Guide/FAQ Calendar 2.6

[russellhltn]

I'm the stake clerk in our stake, and I haven't been able to see any calendar except for my "home" building's. I've heard that there's work afoot to allow stake folk to see the scheduling of other units/buildings in the stake, but I can't see any instructions for it here or at LDS help, unless I'm missing the secret decoder ring.

If you switch to week view, you can select what facility to look at.

As far as allowing "anyone" to create reservations for our (multi-unit) building (which is also a stake center), our experience was that it resulted in madness, a tragedy of the commons of sorts, where whoever got in first blocked others, so we had "go back" to funneling it through a scheduler. So much for tech making life that much easier.

How is that different then going though a scheduler? The only controlled way to do it is to have the different groups put in their events in order so the "highest" group goes first. That can still be done by instructing everyone to wait until their turn to enter events. You may even have to assign everyone specific days where they have priority. The restriction function can then be used to enforce that between wards.

[B_Seegmiller]

If you switch to week view, you can select what facility to look at.

Nothing comes up except my "home" building. I don't see any way for me to view the other locations in our stake (we have 5) even when the Week View is selected. If I click on the "Locations" settings, I see the other locations, and I can view and edit their settings, but I don't see a method for the locations to show up when I view the calendar. Wait -- when I add myself as a scheduler for the building, then I can see the building's schedule. Is it that simple? Is there another way? I really don't need to be a scheduler of some of these buildings, but I would like to monitor them (one building is a "problem" building because of how it's used).

How is that different then going though a scheduler? The only controlled way to do it is to have the different groups put in their events in order so the "highest" group goes first. That can still be done by instructing everyone to wait until their turn to enter events. You may even have to assign everyone specific days where they have priority. The restriction function can then be used to enforce that between wards.

Simply put, MBB -- Members (and some leaders) Behaving Badly. We've had members who feel (self-)important enough to bother the stake presidency, blasting past the scheduler over scheduling conflicts (which is why it was delegated, right?). We do use the restriction function, but of course, since only a few folks can post events, it's sort of redundant. Members had requested the HC room (a bad precedent that was established in our stake), and certain events would come up that required the use of the HC room by the stake, but difficulty would ensue because of this priority inversion. Or it could have been the chapel, which the local mission likes because of our building's central location.

[russellhltn]

If you switch to week view, you can select what facility to look at.

Nothing comes up except my "home" building. I don't see any way for me to view the other locations in our stake (we have 5) even when the Week View is selected.

Does this picture help?

If you want to see the Riverside building, you need to put a checkmark next to it. I'm not a building scheduler in my stake, but I can see all the buildings in week view. My understanding is that any member can see this.

Simply put, MBB -- Members (and some leaders) Behaving Badly. We've had members who feel (self-)important enough to bother the stake presidency, blasting past the scheduler over scheduling conflicts (which is why it was delegated, right?). We do use the restriction function, but of course, since only a few folks can post events, it's sort of redundant.

Wow. And what does the stake president do about it? Something tells me he's not backing his scheduler. (Of course there's the possibility that the scheduler isn't handing things very well.)

Members had requested the HC room (a bad precedent that was established in our stake),

That doesn't help. I'll have to double-check, but I think our HC is restricted to the stake. I also set it up as a separate building to avoid the "entire facility" issue. Of course my next question is who is letting them into the room? Or did they hand out HC keys to the ward leaders as well?

and certain events would come up that required the use of the HC room by the stake, but difficulty would ensue because of this priority inversion. Or it could have been the chapel, which the local mission likes because of our building's central location.

Someone got the use of the facility, but a higher priority organization needs it when something changed. That's going to come up regardless of what system is used. There's a deeper problem going on, and it's going to take leadership to fix it. Sure, the calendar could be better. We've been wanting some fixes for some time. But short of replacing the building scheduler with IBM's Watson, I don't see technology as the solution to what you've described.

[falcon771]

Before anyone can use buildings the Stake Clerk must set up the buildings.
If you go to Rooms/Locations as a stake clerk they should see all the buildings that there stake owns. If there is a building missing then contact their facility manager to fix the FMAT data.

We have a disconnect here with a new stake. I contacted the local facilities people and they said they have already added the buildings to our stake, but have never had anything to do with calenders.

I do see the buildings on the regular calender view, but no one can enter an event or restriction. It seems as if we are viewing the 'old' stake calender (because there are some events on there already). But I have no way to delete the old one and edit the new one.

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[russellhltn]

We have a disconnect here with a new stake. I contacted the local facilities people and they said they have already added the buildings to our stake, but have never had anything to do with calenders.

I do see the buildings on the regular calender view, but no one can enter an event or restriction. It seems as if we are viewing the 'old' stake calender (because there are some events on there already). But I have no way to delete the old one and edit the new one.

It's possible it's a permissions issue. Someone in the stake presidency would have to verify that the buildings are set to allow for scheduling. The ward bishopric and stake presidency would have to verify everyone's permissions to calendars. With becoming a new stake, everyone could have been released (lost calendar permissions).

I'd also check with the FM group and verify that you've been set up as the agent stake (if appropriate). Only the agent stake can have building schedulers or set restrictions.

[rhusted]

Brethren of the Calendar Guild: may it be possible, oh respected Calendar Overlords, that the Calendar editing features may forthwith be improved? Yay, the editing features indeed are cumbersome. The creation of an event on the main Calendar page permits only the editing of the title. Sadly, that is not enough. Also, as I move to the editing page, my event title doth disappear entirely. It is very perplexing and most alarming. The UI is somewhat unintuitive and as I created the Stake Events for 2014 I found that the bulk of my time was indeed spent more in working around the calendar editing issues that it was in the creation of the blessed events themselves. It greatly saddened my heart.

