YSA Stake Experience:

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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slmsz20
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Posts: 67
Joined: Sun Jul 06, 2008 2:00 pm
Location: United States, Utah, Logan

YSA Stake Experience:

#1

Post by slmsz20 »

This is feedback from a YSA Stake with its own building.

First typical situation in a YSA Stake. YSA Stake has its own building (in our area it's the Student Married wards that share buildings with regular family stakes). However, since no leadership in the YSA stake has records there, then it causes problems with MLS rights, Callings, Directories etc... The out-of-unit records do not show on YSA Stake rolls or directories, the only thing that shows up now is the Callings (if people had experience with YSA Stakes a few years ago, the only callings that would show up were the ones you had to submit to Church Organization (Bishop, Stake Presidency, Stake Clerk, Executive Secretary). The lack of records showing on the directory is the biggest cause of grief in most of the current tools. The classic site may have been a bit clunky, but at least it had a work around (you could manually add out-of-unit members and then assign them to their callings on the stake and ward admin pages).

Calendar works fine for regular calendar stuff (something happens on this date).
Can only add administrators by calling, since you can't select any names with leadership callings (all are out-of-unit).

Locations & Rooms a total non-starter. You cannot select an out-of-unit scheduler period, therefore you cannot use the Locations & Rooms. This applies to the default location, which I had to mark as unusable so someone didn't try to set it up.
If you try to setup a custom location, you can only assign yourself as scheduler since you can only select individuals from your home stake, even if you add your building scheduler's stake you still can't select him since his stake won't appear in the popdown menu. The last problem is the resource can't be scheduled by anyone, even if it was setup using a custom location. The resources were unselectable except by the self-setup scheduler (this is less functional than the classic site). We tested this by setting up a location with the scheduler then we had someone else without admin rights to that location try to schedule something, only thing we could do was make dark patterns on the calendar (tic tac toe came to mind).

The single stake has existed for the better part of 50 years now. It should not be this hard to setup technologies for this group. The FM/CDOL listings list the correct ownership with these stake buildings. There is not an "agent stake/ward" to turn to if you need scheduling, it is all done in house. If all this grief is caused by the out-of-unit record (which has been the case from the start of classic website, to the MLS and on), then maybe the out-of-unit principle needs to be looked at.

As the Stake Technology Specialist, I spend way too much time trying to get people the right rights and so forth than I should need to. New callings are issued, go to individuals, fight to get copy of Member Record from home Stake, endless cycle. Try to get technology tools working, give up, use custom program. All this because out-unit-members don't integrate with the system very well.

I appreciate the hard work done for these tools, but they just don't work well for the YSA Stakes, especially those that run their own buildings. My friends with callings in their home stakes love the tools because they work well for them.
crislapi
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Joined: Mon Jul 07, 2008 4:05 pm
Location: USA

#2

Post by crislapi »

slmsz20 wrote:However, since no leadership in the YSA stake has records there, then it causes problems with MLS rights, Callings, Directories etc... The out-of-unit records do not show on YSA Stake rolls or directories, the only thing that shows up now is the Callings
If the wards have properly created out-of-unit records, there are no issues with MLS rights and callings. I do agree there are issues with rolls and directories. In the online directory, out-of-unit leaders do not show in the directory of members but do show in the Ward Leaders and Organizations section so long as the leaders have been placed in callings in MLS using standard positions (indicated w/ stars in MLS)
slmsz20 wrote:Can only add administrators by calling, since you can't select any names with leadership callings (all are out-of-unit).
Version 1.0 of the calendar let you add editors by name and I was able to select out of unit leaders by name to be editors for various calendars. I'm not sure if that went away in later revisions of ver 1.0 but it is definitely not available in ver 2.0. I am hopeful it returns and realize that adding this type of functionality usually comes later on in the development process.
slmsz20 wrote:You cannot select an out-of-unit scheduler period, therefore you cannot use the Locations & Rooms.
Agreed, although for the wards that really want to use it, I have designated a ward clerk (is a YSA in my stake) as the scheduler and trust he will manage it through the actual building scheduler.
slmsz20 wrote:It should not be this hard to setup technologies for this group.
I don't think it's an issue of difficulty. It's a numbers issue. Realizing how many wards and stakes there are, I recognize that YSA units make up a very small percentage and therefore do not get the primary focus of the development team. I've even been told this once or twice when I called in to report issues.
slmsz20 wrote:I appreciate the hard work done for these tools, but they just don't work well for the YSA Stakes, especially those that run their own buildings. My friends with callings in their home stakes love the tools because they work well for them.
This has been my observation as well. Maybe this is just one more way they are trying to get the YSA's married and into resident wards and stakes?
slmsz20
Member
Posts: 67
Joined: Sun Jul 06, 2008 2:00 pm
Location: United States, Utah, Logan

#3

Post by slmsz20 »

crislapi wrote:This has been my observation as well. Maybe this is just one more way they are trying to get the YSA's married and into resident wards and stakes?
If it was a problem with tools working for the YSA's themselves I'd agree, but it's a problem with the tools working for the leadership (the one's that aren't YSA's anymore).
rsummers
New Member
Posts: 5
Joined: Sat Nov 12, 2011 3:03 pm

YSA Stake Calendar

#4

Post by rsummers »

slmsz20 wrote:If it was a problem with tools working for the YSA's themselves I'd agree, but it's a problem with the tools working for the leadership (the one's that aren't YSA's anymore).

I appreciate all of the hard work you all are doing to make these tools work for our YSA Stake and all of the Stake's of Zion. It seems there are many challenges you are trying to overcome and I thank you for not giving up. I feel you are making great progress; our stake not even having a year since it was organized.
One way we have been able to integrate the LDS.org calendars into our wards and stake and still allow access to our ecclesiastical leaders was to use the Sync for Google Calendar. I gave my personal Sync code to the Second Counselor and a Sister who is part of the Nurturing Couple which allowed them access to see the Calendar. They in turn asked us to make corrections when they found them. This is obviously just a short term fix to allow us to function until furthered solutions are determined.
If you are looking for more hands to help I would be glad to volunteer. My E-mail is mrrobertsummers@gmail.com and I have a lot of leisure time I would like to put to good use.
This tool hasn't fully come to the attention of the YSA members but the leaders of our Stake have realized it's potential. It is helping us all stay on the same page with each other and as the next generation of Church leaders I feel the YSA Stakes are perfect places to bring up, train, and organize those future leaders. We're not just waiting around to get married, although that is on our agenda.
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