beta calendar transition

Curious to know how you are preparing during transition to real calendar in 2011. How are people educating stake and local leaders? Are you pretending to populate events for now to populate it?
I assume we should people prepared to start entering real events in October or November when we start prepping for next year. Anybody disagree?

ihenpecked wrote:Curious to know how you are preparing during transition to real calendar in 2011. How are people educating stake and local leaders? Are you pretending to populate events for now to populate it?
I assume we should people prepared to start entering real events in October or November when we start prepping for next year. Anybody disagree?

I would agree that the earlier we begin training people in the use of the calendar the better. I wouldn't wait until the end of the year to begin entering events. My plan is to enter events throughout the year gaining experience as we go. Hopefully, when the time comes to put it to the test, we'll be ready.

I think you're wise to start entering events earlier. Is anything being done to educate leaders in your stake.

For our stake I have already created multiple calendars with events from the current LUWS calendar and have asked through a broadcast e-mail message and instruction at stake council that everyone begin using the beta calendar in preparation for the transition on 1 January 2011. The going is tough right now because I have been the only one to create any calendars. I am trying to get all auxiliaries to create their own calendars and to manage them rather than relying on me to do so.

In regards to unit calendars I have no idea what is happening in other than my own ward. Nothing has happened there. I am assuming that is the same for the other wards/branches. Without access to any other than my own ward I cannot tell what, if anything, is happening and I cannot see where there may be problems. I am afraid there is going to be a last minute rush, or even worse, a lot of frustrated calls and e-mails after 1 January asking me what is going on. It would be better if I could view the unit beta calendars much the same as I now can on the current LUWS calendar to provide assistance. I am hoping that limitation is only because the calendars are in beta and that once it is in full release that the stake admins will have full access by default until removed by unit admins - much the same way it is now.

Has there been any statement made on whether the data we put into the current calendar will carry over when the product comes out of beta?

mactoph wrote:Has there been any statement made on whether the data we put into the current calendar will carry over when the product comes out of beta?

All events in the current calendar will NOT transition over.
I've already inquired regarding that and the response I received from the brethren is that we need to begin entering events from scratch.

I think the question was, will the information entered into the current (beta version), remain in the calender when it comes out of beta. In other words, is it worth the effort to enter the data now, or will it be wiped out?

That's what happened for the nFS beta, so it's not unheard of.

In this case it is very likely that the beta calendar data will migrate to the full release on 1 January. There is not going to be a transition period other than the beta period to allow units to populate the calendar in time for the full release over night. Most units begin planning the following year in late August and begin entering data then. There would be too much work and time needed to have the calendar populated and useable on the same day it is needed.

Yes, data entered into the calendar Beta will stay there when the new calendar moves to production.

Has anyone heard if any of the data from the
current LUWS calendar (not the beta) will transition
over to the new calendar, when it comes out of beta ?

Most stakes prepare their calendar at the end of the
year, so if the old LUWS calendar's data won't move,
a message should be sent out midyear so stakes will
use the beta calendar instead of the LUWS one.
Otherwise, there would be a significant duplication
of work when the beta goes public (or the admin
will be so mad, he won't use the new calendar).

- Atticus

atticusewig wrote:Has anyone heard if any of the data from the current LUWS calendar (not the beta) will transition over to the new calendar, when it comes out of beta ?

The answer is no, as noted in this post.

As a practical matter, it wouldn't be a good idea to automatically move the data from the LUWS calendar to the beta one. They're structured differently.

The LUWS calendar is one calender for the unit. The new system allows for multiple calendars. Typically I'd expect one calendar per organization in the unit so that members can select what events they see.

RussellHltn wrote:The LUWS calendar is one calendar for the unit. The new system allows for multiple calendars. Typically I'd expect one calendar per organization in the unit so that members can select what events they see.

