Calendar descriptions need to be available to all viewers

I am a stake administrator and have created 33 stake calendars. The description box has detailed information as to what events will be posted on it, but the description is not visible to all of the stake viewers. I am adding a page to our stake directory with a list of the stake calendars, but don't have the room to list all the events on each one. My husband is a High Councilor. He has no administrative rights. He has no idea which calendar to look at for certain meetings/events. Is there any way that the stake members can have access to the description of each calendar to which they are subscribed?

There is no way at present for anyone but calendar administrators to see the calendar descriptions, but I think it would be a good improvement if they could.

Clearly it's important to name the calendars well; a good title should make it pretty clear what kind of events will be on the calendar. But I do agree that the calendar description should be visible to regular members. One place that might work is on the Subscriptions page, since it would be helpful to have that information as you decide which calendars to subscribe to; another would be on the dropdown by each calendar in the main calendar view.

aebrown wrote:There is no way at present for anyone but calendar administrators to see the calendar descriptions, but I think it would be a good improvement if they could.

Clearly it's important to name the calendars well; a good title should make it pretty clear what kind of events will be on the calendar. But I do agree that the calendar description should be visible to regular members. One place that might work is on the Subscriptions page, since it would be helpful to have that information as you decide which calendars to subscribe to; another would be on the dropdown by each calendar in the main calendar view.

Agreed, good titles are important, but lengthy ones get lost in the little window.
I really like the suggestion to have a dropdown by each calendar. Is there a way to get this great idea to someone who could actually make it happen?

2gerolyn wrote:Agreed, good titles are important, but lengthy ones get lost in the little window.
I really like the suggestion to have a dropdown by each calendar. Is there a way to get this great idea to someone who could actually make it happen?

The developers are active in this forum, so there's a good chance they'll see it. The official method is to use the "Feedback" link on the main lds.org website.

What are the calendars you've created? Perhaps we can help you wordsmith the names.

In my stake, I think we're trending to two calendars per organization. One for leadership meetings and one for events for the members. As such, we have a "Stake YM Events" and "Stake YM Leadership" calendar.

RussellHltn wrote:The developers are active in this forum, so there's a good chance they'll see it. The official method is to use the "Feedback" link on the main lds.org website.

What are the calendars you've created? Perhaps we can help you wordsmith the names.

In my stake, I think we're trending to two calendars per organization. One for leadership meetings and one for events for the members. As such, we have a "Stake YM Events" and "Stake YM Leadership" calendar.

Our Stake Leaders chose the names for their own calendars and what they want on them. I just type in the information when they give it to me. The problem is that these stake calendars are custom fit for the leaders so the general member population and leadership don't know where to look to find conflicts IF they are not using a bldg. The most recent challenge was a ward RS who wanted to have an event away from the building. She put the event on her Ward RS Calendar and because it was away from the building there were no conflicts. When she announced the event in our ward RS, I looked on the "master calendar" I have created and realized that her event conflicted with a Stake Blue and Gold Dinner. I called her and she told me that she had looked on the Stake calendar for General Events, but of course the Blue and Gold Dinner is on the Stake Primary Calendar.
This just gave me another idea...I wonder if it would be possible to have the same dropdown window (that appears when a location is requested) which lists all potential conflicts... even if the event requested is at "no location" or "other location"...that would sure eliminate these types of conflicts.
What do you think?

2gerolyn wrote:Our Stake Leaders chose the names for their own calendars and what they want on them.

That's fine, but at some point someone has to come along and standardize the naming and create some kind of order. I've done that a few times in my stake.

2gerolyn wrote:The most recent challenge was a ward RS who wanted to have an event away from the building. She put the event on her Ward RS Calendar and because it was away from the building there were no conflicts. When she announced the event in our ward RS, I looked on the "master calendar" I have created and realized that her event conflicted with a Stake Blue and Gold Dinner. I called her and she told me that she had looked on the Stake calendar for General Events, but of course the Blue and Gold Dinner is on the Stake Primary Calendar.

The name "Stake Primary" could be for the leaders only, or it could be events. Thus I'd suggest appending "Leadership" or "Events" as needed. You may even have to split it into two calendars.

Still, in this situation, it's not clear to me that the naming was part of the problem. It's not clear to me that the RS President in question was aware that calendars other then "Stake - General" may contain events that impact her scheduling.

2gerolyn wrote:This just gave me another idea...I wonder if it would be possible to have the same dropdown window (that appears when a location is requested) which lists all potential conflicts... even if the event requested is at "no location" or "other location"...that would sure eliminate these types of conflicts.
What do you think?

That might be one way of doing it. I'd like to see a "quick button" that would turn on every calendar available - even ones you are not subscribed to to see everything that is going on. As it stands now, you have to go into subscriptions, turn all of them on and then go to the calendar page (and then remember to reset the subscriptions before the next sync.)

Any access to every calendar would be great. Our stake isn't as active on the new calendar as many stakes are. Our Stake leaders don't really differentiate their leadership meetings and their other events...but as the members get more involved...I will keep your suggestion in mind to separate the two. Thank you for all of your help. Your comments are very helpful.

2gerolyn wrote:Our Stake leaders don't really differentiate their leadership meetings and their other events...but as the members get more involved

Unfortunately, I'm afraid it would feed on each other. If the leaders don't differentiate, then the members won't use the calendar to full advantage - in particular to sync with their own calendar.