The Beta Calendar is Up

[russellhltn]

I was under the impression that the goal was to be ready for the next calendar year - that most, if not all units would transition at that time.

[aebrown]

I was under the impression that the goal was to be ready for the next calendar year - that most, if not all units would transition at that time.

That's my impression as well, but when is "that time"? Many units do their calendaring on an ongoing basis. Such units need to stay at least 3 months ahead. I suppose some overachievers might even want to be 6 months ahead. In that case, the need for putting 2011 events on a calendar will occur anytime in the next 3 months.

There will come a time when a unit has to switch over. I personally don't want to enter any 2011 events on the old calendar, but I want to stay at least 3 months ahead, so by the end of September our stake will be ready to switch over. That means we'll have to enter the October-December events in the new calendar, but every unit will have to make a choice to either have some duplication or require members to use two different calendars.

[kisaac]

Will there only be one Calendar with all events aggregated on it?

While I would like to see a main calendar that collects all events from all calendars (aggregated) for conflict checking, or even generating a "main ward" calendar, (again, as discussed here,) there has only been mention of "conflict checking" features across all your calendars...not an hierarchical relationship or automatically "aggregating" of events to one calendar.

I'm taking a wait and see attitude, and so far I really like what I see.

[aebrown]

While I would like to see a main calendar that collects all events from all calendars (aggregated) for conflict checking, or even generating a "main ward" calendar, (again, as discussed here,) there has only been mention of "conflict checking" features across all your calendars...not an hierarchical relationship or automatically "aggregating" of events to one calendar.

What would be the purpose of this aggregate calendar? It sounds like the conflict checking feature is on its way, and anyone (with at least view permissions for all the calendars) can subscribe to all the calendars by simply checking each of the calendars in the calendar view page. Then you'll see all the calendars, each color coded, displayed on the same calendar view.

I'm having a hard time understanding what additional capability would be provided by creating a new aggregate calendar.

[mfmohlma]

I'm having a hard time understanding what additional capability would be provided by creating a new aggregate calendar.

Same here. The only "capability" it would bring to the table is a requirement to enter everything twice, once on the relevant calendar, and once on the aggregate calendar.

[kisaac]

What would be the purpose of this aggregate calendar? It sounds like the conflict checking feature is on its way, and anyone (with at least view permissions for all the calendars) can subscribe to all the calendars...

While a "master" calendar that "collects," or aggregates automatically was, of course, a suggestion before we knew "conflict checking" was a feature they were building into the next beta calendar update. Perhaps it will solve most problems.

However, from a leadership standpoint, how do you get past the fact that the "conflict decision" will be made by each organization as they schedule across their own calendars, as nothing is "approved" by an admin anymore? In our ward, calendaring is discussed in leadership meetings, as we all look at paper printouts from the LUWS and stake calendars, and I see an aggregate, or "master" calendar as one solution to help wade through all the events and decide which ones have priority over others. I think of it as a final calendaring approval process-I can't think of how you could do this without an aggregate calendar. Especially in those cases where the organization didn't think that their scheduled event conflicted, but ward or stake leadership does.

While obviously not the only suggestion, I would appreciate a "master" calendar that aggregates (automatically) for ward leadership scheduling purposes. I guarantee I will miss "pack meeting" if it only appears on the cub scout's organizational calendar!

Same here. The only "capability" it would bring to the table is a requirement to enter everything twice, once on the relevant calendar, and once on the aggregate calendar.

I guess I am suggesting I would like two "relevant" calendars. One, a master calendar for leadership, and then the many organizational calendars. My thought was that a "master" calendar could automatically collect all events, thus no double-entry, and that would be a major benefit to me as I would not have to collect manually the important events off many organizational calendars to highlight on my agendas at leadership meetings.

As the beta calendar stands right now, I am doing double entry.
How are others doing this with beta calendar?

[kisaac]

In our ward, calendaring is discussed in leadership meetings, as we all look at paper printouts from the LUWS and stake calendars, and I see an aggregate, or "master" calendar as one solution to help wade through all the events and decide which ones have priority over others.

A good print or report function would also accomplish this...I've heard that the printing ability on beta calendar is also being redone.

We'll wait and see...It's all been good!

[mfmohlma]

While obviously not the only suggestion, I would appreciate a "master" calendar that aggregates (automatically) for ward leadership scheduling purposes. I guarantee I will miss "pack meeting" if it only appears on the cub scout's organizational calendar!

I guess I am suggesting I would like two "relevant" calendars. One, a master calendar for leadership, and then the many organizational calendars. My thought was that a "master" calendar could automatically collect all events, thus no double-entry, and that would be a major benefit to me as I would not have to collect manually the important events off many organizational calendars to highlight on my agendas at leadership meetings.

I'm not trying to be offensive, but it appears you haven't quite grasped the paradigm shift of the new system. The master calendar of which you speak is simply the sum (or concatenation) of all of the individual calendars. In any function (such as ward council calendaring) where de-confliction would occur, it would be imperative that any printout of the "ward calendar" be made while all calendars were visible. The beauty of having many separate calendars is so that someone who not involved in specific programs (such as someone who does not have a child in primary) can ignore personally irrelevant items.

Don't worry. It took me a while to figure it out, and if we as the tech community take a bit to do so, it may take even longer for the "average" member.

[kisaac]

I'm not trying to be offensive, but it appears you haven't quite grasped the paradigm shift of the new system.

Don't worry. It took me a while to figure it out, and if we as the tech community take a bit to do so, it may take even longer for the "average" member.

“A man’s a fool who takes an insult that isn’t intended."

Now, to get my "average" ward council and bishopric to make the "paradigm shift" from paper to computer screen! (And not "worrying," but waiting until I can give them the paper calendar they want until they do switch "online.")

[dannykos]

not having been in this debate, for me the simplest solution would seem to be a default calendar view, with a list of available calendars, all ticked 'on' by default. The default calendar thus shows all events automatically aggregated from all available calendars.

Then - for anyone not wishing to see events from YW or High Priests or whatever, can just untick those from the list, and then only be shown events from the remaining selection.