Building Scheduling

We are looking at using the new Calendar to schedule buildings, rooms etc for our stake. Has anyone used this feature or is there a better way? We plan to call someone to keep this updated. Currently an old program is being used that someone developed years ago. It would be nice to have the scheduling information available to all members in our stake so that they can refer to it at anytime online. Just want to find the best way to do this before we proceed.

Thanks!!

pbseager wrote:We are looking at using the new Calendar to schedule buildings, rooms etc for our stake. Has anyone used this feature or is there a better way? We plan to call someone to keep this updated.
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Just want to find the best way to do this before we proceed.

Yes, many people are using the new calendar. Our stake uses it extensively.

I'd recommend that you read the Introduction to the Calendar and the other relevant pages in the Calendar help system. That will give you a good start. Then you can feel free to ask specific questions here in the Calendar forum. You can also browse or search this forum to see if your questions have already been asked and answered.

Thank you for the information. I have actually lookedthrough this information already and we are using the new calendar. Thecalendar is just Google Calendar. I guess my concern is having chaos if toomany people have access to schedule events. Do you give all auxiliaries bothstake and ward access to schedule, or how wide do you open it up? I can seethat once you begin something, it will be difficult to pull access later. Whatwould be helpful is to get some detailed information about what rights youallow and to whom, and what issues you have had. I have looked and lookedthrough the forums and I am not finding this type of detail. Any feedback that can be provided, by thoseusing the calendar, would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks again for your help!

pbseager wrote:I guess my concern is having chaos if toomany people have access to schedule events.

We ourselves have not yet switched, but I would anticipate given each auxiliary leaders the ability to edit their respective calendar. How would that create chaos? They may need to be reminded, that just because they can put it on the calendar, they still need to get any required approvals for the event.

Any individuals that need to schedule an event (say a birthday party) needs to talk to the appropriate person to schedule/approve it.

pbseager wrote:I guess my concern is having chaos if toomany people have access to schedule events. Do you give all auxiliaries bothstake and ward access to schedule, or how wide do you open it up?

I suggest reading the calendar Help. You will find a lot of questions answered there and a good explanation of all aspects of the calendar adequately presented. You will see that only those members of a ward who have been added to a calendar's editor list can schedule events for that ward, plus of course the default approvers. There are other threads that discuss the types and number of calendars that wards create. It really depends on the ward leadership and how they see management of events and schedules for the ward, auxiliaries, and organizations.

Since this thread is about building scheduling we should limit the discussion to that aspect of the new calendar. The reservation system programmed into the calendar is far superior from the classic event calendar classic resource calendar. See the calendar Help Introduction to the Calendar for more information.

pbseager wrote:I can seethat once you begin something, it will be difficult to pull access later.

Actually it is quite easy. Each calendar has a list of editors that have editor rights to add and edit events for just that calendar. With the capability to add editors by calling makes management of who has edit rights easy. When a person is added in MLS for a calling they will automatically be given editor rights to calendars that have that calling position listed as an editor. Similarly when a person is released they will no longer have those rights. See the calendar help section Rights and Roles for more information.

The calendar includes location and resource reservation for events. See the calendar help Scheduling Events / Reserve a Resource for more information.

pbseager wrote:Whatwould be helpful is to get some detailed information about what rights youallow and to whom, and what issues you have had.

I suggest reading thecalendar Help. Pay particular attention to the Rights and Roles section. As I mentioned earlier there are other threads where the these types of concerns are discussed. There is one called Calendar Best Practices, for example.

Thank you for all the comments and information. After reading your comments and doing some research I think that I understand things a little better. If any of you run into anything that might be helpful to the rest of us, please pass it on. I will do the same. Thanks again!

This may be an unrelated question regarding building scheduling and if so, my apologies. We have 3 units in the building. Each Unit has been assigned specific days each month that are pre-reserved for that unit (for example, the 2nd Saturday would be for one unit and the 3rd Saturday would be for another, etc). In theory, anyone in the unit could use the building on "their unit's day" but had to check with the other unit's building Scheduler if they wanted it on the other Unit's day.

