Building Scheduler - trying to understand Order of Operation

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NPAlemany
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Building Scheduler - trying to understand Order of Operation

#1

Post by NPAlemany »

Hi, I'm trying to understand order of operation with regard to the Building Scheduler, on Tools of the Church of Jesus Christ/calendar it says:

Last Updated: 27 February 2019 at 13:14
Role and Responsibilities

"A stake calendar administrator, such as the stake clerk or stake executive secretary, assigns building schedulers in the calendar system to oversee locations. It is not enough to put their calling in Leader and Clerk Resources (LCR). The building scheduler must be assigned to a specific building using the Locations and Rooms option in the calendar. To check if you have been properly set up as a building scheduler, click on the building name in the calendar’s left panel. You should see your name.

Building schedulers are responsible for overseeing events related to their assigned location, but they do not schedule stake or ward events. The stake and ward calendar editors schedule their own events and reserve the needed building and rooms without contacting the building scheduler. If the building scheduler schedules events directly on the building calendar, it will indeed reserve the building, but the events will not be seen on the stake or ward calendars, on the LDS Tools mobile app, or on third-party calendars that sync events. If members ask building schedulers to schedule the building for Church events, schedulers should encourage the members to instead contact a stake or ward calendar editor to create an event on a stake or ward calendar, which also reserves the building.

At times the building scheduler will create events on the building calendar that are not associated with events on stake or ward calendars, such as family events, facilities work, and so on.

Building schedulers monitor the events being scheduled and make sure they conform to handbook and other local building policies. They can help resolve scheduling conflicts. They have the ability to make appropriate changes to events associated with the building, even events on stake and ward calendars, assisting the editors of the various calendars."

However in the General Handbook of Instructions it says this:

35.2.5
Agent Bishop

If more than one ward meets in a building, the stake presidency assigns one bishop to be the agent bishop. He coordinates assignments for member participation in meetinghouse care and maintenance. He also coordinates safety and security procedures for the meetinghouse. In addition, he coordinates scheduling of the building with the stake and other wards that use it, though he may assign another member to do the scheduling.

So the question is: Is the building scheduler a stake calling or an assignment from the Agent Bishop? And with Bishops being relieved of most of their day to day assignments of the past, is it a GOOD thing to have them taking the role of building scheduler?
russellhltn
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Re: Building Scheduler - trying to understand Order of Operation

#2

Post by russellhltn »

NPAlemany wrote:So the question is: Is the building scheduler a stake calling or an assignment from the Agent Bishop?
I know it's a calling that can be entered in MLS/LCR - at least it has been in the past. But I'm not sure at what level. I'm thinking "stake". However, I'm sure it's a name submitted by the Agent Bishop.

NPAlemany wrote:And with Bishops being relieved of most of their day to day assignments of the past, is it a GOOD thing to have them taking the role of building scheduler?
They've always been responsible for that happens for "their" building. This is giving them the option to off-load that if they wish. Since the day-to-day operation is handled by the church server, they may want to retain control over resolving conflicts.
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casper684
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Re: Building Scheduler - trying to understand Order of Operation

#3

Post by casper684 »

Wow was this an informative post! Thank you. Let's take it a step further. How to schedule on the calendar when it involves ALL WARDS in a particular building? They are hosting a joint open house on a Saturday with set up the night before. If the building scheduler just schedules the building it will not appear on any ward calendars. How would 3 wards each put on their ward activities calendars? Only thing I can think of is 1 ward puts it on their ward activity calender and the other 2 wards select their ward activity calendar with "other" for location and enters info there.
Suggestions for best way to handle this so all 3 wards will see activity on their ward activities calendar. It is not a stake event so can't use that calendar.
russellhltn
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Re: Building Scheduler - trying to understand Order of Operation

#4

Post by russellhltn »

casper684 wrote: Wed Sep 29, 2021 10:07 pm Only thing I can think of is 1 ward puts it on their ward activity calender and the other 2 wards select their ward activity calendar with "other" for location and enters info there.
Correct.
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BushellRR
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Re: Building Scheduler - trying to understand Order of Operation

