Do we all need a "private" resource-only calendar?

Problem: How to schedule a "private event" at your building with the new calendar system? How will you schedule resources for private (non-church) family re-unions, birthday parties, funeral dinners or wedding receptions for members from another ward, etc? They need to be scheduled, but you really don't need (or want) them cluttering up your ward calendars. How have you done it?

I think we may need aebrown's solution:

aebrown wrote:I created a "Resource Only" calendar...No one needs to subscribe to this calendar except for the building scheduler and an administrator. On the Resource Only calendar I put the full time the building is reserved and include whatever specific resources are needed.

While he was discussing additional set-up and take-down time for calendar events in the above quote, I'm sure he uses it for those events that don't need to show on whatever public calendars he created.

kisaac wrote:While he was discussing additional set-up and take-down time for calendar events in the above quote, I'm sure he uses it for those events that don't need to show on whatever public calendars he created.

Yes, I have found the "Resource Only" calendar useful for:

• Resources that need to be scheduled for events on private calendars (which don't currently allow resources to be scheduled)
• Setup/takedown time for scheduled events
• Reserving a portable resource (such as a digital projector) that needs to go to off-site
• Events that don't belong to the stake or any ward such as a family reunion or mission reunion, but which need building reservations.

We create a "bishopric" event, that hits the bishop's private calendar and locks up the resources.

I've seen some other posts discuss this somewhat, but just for my own clarity - if you have a Resource Only calendar (which I think is my favorite approach I've seen so far), it cannot be a private calendar if you want to schedule resources with it, correct? That being the case, if it is not a private calendar, then the Resource Only calendar will be subscribed by default to all users. Is there any way around this? It would be nice to make it a transparent calendar that people don't get automatically subscribed to (I'm thinking specifically about the setup / take-down times here - nice not to automatically show those on everyone's calendar). Or am I missing something with this approach that would allow for this?

nbllds wrote:I've seen some other posts discuss this somewhat, but just for my own clarity - if you have a Resource Only calendar (which I think is my favorite approach I've seen so far), it cannot be a private calendar if you want to schedule resources with it, correct?

That's correct. As it says in the calendar help under Make Your Calendar Private, "If you have a private calendar, you cannot reserve a location or resources for events on the calendar."

nbllds wrote: That being the case, if it is not a private calendar, then the Resource Only calendar will be subscribed by default to all users. Is there any way around this?

Not really. Each member can Unsubscribe from a Calendar after they have been auto subscribed, but many members won't do that. They can also Opt Out of Auto-Subscriptions. But since the auto subscriptions are turned on by default, and most members don't change that setting (most don't even know about it).

So the visibility of a resource-only calendar is certainly a bit of a drawback. The good news is that it's very easy to help someone who complains about it to unsubscribe and never be bothered by it again.

nbllds wrote: It would be nice to make it a transparent calendar that people don't get automatically subscribed to (I'm thinking specifically about the setup / take-down times here - nice not to automatically show those on everyone's calendar). Or am I missing something with this approach that would allow for this?

I don't think you're missing anything. I think it would be nice for a calendar administrator to be able to create a calendar and at creation time indicate that users should not be auto-subscribed. Such a feature would create a bit of tension between the setting where users say they do want to be auto-subscribed to all new calendars, but I think that this case alone justifies the addition of such a setting. This tension is really no different from the analogous situation where people request to be notified of new events or updates, but the calendar editor can choose not to send out notifications when an event is added or updated.