My ward's Building Coordinator is new and just asked me how we can designate those days on the calendar and prevent other units from scheduling on any days other than those preassigned to them. It seems the new Calendar is designed to allow individual groups schedule their own activities and the main purpose of the Building Coordinator is to coordinate when there are conflicts, or am I missing the picture? Before I communicate back that we need to forget the process used on the old calendar and embrace the new method, I would like some advice from those more experienced than I am. I must admit that our other Building Coordinator (currently in the hospital for health reasons) was a bit offended when I mentioned in a meeting that I had granted each Presidency rights to schedule their own organization's activities on the Calendar.

For those with multiple units in a building, how do you deal with "fairness" for the popular days (Fridays and Saturdays) in sharing the resources?

davesudweeks wrote:This may be an unrelated question regarding building scheduling and if so, my apologies. We have 3 units in the building. Each Unit has been assigned specific days each month that are pre-reserved for that unit (for example, the 2nd Saturday would be for one unit and the 3rd Saturday would be for another, etc). In theory, anyone in the unit could use the building on "their unit's day" but had to check with the other unit's building Scheduler if they wanted it on the other Unit's day.

My ward's Building Coordinator is new and just asked me how we can designate those days on the calendar and prevent other units from scheduling on any days other than those preassigned to them. It seems the new Calendar is designed to allow individual groups schedule their own activities and the main purpose of the Building Coordinator is to coordinate when there are conflicts, or am I missing the picture?

You've got the basic picture. You can review Reserving Locations and Resources in the calendar help system for more details. The building scheduler definitely has a role in helping resolve conflicts, but another important role is setting up the reservations that allow only one ward to schedule certain resources on designated days. It sounds like your units already have worked out the schedule, so the building scheduler simply implements that schedule in the calendar system.

davesudweeks wrote: Before I communicate back that we need to forget the process used on the old calendar and embrace the new method, I would like some advice from those more experienced than I am. I must admit that our other Building Coordinator (currently in the hospital for health reasons) was a bit offended when I mentioned in a meeting that I had granted each Presidency rights to schedule their own organization's activities on the Calendar.

The new calendar definitely requires a new way of thinking. There's a section in the help system dealing with that titled A Cultural Shift in Scheduling. It takes a while to adjust, but our building schedulers have come to realize that giving up some control makes their life easier and really does have a lot of benefits.

davesudweeks wrote:For those with multiple units in a building, how do you deal with "fairness" for the popular days (Fridays and Saturdays) in sharing the resources?

That really hasn't been a problem, except at Christmas time. But even then, the wards just work out ahead of time who will take what days, and it has worked out pretty well. You can choose to have it on a first-come, first-served basis to start with. That might well work just fine. But if that becomes a problem, then you can change to giving one ward the first Saturday, another the second, another the third, and the fourth is open to the first ward to schedule it. There are a lot of possibilities.

Thank you very much for the advice!

davesudweeks wrote: We have 3 units in the building. Each Unit has been assigned specific days each month that are pre-reserved for that unit (for example, the 2nd Saturday would be for one unit and the 3rd Saturday would be for another, etc). In theory, anyone in the unit could use the building on "their unit's day" but had to check with the other unit's building Scheduler if they wanted it on the other Unit's day....

....For those with multiple units in a building, how do you deal with "fairness" for the popular days (Fridays and Saturdays) in sharing the resources?

I think the "rotation theory" is one thing I'll be happy to see go away, as it "locks up" your resources when they actually will go unused most of the time.

We have three wards, like you, and each ward "claims" their rotating weekend night. But honestly, the building is not used for most of these week-end nights. Yet, we are limited to choosing future activities based on the rotation, even though nothing is scheduled. It just complicates things. Why not free them up, make the paradigm shift, and say "if it's not scheduled for somebody, its free for anybody?"

After all, who would be saying it is unfair? Would one ward really want to use it many more nights than the others? Is it "private users" your ward is worrying about... like a family basketball game making repeating reservations each Friday night for a Year? This is where the building scheduler steps in and says no...

If it is just a few "busy" times you worry about, like Christmas, these can be "prescheduled" by each ward.

I agree with kisaac. The rotation method of scheduling deconfliction is inefficient and unnecessarily leaves resources unused or unscheduled because of incorrectly perceived use. The new calendar provides more flexibility for deconfliction on-the-fly. It is possible that one ward could be more proactive in getting their scheduling done far ahead of the others and locking resources unequally in their favor. But once again there are solutions available. Calendar editors can communicate with the other ward to get accommodation when it appears there is unequal sharing of resources. The building scheduler has some of the responsibility to ensure fairness also and can be the arbitrator for unyielding resource hogs. As a last resort the ward leaders could get involved when personalities are unyielding.

