Adding ward's High Council representative to private calendar?

Hi, new bishopric member here, trying to get my ward "on the same page" via technology and the church calendar app. I've created a new private ward calendar for the bishopric for our meetings and interviews but have been unable to find a way to add our High Council representative. Because he is not a member of the ward his name does not come up in the Name list, and I don't see a Calling selection for our Stake High Council rep. Any advice? It's key for him to have access to this calendar with the bishopric as he strives to attend most of our meetings.

Short of adding him to the ward as a out-of-unit member, I don't think there is a way.

Thanks Russell. Is that something the Ward Clerk has to do? Also, does that mess up anything for him in his home ward, or is he allowed to exist in both places?

Unfortunately private ward calendars will only allow you to add ward callings or members of your ward to be viewers.

I have not tried this, but you could try creating an out-of-unit record for the high councilor to get their name added to the list of ward members. The down side to this is when the high councilor assignments change you will have to manually remove the previous high councilor out-of-unit record and create an out-of-unit record for the new high councilor assigned to your ward and then add him by name as a viewer. Another down side is bishopric counselors cannot manage out-of-unit member records. Either the bishop, ward clerk, assistant ward clerk, or assistant ward clerk - membership would have to manage the out-of-unit records.

Seems like something the Church should consider addressing (adding the Stake High Council representative as a ward calling, even though it technically isn't) in order to resolve this issue.

chriswirick wrote:Thanks Russell. Is that something the Ward Clerk has to do? Also, does that mess up anything for him in his home ward, or is he allowed to exist in both places?

An out-of-unit record only creates a copy, or links to, the real membership record. It has no affect on the real record.

For more information see Out-of-Unit Members and Callings.

jdlessley wrote:

chriswirick wrote:Thanks Russell. Is that something the Ward Clerk has to do? Also, does that mess up anything for him in his home ward, or is he allowed to exist in both places?

An out-of-unit record only creates a copy, or links to, the real membership record. It has no affect on the real record.

Thanks!!!

Turns out this didn't work. The Ward Clerk added the High Councilman to the ward as an out-of-ward member. He is not set to Private in the directory; both the clerk and his wife are able to see his name there, as am I. But his name still won't appear when I search for it in the Add Viewer or Editor search box.

Any other suggestions?

chriswirick wrote:Turns out this didn't work. The Ward Clerk added the High Councilman to the ward as an out-of-ward member. He is not set to Private in the directory; both the clerk and his wife are able to see his name there, as am I. But his name still won't appear when I search for it in the Add Viewer or Editor search box.

Any other suggestions?

It used to be that for an out-of-unit member to have access to ward tools, they needed to not only have a record, but also be put into a calling in the ward. If that's still the case (I'm not sure if it is), you could try adding the high councilor to a calling, for example ward missionary or something else that might describe his work in the ward.

sbradshaw wrote: It used to be that for an out-of-unit member to have access to ward tools, they needed to not only have a record, but also be put into a calling in the ward. If that's still the case (I'm not sure if it is), you could try adding the high councilor to a calling, for example ward missionary or something else that might describe his work in the ward.

Great suggestion. I will try that.

Perhaps the Church should add Stake High Council Representative to the list of available ward callings just for this type of scenario.

chriswirick wrote:Perhaps the Church should add Stake High Council Representative to the list of available ward callings just for this type of scenario.

Youi can suggest that in feedback. No one here can make that happen.

Hi all, despite trying these suggestions I have still been unsuccessful getting our High Council representative access to our private Bishopric calendar. We added him as an out-of-ward member, so we can see him on our list. We tried assigning him a generic calling (Elders Quorum Service Committee Member) but he still doesn't show up in the name search box in the calendar settings, nor can he view the calendar if we add that calling to the calendar. So my Ward Clerk created a custom calling in the Bishopric organization called "Advisor" but he still doesn't show up by name, nor does the custom calling show up in the search box under Calling. I really, really need to make this work. Any other ideas?

In my experience, high councilor assignments change too frequently to make this sort of arrangement feasible. If a high councilor needs to know when bishopric meetings or ward council meetings are held, it is usually best to inform him using other means. Our stake executive secretary attempts to maintain a document that contains all high council assignments, as well as all ward leadership meetings throughout the stake. But even that document requires a lot of care and feeding.

Has your ward high council representative gone to the Calendar program and selected the calendar in the Choose Calendars link? If he has not selected (subscribed to) the calendar he will not see it.

jdlessley wrote:Has your ward high council representative gone to the Calendar program and selected the calendar in the Choose Calendars link? If he has not selected (subscribed to) the calendar he will not see it.