I'd even go so far as to suggest that you make as many calendars as possible so that each member will be able to see exactly what they are interested in and filter out what they don't. For example, I was originally going to create just a Young Men and a Young Women calendar, but I quickly realized that each class and quorum within those organizations often have different activites. Having a separate calendar for each class and quorum will allow each family and member to have a uniquely customized calendar that has no extraneous events. The same can be applied to various types of Relief Society meetings, etc.

oregonmatt wrote:I'd even go so far as to suggest that you make as many calendars as possible so that each member will be able to see exactly what they are interested in and filter out what they don't. For example, I was originally going to create just a Young Men and a Young Women calendar, but I quickly realized that each class and quorum within those organizations often have different activites. Having a separate calendar for each class and quorum will allow each family and member to have a uniquely customized calendar that has no extraneous events. The same can be applied to various types of Relief Society meetings, etc.

I wonder about that... One of the many uses of calendars is to view and prevent possible conflicts. With everyone having their own calendar, you would have to check several to avoid a running into some elses meeting or activity. Now I have not played around much with the beta calendar so maybe this is not an issue.....

zaneclark wrote:I wonder about that... One of the many uses of calendars to view and prevent possible conflicts. With everyone having their own calendar, you would have to check several to avoid a running into some elses meeting or activity. Now I have not played around much with the beta calendar so maybe this is not an issue.....

Identifying conflicts is not really an issue. It takes about 3 seconds to enable viewing of all of the calendars before scheduling an event. Anybody scheduling something would be wise to do so.

Actually, I think in many cases one may find two calenders per quorum or auxiliary: Membership and leadership.

Has there been a change in the login requirement for the beta calendar? I have accessed it successfully several times but today it tells me I am making a "Bad Request." Sounds ominous!

zaneclark wrote:Has there been a change in the login requirement for the beta calendar? I have accessed it successfully several times but today it tells me I am making a "Bad Request." Sounds ominous!

I have gotten that message when the server was down. I am not having any problems accessing the beta calendar right now though.

mactoph wrote:Has there been any statement made on whether the data we put into the current calendar will carry over when the product comes out of beta?

Events will remain when we move from beta to live (LDS.org). Events from the old Stake & Ward Website calendar (Local Unit Website or LUW) will not be automatically brought over to the new calendar. However, we intend to make it easy to bulk import events into the new calenadar, so that you could export from the LUW calendar.

The goal though, is to avoid that as much as possible by helping train units throughout mid 2010 on the new calendar so that by Oct 2010, they're ready to begin entering 2011 events into the new calendar & can make a smooth transition on Jan 1, 2011 to using the new one exclusively.

Good discussion.

So is there a limit to the amount of calendars we can create? I am creating a road map to help get our stake ready for Oct. 2011

ihenpecked wrote:So is there a limit to the amount of calendars we can create? I am creating a road map to help get our stake ready for Oct. 2011

We haven't heard of any limit.

Just out of curiousity - what importance is Oct 2011?. Did you mean to say Oct 2010?

jdlessley wrote:We haven't heard of any limit.

Just out of curiousity - what importance is Oct 2011?. The reason I ask is that the beta calendar full release is scheduled for 1 January 2011 when it will become the LUWS calendar. We have this year to become acquainted with the beta calendar and to begin populating it with data for 2011. October just seems to be a bit late.

Sorry. That was a typo on my part. October 2010 is generally when our stake ramps up calendar prep for 2011. djlessley: Curious to know if you starting out with stake and ward calendars or setting up auxiliary calendars as well? UPDATE: I did go back to reread your original post in this thread. How many did you end up creating?

Since I am a stake web administrator and the STS I am trying to teach people to use the calendar rather than create the calendars for them. I plan on waiting until September to change that approach if people in the stake leadership roles do not create their own. I can do nothing for the wards except to let them know what needs to be done and to teach them how to use the beta calendar. It would be nice to have access to the all the unit calendars in the stake just to see how things are progressing. As we get closer to the end of this year I may get more requests for training. But for now I have not heard of any activity in the wards and there has been none in the stake in setting up calendars.

I have created a few stake calendars for the areas of responsibility I have and to show others what can be done.