The rotating schedule worked to resolve issues from old reservation systems that lacked communication capabilities or information. The new calendar addresses those limitations and provides more flexibility.

I agree as well, but we all know "old habits die hard." There seems to be some sense of false ownership of the building on certain days/evenings when it is the Lord's building and the "rotation" method only serves those who are too lazy to plan. I really see the Coordinators role to do just that - Coordinate. Yes there may be some instances where one unit wants to monopolize all the "good" dates, but that could be easily handled through honest communication. Our building has 2 standard wards and a Singles Branch. The Singles Branch was moved to our building about 6 months and there has been some adjusting to that, but nothing that we couldn't deal with with a Christlike attitude.

Hopefully we will all get beyond this as we learn how to use these wonderful tools to better organize our resources. I am excited so see us use it to its fullest extent!

What am I missing here??

Thanks

gdnabors wrote:building schedulers cannot see the ward calendars to schedule around??

What am I missing here??

I think you're missing the fact that building schedulers can see all the events scheduled for their building. They do need to check the box by the building name in the "Subscribed Locations" panel, but they can indeed see all events for the building then. Those would be the only events they would need to schedule around. They don't have to be able to see events on ward calendars that have nothing to do with their building, and those are the only events they can't see.

jdlessley wrote:The rotation method of scheduling deconfliction is inefficient and unnecessarily leaves resources unused or unscheduled because of incorrectly perceived use.

davesudweeks wrote:I agree as well, but we all know "old habits die hard." There seems to be some sense of false ownership of the building on certain days/evenings when it is the Lord's building and the "rotation" method only serves those who are too lazy to plan.

I tend to agree that a rotating schedule is unnecessary for weekends, but I don't agree with these characterizations of all uses of a rotating schedule. For Mutual nights, where two wards spit a certain weeknight, it has served us very well. Each ward knows that they get the cultural hall on the 1st and 3rd, or the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays. That way they can schedule activities that need the cultural hall on their nights, and other activities on the off nights. That's neither "false ownership" nor laziness. It allows both ward to plan as far ahead as they want, without conflict.

On occasion, a particular ward would like a particular building for the night reserved for the other night, and they work that out and the building scheduler facilitates the scheduling. And the cultural hall gets used almost every Wednesday for something, so it doesn't leave the building unscheduled, either.

they tell me they cannot see the calendars for the wards in their building.??

gdnabors wrote:they tell me they cannot see the calendars for the wards in their building.??

aebrown wrote:I think you're missing the fact that building schedulers can see all the events scheduled for their building. They do need to check the box by the building name in the "Subscribed Locations" panel, but they can indeed see all events for the building then.

As Alan said, they should see the option for "Subscribed Locations". When they check that off, then they can see all event that have booked the building. This won't be all the events, but only those that should impact on building scheduling.

gdnabors wrote:they tell me they cannot see the calendars for the wards in their building.??

That is correct. They cannot see the calendars but they can see the events with a resource reserved for that event. That is done by selecting the location in the "Subscribed Locations" listbox. They may need to also remove clutter from the calendar display by unchecking all the calendars in the "Subscribed Calendars" listbox. For more information see the "View Calendars of Other Wards" section of the "Viewing Calendars" page of the calendar help.

davesudweeks wrote:I agree as well, but we all know "old habits die hard.

The "fear" that jdlessley mentioned seems valid. Out of the three wards in the building, two are up and running on the calendar, and the third has not yet established one. It is this third ward that fears the other two wards, who are more organized, will plan their year full of activities and "lock up" all the good nights, leaving the third ward with the crumbs before they get around to scheduling. This could be a valid reason to do the "rotation," at least for a certain time period. I'm in favor of a "pre-scheduling" rotation period for the wards, then by a certain date all unscheduled days become free to all.

aebrown wrote:For Mutual nights, where two wards spit a certain weeknight, it has served us very well. Each ward knows that they get the cultural hall on the 1st and 3rd, or the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays. That way they can schedule activities that need the cultural hall on their nights, and other activities on the off nights. That's neither "false ownership" nor laziness. It allows both ward to plan as far ahead as they want, without conflict.

