old vs new calendars

This is probably a softball question for the forum, but I'd appreciate any help.
Our stake decided it was easier to stick with the old calendar for 2011. Our ward is using the new calendar system. Does anyone know how to cascade the stake's old calendar to our calendar that is using the new software?

From the "Classic" Stake calendar (shows only stake and churchwide events) export to ical the use that ical file to import the events back into a Ward level Stake calendar,you can the cleanup the events to your liking.

kd7mha wrote:From the "Classic" Stake calendar (shows only stake and churchwide events) export to ical the use that ical file to import the events back into a Ward level Stake calendar,you can the cleanup the events to your liking.

While this is a solution, it is labor intensive and will be difficult to keep any changes to the classic stake calendar imported to the new ward calendar as changes appear. As the stake makes changes to their classic calendar a ward approver (soon to be called an administrator) must either import the newly updated classic stake calendar to the ward calendar or manually enter any changes that occur after the first import.

I would not want to be the person responsible for keeping the stake's classic calendar events up to date on the ward calendar. The Churchwide events may not change that much but the stake events could change daily.

rbrophy wrote:This is probably a softball question for the forum, but I'd appreciate any help.
Our stake decided it was easier to stick with the old calendar for 2011. Our ward is using the new calendar system. Does anyone know how to cascade the stake's old calendar to our calendar that is using the new software?

In addition to the other points made, I would note that attempting to mix and match the two calendar systems also can create building scheduling issues. If your ward does not meet in the stake center, and the stake rarely if ever schedules events in your building, then that might not be much of an issue. But if your ward meets in the stake center, using two different systems to schedule the building sounds like a nightmare.

rbrophy wrote:This is probably a softball question for the forum, but I'd appreciate any help.
Our stake decided it was easier to stick with the old calendar for 2011. Our ward is using the new calendar system. Does anyone know how to cascade the stake's old calendar to our calendar that is using the new software?

Why not use the import wizard? You can select the events to import and select the calendar to put them in. I've only done this with the Stake calendar. I'm not sure if a ward would be able to import stake events, but hopefully if they show up on your calendar, you could.

crislapi wrote:Why not use the import wizard? You can select the events to import and select the calendar to put them in. I've only done this with the Stake calendar. I'm not sure if a ward would be able to import stake events, but hopefully if they show up on your calendar, you could.

The import wizard was intended as a one time use solution to getting what already existed in the classic calendar into the new calendar. It is a solution to the tedious manual transfer of the classic calendar events into the new calendar. There is no linking between the classic calendar and new calendar. Therefore the new ward calendar(s) created from the stake's classic calendar would be no better than a printed copy of the stake calendar on the day the import wizard was run. Any future changes to the stake calendar would have to find their way into the ward calendar by human intervention as I described above.

jdlessley wrote:The import wizard was intended as a one time use solution to getting what already existed in the classic calendar into the new calendar. It is a solution to the tedious manual transfer of the classic calendar events into the new calendar. There is no linking between the classic calendar and new calendar. Therefore the new ward calendar(s) created from the stake's classic calendar would be no better than a printed copy of the stake calendar on the day the import wizard was run. Any future changes to the stake calendar would have to find their way into the ward calendar by human intervention as I described above.

It's definitely not for syncing, but you can run the import wizard at any time and as many times as you'd like. My stake is currently using both calendars so I will first create the item on the classic calendar and then use the import wizard to add it to the new church calendar. It's not perfect, but it's been a simple-enough solution so far. You don't have to import everything every time. I just select the new events and import them in. Yes it's manual, but it beats recreating everything.

crislapi wrote:Why not use the import wizard?...I've only done this with the Stake calendar. I'm not sure if a ward would be able to import stake events...

Our ward also switched before our stake. However, they now maintain two calendars because of our ward. They are really using the new calendar with our ward only, and I think they are doing it to figure it out before rolling it out stake-wide. If you do it, realize:

1) You can't use the import wizard for stake events on a ward level. Your stake could do it, and create a stake calendar for you, if willing.
2) using the ical import/export may work, but will cause an updating nightmare that probably will take an amount of energy that will be un-sustainable for long. If your calendar becomes unreliable, it won't help you...especially for the small changes the stake may make at any time on their classic calendar that you will NEVER catch. (a small time change, for example: a meeting originally at 7:00 pm, changed to 7:30 at a future time)
3) The scheduling of your building, if shared with other wards, really is dependent on the other wards using the new calendar to function properly. Additionally, your stake must "allocate" resources to your building scheduler. Is your appointed "building scheduler" in your ward- if so, it may work independent of other wards. If not, you may find it won't work. We didn't use it at first because the other wards and stake were not using it. But, now they are asking questions and are saying maybe they will get on board.

We did the iCal export/import and worked fine. Will just update as the year progresses and while it will be tedious, it beats maintaining two calendars. No way is our ward going back. We are hooked on the new.

Why are Churchwide Events not showing up on the new Calendar? I see my ward and stake events, but not Churchwide.

djdinut1 wrote:Why are Churchwide Events not showing up on the new Calendar?

Some of us are happier that it's that way. It created confusion when local times didn't match the Mountain Time posted in the calendar. In some cases, we tape delayed the event causing even more confusion.

I'm confused. Are you saying Churchwide Events are not supposed to be showing on the Calendar? If not, why? If they are, when will they be showing? Wouldn't the Churchwide Events calendar be one I could unsubscribe from if I don't want it to show on my personal calendar?

djdinut1 wrote:I'm confused. Are you saying Churchwide Events are not supposed to be showing on the Calendar?

I'm not saying that. I'm just saying that I'm happier that they are not. It causes confusion in our stake. Simply unsubscribing myself doesn't help the others in my stake.

It's possible they'll appear later when more local controls can be built into the system.

For example, not all of us show RS/YW General Meetings "live".

I'd assume there would be appropriate stake calendars that such events could be added to. The key is to be able to get the list. The Broadcast Schedule would be a good place to look.

djdinut1 wrote:Why are Churchwide Events not showing up on the new Calendar? I see my ward and stake events, but not Churchwide.

This is not yet implemented. From the Known Limitations page in Calendar help:

The calendar does not import or automatically display Churchwide calendar events, such as First Presidency Christmas Devotional or Temple Square events.