Building Scheduler - trying to understand Order of Operation

Hi, I'm trying to understand order of operation with regard to the Building Scheduler, on Tools of the Church of Jesus Christ/calendar it says:

Last Updated: 27 February 2019 at 13:14
Role and Responsibilities

"A stake calendar administrator, such as the stake clerk or stake executive secretary, assigns building schedulers in the calendar system to oversee locations. It is not enough to put their calling in Leader and Clerk Resources (LCR). The building scheduler must be assigned to a specific building using the Locations and Rooms option in the calendar. To check if you have been properly set up as a building scheduler, click on the building name in the calendar’s left panel. You should see your name.

Building schedulers are responsible for overseeing events related to their assigned location, but they do not schedule stake or ward events. The stake and ward calendar editors schedule their own events and reserve the needed building and rooms without contacting the building scheduler. If the building scheduler schedules events directly on the building calendar, it will indeed reserve the building, but the events will not be seen on the stake or ward calendars, on the LDS Tools mobile app, or on third-party calendars that sync events. If members ask building schedulers to schedule the building for Church events, schedulers should encourage the members to instead contact a stake or ward calendar editor to create an event on a stake or ward calendar, which also reserves the building.

At times the building scheduler will create events on the building calendar that are not associated with events on stake or ward calendars, such as family events, facilities work, and so on.

Building schedulers monitor the events being scheduled and make sure they conform to handbook and other local building policies. They can help resolve scheduling conflicts. They have the ability to make appropriate changes to events associated with the building, even events on stake and ward calendars, assisting the editors of the various calendars."

However in the General Handbook of Instructions it says this:

35.2.5
Agent Bishop

If more than one ward meets in a building, the stake presidency assigns one bishop to be the agent bishop. He coordinates assignments for member participation in meetinghouse care and maintenance. He also coordinates safety and security procedures for the meetinghouse. In addition, he coordinates scheduling of the building with the stake and other wards that use it, though he may assign another member to do the scheduling.

So the question is: Is the building scheduler a stake calling or an assignment from the Agent Bishop? And with Bishops being relieved of most of their day to day assignments of the past, is it a GOOD thing to have them taking the role of building scheduler?

NPAlemany wrote:So the question is: Is the building scheduler a stake calling or an assignment from the Agent Bishop?

I know it's a calling that can be entered in MLS/LCR - at least it has been in the past. But I'm not sure at what level. I'm thinking "stake". However, I'm sure it's a name submitted by the Agent Bishop.

NPAlemany wrote:And with Bishops being relieved of most of their day to day assignments of the past, is it a GOOD thing to have them taking the role of building scheduler?

They've always been responsible for that happens for "their" building. This is giving them the option to off-load that if they wish. Since the day-to-day operation is handled by the church server, they may want to retain control over resolving conflicts.

Wow was this an informative post! Thank you. Let's take it a step further. How to schedule on the calendar when it involves ALL WARDS in a particular building? They are hosting a joint open house on a Saturday with set up the night before. If the building scheduler just schedules the building it will not appear on any ward calendars. How would 3 wards each put on their ward activities calendars? Only thing I can think of is 1 ward puts it on their ward activity calender and the other 2 wards select their ward activity calendar with "other" for location and enters info there.
Suggestions for best way to handle this so all 3 wards will see activity on their ward activities calendar. It is not a stake event so can't use that calendar.

casper684 wrote: Wed Sep 29, 2021 10:07 pm Only thing I can think of is 1 ward puts it on their ward activity calender and the other 2 wards select their ward activity calendar with "other" for location and enters info there.

Correct.

As the Stake Building Coordinator for three buildings, one with three wards, one with two wards plus YSA and one with two wards plus Tongan Stake, I've been using the Building Schedule with the intention that all people could see what is going on. It turns out that for some unfathomable reason, those building the calendar application think that wards should not see what another ward is doing. Coordination by obscurity isn't effective. There is also no export function I can find to pull all activities into a .CSV or other text file so the Stake Council can view everything in tables by activity type or organization, instead of on a calendar view. For two years our stake has been crusading for members to use the calendar and LDS Tool as the primary connection and coordination tool. Is there a feedback mechanism to get some of these usability problems addressed? Is the liability of having a calendar that is "too usable" so high that it's just not worth having? Manually redoing calendars and manually updating and manually checking and hoping the part of me that is human and failable didn't mess something up is getting quite tedious.