I agree 100%, and should have clarified my hope that the Friday - Saturday "it's mine so you can't use it even though I'm not" theory of rotation goes away. For our Sunday blocks, Tuesdays (RS weekly meeting) Wednesdays (mutual for all three wards,) and Thursdays (Cub scouts & stake) I would encourage the rotation to continue and the resources remain assigned all year, and unavailable to others for scheduling, except on the discretion of the building scheduler.

jdlessley wrote:The rotating schedule worked to resolve issues from old reservation systems that lacked communication capabilities or information. The new calendar addresses those limitations and provides more flexibility.

Agreed! It will take us a few years to fully realize these advantages.

I agree that rotation scheduling for the weekday mutual, Relief Society, and other regularly occurring events is the better method. It is the scheduling of other events that can benefit from the new calendar resource reservation system.

kisaac wrote:I'm in favor of a "pre-scheduling" rotation period for the wards, then by a certain date all unscheduled days become free to all.

This is what we do for the Friday/Saturday weekends. A general rotation is established for the year while the units (we have 4) are working out their calendars. Once they have all agreed that the annual round of scheduling is done, the rest of the dates are released to a first-come, first-served basis. After that, the normal negotiation and trading follows if someone really desires to make a change.

I am the building scheduler for a building that is shared by 3 wards, one of which is not in the same stake as the other two. The building has been traded off between the two stakes over the years.

We do have a set schedule for the building (Tuesday, Friday, and Saturdays are assigned to certain wards, Wednesdays are shared and the rooms rotate on a yearly basis) that I then run the negotiations for resolving potential conflicts. As we move into the new year I am hoping that I can get the calendar more friendly for the two wards in our stake. Resources weren't setup properly in last year's calendar, so I just kept the building schedule in a stake calendar for the building (no resources attached).

The ward outside our stake is always at a loss for being able to see what the building schedule is like, it would be nice to be able to publish the schedule to an open calendar (google or otherwise) so they can see what resources are available.

sharicarnahan wrote:The ward outside our stake is always at a loss for being able to see what the building schedule is like, it would be nice to be able to publish the schedule to an open calendar (google or otherwise) so they can see what resources are available.

You may wish to read Managing Locations and Resource Shared By Two Stakes. While they can't see the events directly, they can see what has been scheduled for the building.

One request I've had from my building schedulers is to have a building calendar that is visible to the members. The reason for this is to aid leaders in scheduling events. Right now, they would pick a day/time and resource, then check to see if the building is available. However, it would be nice for them to be able to look at a calendar of all the events scheduled in the building to give them a better idea of the dates and times that could work and then let them plan the event accordingly. A master calendar of sorts would make it easier for the building schedulers to handle one off events like weddings and such that get called in to them. I'm not sure if the calendar system has such a best. I know that building schedulers can select the building from the subscribed locations section, but it would be nice of others could get that comprehensive view as well.

natet wrote:I know that building schedulers can select the building from the subscribed locations section, but it would be nice of others could get that comprehensive view as well.

Everyone who can schedule an event already has the ability to select a building from the Subscribed Locations panel and see all the events scheduled for the building (this capability is not restricted to building schedulers). So your wish has been granted!

natet wrote:A master calendar of sorts would make it easier for the building schedulers to handle one off events like weddings and such that get called in to them.

The new calendar can handle this. The scheduler just needs to create a calendar (appropriately named) for these type of events. Any member of the ward can view this calendar (as long as it is not made private - which I do not recommend). Any member in the stake with editing rights can view the events with resources at that location. This would include those events on this calendar created by the building scheduler.

Many people calling in these private events to be scheduled through the building scheduler will not be able to see in advance whether resources are available unless they have edit rights to any calendar. That is not ideal. When the request is called in, the building scheduler can check the calendar while on the phone. Using e-mail may require some additional communication.

jdlessley wrote:Many people calling in these private events to be scheduled through the building scheduler will not be able to see in advance whether resources are available unless they have edit rights to any calendar. That is not ideal. When the request is called in, the building scheduler can check the calendar while on the phone. Using e-mail may require some additional communication.

Yeah, that was my thought as well, but I suppose it's still better than what some of our wards are currently doing.