He can't see the Bishopric calendar in the lists of available calendars in order to select it. It's still invisible to him.

chriswirick wrote:I really, really need to make this work.

It appears you've done everything you can do. Even if your request is considered, the assignments will likely change before it's ever implemented.

I think you're stuck finding another method.

Is the meetings not on a regular schedule that it can't be communicated (example: every second Sunday) with a email for exceptions?

russellhltn wrote:

chriswirick wrote:I really, really need to make this work.

Is the meetings not on a regular schedule that it can't be communicated (example: every second Sunday) with a email for exceptions?

Generally yes, but we're trying to avoid using email to communicate date/time-based events. We'd prefer everything show up on each individual calendar to avoid the confusion that inevitable arises when you send out meeting notifications via email/text.

Just as an FYI to someone else who may stumble across this thread and have the same question: it appears it's currently impossible to do this with the current calendar system. I've submitted a request to the Church to perhaps upgrade the system to allow stake-wide permission searching/adding by name to enable us to include out-of-ward members on in-ward private calendars. In addition to the High Council representative, I'm sure there are some other stake callings that may fall into this dilemma. Seems this could literally be solved with a line or two of code, opening the Name search box in the private calendar settings to members stake-wide rather than restricting it to in-ward member names.

As a last resort, I will request that my stake create a private calendar for our ward Bishopric at the stake level, which I hope will eliminate the problem with adding our High Councilman to the calendar.

chriswirick wrote:As a last resort, I will request that my stake create a private calendar for our ward Bishopric at the stake level, which I hope will eliminate the problem with adding our High Councilman to the calendar.

If I remember correctly you will not be able to add editors/viewers by Ward calling if you go this route, only Stake Callings are available at the stake level. You will need to maintain permissions by Individual.

kd7mha wrote:

chriswirick wrote:As a last resort, I will request that my stake create a private calendar for our ward Bishopric at the stake level, which I hope will eliminate the problem with adding our High Councilman to the calendar.

If I remember correctly you will not be able to add editors/viewers by Ward calling if you go this route, only Stake Callings are available at the stake level. You will need to maintain permissions by Individual.

Right, I assumed that. Better to have to deal with managing the calendar permissions by name than not be able to do it at all.

Not to fork the thread, but when I served on the high council some years ago, our stake president specifically instructed the HC members to not attend bishopric meetings unless invited and then to do so only on an invite by invite basis. In his mind, the bishop should reach out to the HC if needed but the HC should "stay out of the bishop's chili" for the most part. We were instructed to attend most ward council meetings as we were able but were again cautioned that we were there primarily as an observer to support the bishop and to be careful to not be seen as directing the council's business.

Of course, every stake president has the keys to implement as they feel inspired. I just found this thread mildly entertaining given the direction in my stake when I served on the HC (not the stake I'm in currently). I think the church has the ability to code the calendar allow stake members on ward private calendars if they want to and (personally) take the fact the it cannot be done as a sign that either it is not specifically desired or not high enough on their priority list to warrant coding time.

davesudweeks wrote:I think the church has the ability to code the calendar allow stake members on ward private calendars if they want to and (personally) take the fact the it cannot be done as a sign that either it is not specifically desired or not high enough on their priority list to warrant coding time.

Or maybe it's just a request they've never received before (thus never considered?), which is what their tech folks told me.

Our High Council rep comes to all our Bishopric meetings and is much-appreciated there. I'm not sure if that's the stake's directive or just him responding to the wants/needs of my Bishop (I've only been in the Bishopric for a month).

chriswirick wrote:Our High Council rep comes to all our Bishopric meetings and is much-appreciated there. I'm not sure if that's the stake's directive or just him responding to the wants/needs of my Bishop (I've only been in the Bishopric for a month).

According to the General Handbook 5.5.1:

As invited or assigned, high councilors attend bishopric and ward council meetings.

That certainly encompasses a range of attendance.

My guess is that usually the meeting is at a standard time and place (1st and 3rd Sunday at 9AM) so it's not really necessary to have access to the calendar to keep track. Having to have access to the calendar suggest the meetings are all over the place in terms of scheduling.

russellhltn wrote:

chriswirick wrote:My guess is that usually the meeting is at a standard time and place (1st and 3rd Sunday at 9AM) so it's not really necessary to have access to the calendar to keep track. Having to have access to the calendar suggest the meetings are all over the place in terms of scheduling.

Yes, 90% of the time the meetings are at the same time/place. It's the 10% that sticks in the gears.

"I was at the church at 8 am but no one else was there."
"Didn't you get the text about the change?"
"No, but I didn't have service much of the day yesterday."
"Sorry about that."

Calendars are best when dealing with dates/times.