Category and Time Requirements for Ward Calendar

[DaydreamsGirl]

I was trying to set up our Ward Calendar but ran into problems that prevented me from creating a useful calendar for our ward's members.

1. I don't always know the start and/or end time for an event, so those fields should be optional, not required. It would be more important to have the event listed on the calendar than for it to be unlisted because of missing times.

2. There should be a category for General to include events that might not fit into the other categories or fit into more than one. Also a category for YM/YW which currently is two separate categories. And there should be a category for Scouting.

I realize the "Check for Conflicts" could be useful, but there are many events that might appear conflicting but in reality are not. Scheduling conflicts would be better handled and resolved on a human level and should be the responsibility of the people doing the scheduling to check the calendar.

I am looking forward to the new calendar and encouraging the ward members to use it, so hopefully these things will be resolved soon. If I'm mistaken on these things, please let me know how to get around these obstacles.

[jdlessley]

The Introduction to the Calendar provides a good explanation of how the calendar works. Some of your issues are related to the specific functionality of the multiple calendar layering. This is accessed by clicking the Help button on the calendar page.

I was trying to set up our Ward Calendar but ran into problems that prevented me from creating a useful calendar for our ward's members.

The calendar is still in development. There are known issues and bugs. If you come across something that needs to be brought to the attention of the developers you should send feedback throught the Feedback link.

I don't always know the start and/or end time for an event, so those fields should be optional, not required. It would be more important to have the event listed on the calendar than for it to be unlisted because of missing times.

If you are trying to just put an event on a calendar without a start time or even end time you can just check the box for an "All Day" event. The event title will show on the calendar without any times. When the event times are known you can uncheck the "All Day" box and enter the times.

There should be a category for General to include events that might not fit into the other categories or fit into more than one. Also a category for YM/YW which currently is two separate categories. And there should be a category for Scouting.

I am assuming what you call a category is really a calendar. The new calendar supports multiple calendars that are displayed as one calendar based on the calendars to which you subscribe and select for viewing. If you have editor rights to a calendar then you can submit events to that calendar.

Since I do not know what your ward calling is I am going to assume you have approver privileges if you are trying to set up the ward calendars. If you feel there is a need for a General calendar, or any other calendar, you should be able to create it if you have approver rights.

There are some threads on these forums that discuss this new capability of layered calendars. You may be interested in the discussions in the Calendar Best Practices thread.

I realize the "Check for Conflicts" could be useful, but there are many events that might appear conflicting but in reality are not. Scheduling conflicts would be better handled and resolved on a human level and should be the responsibility of the people doing the scheduling to check the calendar.

Conflicts only occur when an event is scheduled for the same resource as another event. If a meetinghouse location has not been divided into resources then any event scheduled in that building will conflict with any other event in that building even though they may be in different locations within the building. The stake approvers must set up the ward meetinghouse locations and designate a building scheduler for that location. Either the stake approvers or the building scheduler can then add resources to that location.

If you are not the designated building scheduler for your ward meetinghouse then you may want to find out who that is and make sure all necessary resources for your meetinghouse location are setup. Since only one group or person can use a resource at a time the conflict feature of the new calendar ensures proper scheduling of resources.

The ability to include setup and cleanup times is still in design. Work arounds have been discussed in the thread "New Calendar: reserving resource for event setup/teardown". One forum user suggests selecting "Other Location" as the location for an event when the location has not yet been determined to avoid conflicting with other events.

[DaydreamsGirl]

Thank you! That gives me some direction to work with. Much appreciated

[kisaac]

I don't always know the start and/or end time for an event...

As pointed out, times ARE optional- just make it an all day event. Realize this event will then display differently. You can always append "Time To be announced" to the description of an event displayed as "all day." Or, add TBA to the end of the event title.

There should be a category for General to include events that might not fit into the other categories or fit into more than one.

jdlessley's comments were "spot on," including his link to another thread. Realize that much thought, and trial and error is going on in every ward and stake on the best way to build a framework of calendars that will meet their members needs. So, you're not alone- "Jump in! The water's fine!"

I realize the "Check for Conflicts" could be useful...Scheduling conflicts would be better handled and resolved on a human level and should be the responsibility of the people doing the scheduling to check the calendar.

Here is a major paradigm shift, and it's what my ward has the most difficult time grasping.

The "people doing the scheduling" you mentioned is now you, and every other event submitter. You now are forced to look at all the other events near your event and say "It's ok, these don't conflict." This is the human level you seek.

This new system requires your members to check for conflicts, but what they do when they see conflicts is the Paradigm shift I speak of. Some will boldly schedule their event without a care (and without consideration of others.)

Others will think: "Hey, while these other events don't use the same room I need, and it will allow me to schedule it, putting on my event is a lot of work, and I can see there is already many other things happening near this time, or on this day, or during this week, and it may make people decide to attend them and not my event...Maybe next week will be a better choice for my event."

Eventually, we'll all get in the habit of checking all the calendars FIRST!

Yes, it is true you cannot reserve the same room (resource) somebody else has already reserved, and if your event is more important, or it's on a night using a room that you are allocated in advance... now it must be mediated by your building scheduler.

Do a search for new calendar threads.