Building resource assignment

I made a cultural hall resource recurring assignment for a ward in our building some time ago. Recently I was asked to reserve the hall for our home ward and without remembering that resource assignment I put the event onto our calendar.

1. I am a designated building scheduler
2. The other ward never created an event so nothing shows up on the full building calendar
3. The system allowed me to create the event even though the resource was assigned to another ward

Apparently making a resource assignment does NOT reserve the resource the same as creating an event does; if there had been an event on their calendar, I would not have been able to create the second one. I suspect that someone not assigned as Building Scheduler would probably NOT have been able to double-assign the same resource?

Does this mean Building Schedulers can't rely on the resource assignment system to prevent double-bookings?

preston.baxter wrote:Apparently making a resource assignment does NOT reserve the resource the same as creating an event does; if there had been an event on their calendar, I would not have been able to create the second one.

That's correct. An assignment is not a reservation. It's probably more accurate to think of it as denying unauthorized people from scheduling the resource.

preston.baxter wrote:I suspect that someone not assigned as Building Scheduler would probably NOT have been able to double-assign the same resource?

That's also correct. Building Schedulers have special permissions.

preston.baxter wrote:Does this mean Building Schedulers can't rely on the resource assignment system to prevent double-bookings?

But there was no double booking, unless you didn't share some detail. There was only the one reservation you made. Just because the other ward has the assignment doesn't mean they have a reservation. Whatever organizations within that ward want the resource should still be scheduling it. If they had done this, you would have discovered the conflict when you tried to add an event using the same resource.

preston.baxter wrote:Recently I was asked to reserve the hall for our home ward and without remembering that resource assignment I put the event onto our calendar.

I'm wondering why you were asked to reserve the cultural hall. Normally that's not something a building scheduler would do. Do you also have an assignment in your ward to create calendar events? If you don't, I would think it would be prudent for you direct such requests to someone within your ward who has that responsibility.

But if you have both responsibilities, then you'll just have to remember your superpowers and be careful.

aebrown wrote:But there was no double booking, unless you didn't share some detail. There was only the one reservation you made. Just because the other ward has the assignment doesn't mean they have a reservation. Whatever organizations within that ward want the resource should still be scheduling it. If they had done this, you would have discovered the conflict when you tried to add an event using the same resource.

I still think of it as a "double booking" because someone from 3rd Ward (me) was able to make an actual reservation during a time that the resource was assigned to 2nd Ward.

aebrown wrote:I'm wondering why you were asked to reserve the cultural hall. Normally that's not something a building scheduler would do. Do you also have an assignment in your ward to create calendar events? If you don't, I would think it would be prudent for you direct such requests to someone within your ward who has that responsibility.

We're still in "transition mode" from the Classic site. I push folks pretty hard to input their own events, but sometimes it's just easier to take care of it for them.

aebrown wrote:But if you have both responsibilities, then you'll just have to remember your superpowers and be careful.

Said superpowers are what got me into trouble this time. I'm going to be involved in a rollout demonstration to our bishops, and hopefully that means many others will be doing the job of this former resource scheduler. :+)

Preston

preston.baxter wrote:I still think of it as a "double booking" because someone from 3rd Ward (me) was able to make an actual reservation during a time that the resource was assigned to 2nd Ward.

As I mentioned previously, a reservation still needs to be made. But if a ward doesn't want to make specific reservations for their assigned Mutual night, you could schedule a recurring event rather than (or in addition to) the resource assignment for that night. That would actually reserve the resource(s). You or any ward calendar editor for that calendar could always override that recurring event for any particular night when you want to supply more details.

By doing this you will not only avoid the "double booking" problem, but the event will actually be on calendars so that people can see it, both in the regular calendar system and in any synchronized calendars.

After reading this thread, I went back to the building scheduler details in the help and added a few graphics to hopefully increase the clarity about the building scheduler's role: https://tech.lds.org/ldshelp/index.php5/Local_Unit_Calendar:_Rights_and_Roles/eng#Building_Schedulers. Admittedly, the building schedule role is somewhat confusing. Do these graphics help at all? I realize your specific question was more technical than what I covered. Perhaps I should expand even more?

tomjohnson1492 wrote:After reading this thread, I went back to the building scheduler details in the help and added a few graphics to hopefully increase the clarity about the building scheduler's role: https://tech.lds.org/ldshelp/index.php5 ... Schedulers. Admittedly, the building schedule role is somewhat confusing. Do these graphics help at all? I realize your specific question was more technical than what I covered. Perhaps I should expand even more?

I think the graphics do help. The one point I found a bit confusing was your use of the word "reservation" when referring to what is called "assignment" in the actual calendar system. Aside from the inconsistency (which is a problem in any case), I think the word "reservation" is too strong -- it implies that the building can't be used by anyone else, which is not the case (as this whole thread shows).

It still comes down to the WARD needing to make an actual reservation. As a member of another ward I can't create a new event on their calendar. And I'm fine with that. :+)

I never was confused about my role, except that I apparently had "superpowers" to create an event for MY ward even though the resource was assigned (not "RESERVED" as shown in the graphic) to another ward. If the resource had actually be RESERVED (it someone had made a real event) then even my superpowers would not have allowed me to create the conflicting event.

To me, the resource isn't RESERVED until someone actually creates an event. When ASSIGNED, the resource can only be reserved by someone from that designated ward. At least that's how I think of it. So in the help you use the description "RESERVED" where I think it should only be "ASSIGNED."