Ward Calendar and organizations

Use this forum to discuss issues that are not found in any of the other clerk and stake technology specialist forums.
calvinegbert
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Re: Ward Calendar and organizations

#11

Post by calvinegbert »

Hello Amazing Techies

So it appears that I can NOT add calendar events in member tools to the calendar. Is that an accurate statement or am I missing something?

Also not all 'calendars or subscriptions' are syncing from our .com calendar to member tools. Is there a way to edit or add or sync calendars/subscriptions to both platforms? I have some events that are not showing up on both platforms, even when ALL calendars are selected to view.

Cane we delete some calendars or subscriptions that may be duplicated?

Lastly it also appears that I can only add events to calendars that directly relate to my calling. This creates other challenges, based on which calendars that different members and leaders will have selected to view, along with challenges that pop up if we have more than one building in close proximity to our events.

Thanks!!!!
russellhltn
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Re: Ward Calendar and organizations

#12

Post by russellhltn »

calvinegbert wrote:So it appears that I can NOT add calendar events in member tools to the calendar.
As far as I know, that is correct.

calvinegbert wrote:Also not all 'calendars or subscriptions' are syncing from our .com calendar to member tools. Is there a way to edit or add or sync calendars/subscriptions to both platforms? I have some events that are not showing up on both platforms, even when ALL calendars are selected to view.
  • Make sure you've selected all the calendars online.
  • Allow time for the sync to take place. In the case of Android, that can take a day or so.
  • Make sure you have all calendars selected in Member Tools
Even with all that, you can't sync events found on the Location calendar. Typically, that means you can't see events in Member Tools that are put on by other wards or stake - just your own. Those events can only be seen online.

Of course, if leaders don't add their events to the calendar, there will be nothing to see. And you won't see events by other wards and stakes unless you can see the location calendar of the place they're being held (but only in the online calendar.)
calvinegbert wrote:Cane we delete some calendars or subscriptions that may be duplicated?
Only a calendar administrator can delete a calendar. (That would typically be a member of the bishopric/clerks for a ward calendar or stake presidency/clerks for a stake calendar)
You can always turn off the display or sync for a calendar you're not interested in.

calvinegbert wrote:Lastly it also appears that I can only add events to calendars that directly relate to my calling.
As to be expected. Only a calendar administrator has broad powers across all calendars for a unit.

calvinegbert wrote:This creates other challenges, based on which calendars that different members and leaders will have selected to view, along with challenges that pop up if we have more than one building in close proximity to our events.
The users are in complete control of what they see or don't see.

The system can work with most building situations, so I'm not sure what kind of issue you're seeing there. An admin may need to review the names of the buildings to make sure the names are clear to thee members.
Have you searched the Help Center? Try doing a Google search and adding "site:churchofjesuschrist.org/help" to the search criteria.

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cchang
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Re: Ward Calendar and organizations

#13

Post by cchang »

russellhltn wrote:
calvinegbert wrote:So it appears that I can NOT add calendar events in member tools to the calendar.
As far as I know, that is correct.

calvinegbert wrote:Also not all 'calendars or subscriptions' are syncing from our .com calendar to member tools. Is there a way to edit or add or sync calendars/subscriptions to both platforms? I have some events that are not showing up on both platforms, even when ALL calendars are selected to view.
  • Make sure you've selected all the calendars online.
  • Allow time for the sync to take place. In the case of Android, that can take a day or so.
  • Make sure you have all calendars selected in Member Tools
Even with all that, you can't sync events found on the Location calendar. Typically, that means you can't see events in Member Tools that are put on by other wards or stake - just your own. Those events can only be seen online.

Of course, if leaders don't add their events to the calendar, there will be nothing to see. And you won't see events by other wards and stakes unless you can see the location calendar of the place they're being held (but only in the online calendar.)
Does it usually take a day for the website calendar to sync with lds tool's calendar? I've tried syncing it on lds tools and have not seen the events show up. I see that all the events are from the Branch's calendar so I would have expected to see them. What I'd like to see is for the sync to auto sync each time we log in and not take over a day to sync between calendars. I've had members say that their lds tools isn't updated and I tell them to sync and it then is updated. Just seems more work to manually sync each time.
russellhltn
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Re: Ward Calendar and organizations

#14

Post by russellhltn »

cchang wrote:Does it usually take a day for the website calendar to sync with lds tool's calendar? I've tried syncing it on lds tools and have not seen the events show up. I see that all the events are from the Branch's calendar so I would have expected to see them.
I'm not sure what the sync is like between Member Tools and the calendar. The day or so was referring to how the sync URL works with Google to sync with an Android's calendar system.
Have you searched the Help Center? Try doing a Google search and adding "site:churchofjesuschrist.org/help" to the search criteria.

So we can better help you, please edit your Profile to include your general location.
lajackson
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Re: Ward Calendar and organizations

#15

Post by lajackson »

In the Member Tools Calendar screen, you can pull down on the screen to cause an update. The little circle will spin, and soon you will have the updates.

This assumes you are connected to the Internet, and that you have selected the calendars you wish to view. This also assumes you are using Android, but I suspect iOS works the same way.
cchang
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Joined: Mon Apr 17, 2017 8:11 am

Re: Ward Calendar and organizations

#16

Post by cchang »

lajackson wrote:In the Member Tools Calendar screen, you can pull down on the screen to cause an update. The little circle will spin, and soon you will have the updates.

This assumes you are connected to the Internet, and that you have selected the calendars you wish to view. This also assumes you are using Android, but I suspect iOS works the same way.
I tried manually syncing it and pulling down and adding all the organizations calendars but I do not see the other events. I’m thinking it’s what someone else posted that if it has a specific location, it overrides the organizations calendar and you probably have to select a different calendar view.

