Create Building Calendar at Stake level

Just trying to relay info to our stake clerk on how to create calendar for our meetinghouse. If the stake creates a building calendar for a meetinghouse that 3 wards share, and designates one calendar editor (in this case the building scheduler for the meetinghouse), does the whole stake see the calendar or just the wards that share the building. After location for meetinghouse is set up, does all he have to do is select the meetinghouse, create a calendar for that meetinghouse, and then add building scheduler as editor. Confused about how this process happens at the stake level.

You should not be creating ANY "meetinghouse" calendars. Use the "location" section to book the building/rooms that an event uses. The system will not allow two events to overlap the use of the same room.

In effect, the "meetinghouse calendar" is automatically created by the system as a sum of all events scheduled at that location. To see this, switch to week view and select the location on the left.

I suggest you read the help file for the calendar. That's where the training is "hidden".

I will say up front that the day-to-day function of the building scheduler has been taken over by the calendar system. There's no need for that any more. They're now mostly referees. And, in many cases you can function without them.

emwel wrote:does the whole stake see the calendar or just the wards that share the building.

Every stake-level public calendar is visible to all members of the stake. There is no way to restrict the visibility of a stake calendar to just the members of selected wards (short of creating a private stake calendar and assigning each member of those wards by name to be viewers, which is a horrible idea).

But as RussellHltn said, it's much better to just let the wards put events on their own calendars to book the building for their events. A stake calendar should be used for stake events, individual ward calendars for ward events.

I've read the "help guide" more than once and can't tell you how many times Ive watched the "calendar video" at LDS Tech conference. I understand the role of the building scheduler and the eloquence of the calendar IF everyone else was using the "help guide" per instructions. I understand it is better to let the wards schedule their own events per restrictions. However, everyone and I mean everyone, (all three wards) uses the building schedulers to schedules all events for "their" building. The stake is not familiar with the calendar and only a few members know that they can use the calendar to schedule events without using the building scheduler.

If I can start with a small step, that will give me the opportunity to educate members when they call in to schedule an event. Thats a start in the right direction, and thats all I'm trying to do here, while making sure events are scheduled properly and members of all three wards can see whats scheduled for the building. My understanding is that all three wards are unable to see a "building calendar" unless created at the stake level.

Per blackjf1 post
The current help states that building schedulers cannot schedule events. This is totally false. The only reason Building schedulers cannot schedule events is because no one has added them as editors to a calendar. The Building scheduler for a ward should be added, by name, to the ward activities calendar. The stake should create a building calendar for each of the shared buildings in the stake and make the building schedulers editors on these building calendars. Then building schedulers can schedule building events such as weddings, funerals, etc and everyone can see these events. It is important to remember that once building schedulers can schedule events this solves many of the problems where conflicts arise because the schedulers were using restrictions rather than reservations.

Sorry I didnt't understand and confused the difference between a "building" and a "meetinghouse" calendar.

The following is all I am trying to do. Can I do it and how, please?
How does the stake create a building calendar for each of the shared buildings in the stake and how do they make the building schedulers editors on these building calendars. Then building schedulers can schedule building events such as weddings, funerals, etc and everyone can see these events.

emwel wrote:If I can start with a small step, that will give me the opportunity to educate members when they call in to schedule an event. Thats a start in the right direction, and thats all I'm trying to do here, while making sure events are scheduled properly and members of all three wards can see whats scheduled for the building. My understanding is that all three wards are unable to see a "building calendar" unless created at the stake level.

That "understanding" is not really true. Anyone in the stake can see what is scheduled for the building if they use week view and check the appropriate Location check box. But given the limited understanding of the calendar you say that the members of your stake have, that "understanding" may certainly seem to be true.

emwel wrote:The following is all I am trying to do. Can I do it and how, please?
How does the stake create a building calendar for each of the shared buildings in the stake and how do they make the building schedulers editors on these building calendars. Then building schedulers can schedule building events such as weddings, funerals, etc and everyone can see these events.

If you want to make only this small step, here's one way to accomplish it.

1. A stake admin (I assume that's you) should verify that the buildings are all properly designated as a Location.
2. Each location should have the "Allow wards and stakes to schedule this building" check box unchecked. That will prevent any other stake clerks, bishopric members, or ward clerks from scheduling the building.
3. Create a stake calendar for each building. Name it with the commonly used name for the building so that members will be clear.
4. Because these will be stake-level calendars, every member will be able to see all the calendars. All you can do about that is to recommend that members unsubscribe from the other calendars they are not interested in. This is the big weakness of this approach, but if you're not willing to have ward calendars and you want members to be able to easily see all the events scheduled for their building, even in Month or Agenda view, you don't have any other choice.
5. Designate a building scheduler for each building.
6. Also give the building scheduler View and Edit permissions for their building's stake calendar. That will allow them to create events.
7. Instruct the building schedulers to use only Events (not Restrictions). There is no reason at all in this scenario for a building scheduler to use any Restrictions.

I'd only add that you'll run into some frustrations with this approach. But I think you're making a reasonable step, given the culture of your stake. Once people start using the calendar, my guess is that they'll start asking for additional capabilities, much of which are already in the system if it's only used correctly. That can be a stepping stone towards taking advantage of the power of the distributed scheduling model the Calendar was designed for. But until people start expressing those desires, all you can do is educate them and patiently work with the limited system you are setting up.

Thank you for your time and effort. I do appreciate it.

emwel wrote:However, everyone and I mean everyone, (all three wards) uses the building schedulers to schedules all events for "their" building. The stake is not familiar with the calendar and only a few members know that they can use the calendar to schedule events without using the building scheduler.

This will quickly stop the building scheduler stops adding events and tells everyone who calls to see their organization president in order to have events added to the proper organization calendar layer. If the person calling it the organization president then have them contact their Bishop or ward clerk. By doing this people will quickly become learn the proper use of the calendar system and start using it properly.

Really, thats your reply, don't you have anything better to do. Thanks for your Christ like understanding and compassion

emwel wrote:Really, thats your reply, don't you have anything better to do. Thanks for your Christ like understanding and compassion

I did not mean any disrespect and I'm sorry if I offended you.

However, the only way to get people using the calendar properly it to make them use it. If the Building scheduler does it for them then we are just doing the same old thing and not teaching how to properly use the calendar. If we put everything on a stake level calendar then we are only defeating the purpose of having ward level calendars. There is so much good that can come from using the calendar the way the designers under the direction of the Brethren intended it to be used.

Gary_Miller wrote:There is so much good that can come from using the calendar the way the designers under the direction of the Brethren intended it to be used.

I think an oft overlooked feature is the sync. Members do NOT want yet another website that they have to go to to get information. They want the information to come to them. Sync (and LDS Tools) allows the information to come to them on whatever electronic device they use.

But to make it work properly, the calendars have to be set up so that each member can select (subscribe to) the calendars that apply to them and turn off the ones that don't.

Youth leaders can get the events into their young charges phones well ahead of competing events. Members who are forced to work on Sunday can still learn about weekday events and not get socialized out of the church. But that only works if the events are entered in a calendar system that makes sense.

Use the calendar system to communicate to the members, and the whole building scheduling thing starts to take care of itself.

I think Gary's point is is it better to continue in a old tradition or is it time to kick the crutches out and say it's time to get with the program? I'm not sure as the proposed transition is any improvement.

You might consider having each ward do their own calendar and let them work out the mechanics of how they want to do that. Effectively abolish the roll of centralized building scheduler. Once people figure that out, the rest comes easy.