There's two options:
1) Try to schedule something. If there's a conflict with the facility, it won't be allowed.
2) Users needing to coordinate can turn on the "Location" calendar. While it may not show the details of the activity, it will show when the building as a whole is busy and when it is available.

I’m just seeing this thread, but as the Stake Building Scheduler, I oversee 4 buildings with 11 wards and two branches. Every ward can schedule their own events and see what the other wards have scheduled. We have a “Private calendar” for things like reunions, funerals, etc (andything not associated with the Stake or a Ward/auxiliary). That is the only calendar that others cannot see what has been scheduled but they can see that the building/resources is Works great for our Stake and we have been doing this since I got the calling 7-8 years ago.

Just curious why your "private calendar" is not accessible to the entire stake? We refer to this as a "private events calendar" and members may subscribe to this calendar and see what has been scheduled, as well as make a request through their building scheduler. It is beneficial to the stake especially in the event of a funeral. Each ward building scheduler has access to schedule on the private events calendar for their building and receives requests from members and obtains approval from all bishops in their building before scheduling any private events. This has also been very successful for our Stake. Though with the addition of pickleball lines in more of our cultural halls it can be more of a challenge.

casper684 wrote: Thu Feb 24, 2022 10:23 pm Just curious why your "private calendar" is not accessible to the entire stake? We refer to this as a "private events calendar" and members may subscribe to this calendar and see what has been scheduled, as well as make a request through their building scheduler.

Even if the event is private, it will still block attempts to schedule the building, as well as showing as busy in the building calendar.

I suspect the reason for keeping it private is because these tend to be "invitation only" events and are not available to the general membership. Especially if you have moochers that show up anytime food is involved.

What @russellhltn said!

If it is a private event, then the rest of the Stake does not need to know what the event is. If they weren’t invited, then it isn’t for them. We have a temple in our Stake boundaries and so we get a lot of private events (we avg about 300 a year). These include funeral and baptism luncheons and reunions and mission reunions and much more.
Since I schedule all of them, wards just need to worry about their own events on the calendar. Even our Stake President (who could schedule anything) calls me to schedule funerals and he is a mortician!
The Stake inputs their items on the calendar in mid-November for the next year. Then Wards have until Jan 31 to put their events (in their own building). Then Feb1-Feb 28, Wards can put their events if they need a different building (Stake Pavilion, building next to the temple for a special fireside after a ward temple night, etc). And then March 1, the Private events calendar opens for the year. So next week I will get very busy as people start to get their Thanksgiving, Christmas, family reunions, etc. scheduled.

This site is great. Sure do appreciate the feedback and will definitely discuss a few more options. You have opened my eyes to a few things I had not considered. Our timeline starts in October and we open for private events in January of the current year.

To clarify - A private event is scheduled on the BUILDING location calendar and members would not even see the activity UNLESS they subscribed to the building calendar OR if it happens to be the building they attend?

Is the building location calendar also where you would post member requested sporting events like pickleball play?

Thank you so much.

For us, we created a "Private Events" calendar within the Stake calendars but it is only edited by myself and the Stake Presidency (who never actually touch it) and viewable by those folks and a select few others like the Stake Clerks. I guess we could have used the building calendars but we wanted to lock them down.

By the way, to my previous post...I have had 9 building requests today since it is March 1 for Mission/Family reunions, Thanksgiving, and a 90th birthday party.

casper684 wrote: Tue Mar 01, 2022 12:27 pm To clarify - A private event is scheduled on the BUILDING location calendar

You could, but I'm not sure as it's the best plan.

casper684 wrote: Tue Mar 01, 2022 12:27 pm and members would not even see the activity UNLESS they subscribed to the building calendar OR if it happens to be the building they attend?

I don't think you can subscribe to it. Any anyone can see any building in the stake.

If you put it on a private calendar, then members without viewing rights would only see that it's busy. I don't think they can see the "why".

casper684 wrote: Tue Mar 01, 2022 12:27 pm Is the building location calendar also where you would post member requested sporting events like pickleball play?

You could, but that's probably not what I'd do. I'd try to locate a calendar that's a better fit.

russellhltn wrote: Tue Mar 01, 2022 1:06 pm
If you put it on a private calendar, then members without viewing rights would only see that it's busy. I don't think they can see the "why".