Anyone run into this issue where they aren’t see events that have the building location associated to it? Is this a bug?
russellhltn
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Re: Ward Calendar and organizations

#17

Post by russellhltn »

cchang wrote:I tried manually syncing it and pulling down and adding all the organizations calendars but I do not see the other events. I’m thinking it’s what someone else posted that if it has a specific location, it overrides the organizations calendar and you probably have to select a different calendar view.

Anyone run into this issue where they aren’t see events that have the building location associated to it? Is this a bug?
We need to clarify something. Broadly speaking, there are two types of calendars. The unit calendars, where ward and stake events should be placed. And Location calendars. Unit calendars are under the control of the unit. your ward controls the ward calendar, and the stake controls the stake calendar. Again, this is where all the church events should be placed.

In addition, there's the location calendar. It will show all events taking place at that location, regardless of what unit calendar it's placed on. As such, you can see events for other wards even when you can't see that ward's calendar.

The location calendar is under the control of the building scheduler. In addition to the ward/stake calendar events that appear there, the building scheduler can add "events". Typically this would be to block off the building for maintenance, or perhaps to schedule private events that are not really a ward or stake activity.

Member Tools (and all other forms of calendar syncing) will only sync the ward/stake calendars. They don't sync anything added directly to the location calendar. That means there's no way to see other ward's events in Member Tools. Nor would you be able to see the maintenance or private events placed there.

Where problems really start is that some areas are insistent on following the old model of one person doing all the scheduling of a building. That made a lot of sense back when everything was done with paper. But not now. Never mind that the calendar system handles scheduling automatically. Where this becomes a problem is that the building scheduler doesn't have access to ward calendars. So they use the only tool they have - the building calendar. So you may find some church events have been placed directly on the building calendar, where they won't sync to anywhere else. That's not a bug, that's a misuse of the system.
Have you searched the Help Center? Try doing a Google search and adding "site:churchofjesuschrist.org/help" to the search criteria.

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cchang
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Re: Ward Calendar and organizations

#18

Post by cchang »

russellhltn wrote:So you may find some church events have been placed directly on the building calendar, where they won't sync to anywhere else. That's not a bug, that's a misuse of the system.
So are you saying when we create a Branch calendar event for the elders Quorom, we select the organization Elders Quorom and for location not select Church building but select either none or other? Why does it give us the option to select the church building as the location? Maybe I’m not exactly clear when you say the location calendar which I might not have access to see what you are saying.
russellhltn
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Re: Ward Calendar and organizations

#19

Post by russellhltn »

cchang wrote:So are you saying when we create a Branch calendar event for the elders Quorom, we select the organization Elders Quorom and for location not select Church building but select either none or other?
Not at all. Using that calendar and selecting the location is the right way of doing it. The event will be visible in the EQ Calendar, and because you've selected the location, you'll see it in the location calendar as well. Since it's on the EQ calendar, it should sync out to other devices (assuming you have the settings correct.)

The misuse is telling the building scheduler that you'll be having a EQ event. Since they may not have access to the ward calendars, they'll use what they have - the location calendar. The event won't be visible anywhere else but the location calendar. And it won't sync anywhere.

What might be going on is that you don't have some of your ward calendars enabled. In the example, you don't have EQ Calendar. But you have the location calendar and you're seeing the event that way. And because you're not subscribed to the EQ calendar, it's not syncing to your device.
Have you searched the Help Center? Try doing a Google search and adding "site:churchofjesuschrist.org/help" to the search criteria.

So we can better help you, please edit your Profile to include your general location.
jirp
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Location: Greybull WY

Re: Ward Calendar and organizations

#20

Post by jirp »

A number of comments.

1. While you can't edit the calendar thru LDS tools you can thru your phone's web browser. In android open lds.org in a web browser.(tested both chrome and firefox) In the top right corner is 3 dots. Click on it and select the desktop site link. This causes your phone to load the full web page rather than the shortened phone version and lets you use the calendar (including adding events editing etc), LCR etc from your phone just like from a computer.

2. It sounds like many of the people discussing this need to create more ward specialty calendars. We have a ward calendar, Leadership calendar, YM calendar, YW calendar, a combined YM/YW calendar for combined events, RS calendar, EQ calendar, Primary calendar and a Sunday church use calendar. The church use calendar lets us have room use for Sun on the calendar so others can schedule other rooms during meeting hours but keeps it out of the ward calendar so it can be hidden and turned off Bishopric by default has access to all calendars that are public. Then presidencies were assigned their calendars by calling who as access changes. Bishopric controls the sunday room use calendar and enters the data at the start of the year. The ward calendar every member of every ward presidency has access by calling. The ward leadership calendar is RS, EQ by calling. The YM and YW and combined calendars are mostly kept to presidencies of those organizations. But if we have a youth that is doing really well with it we sometimes turn privileges on for the youth's current calling. The other calendars are the respective their organization's presidency. 2 other calendars you might want are FHC calendar and a private events calendar. Currently we just put private events on the ward calendar and where they are rare that works. If they were common it might work better as a separate calendar. Because we share the building with another ward we did the FHC calendar as a stake level calendar so both wards can see it. Problem is the stake can't assign stake level calendar access by ward calling. So all changes there have to be done at the stake level to assign new calendar editors by name rather than by calling. Because of this, this calendar has failed for us.

3. If your ward can't create other calendars and control room not just building use then likely your stake hasn't set up the calendar for your building. To do the initial set up for the building takes stake level access. If you can't get them to do it for you, you may be able to get them to give you access by name so you can do setup for your building.
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