LDS Building Scheduling Software

[techgy]

I'm a new administrator for our branch website that shares a building (not the stake center) with another ward. I can't find a way for our resources (i.e. - building scheduling) to synch with the other ward in the building. Is there a way to schedule the building so that branch members and ward members will be able to see that the building is scheduled by the other unit? If not, this would be a very useful feature.

You didn't say whether or not this other ward is in your same stake. If so, then they'd have access to the "Resources" area of your LUWS (local unit web site), which is used for scheduling of facilities. As all wards in the same stake have access to the Resources area of your web site, this function could be used for scheduling.

[russellhltn]

To expand on Techgy's response, have the stake LUWS admin create a new resource, assign it to the wards in your building, and assign some administrator(s) to schedule it. That way the resource shows up in each of the ward's webpage. Anything placed on one is seen on the other.

[aebrown]

To expand on Techgy's response, have the stake LUWS admin create a new resource, assign it to the wards in your building, and assign some administrator(s) to schedule it. That way the resource shows up in each of the ward's webpage. Anything placed on one is seen on the other.

One additional clarification: When the stake creates a resource that is shared among a set of wards, members of those wards will see the resource on their ward's home page. There a stake resource looks just like a ward resource, which is a good thing -- it makes it easier for ward members to know how to see the resource schedule and to make requests.

However, if the stake administrator assigns a member of one of those wards to be an administrator for that resource, that administrator will need to go to the stake page and then select Administrator Options in order to have access to the administration tools for that resource.

In our stake we had a bit of confusion at first where administrators of stake resources in the wards didn't know how to access the administrator functions. Since they could see the resource on their ward page, they expected to be able to access the administration from the ward page. But once they learned how to do the administration, it is working well.

[tlrogers]

Whatever came of this effort?

How do we go about making simple requests to the existing Resource Scheduling / Calendar System that would DRAMATICALLY improve its usefulness today and not have to wait until we have an enhanced system developed?

All I would like to see should be capable of being accomplished in a matter of minutes and then hours of testing (I've done it on numerous pages in the past) is to alter the edit and add pages for the calendars and resrouce pages to allow all parameters that can be entered to be able to have them passed in through URL parameters.

The simplicity here is that if you provide links to end users (through 3rd party pages) that simply have the URLs to add calendar and resource events into existing calendard in the stake sites, the end users still need to log in (having LUWS logins) before the redirect takes them to the add and edit pages.

So far the resource pages already allow you to pass in

date - Assumes the begin and end date are the same (format: Mmm DD YYYY ... Jan 02 2009)
monthindex - Must be passed and should be the same month index as the date (format: # ... 1)
ParentSiteId - Must be the stake # in which the resrouce is being scheduled (format: ###### ... 506389)
start_time - Start time for the event (format HH:MM AM/PM ... 10:00 AM)
end_time - End time for the event (format HH:MM AM/PM ... 12:00 PM)

All we need added are 2 parameters!!!

title ... The first line of the event
and
desc ... the details underneath

Get these two added and a secondary page I've developed is done and I am good for a while!!!

Thoughts?

[TinMan]

However, if the stake administrator assigns a member of one of those wards to be an administrator for that resource, that administrator will need to go to the stake page and then select Administrator Options in order to have access to the administration tools for that resource.

So, does that mean that the person assigned as an administrator for the "multiple ward website" created by the stake must also be a stake administrator, and have access to all the stake administration tools, or can a ward administrator be assigned to this multiple site?

Wow. Does that question even make sense?

[aebrown]

So, does that mean that the person assigned as an administrator for the "multiple ward website" created by the stake must also be a stake administrator, and have access to all the stake administration tools, or can a ward administrator be assigned to this multiple site?

Wow. Does that question even make sense?

Yes, the question makes sense.

A person assigned as the administrator of a stake resource does not have to be an administrator of the stake site overall. A resource administrator will be able to access the stake administration page, but they will see very few options -- only those necessary for administering the resource. They will not have access to the full set of stake administration options (unless, of course, they have also been designated as a stake site administrator).

[TinMan]

Thanks for being so kind .

So how do I make someone a resource administrator, and not a stake site administrator?

I have played around a little and created a "XYZ Ward Building" resource for the other building (not the stake center) in our stake. When I look at the administrators, all the Stake ones appear there.

I assume, which is dangerous, I add a new administrator while I am in the "XYZ Ward Building" area and that new administrator from that building, He/she will only have access to that resource. Is that right?

Will any new Stake administrators I add while in the "Stake" area automatically have access to the "XYZ Ward Building" site as well, or do I need to go add them ?

Am I on the right track?

