Calendar ideas

[Kelly Circle]

Okay, we love this product and are trying to use it to the fullest ability that we can.   Two items/or requests that would make my life easier....

1 When we enter an event into the calendar it would be nice to have time keeping events created for everyone.  Example: a training event that each individual can go into their timekeeping afterwards and enter their attendance with out having to create a new activity.  Or being able to have a location where one person can create an activity and select who was there.  This would help eliminate the pages of attendance logs we currently have to sort threw to determine if the individual had made requirements for stipend and membership.    We would like to use your participation report instead.

2 When we enter in an event it sends an email to everyone unless we select the "limited to" at the bottom.  We have added our dispatch staff so they can send out call outs to the team in a time of a mission, and entered them as support staff, excluded them from messages, certs, timekeeping and roster.   When new events are added to the calendar if we forget to unselected them in the "Limited to" they get a email reminders and then yell at me....all the time....    Can we set a default for all calender events?  or if we have them "excluded from messages" on the members tab can that include calendar events?

Thanks,
Kelly Circle
Teton Search and Rescue

[Radishworks]

Hi Kelly,

Thanks for the feedback and I'm glad you find the calendar useful for your team.  Let me start with the easy change first (because no one should yell at you about emails,  ). 

Can we set a default for all calender events?

The "Exclude from Messages" Setting has been changed and will now exclude, all Calendar, Time Keeping, and Member Status emails as well as Messaging emails.  This change is now live.

When we enter an event into the calendar it would be nice to have time keeping events created for everyone.

This one is a little more tricky but I think is a reasonable request.  I've already been thinking about a "Print Roster" button from the Calendar attendance list might be useful.  It would print a generic sign in sheet, with a who should be at the event.  There might be a way to tie who actually attended back to that feature.  Let me think about this one for a while and see what we can come up with.

Mike

[Kelly Circle]

You rock!

[Radishworks]

After some thought here are some new Calendar features that should help:

• A new Category field has been added to Calendar Events, the field values match those specified in the Time Keeping Categories.
• When looking at the list of Signup and Responses for a Calendar Event, the totals of Member responses are now shown at the bottom of the list.
• A Time Keeping entry will now be automatically added after the event for those members who sign up for events.
• A new Print Sign In Sheet button is available on the Signup and Responses list.  This will allow for members to "Sign In" on paper at the event itself.
• Hovering over a name in the Signup and Responses list will popup a small window with any member comments (if there are any) about the member's response

Hope that helps!

Mike

[Jeff Beckman]

I'm just about to get my team up and running with the calendar and am having some trouble with my first test event.  Here's what I did:

• set up a "Calendar Test Event" scheduled for tomorrow at noon with a duration of an hour
• put in a description
• left the "will you be attending" thing blank, expecting to get an email
• added 1 reminder for 2 hours before the event
• required an RSVP
• set "Limited To" myself and two others helping me with the test

The problem is, none of us got an RSVP request.  Is there an additional requirement to send the RSVP? 

[Radishworks]

Sounds like you did things correctly. 

In the "Reminders" area, there is a column to the right that shows the date and time the reminder should have gone out.  Do you see a date and time there?

Mike

[Jeff Beckman]

Ok, I think I get it.  It sounds to me like there isn't a notification going out other than the reminders.  I put one in for a few hours before the event, but it sounds like I need to put the initial message in as a reminder too.  I guess I'm used to the Google and Outlook systems where a notice goes out when you create the event, plus any reminders you send.

[Jeff Beckman]

...well, I thought I got it.  None of my RSVP requests seem to be going out.  Any ideas what I could be doing wrong?

Something else I've noticed is that there is no "forth" weekday of the month option for repeating events.  We have a classroom training on the fourth Wednesday every month and a repeating option would be really nice.

[Radishworks]

None of my RSVP requests seem to be going out.  Any ideas what I could be doing wrong?

OK, I'm not exactly sure what the issue is here but it seems to be specific to your team.  It might be the order you are doing things in the UI (not your fault at all if the system lets you do it).  There were no entries in your reminder table at all, so it may have been a table issue.  I reset the table and created a test event in your calendar and it added the reminders OK.  So maybe that was it?  I hope.  Go ahead and give it another go.  Make sure you see Dates and Times listed in the "Reminders" box next to the options for the reminder settings.  Make sure these dates and times are there after you save the event and re open it.  If it still doesn't work. please let me know.  Sorry for the trouble.

no "forth" weekday of the month option for repeating events.

You got it, its now an option.

Thanks,
Mike

[Jeff Beckman]

Well it's a little different now.  I made a new event a few minutes ago and it now shows the date and time of the reminders to the right of the reminder options.  I don't remember seeing that before.  These times update every time I re-open the event, so none of the reminders ever occur in the past.  I am also limited to two reminders for an event (see attached).  I gave the last one 10 minutes and have not seen any reminder emails yet, so I think there may still be a problem.


The fourth weekday thing works great.  Thanks.

[Radishworks]

I gave the last one 10 minutes and have not seen any reminder emails yet, so I think there may still be a problem.

I checked the reminder logs and looks like your reminder emails went out OK.  Could you check your SPAM filter and see if they got caught there?  Also, a note about calendar reminders, they don't get sent through the high speed Messaging Server like the Mission Messages do, so there could be a delay of 10-20 minutes, from the actual time shown in the "Reminders" box.

Let me know if you still can't find the reminders.

Mike

[Jeff Beckman]

It's been about a day and I haven't seen anything yet.  I checked my junk mail folder and had the others I sent the RSVP to check theirs and no one seems to be getting any of the messages originating from the calendar.  I also had another team member create an event and send me an RSVP to see if it was a problem with my account. 


One possibly related item I've noticed.  If I select one reminder first, then choose the event start and end date, a reminder date is never generated.  I can then go back to reminders and change a setting to get a reminder date and time to show up.

--Update--
I did another one to the whole team trying to see if it's related to the "Limited To" option.  It's not, but I found something interesting: the reminder date disappears somewhere between saving the event and going back to it a few minutes later.

[Radishworks]

Something very strange is happening with the calendar notifications and your team.  I might have something to do with the return address you are using and the email server these messages go through.  I made some changes that should bypass any issues.  Did you get any notifications this time?

Thanks for your help here.

Mike

[Jeff Beckman]

I did get one notification, I think from the test event you re-sent the messages from.  I tried making another test event last night and nothing yet. 

It's only important that we use the return address for call out messages, which are working great.  Is there a way to disable the return address for calendar messages?

[Radishworks]

The problem was using a gmail account as the return address.  The server calendar reminders goes through was rejecting them.  For now calendar reminders are defaulting back to the default norifications @ rw email. 

Is there a way to disable the return address for calendar messages?

I don't think so.  I don't think it will make it through any spam filters without some sort of return address.