Missionary Dinner Calendar

[jds580s]

Is there a way to reset the password, the set-up password is not working. Thanks
Bishop Grimes

I just replied to your email with a solution. Let me know if you have any other issues logging in.
Thanks!

[kathrynleepalmer]

Hello all. I would like to ask for some community feedback on a tool I built to help coordinate missionary dinner appointments.

http://demo.missionarydinnercalendar.com

I love the features available with the official church calendar on LDS.org, but the problem I had was that members in general can not sign up for appointments without going through a calendar administrator. I wanted to setup a simple site that could work as a stand-alone replacement to the common paper calendars that get passed in many wards, or in conjunction with a traditional paper calendar for members who are not technology inclined.

Here is how our ward plans to use it:
There are 2 account types for a unit. A general ward membership account which is protected by a shared password. The password is freely shared among ward members, investigators or anyone else interested in feeding the missionaries. The password also appears at the top of the printed calendar and in emails sent regarding missionary meals.
This password lets you see what days are available and sign up for an appointment but does not let you see who has signed up for other to protect those who may not want their name appearing online.

The second account is for administrators and is intended to be shared with Ward Mission Leaders, Asst Ward Mission Leaders, Missionary Meal Coordinators, Bishoprics etc.. and allows those individuals to:
Retrieve appointments for the month
Change or remove names from the calendar
Print or save a PDF of the calendar for circulation at church.
Change the member password
Change the administrator password
Name the companionships serving in the unit (helpful for units with more than one set of missionaries)

Though the calendar is publicly available on the web, I have tried to follow the church policies regarding projects like this. No membership or other data from the church is used.

I have built and tested this to be friendly for phone, tablet and desktop use. Though I have not tested it on an android tablet yet.

The plan is to roll this first out to my ward, and work out any issues that might come up, then make it more widely available if there is interest.

There is one known issue that I have decided to live with because I can't see a great solution. I would welcome any input on it. If you pass the printed paper calendar at church and also have people signing up from their devices while at church there is the potential for collisions when the paper calendar is collected but someone already signed up for a particular day since the time the calendar was printed. There really isn't any way I can see around this without suspending online appointments during church hours but that seems counter productive. My hope is gradually to wean people off the paper calendar, or have them contact the WML/Meal Coordinator directly to make appointments.

Thanks!

I recently signed up to use this calendar. It is nice and straight forward. As the admin for my ward I tried to set up the advanced settings so that ward members can view the sign ups. I want them to be able to view the sign ups so they can look back if they forget what day they signed up for. I have had several ward members contact me about this. I have set up a password. Please help! I really want to use this calendar, but it is becoming very stressful.
Thank you!

[jds580s]

I recently signed up to use this calendar. It is nice and straight forward. As the admin for my ward I tried to set up the advanced settings so that ward members can view the sign ups. I want them to be able to view the sign ups so they can look back if they forget what day they signed up for. I have had several ward members contact me about this. I have set up a password. Please help! I really want to use this calendar, but it is becoming very stressful.
Thank you!

Hi Kathryn,

The setting you found in the "Beta Features (not fully functional)" area under the advanced settings menu is included as a placeholder for a future update, but not yet enabled. When you, as the admin, print the calendar the names of who signed up will be visible. This can serve as a reminder for members when it gets passed around (though obviously not all wards are able to meet in person at the moment).

When the new features are released an email will go out to calendar administrators.

Thanks for giving the missionary dinner calendar a try in your ward.

[kathrynleepalmer]

Thank you for your quick reply. Unfortunately I cannot pass around the list where I live. It all has to be done online.
Any idea when this feature will be up and running?

[kathrynleepalmer]

Hi,
Just checking again to see if there is a timeline for adding the advanced feature of letting ward members see who has signed up? Ward members are getting frustrated with me because they are not able to see the sign ups once they sign up. Some people want to be able to go and change their sign up day, if something comes up.
Please reply.
Thank you.

[kathrynleepalmer]

I am really sad that the Beta Features are not functional yet. I am going to have to change my missionary Calendar platform, and won't be able to use this calendar anymore. I have too many frustrated ward members who want to be able to see what dates they signed up for. I really wanted to use this. Another issue is that the missionaries don't have access. Maybe those things will get ironed out down the road. Thanks!

[jds580s]

I am really sad that the Beta Features are not functional yet

Kathryn,

I completely understand. This calendar is a passion project for me. While I'm committed to it, I'm only able to work on it when it doesn't detract from family church and my regular employment responsibilities. This past year has been unusually demanding on some of those fronts.
I am confident that many feature requests will be rolling out, including ones your ward members have expressed interest in, though I'm unable to provide specific time tables on them. You are welcome to keep your account open while exploring other options, that way you'll receive a notification when new features are launched so you can reevaluate using this took in your ward.

Thanks for giving it a try in your ward and for the feedback!

[dbollard99]

Cannot access our wards calendar through your website, because I assume a previous leader used it, but nobody in our ward seems to know.

How can we reset the admin password? Or give me the contact info (like a last name, or a partially hidden email address) so I can find out who is current admin, and they can switch it over to me.

-Dan

[jds580s]

Cannot access our wards calendar through your website, because I assume a previous leader used it, but nobody in our ward seems to know.

How can we reset the admin password? Or give me the contact info (like a last name, or a partially hidden email address) so I can find out who is current admin, and they can switch it over to me.

-Dan

Hi Dan,

If you reach out to me I can assist you getting your account reset. My contact is at the bottom of the website. Please include your ward and stake name.

Thanks!

[kkahara]

I think missionarydinnercalendar.com is a userful app but is missing some functionality like alerting full-time missionaries who signed up for dinner. I created an app that sends a daily text reminder to full-time missionaries so they don't need to visit the website and check the website so often. You can sign up the daily text service here.

http://1000texts.ddns.net/missionary