeatabite
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Re: Is the instructions in the help section current?

#7

Post by 1968leocomeeatabite »

Yes, Thank you, a very good point that would need to be made. I guess that in this case if a conflict arose that it would be the unit (ward) to resolve a conflict.
russellhltn
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Re: Is the instructions in the help section current?

#8

Post by russellhltn »

1968leocomeeatabite wrote:I guess that in this case if a conflict arose that it would be the unit (ward) to resolve a conflict.
I may regret saying this, but someone with Building Scheduler rights in the system can edit events scheduled in his/her assigned building. In that sense the Building Scheduler can act as a referee. But since any change would have to be communicated back to the responsible party, I'm not sure as that's much of an advantage.

Keep in mind that all Bishoprics and Presidencies have full edit rights to all ward calendars. So it's not necessary to track down some quorum secretary to resolve it - anyone in the top-level of the unit can do an immediate fix.
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drepouille
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Re: Is the instructions in the help section current?

#9

Post by drepouille »

russellhltn wrote:If they schedule the youth activities as events, there's no problem.

I'm not saying that restrictions are not useful, but it's caused far more problems when people try to revert to the old system.
And there is the problem. The building scheduler had created reservations/restrictions for each ward's weekly youth events, but the wards never created the actual events. When the restrictions expired in October, it left nothing -- no restrictions or events -- on any calendar. The bishoprics simply talk to each other to deconflict their youth activities.
russellhltn wrote:Keep in mind that all Bishoprics and Presidencies have full edit rights to all ward calendars.
From my experience, none of the bishoprics or branch presidencies in my stake are interested in using their calendars. Therefore, they do not encourage their ward council members to use their calendars. I have seen some units (mostly Relief Society) using Facebook, Yahoo groups, or just paper calendar handouts to advertise their planned events.

I recently volunteered to be in the nursery for a Thursday night Relief Society event. I wasn't sure of the start time, so I looked at the ward calendar. Nothing. I asked my wife, who looked on the Relief Society Facebook wall, and found the start time. When I went into the nursery, I happened to find a printed calendar that showed the event. I don't know what software was used to create that calendar, but obviously, the Relief Society presidency was not interested in using the calendar on lds.org.

I think the bottom line is that members either want to use paper or a PED (smartphone or tablet) to see their calendar events. In all cases, the members do not want to bother with a username/password to access the calendar. So if the Church wants members to use a standard authorized calendar, then the Church must make it easily accessible on PEDs (iOS, Android, etc).
Dana Repouille, Plattsmouth, Nebraska
russellhltn
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Re: Is the instructions in the help section current?

#10

Post by russellhltn »

drepouille wrote:So if the Church wants members to use a standard authorized calendar, then the Church must make it easily accessible on PEDs (iOS, Android, etc).
For the bulk of the members - it is - via sync. But that only works for events. I only log into the calendar if I need to make a change. For daily use, I use the sync because it updates every day and the church events of interest show up in my personal agenda view. I could use LDS Tools, but that requires a manual sync.

Edit: I agree that the members do not want to go to yet another website to get their calendar. They want the information to come to them. That's why they like facebook (which they check for other things anyway) or yahoo (I assume it's the email function). But by scheduling events and using the sync, they can go one better and have it on their PED.

drepouille wrote:I have seen some units (mostly Relief Society) using Facebook, Yahoo groups, or ...
I guess they have a problem following the Handbook.

drepouille wrote:And there is the problem. The building scheduler had created reservations/restrictions for each ward's weekly youth events, but the wards never created the actual events. When the restrictions expired in October, it left nothing -- no restrictions or events -- on any calendar. The bishoprics simply talk to each other to deconflict their youth activities.
Which only reinforces my belief that the best way to transition to the new system may be to abolish building schedulers and restrictions altogether. Force them to use events. Because there were no events, there's nothing for the members to sync to their PEDs. Which in turn drove people to look for other methods to "publish" the calendar to the ward.
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