Chadf wrote:The goal though, is to avoid that as much as possible by helping train units throughout mid 2010 on the new calendar so that by Oct 2010, they're ready to begin entering 2011 events into the new calendar & can make a smooth transition on Jan 1, 2011 to using the new one exclusively.

I infer from this description that the new Ward and Stake Calendar function and the old unit calendars under LUWS will both be available at least through the end of the year. Is this correct? If so, will both be hosted within LUWS?

I also presume that there will be some advance notice and training guidelines provided to the general Church populace since I'm sure there are many units not represented here on the Forum and thus have no clue what is coming.

oregonmatt wrote:Identifying conflicts is not really an issue. It takes about 3 seconds to enable viewing of all of the calendars before scheduling an event. Anybody scheduling something would be wise to do so.

Oregonmatt,
I get submissions that conflict repeatedly on our LUWS calendar now. I think it will be an issue in my ward. I haven't yet decided if the major problem is the leaders lack technical ability, or time to look before scheduling, or the fact that many seem unaware that over-scheduling and double-scheduling directly affects the turn-out for their events.

kisaac wrote:Oregonmatt,
I get submissions that conflict repeatedly on our LUWS calendar now. I think it will be an issue in my ward. I haven't yet decided if the major problem is the leaders lack technical ability, or time to look before scheduling, or the fact that many seem unaware that over-scheduling and double-scheduling directly affects the turn-out for their events.

It's no doubt this new calendar will require retraining. Perhaps this will be a good opportunity to try and fix these other problems as well.

oregonmatt wrote:It's no doubt this new calendar will require retraining. Perhaps this will be a good opportunity to try and fix these other problems as well.

One thing our stake president decrees is that no changes happen to the calendar unless it's during a stake council. That means all the players are there and should pretty much eliminate double scheduling. He did the same thing as a bishop, saying that ward council was the only place where the calendar could be changed on a ward level.

kisaac wrote:I get submissions that conflict repeatedly on our LUWS calendar now. I think it will be an issue in my ward. I haven't yet decided if the major problem is

Do you know if these are events submitted by a user though LUWS, or placed there by a Admin? Right now, I can't see how a user wouldn't see everything when they make their requests. A ward admin doesn't see church or stake level events when in admin mode, so I can see how conflicts could come up.

ihenpecked wrote:He did the same thing as a bishop, saying that ward council was the only place where the calendar could be changed on a ward level.

That is his prerogative, but I'd be concerned that the ward council would become a event correlation meeting instead of one that focuses on the needs of the members.

RussellHltn wrote:Do you know if these are events submitted by a user though LUWS, or placed there by a Admin? Right now, I can't see how a user wouldn't see everything when they make their requests. A ward admin doesn't see church or stake level events when in admin mode, so I can see how conflicts could come up.




That is his prerogative, but I'd be concerned that the ward council would become a event correlation meeting instead of one that focuses on the needs of the members.

I see your concern. In my experience, we've only had minor event adjustments because of careful calendar planning the previous year. At most, calendar discussions would only take up 5-10 minutes during a stake or ward meeting. When that policy was followed here, we've rarely had scheduling conflicts.

RussellHltn wrote:Do you know if these are events submitted by a user though LUWS, or placed there by a Admin? Right now, I can't see how a user wouldn't see everything when they make their requests.

I am the admin who gets the submissions, and the only one who approves them...

I know we have issues that the new calendar won't fix.
As the single approver, the calendar exists because I force it to be used, as directed by our bishop. We print a two month copy to hand out in our meetings, because several organization heads don't have computers, and a few others have very minimal ability with them.

Which calendar(s) now would be printed out? And the new beta calendar printout is not as good as the LUWS printout we get now. I think I will miss a "master ward calendar" that contains every event.

Don't get me wrong...I'm excited about the new calendar, and see many positives, but As we move from a single approver of events for one master calendar, I might see some ward organizations stop using it if I'm not overseeing their calendar.