#5

Post by BushellRR »

As the Stake Building Coordinator for three buildings, one with three wards, one with two wards plus YSA and one with two wards plus Tongan Stake, I've been using the Building Schedule with the intention that all people could see what is going on. It turns out that for some unfathomable reason, those building the calendar application think that wards should not see what another ward is doing. Coordination by obscurity isn't effective. There is also no export function I can find to pull all activities into a .CSV or other text file so the Stake Council can view everything in tables by activity type or organization, instead of on a calendar view. For two years our stake has been crusading for members to use the calendar and LDS Tool as the primary connection and coordination tool. Is there a feedback mechanism to get some of these usability problems addressed? Is the liability of having a calendar that is "too usable" so high that it's just not worth having? Manually redoing calendars and manually updating and manually checking and hoping the part of me that is human and failable didn't mess something up is getting quite tedious.
russellhltn
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Re: Building Scheduler - trying to understand Order of Operation

#6

Post by russellhltn »

There's two options:
1) Try to schedule something. If there's a conflict with the facility, it won't be allowed.
2) Users needing to coordinate can turn on the "Location" calendar. While it may not show the details of the activity, it will show when the building as a whole is busy and when it is available.
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RBeatse
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Re: Building Scheduler - trying to understand Order of Operation

#7

Post by RBeatse »

I’m just seeing this thread, but as the Stake Building Scheduler, I oversee 4 buildings with 11 wards and two branches. Every ward can schedule their own events and see what the other wards have scheduled. We have a “Private calendar” for things like reunions, funerals, etc (andything not associated with the Stake or a Ward/auxiliary). That is the only calendar that others cannot see what has been scheduled but they can see that the building/resources is Works great for our Stake and we have been doing this since I got the calling 7-8 years ago.
casper684
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Re: Building Scheduler - trying to understand Order of Operation

#8

Post by casper684 »

Just curious why your "private calendar" is not accessible to the entire stake? We refer to this as a "private events calendar" and members may subscribe to this calendar and see what has been scheduled, as well as make a request through their building scheduler. It is beneficial to the stake especially in the event of a funeral. Each ward building scheduler has access to schedule on the private events calendar for their building and receives requests from members and obtains approval from all bishops in their building before scheduling any private events. This has also been very successful for our Stake. Though with the addition of pickleball lines in more of our cultural halls it can be more of a challenge.
russellhltn
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Re: Building Scheduler - trying to understand Order of Operation

#9

Post by russellhltn »

casper684 wrote: Thu Feb 24, 2022 10:23 pm Just curious why your "private calendar" is not accessible to the entire stake? We refer to this as a "private events calendar" and members may subscribe to this calendar and see what has been scheduled, as well as make a request through their building scheduler.
Even if the event is private, it will still block attempts to schedule the building, as well as showing as busy in the building calendar.

I suspect the reason for keeping it private is because these tend to be "invitation only" events and are not available to the general membership. Especially if you have moochers that show up anytime food is involved.
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RBeatse
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Re: Building Scheduler - trying to understand Order of Operation

#10

Post by RBeatse »

What @russellhltn said!

If it is a private event, then the rest of the Stake does not need to know what the event is. If they weren’t invited, then it isn’t for them. We have a temple in our Stake boundaries and so we get a lot of private events (we avg about 300 a year). These include funeral and baptism luncheons and reunions and mission reunions and much more.
Since I schedule all of them, wards just need to worry about their own events on the calendar. Even our Stake President (who could schedule anything) calls me to schedule funerals and he is a mortician!
The Stake inputs their items on the calendar in mid-November for the next year. Then Wards have until Jan 31 to put their events (in their own building). Then Feb1-Feb 28, Wards can put their events if they need a different building (Stake Pavilion, building next to the temple for a special fireside after a ward temple night, etc). And then March 1, the Private events calendar opens for the year. So next week I will get very busy as people start to get their Thanksgiving, Christmas, family reunions, etc. scheduled.
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