Thinking some more, If someone in the "XYZ Ward Building," requests a calendar date for a ward party and simply puts "Ward Party, 7:00 pm." then it will appear on all the ward websites and cause confusion. I would have to train people to put "X Ward Activity" so when someone from "Y Ward" sees it, he will know to ignore it. I suppose the resource administrator could monitor the requests and clean them up before approving them. But I can see some problems, especially in December when all 3 wards have a "Ward Christmas Party." Now, each ward does have assigned dates every month, and they try to keep on those assigned dates. My thinking is that this new resource would only be for those activities scheduled on a night other than your assigned night, and activities scheduled on your regularly assigned night would be submitted through your "ward calendar" section.

Perhaps I am thinking too hard about this.

[aebrown]

So how do I make someone a resource administrator, and not a stake site administrator?

I have played around a little and created a "XYZ Ward Building" resource for the other building (not the stake center) in our stake. When I look at the administrators, all the Stake ones appear there.

I assume, which is dangerous, I add a new administrator while I am in the "XYZ Ward Building" area and that new administrator from that building, he/she will only have access to that resource. Is that right?

Yes, the above is correct. You add resource administrators at the time you add the resource, or after the fact you can add or delete resource administrators using the "Add or Change Administrators" link (or the "Change or Delete" link under Resources) on the stake administration page.

Will any new Stake administrators I add while in the "Stake" area automatically have access to the "XYZ Ward Building" site as well, or do I need to go add them ?

Stake site administrators are automatically administrators of all stake-level resources. You don't have to add them manually.

It is possible to remove stake site administrators as resource administrators, but you are asked if you are sure and if you are really, really sure before you do this, so I get the impression that is not recommended.

Thinking some more, It someone in the "XYZ Ward Building," requests a calendar date for a ward party and simply puts "Ward Party, 7:00 pm." That it will appear on all the ward websites and cause confusion. I would have to train people to put "X Ward Activity" so when someone from "Y Ward" sees it, he will know to ignore it. I suppose the resource administrator could monitor the requests and clean them up. But I can see some problems, especially in December when all 3 wards have a "Ward Christmas Party."

You are indeed correct that events added to a multi-ward resource should generally have some indication of what ward has scheduled the event. Individual members cannot actually schedule events -- they can only submit requests. So a resource administrator has to approve the events before they are actually added to the calendar. The administrator should be able to easily clean up an omission of the ward name, or any other problems with the submitted event, as part of the approval process. So although it would be nice if members would submit events that include the ward name, you really only need to train the resource administrators to make sure the ward name is included.

Now, each ward does have assigned dates every month, and they try to keep on those assigned dates. My thinking is that this new resource would only be for those activities scheduled on a night other than your assigned night, and activities scheduled on your regularly assigned night would be submitted through your "ward calendar" section.

The wards involved can decide if they want to include regular events such as Mutual Activity nights. Personally, I think it would be good to inlcude such events. It's pretty easy to use a recurring event to schedule every Tuesday night for Ward 1 and every Wednesday night for Ward 2. The benefit of doing this is that anyone trying to schedule the building for some new event would see the full schedule and not have to somehow know of these hidden blocked out times. Otherwise, if I am in Ward 2, how would I know that Tuesday night is not available?

Also, be careful not to confuse the resource calendar with the regular calendar. Submitting an event through the ward calendar would not have any effect on the stake-level shared resource calendar for the building.

[TinMan]

Also, be careful not to confuse the resource calendar with the regular calendar. Submitting an event through the ward calendar would not have any effect on the stake-level shared resource calendar for the building.

Yes, I understand that. But a ward event would still appear on the ward calendar if submitted through the regular calendar, just not on the other 2 ward's calendars.

[aebrown]

Yes, I understand that. But a ward event would still appear on the ward calendar if submitted through the regular calendar, just not on the other 2 ward's calendars.

True enough, but we were talking about shared stake resource calendars. Nothing that anyone does with the regular calendars will show up on the shared resource calendar.

For example, suppose the RS President submits a request to the ward calendar for an enrichment group activity to be held in the RS room on Thursday night. The ward site administrator approves the request, and now it appears on the ward's regular calendar.

This is all well and good, but the above actions don't do anything with the building resource calendar. That would require a separate request submitted as a resource event request. Such a request would be approved by a resource administrator (who may or may not be a ward site administrator).

If this last step is omitted, then it's entirely possible that someone from another ward could schedule an emergency preparedness committee meeting for the RS room on Thursday night, get that approved, and the RS President would be out of luck when the enrichment group shows up on Thursday hoping to use the RS room, because she neglected to schedule the room on the shared resource calendar, even though she did schedule the activity on the ward calendar.