Others can't see new calendar I created.

I am our ward website administrator. I added a Sunday School calendar and made it accesible to everyone in the ward. I then posted the lesson schedule until the end of the year, so everyone can see which lesson we are on. No one in the ward can see it but me. It says the calendars have to be approved, When I try to approve it, it says it is already approved. Any new calendar I create is supposed to be automatically approved. What am I doing wrong?

I think it's likely they can't see the calendar because they are not looking in the subscription area. The main page only gives you the option of viewing calendars you've subscribed to.

It's been reported that somehow in the switch to V2, that all users were changed to NOT automatically subscribe to new calendars.

RussellHltn wrote:It's been reported that somehow in the switch to V2, that all users were changed to NOT automatically subscribe to new calendars.

This is correct. Which brings up the question. What is the best way to notify all members that they need to turn on auto-subscribe again? Does the calendar system have an e-mail function? Does lds.org have an e-mail function? Will these functions get to everyone?

Or are the calendar folks going to bite the bullet and make a one-time change back?

We are in the same situation. We are beginning to use the lds.org calendar in earnest this year with a number of new calendars created (we only had one general calendar last year). How do we get the word to the members that the new calendars are out there for them to access? They do not general go routing in the Subscription tab looking for new calendars. They expect to get an e-mail telling them one is available.

I am looking for an effective and reasonable suggestion, because we are going to use it in the the next few weeks to get the word out. Otherwise, the calendar is of no use.

lajackson wrote:What is the best way to notify all members that they need to turn on auto-subscribe again? Does the calendar system have an e-mail function?

The only e-mail function built into the calendar system is the one tied to changes in events (or editing/administrative privileges). But that requires recipients to be subscribed to the calendar that contains the events. Since the very question we're dealing with is a lack of certainty that people are subscribed to the appropriate calendars, that doesn't seem like a workable solution.

lajackson wrote:Does lds.org have an e-mail function?

Yes. It's the Send a Message feature under Leader and Clerk Resources.

lajackson wrote:Will these functions get to everyone?

Not necessarily. In the household profile of the Directory on lds.org, a member can specify that an email address is not to appear in the ward directory. The Send a Message feature honors that setting (a little too much, in my opinion) and excludes from the distribution list any members who have chosen not to have their email address displayed.

Another approach is to do an export from MLS, extract the email addresses, and use that list to send email.

Either of those approaches will exclude members who have no email address in MLS (which is bidirectionally synced with the Directory on lds.org), but the latter option will probably yield the best coverage.

lajackson wrote:Or are the calendar folks going to bite the bullet and make a one-time change back?

Personally, I vote for this. It's unfortunate, because it will turn the auto-subscribe option on for people who chose to turn it off. But I'm certain that the number of people affected by that is far smaller than the number of people who have had the option turned off without them knowing it. And people in the first group are certain to know how to turn the option off again, whereas the second group may still have no idea where that option even is. If they're going to do this, the sooner the better.

We have reset every account to turn on the option to auto-subscribe to new calendars. Thanks for bringing this to our attention.

jdcr256 wrote:We have reset every account to turn on the option to auto-subscribe to new calendars. Thanks for bringing this to our attention.

And poof! It is done!

My auto-subscription setting had been off (I've had it off for quite a while), and now it is on. Cool!

aebrown wrote:And poof! It is done!

Wow! I am impressed. Thanks.

Now this is just for newly created calendars, right? If we created two calendars Sunday but did not populate them, we would probably want to delete them and then recreate them, correct? (Especially if we think everyone would want to subscribe to them.)

Yes, this will only apply to newly created calendars.

jdcr256 wrote:Yes, this will only apply to newly created calendars.

Followup, if I may. If the calendar is deleted, then "saved" from the "it goes away in 30 days" area, will that trigger an auto subscribe? Or does it have to be a totally, totally new calendar?

We have two calendars we need to do this with, if it will work. Otherwise, we may have a good bit of data to reenter into a new calendar. And I don't suppose we can start a new calendar with the same name, either, can we?

Thanks.

lajackson wrote:Followup, if I may. If the calendar is deleted, then "saved" from the "it goes away in 30 days" area, will that trigger an auto subscribe? Or does it have to be a totally, totally new calendar?

Excellent idea -- and it's all the more brilliant, because it actually works!

I tested this, and verified that when a calendar is deleted and then restored, a person who was not subscribed to the calendar, but who has auto-subscribe turned on (which everyone automatically does as of yesterday, unless they've turned that option off in the meantime), will then be automatically subscribed to the restored calendar.

So really, the statement

jdcr256 wrote:Yes, this will only apply to newly created calendars.

should have been "this will only apply to newly created or restored calendars."

For the few people who have turned off auto-subscribe since yesterday, your technique may introduce a slight problem. Some of those people may have manually subscribed to a calendar that you are planning to delete and restore. For those people, your procedure will have the effect of forcing them to be unsubscribed. That isn't very nice, but should be extremely rare.

aebrown wrote:Excellent idea -- and it's all the more brilliant, because it actually works!

Thank you for testing it for us.

aebrown wrote:For the few people who have turned off auto-subscribe since yesterday, your technique may introduce a slight problem. Some of those people may have manually subscribed to a calendar that you are planning to delete and restore. For those people, your procedure will have the effect of forcing them to be unsubscribed. That isn't very nice, but should be extremely rare.

That probably would be two of us. Still, an excellent point to consider, especially if the calendar had been around for a while. Thanks again.