Retiring calendar restrictions

[mfmohlma]

Yes, restrictions are staying for now. We are working on a new major release of the calendar. In the new version we will do a few things that make restrictions a little less confusing.

Awesome. Thanks for listening to feedback.

[CrockettDR]

Yep, in this case, we really used forum input. Trying.....

[blainesinsane]

Restrictions do get in the way when not properly configured. But I think the bigger problem is that there are just too darn many people allowed to procure rooms. We had a situation a few weeks ago where a ward relief society president scheduled the building for a relief society event on a calendar that apparently she could only see. I have very broad access/privileges to our calendar, and I could not see it. When I tried to over-book that event, I was prevented. I double checked that all calendars I had access to were visible (they were) yet I could not see any event scheduled for that day. As it turns out, that hidden rogue event was not authorized for the building on that night, but there was nothing we could do about it. Yet we, the building schedulers, took the heat for it for "double booking" and booking a non-stake event on a night "reserved" for stake events. If the time slot were truly reserved for stake events, then why was someone without a stake calling able to reserve it?

Rather than removing restrictions, why not instead refactor them in a way that they can be scoped by calling. For example, a ward building scheduler is the only one that can schedule ward events. A stake building scheduler (or Stake Executive Secretary) can only schedule stake and community events. Ward Building Schedulers (or Ward Executive Secretaries) are the only ones who can schedule funerals, ward baptisms, marriage ceremonies, etc. All of these events should be configurable to allow scoping to blocks of time with priority. So for example, blocks of time can be set aside for stake-level events. What's left is given to ward auxiliaries. What's left is given to the ward in general. Giving the local leaders the ability to configure the scoping allows for flexibility for building-specific/cultural differences.

So for example, if a ward executive secretary tries to schedule a wedding on Saturday morning, and that's reserved for stake baptisms, he will be told it's reserved for stake baptisms. But he should have an easy way to request an exception. Doing so should send a notification to every person authorized to schedule stake events, and any of those people should be able to easily authorize it.

This kind of permissions/scoping goes hand-in-hand with my scheduling request portal which I've described in a different post

[russellhltn]

We had a situation a few weeks ago where a ward relief society president scheduled the building for a relief society event on a calendar that apparently she could only see. I have very broad access/privileges to our calendar, and I could not see it. When I tried to over-book that event, I was prevented. I double checked that all calendars I had access to were visible (they were) yet I could not see any event scheduled for that day.

My guess would be that she scheduled the event before the restrictions where put in place. IIRC, restrictions will go overtop of "conflicting" events with no error messages. If you'd switch your calendar on lds.org to view "locations", then, as a building scheduler for that building, you'd be able to see the event. As a building scheduler, you'd then be able to modify it (assuming it was taking place in "your" building.) Note that location calendars do not appear anywhere outside of lds.org. So the LDS Tools app is not usable for that purpose.

Note, that expect for a handful of people at the stake level, no one can see all the event calendars in the stake. If this is a multi-stake building, it goes down hill rapidly. You have to use the location calendar.

Rather than removing restrictions, why not instead refactor them in a way that they can be scoped by calling.

Only the person who is set up in the calendar system as a building scheduler can place restrictions. Everyone else does events.

The rights to the calendars are set up by each unit, but generally stake calendars can only be access by those holding stake callings and ward calendars can only be accessed by those holding ward callings. So there is already a hierarchy by calling in place.

[michele.lee]

I totally understand the restrictions and feel like it is needed. The problem is a new person being called every single year and them not understand how this works. Now I'm told they are not to use restrictions so they are actually scheduling, which is also wrong on how to do this. If someone higher up would educate the stakes, that would be great! I don't have this calling any more, but it drives me nuts that it's a mess because of the lack of education on how to use the calendar. I realize the documentation is on lds.org and it's well written and understandable, but some people dismiss this information and go off of what someone else has said instead.

[CrockettDR]

There are no longer plans to remove restrictions.