Calendars on Unit Web Sites

Share discussions around the Classic Local Unit Website (LUWS).
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thedqs
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#21

Post by thedqs »

One solution that one ward had was to give a calling to one person who would work on the webpage, since people can submit calendar items he would just have to approve them. The auxliary presidents could submit their items and just keep the calendar up to date. One example of a benifit for keeping an up-to-date calendar is that the person in charge of the ward program can easily put in the week's events for the ward program.

And as for the ward meeting, the way my old ward handled that was since you can download an iCal copy of it, everyone had a copy of it on their handheld devices.
- David
russellhltn
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#22

Post by russellhltn »

ojm wrote:Kind of tough to rely on an online calendar when half the people can't get to it. Also, when sitting in PEC or Ward Council, the calendar is safely out of reach on the Internet.... We need a way to get to the Church Website from the ward computer (NOT complete access to the Internet, just the ward/stake units website)....
One computer in the clerk's office is going to have a difficult time fulfilling that role. I'd like to see the church websites made friendly to the cell phone screen format (WAP?). Laptops and PDAs are good for some, but most everyone has a web-capable cell phone and coverage is already there.
russellhltn
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#23

Post by russellhltn »

Something I'd like to see added is the ability of the stake to add comments to the church posted events. We can't be the only stake around that tape delays the broadcasts due to the time zone differences. Maybe not that big a deal for US units, but major issue once you expand to other parts of the world.
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ihenpecked
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#24

Post by ihenpecked »

pwhiting wrote:agree - I'm impressed with the features that are offered. Until we change platforms for local unit websites we'll have limited ability to provide more features.

You can import the calendar from your local unit website into your google calendar:

1. on your local unit website export your ward calendar as ical and save it to a file.

In google do the following:

2. create a new calendar - you'll need this in order to eventually delete everything on it when you do an update (ugly, I realize)

3. go to manage calendars and choose import calendar.

4. select the appropriate filename and be sure to change the default next to "choose calendar" to be the new calendar you created in step 2 above. Don't use the default calendar - you'll be sorry when it's time to update, trust me...

5. hit import.

To update, delete all of the events in your ward calendar (on google) and repeat steps 1 and 3-5.
The layering aspect is one of the biggest strengths of Google calendar. I have calendars set up for personal, church and work. Transferring the ward calendar over worked seamless for me.
Mike
ojm-p40
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#25

Post by ojm-p40 »

So, how do I print a years worth of Google calendar?
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thedqs
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#26

Post by thedqs »

Google only allows each month to be printed per page, though you can get other calendar software the syncs with google and which prints out the entire year on a single page.
- David
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jaycock-p40
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#27

Post by jaycock-p40 »

Another possible feature improvement would be to allow the user who submitted a given event to the stake or unit calendar the ability to edit (update) the event details after it has been approved by the appropriate administrator. Any changes would require an additional approval by the appropriate administrator.

Our stake utilizes the online stake calendar to plan all stake events for the entire year in August/September and propagates the events to individual unit calendars. This time frame allows individual units time to plan their calendars well before the end of the year. The one significant problem we run into is the details are not always defined when the event is initially planned. As a result, stake auxiliaries and others are forced to do one of two things to update the details of a given event as they are defined/clarified:

1. Submit a duplicate event and email the Web Administrator and request delete the outdated event.
2. Email the Web Administrator the new event details and request that he update the event via the admin console.

Either way, this creates a significant amount of work for the Web Administrator and/or creates an opportunity to advertise incorrect information (if the email to delete the outdated event is not sent and/or or the duplicate event is overlooked). It would be extremely useful if the user who submitted the initial event could update the event details (including date, time, etc) and submit the changes for approval. Also, it would be useful to identify a given event with a particular auxiliary and allow anyone listed as a President, Counselor, or Secretary in that auxiliary to edit the event and submit the changes for approval.

Events populated by the Church change as additional detail is available, however the process by which they change is transparent to us as users.
margiestroble
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#28

Post by margiestroble »

jlp wrote:One thing I would like to see with the calendar is a better "print" view. My wife edits a monthly newsletter for our ward. One item we include in the newsletter is a printout of the calendar for the month (which we print out from the web site). I find that the printed calendar is slightly annoying (not really anything wrong with it, I just don't like how it looks... the boxes for the days are not all the same size/shape, for example, the lines are not dark enough so we have to darken them with a pen before copying, etc.). It contains great information and the stake and ward leadership are great about updating the online calendar with the relevant events, but it doesn't look nice when printed.
What I do with our calendar is click on the format for print button, then I copy the whole thing and paste it into a MS Word file with .5 for all 4 margins and in landscape mode and clean up each box. I am sure this same thing would work with other programs, I just happen to use MS Word. I know that this is time consuming, but most of the time, our calendars will print on 2 pages. Bishop even asked me how I got mine on one page and I said I had to tinker with it.

For whatever reason, if you click with your mouse at the end of the typing of an activity on any particular day, then press the end key, the cursor will go a number of spaces beyond the typing. I then delete those extra spaces. Once you do that on a whole week from Sun - Sat, it can make that row shorter. Once you do that for all of the weeks, usually it will fit on one page. Also, another trick is to go to the top left hand corner by the date (on the day of the week that has the most typing in the box), click with your mouse to the right of the date, space one over, then press the delete key, and it will bring the first line of typing up to that line that the date is on and that can shorten the box as well for the whole week. If you have 2 days that have the same amount of information in it, you need to do that to both days.

If you find you have a duplicate, such as something in black from church headquarters that doesn't list your correct time and your stake or ward web admin has added something about that activity, then you can edit it and delete whatever you want or need to.

You can also change the text color to be all one color if you wish instead of black for churchwide, blue for stake and red for ward. Or, you can make it be bold or whatever you choose to do.

I have been doing that for quite a while now and it doesn't seem as cumbersome now as it did at first. I guess I'm just used to doing it that way. I also copy and paste it from the word document into an email and email it out to the ward members every month. Usually, I will email it first to the leaders and ask if they have anything to add to it, any corrections or changes, etc, then get it all fixed (and of course, update the ward webpage) and then email it out to the ward members that have email addresses. Not all of our members with computers and/or email have registered on the webpage, but most of them have but a lot of them don't actually use the webpage, sorry to say.

We also have made a few copies of the ward calendar and put them in the RS Binder for those few sisters who do not have email or web access. They don't always take them, so after the first few months, I stopped doing that.
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tomj
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If you build it they will come

#29

Post by tomj »

With respect to the older population of our wards, I still think it makes sense to make the online calendars. My guess is that the data would show the older population with internet access has been increasing more and more as they correspond with family members, etc. . . . . . Furthermore the church is already implementing a lot of web-based tools for them to use e.g. Family Search.

I see a large portion of the older population in my ward being concerned about Geneology, writing Family Histories, and photo archival. Owning a computer and access to the internet are becoming the greatest tools for them. In my opinion, as internet access grows and becomes more ubiquitous, they'll be glad that Ward/Stake Calanders are available to them, not to mention all of the other possibilities.

To me, it's a no brainer: "If you build it they will come."
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pbarrus
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Multi-stake Calendar

#30

Post by pbarrus »

Since I've never heard of/seen a Regional/multi-Stake Calendar anywhere, can they exist? Our area has a Regional or multi-Stake single adult (SA) committee. (Please excuse me if I'm using the wrong terminology...I just found out about the concept today. There is an organization over 13 Stakes for the SA. Instead of having to notify and enter the activity information on 13 Stake calendars, can't there be a multi-stake calendar that can push the information out to the stake calendars?:confused:
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