This is correct and why we do it the way that we do. It shows the building and resources are blocked but does not show the title/description

Ahh so that is my hangup. In my stake the private events calendar is viewable to any member that subscribes.

We took the word "Private" a little more seriously, I guess

So who exactly has access to the private events calendar in your stake?

I, as the Stake Building Scheduler, am the person that actually enters any events on the calendar. Technically, any member of the Stake Presidency can but they never do...they have me do anything they need. Since they can enter items, they can see what actually scheduled. The Stake Clerks (by calling) can also see what is on the calendar. Anyone else in the Stake just sees that it is a Private Event.

Here is a link to the Building Schedulers "Roles and Responsibilities" https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/hel ... lang=eng#d


Last Updated: 27 February 2019 at 13:14

Role and Responsibilities
A stake calendar administrator, such as the stake clerk or stake executive secretary, assigns building schedulers in the calendar system to oversee locations. It is not enough to put their calling in Leader and Clerk Resources (LCR). The building scheduler must be assigned to a specific building using the Locations and Rooms option in the calendar. To check if you have been properly set up as a building scheduler, click on the building name in the calendar’s left panel. You should see your name.

Building schedulers are responsible for overseeing events related to their assigned location, but they do not schedule stake or ward events. The stake and ward calendar editors schedule their own events and reserve the needed building and rooms without contacting the building scheduler. If the building scheduler schedules events directly on the building calendar, it will indeed reserve the building, but the events will not be seen on the stake or ward calendars, on the LDS Tools mobile app, or on third-party calendars that sync events. If members ask building schedulers to schedule the building for Church events, schedulers should encourage the members to instead contact a stake or ward calendar editor to create an event on a stake or ward calendar, which also reserves the building.

At times the building scheduler will create events on the building calendar that are not associated with events on stake or ward calendars, such as family events, facilities work, and so on.

Building schedulers monitor the events being scheduled and make sure they conform to handbook and other local building policies. They can help resolve scheduling conflicts. They have the ability to make appropriate changes to events associated with the building, even events on stake and ward calendars, assisting the editors of the various calendars.

Creating Building Events
Building calendars display all events scheduled in the building, even from multiple wards. Viewing them helps calendar editors find available time slots for their events. Building schedulers create events on building calendars that are not associated with a stake or ward calendar. In rare cases, they also make use of calendar restrictions. A building scheduler creates an event or restriction the same way a calendar editor does but instead selects the building calendar.

Managing Building Restrictions
Warning: Restrictions are not building events. A restriction limits the use of a building or rooms to one specific unit to prevent other units from using the building or rooms during that time. Restrictions should be used only if they are clearly understood. Extensive experience has shown it is better to simply get agreement from multiple wards concerning what evenings or times are reserved for a particular ward rather than rely on calendar restrictions, which can be confusing and can be input incorrectly by building schedulers. New building schedulers usually do not know that the former scheduler created a restriction, causing more confusion. Use restrictions only if they are absolutely necessary and well understood.

The unit that is not restricted can still schedule events during that period, but it is still on a first-come-first-served basis by creating events on that unit’s calendar. Restrictions cannot be used to reserve a building or room for an event. For example: At the request of the Young Women, the building scheduler places a restriction on the cultural hall for unit A. But the Young Men schedule an event for the cultural hall at the same time. They are able to do so because they are also from unit A. The restriction prevents only other units from scheduling an event; it cannot restrict other groups from the same unit. An event, on the other hand, blocks all other uses during that time.

A building scheduler can create a restriction even if there is already a conflicting event scheduled at that time. This allows a building scheduler to create repeating events, even if an occasional event conflicts with the repeating time. The building scheduler can then edit the restriction occurrence that conflicts with the scheduled event or have the conflicting ward reschedule their event.

That’s a nice set of guidelines, I just follow the directives of my Stake President.

Thank you for the link. I did find that. We created a private event calendar on the stake calendar list. Our building schedulers create all private events on this private event calendar only after receiving authorization by all bishops in whatever building is requested. This has been working very well for our stake. I especially liked and use the suggestion in several posts of NOT putting what the event is. This has been most helpful and avoids uninvited guests. All new building schedulers are given a detailed manual explaining their roles and responsibilities.

casper684 wrote: Mon Jun 13, 2022 8:44 pm This has been working very well for our stake.