Perhaps there is a coder who might work with an expert in usability to refactor the calendar event editing features? It would be a most worth endeavor, since the editing features of the otherwise marvelous Calendar maketh it frustrating and aggravating - detracting, as it were, from the otherwise wonderful Calendrical experience.

Thy humble servant,

- Robert of the Husted Clan

[rhusted]

Brethren, upon further investigation I found that the disappearance of said event title occurs sporadically. Click to create an event, enter thy title, then click upon the "Add event details and location" to bring up the editing page and Lo! Thy title hast entirely disappeared. It is a marvelous magical trick to make the title vanish... but so very unsatisfying and unrewarding.

The features I am requesting are thus:
1. To make the event titles remain, to disappear no longer when moving from the event creation window to the larger event editing window.
2. To add "Location" to the event creation window (it is rare that I would create an event without a location)

Otherwise the calendar is wonderful and thy team hast wrought a marvelous work.

- Robert of the Husted Clan

[aebrown]

1. To make the event titles remain, to disappear no longer when moving from the event creation window to the larger event editing window.

There is indeed a sporadic bug where the title entered in the popup is not carried forward to the main Event Details page.

But that bug has ceased to bother me, because I never enter a title in the popup. As you'll see in my response to your second point, I consider the popup completely useless. Since I can never use the popup, I just always click on the Edit Event Details link and do all my work there. There's no point in entering a title in the popup, so why run the risk of losing what you typed when the bug strikes?

2. To add "Location" to the event creation window (it is rare that I would create an event without a location)

Personally, I cannot recall a single instance when I've been able to use the event creation window as is. And just adding "Location" to the event creation window is quite useless by itself -- you will need to specify the rooms as well, or the details for "Other Location". And it's rare that I specify a location without also specifying cleanup and setup time. Oh, and the description is almost always needed, too. You can see where this is headed -- fixing the problem is not just a matter of adding just one more field. The idea of the simple popup is fundamentally flawed -- it just doesn't work in practice.

This has been mentioned multiple times; see, for example, here.

[B_Seegmiller]

If you switch to week view, you can select what facility to look at.

Nothing comes up except my "home" building. I don't see any way for me to view the other locations in our stake (we have 5) even when the Week View is selected.

Does this picture help?

If you want to see the Riverside building, you need to put a checkmark next to it. I'm not a building scheduler in my stake, but I can see all the buildings in week view. My understanding is that any member can see this.

I see your example -- that's like the example in the instructions at LDS Tech, but ... umm, not here, not in our stake. I wasn't able to see the calendars of other buildings until I added myself as a scheduler (which I can because I'm the stake clerk), even though that seems to be the wrong solution. I suppose this is an FMAT problem? (FMAT has something to do with the FM group, and refers to a database?)

Simply put, MBB -- Members (and some leaders) Behaving Badly. We've had members who feel (self-)important enough to bother the stake presidency, blasting past the scheduler over scheduling conflicts (which is why it was delegated, right?). We do use the restriction function, but of course, since only a few folks can post events, it's sort of redundant.

Wow. And what does the stake president do about it? Something tells me he's not backing his scheduler. (Of course there's the possibility that the scheduler isn't handing things very well.)

He reverted to having the scheduler/clerk clamp down on who can make reservations/events. The sense of entitlement some members have is remarkable, and the problem of ears being clogged with wax (figuratively) is a two to three to five thousand year-old problem.

Members had requested the HC room (a bad precedent that was established in our stake),

That doesn't help. I'll have to double-check, but I think our HC is restricted to the stake. I also set it up as a separate building to avoid the "entire facility" issue. Of course my next question is who is letting them into the room? Or did they hand out HC keys to the ward leaders as well?

I think the HC room should be restricted to the stake. Is it possible to set up the stake area as a separate building? That would be very handy. The problem of the keys is something else again. Once one stake president started allowing it, unwinding it has became another and very thorny problem.

and certain events would come up that required the use of the HC room by the stake, but difficulty would ensue because of this priority inversion. Or it could have been the chapel, which the local mission likes because of our building's central location.

Someone got the use of the facility, but a higher priority organization needs it when something changed. That's going to come up regardless of what system is used. There's a deeper problem going on, and it's going to take leadership to fix it. Sure, the calendar could be better. We've been wanting some fixes for some time. But short of replacing the building scheduler with IBM's Watson, I don't see technology as the solution to what you've described.

LOL. Hosting Watson would run up our electric bill too much

[russellhltn]

I wasn't able to see the calendars of other buildings until I added myself as a scheduler (which I can because I'm the stake clerk), even though that seems to be the wrong solution.

That's odd. My understanding is that any member can do that. I tried removing myself as a building scheudler and I could still see it. I also see it in week view, but without check boxes.

FMAT has something to do with the FM group, and refers to a database?

Correct. I don't think it would be a FMAT problem, or you wouldn't see the buildings at all - or place yourself in as a building scheduler.

I think the HC room should be restricted to the stake. Is it possible to set up the stake area as a separate building? That would be very handy.

Sure. Just create one in the location menu. Just remember to remove it from the stake center and re-do all the events that are tied to that location.

The problem of the keys is something else again. Once one stake president started allowing it, unwinding it has became another and very thorny problem.

If it's gotten that for out of hand, the stake president could ask the FM group to re-key the HC room. (Hopefully the building master hasn't gotten out of hand.)

LOL. Hosting Watson would run up our electric bill too much

One, FM pays the bills. Second, I hear they've optimized it and Watson has shrunk from a rack to a couple of servers.