Glad to hear

Is it possible to put the name of the ward building instead of Building 1, 2 etc.?

stebur wrote: Mon Nov 27, 2023 4:12 pm Is it possible to put the name of the ward building instead of Building 1, 2 etc.?

I assume you're talking about LCR. I'm not aware of a way to change that, but perhaps someone with access to LCR can see if there is a way.

But that's not how Building Schedulers get their rights in the Calendar system. A stake admin has to do it inside the Calendar webpage.

stebur wrote: Mon Nov 27, 2023 4:12 pm Is it possible to put the name of the ward building instead of Building 1, 2 etc.?

Yes that is a problem as the ward clerk often times has no idea what their "building #" is and just
selects one. Stake administrator needs to know which correct building it is and determines calendar
access based on what building number the ward clerk selects.

casper684 wrote: Mon Nov 27, 2023 4:36 pm Yes that is a problem as the ward clerk often times has no idea what their "building #" is and just
selects one. Stake administrator needs to know which correct building it is and determines calendar
access based on what building number the ward clerk selects.

Unless I'm missing something, building schedulers are called by (or at least recorded by) the stake as it needs to go though the agent bishop.

If you know what ward they're in, it should be easy to know which building in the calendar is being referred to.

That said, I agree that "Building #" is pretty messy.

Good point about the agent bishop!

Problem is if ward clerk puts incorrect building number, building scheduler will not have access to their ward's calendar.
I see this all the time. In our stake we have ward building schedulers that oversee the calendars for their ward and
Stake assigns them as a calendar editor only on the stake private events calendar. Our ward building schedulers only
have access as calendar editor to input events on location and stake private events calendar. Building schedulers have the ability to
make appropriate changes to events associated with their building, even events on stake and ward calendars,
assisting the editors of the various calendars. I believe the "ward building scheduler" is not a standard calling.

casper684 wrote: Mon Nov 27, 2023 6:06 pm Problem is if ward clerk puts incorrect building number, building scheduler will not have access to their ward's calendar.

That's not how it works. Building Scheduler in LCR grants nothing, nada, zip to the calendar. (At least not automatically.) As far as I know recording it in LCR only records the fact they have the calling. It doesn't appear anywhere in the LCR Access Table.

The way to grant a Building Scheduler their rights is for a stake admin to open the calendar web page, click on the Gear icon, and select "Building Schedulers". A drop-down list of buildings will be presented from the FM database. It might be named for the ward or the street it's on, but it won't be "Building #1". From there, it should be clear on how to add someone to the role.

Note that this will NOT automatically grant them edit access to anything but the location calendar. Access to activity calendars has to be done separately.

casper684 wrote: Mon Nov 27, 2023 6:06 pm I see this all the time. In our stake we have ward building schedulers that oversee the calendars for their ward and
Stake assigns them as a calendar editor only on the stake private events calendar.

Hmmm, OK, but that's a bit odd. It's up to the ward to grant their scheduling person edit rights to their calendars. I'm not sure what giving them rights to a stake private events calendar accomplishes. Any activity blocks off the building. Using one central calendar just allows one scheduler to edit/remove what another has scheduled. The risk/benefit of that strikes me as questionable.

But the whole idea of a ward scheduler seems a bit odd. Is there a reason the ward doesn't allow their quorums and auxiliaries edit rights to their own calendar? I mean, you can centralize scheduling within a unit, but I'm not sure as that's a good idea. It creates an added layer of hoops to jump through to have an activity.

casper684 wrote: Mon Nov 27, 2023 6:06 pm Building schedulers have the ability to make appropriate changes to events associated with their building, even events on stake and ward calendars,
assisting the editors of the various calendars.

Yes, but please note they can only edit an existing event taking place in "their" building. They're unable to add an event to any calendar except the location calendar unless that right has been granted separately.

Personally, if I had my way, the calling would be renamed to "Building Scheduling Supervisor". Because they oversee the process. They're not normally part of the day-to-day scheduling. That was the old way because of the limitation of paper scheduling where there could only be one sheet of paper that was fully up to date. Today, that "up to date" copy is on the server where anyone with proper rights can look at it and update it. We no longer have to go though a single person.

If you're still unclear on something, it might be worth reviewing Building Schedulers in the Help center.